I was actually in the 41st and Central BPP office the day before, taking my mentor, Malik, to meet Masai Hewitt, where we learned of LA SWATs dress rehearsal the week before, with ATCs & 300 troops, just one block away. That would explain the sand bag revetment behind the office outer partition. While printing the Long Beach Free Press and San Diego Street Journal early the next morning, we heard of the SWAT squad raid on the BPP office. I held the press to insert a news flash and after making our delivery run, Malik & I went back to check out the scene. Upon arrival we were confronted by a police tape barrier and saw Mervyn Dymally, while trying to quell the crowd, being beat up by the police. We slipped past the tape & into the gas filled offices & saw the dynamited holes in the ceiling that finally allowed police entry. Later, in SF, while taking Malik to see Huey Newton, I went to the Newsreel co-op to exchange film canisters & learned that they too were raided & held at gunpoint. The racist nature of COINTELPRO became starkly clear, the darker you were, the more severe the tactics you would suffer. After all these years, I see the same sorts of struggles, but see The People able to band together more universally, cohesively & successfully, thanks to the Internet. None too soon, as the damages being wrought by the sociopathic few are well past the tipping points of reasoned reversal.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:47:51 +0000
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