Former Black Panther Faces Parole Hearing After 38
From: "Political Prisoner News" <ppnews@freedomarchives.org>
Date: Thu, June 12, 2008
For Immediate Release
Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald
Contact: Emani Bey or Jenn Laskin
831-238-9250
Former Black Panther Faces Parole Hearing After 38 Years!
(Imperial, California, June 12, 2008)
On July 2, 2008, the possibility of freedom awaits Romaine "Chip"
Fitzgerald, who has been in prison over 38 years. This is the date
of his upcoming parole hearing. Chip's case epitomizes the
culmination of the dirty tricks and tactics the U.S. government
employed in its effort to destroy the Black Panther Party, of which
he was a member when he was arrested.
It is well-documented that, in the late 1960s, the FBI
and other policing agencies of the government developed and carried
out a concerted plan to neutralize or wipe out the Black Panther
Party, after FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover issued his infamous
declaration that the Party was the "greatest threat" to the nation's
security. As a result of the FBI's brutal campaign, many Party
leaders were assassinated, falsely imprisoned, imprisoned under
extraordinary sentences, slandered and demonized, as Party offices
were assaulted and Party programs were undermined. On January 17,
1969, the Party's Southern California Chapter, of which Chip was a
member, suffered the loss of its main leaders, Alprentice "Bunchy"
Carter and John Huggins, at the hands of FBI-sponsored
assassins. Prior to that, in August of 1968, Los Angeles police
gunned down Panthers Tommy Lewis, Steve Bartholomew and Robert
Lawrence in a single incident.
In September 1969, Chip himself was involved in a
shootout with Los Angeles police, and sustained a gunshot wound to
the head. He survived this attack, only to be arrested later and
charged with assault on police and the murder of a security
guard. He was convicted and sentenced to death, which was commuted
to life. That year, 1969, ended with the Chicago police
assassinations of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark
and a nearly six-hour raid by the LAPD's newly-formed SWAT Team on
the Party's Los Angeles offices.
Today, Chip is the longest held Black Panther Party
political prisoner in the United States, now housed at Centinela
State Prison, near the California-Mexico border. His upcoming parole
hearing is one of the most anticipated dates for many community
leaders, students, and supporters around the world, all waiting to
see if the California Board of Parole Hearings will employ justice in
this hearing, particularly in consideration of the era and climate of
Chip's arrest, conviction and sentencing in late 1969.
The Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald has been formed to
advocate to the Board for Chip's parole, encouraging people to sign
its online petition at <http://www.freechip.org/>www.freechip.org to
urge the Board to release Chip back into his community as he has
served more time than his sentence prescribed, and the State has no
further interest in his continued incarceration. A public tribute to
Chip is slated for June 28, 2008, in Los Angeles, at noon at
filmmaker Ben Caldwell's Kaos Network, 4343 Leimert Boulevard, where
support messages from elected officials like Rep. Maxine Waters will
be read, and labor leaders like Tryone Freeman, SEIU Local 6434
president, will speak, along with former Black Panthers, including
Elaine Brown and David Hilliard, in a program hosted by Dominique
DiPrima of Stevie Wonder's radio station KJLH.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org Questions and comments may be sent to
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