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Indybay Feature

FORMER BLACK PANTHERS ARRESTED AND INDICTED 1/23 IN 1971 HOMICIDE

by scally wag
Preliminary reports indicate several arrests including former Panthers that resisted a 2005 grand jury and others in a 1971 SF case involving the death of a police officer. In 1975 cases were dropped as the evidence against Panthers was derived by the torture of several arrested in 1973.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jen Nessel, CCR, 212.614.6449
David Lerner, Riptide Communications, 212.260.5000

FORMER BLACK PANTHERS
ARRESTED AND INDICTED TODAY IN 1971 HOMICIDE

CHARGES BASED ON EVIDENCE OBTAINED THROUGH TORTURE

January 23, 2007, New York Authorities in San
Francisco today announced the arrests and indictments
of former Black Panthers in the 1971 killing of police
officer Sgt. John V. Young despite the use of torture
to obtain confessions. Attorneys with the Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) compared the documented
torture by law enforcement of Black Panthers arrested
in New Orleans in 1973 to the documented torture the
U.S. government has practiced recently at Abu Ghraib
and Guantánamo.

CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said, "The case
against these men was built on torture and serves to
remind us that the U.S. government, which recently has
engaged in such horrific forms of torture and abuse at
places like Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, has a
history of torture and abuse in this country as well,
particularly against African Americans."

CCR Attorney Kamau Franklin said, "These indictments
are an attempt to rewrite history-- the history of the
Black Panthers, the history of COINTELPRO, and the
history of the Civil Rights Movement."

In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the
course of several days to obtain information from
members of the Black Panthers who were stripped naked,
beaten, blindfolded, covered in blankets soaked with
boiling water, and had electric probes placed on their
genitals, among other methods. A court ruled in 1974
that both San Francisco and New Orleans police had
engaged in torture to extract a confession, and a San
Francisco judge dismissed charges against three men in
1975 based on that ruling. Two years ago, a grand jury
convened in San Francisco to reopen the case, but
several of the men involved felt they were being
wrongly compelled to testify and refused to attend the
proceedings.
CCR represents victims of torture by the U.S. at
Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan, as well as Canadian rendition victim
Maher Arar. In addition, CCR has filed suit against
the NSA for the warrantless domestic spying program
authorized by President Bush; the COINTELPRO program
illegally spied on Black activists in the Sixties and
Seventies and engaged in numerous unconstitutional
acts against Civil Rights organizations.

About CCR
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a
non-profit legal and educational organization
dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by
attorneys who represented civil rights demonstrators
in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of
law as a positive force for social change.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by friend
I don't understand why this PR doesn't list the names of those arrested? How are we supposed to support them if we don't even know who they are?
by duhduhduh

...read the freakin Chronicle - names and pics of all those arrested are prominently displayed.

what names WONT you find in the chronicle? the names of the rich white kids who beat up some other rich white kids (the 'bakers dozen' incident). note that the paper has no problem divulging the identities of those accused of crimes - unless they are rich white children of the city's elite.

by FREE EM ALL
FUCK DA POLICE! FREE EM ALL! ALL POWER TO DA PEOPLE!
by ntuit
Will Jerry Brown also open up the case of an SFPD officer who negligently shot and killed 17 year Sheila Detoy? Justice is a two way street.
On New Year's Eve night 2006/early New Year's Day 2007, a gang of rich hoodlums viciously attacked a singing group, the Baker's Dozen, fracturing the jaw of one singer and causing a concussion in another, as well as causing comparatively minor injuries to the others, while hurling anti-gay epithets. This is more than simple assault and battery which is bad enough; this is also a hate crime with clear intent to cause serious bodily harm. The victims identified the perpetrators at the scene, the police took the names of the perpetrators but let them go, refusing to arrest them. The SFPD and the San Francisco District Attorney have the names of the hoodlums, who apparently are the sons of filthy rich parasites. Now, all of our lives are endangered because these thugs are still at large, ready to cause serious bodily harm to anyone, knowing they will not be arrested by the police or charged by the district attorney. THE SAN FRANCISCO POLICE ARE DEMONSTRATING ONCE AGAIN THAT THEY DO NOT PROTECT US FROM CRIME; THEY ACTIVELY ENCOURAGE CRIME, WHICH IS A CRIME ITSELF, DONE UNDER COLOR OF AUTHORITY.

Now, some 3 weeks after the New Year's Eve incident, the same Democratic Party's police and the same Democratic Party's district attorney go ahead with arresting African-Americans in regard to a 36 year old case without indicating what, if any, evidence they have to charge, much less convict anyone of anything. This smacks of a frame-up for which the courtroom must be packed whenever there is a hearing on this case and a mass picket line must be outside that same courtroom.
by TheFacts
This was not a hate crime because noone claimed to be gay. nevber identified anyone other than saying that certain guys were involved in a fight. The never once said anything like.."that guy broke my jaw". The police cannot arrest people because they were involved in a fight...if so, the Yalies would have to be arrested too. You are getting your info from stories that only have half truths...unless you were there...were you???? I doubt it.
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