Government continues harassment of former Black Panthers
6/28/2006
Federal agents and local police served DNA warrants on several former Black activists throughout the US today allegedly in connection with an unsolved 1971 incident in San Francisco resulting in the death of a police officer. Despite being available to the prosecutor through their attorneys, police served the warrants through coordinated early-morning raids in 5 different cities on Tuesday.
Five former Black Panthers were jailed for refusing to cooperate with a California State Grand Jury investigating the same events in 2005 in San Francisco. All five were released October 31, 2005 when that Grand Jury term expired. Those served with warrants today included the same individuals and others. They have been harassed by police visits for several years.
Two men, John Bowman and Harold Taylor, were also tortured in 1973 in New Orleans to force them to make statements about the 1971 case. Subsequent attempts to prosecute Black activists were halted by court orders because of the illegal coercion and physical brutality inflicted on them. The 1973 arrests and torture were part of the US Government’s COINTELPRO program designed to destroy the Black Liberation movement.
The continued harassment of these same activists is being carried on in the spirit of unending government human rights violations and to discourage dissent.
Claude Marks
Federal agents and local police served DNA warrants on several former Black activists throughout the US today allegedly in connection with an unsolved 1971 incident in San Francisco resulting in the death of a police officer. Despite being available to the prosecutor through their attorneys, police served the warrants through coordinated early-morning raids in 5 different cities on Tuesday.
Five former Black Panthers were jailed for refusing to cooperate with a California State Grand Jury investigating the same events in 2005 in San Francisco. All five were released October 31, 2005 when that Grand Jury term expired. Those served with warrants today included the same individuals and others. They have been harassed by police visits for several years.
Two men, John Bowman and Harold Taylor, were also tortured in 1973 in New Orleans to force them to make statements about the 1971 case. Subsequent attempts to prosecute Black activists were halted by court orders because of the illegal coercion and physical brutality inflicted on them. The 1973 arrests and torture were part of the US Government’s COINTELPRO program designed to destroy the Black Liberation movement.
The continued harassment of these same activists is being carried on in the spirit of unending government human rights violations and to discourage dissent.
Claude Marks
The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
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