Since Florida cannot defend black life against white fear, the question now is: How should black peo

[KansDem]

52. Ask the Black Panthers

Elaine Brown, head of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s, recently explained:

The position of the Black Panther Party was that black people live in communities occupied by police forces that are armed and dangerous and represent the frontline of forces keeping us oppressed. We did not promote guns, but rather, the right to defend ourselves against a state that was oppressing us — with guns. There were innumerable incidents in which police agents kicked in our doors or shot our brothers and sisters in what we called red-light trials, where the policeman was the judge, the jury and the executioner. We called for an immediate end to this brutality, and advocated for our right to self-defense. Today, the brutal police murders of Sean Bell in New York and Oscar Grant in Oakland are just two examples of how little has changed. The gun-control discussion could result in policies that further criminalize and target black people.

--And--

When Reagan and Nixon and the other Republicans in the 1960s advanced gun control, they were at least in part pandering to law-and-order conservatives who wanted police to have yet more power to protect them from minorities and the poor. If racism was not in the intent, it was definitely part of the effect.

http://morallowground.com/2013/10/01/the-black-panthers-were-right-and-reagan-was-wrong-on-gun-control/


I remember seeing and reading about well-disciplined "armies" of back men in "uniforms" and carrying arms arriving at public demonstrations. I also remember reading an article/report/biography written by a Black Panther (name escapes me) about how the (white) police officers "took notice" when these "armies" showed up.