Everything old is new again?
/Everything Old Is New Again?
By: Kirk Lawless
Is it? Nothing magical happens when you add the word “new” to it. It suggests an improved version of the original or it could be an attempt to soften or disguise it, particularly if it has lain dormant for a time.
Can a leopard really change its spots? A black panther is just a leopard, not a species unto itself. Melanin just caused its fur to turn black. If you look closely enough you can still see the subdued spots.
When shit “popped off” in Ferguson, the world witnessed the return of the “Black Panthers” under the guise of the “New Black Panthers,” still the same beast; still the same spots. If you think because it’s the “new” version, don’t bet your life on it!
Would you believe the KKKK (Yes, there are four Ks, not three but it is sometimes shortened from Knights of Ku Klux Klan to simply Ku Klux Klan) was a different organization if it announced it was now the “New KKKK”? If you’re that naïve, it’s time to start reading books!
Like the Klan, the Panthers haven’t really gone away, just underground. This is “old school” stuff. What does it have to do with modern policing? A lot, really, as these two groups still swing heavy sticks and have many sympathizers across the country. During car stops or frisks you might find business cards or literature, especially near college campuses (recruiting grounds for young folks looking to attach themselves to something bigger than themselves). You should at the very least make a mental note of who and what is traveling through your area.
If you see someone sporting a “Huey Newton Gun Club” shirt, it should raise a red flag. Who the hell is Huey Newton?
The recent attacks on police precincts of the NYPD are bold and alarming. They can happen anywhere in the United States and the perpetrators can be anyone: lone wolf, or an affiliate of any number of hate groups (and although the numerous hate groups have targeted a particular enemy or problem, they always include the LEO community as their enemy).
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elbert Howard, Sherwin Forte, Reggie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton in California as a watchdog group for police officers in Oakland they deemed to be too heavy-handed and quick on trigger-work. Fair enough. They engaged in community activity (always a plus to gain support and a sympathetic following). Loosely organized and rife with infighting, what started as a political endeavor began to morph as often as its name, giving birth to splinter groups, different names and with different agendas. Based out of Oakland, word spread quickly and members got on board across the country with some 5,000 card-carrying members and many sympathizers including folks like “Hanoi” Jane Fonda.
The name quickly changed to the Black Panther Party and then just as quickly they simply called themselves the Black Panthers.
At first the group was far to the left, adopting communist ideology, anti-establishment and anti-government. The group had beefs within that resulted in killing some of their own members. A year later, dropping their anti-racism (yes, they started as anti-racist group) message and still anti-government, cops (always caught in the middle) became targets of ambush and assassination. White cops were primary targets, but they had already acquired a taste for black blood of those opposing them within their own ranks, so the blood of black officers would be spilled and mixed with the blood of white cops who stood in their way.
In 1967, October 28 to be exact, Oakland Police Officer John Frey was killed and his partner, Herbert Heanes, was wounded after stopping Huey Newton. The foundation for the Black Liberation Army had been laid, and Newton quickly became a leader (behind bars) and a wave of violence spread quickly, adrift in the wind. The seeds flourished where they landed, as the once loosely organized entity grew tighter and stronger. Joanne Chesimard (the rabid cop-killing bitch who later changed her name to Assata Shakur, enjoying to this day her political asylum in Cuba and breathing good air … my opinion) moved to Oakland from New York and would become a shot-caller when things got violent, “quick, fast, and in a hurry.” The group needed money and the only way to get it was through robberies and every business was a potential target, including banks. They needed money to survive, but they needed it mostly for weapons and bomb-making material. Extortion was not out of the question, since shooting and killing was soon to become second nature.
The group established safe houses in different states, knowing they were about to embark on a nationwide crime spree.
On April 7, 1968 Bobby Hutton and Eldridge Cleaver ambushed two Oakland police officers, but failed when the cops, although both wounded, made Bobby Hutton “permanently un-alive” and wounded Eldridge Cleaver, who was captured and sent to prison. Hutton “took one for the team” and Cleaver became another patron saint for the BLA. Now claiming anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, Marxism-Leninism and revolutionary socialism as its root ideology (any of this sounding familiar yet, with the presidential election getting close?) it had declared open war on cops.
Then on May 19, 1971 two NYPD Officers, Curry and Binetti, were machine-gunned while on a protection detail.
By May 21, 1971 (For any of you officers who are part of a “Salt and Pepper” team take note. For the BLA the only thing better than killing a cop was killing two cops, better still one black and one white) Officer Waverly Jones and his partner Joseph Piagentini were targeted for assassination specifically because they were a black and white team. Shot in the back while walking their foot beat in Harlem New York, their blood pooled and congealed on the sidewalk. The red blood of brothers spilled. Red, nonetheless, but blue at the same time. (Remember that!)
December 20, 1971, in Queens New York: two NYPD officers attempted to curb a vehicle. The car did not pull over and sped off. A brief pursuit followed but was terminated when one of the BLA occupants tossed a military-grade hand grenade at the squad car, disabling it. They BLA wasn’t fucking around!
January 27, 1972, was a bitter-cold night in the East Village of New York. On their foot beat, 23-year-old Officer Rocco Laurie (two years on the job - shield 11019) and 22-year-old Officer Gregory Foster (one year on the job - shield 13737) were in full NYPD uniform. Their beat on Avenue B was among the deadliest in New York City. The officers passed three men on the sidewalk. The men parted to allow the officers to pass. It was not as a courtesy. As soon as the officers were a few steps beyond, the trio opened fire on the two officers, a fusillade of bullets tearing into them. Foster was struck eight times and Laurie six. As the officers lay dying on the frozen ground, two of the men calmly strode up to them and while being encouraged by the third of them to “Shoot him in the balls,” one fired two additional shots into the crotch of Officer Laurie. The other shot Officer Foster two additional times, once in each eye, obliterating his head, reducing it to an unrecognizable mass of blood, bone and brain matter. The officers’ service revolvers were stolen from their bodies and the assassins fled the area in a waiting car. The third ran off after firing celebratory gunshots in the air while standing near the bodies.
When other units arrived on the scene, the pool of blood seemed never-ending. The most hardened cops in the city were visibly shaken and sickened by the sight. Officer Foster was already dead, his blood comingled with that of his still-dying partner. Officer Laurie was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved. The two police officers served in the United States Marine Corps together, served in the NYPD together, and requested to be partners and specifically requested assignment to the area where they also died together.
The getaway car was discovered and three sets of fingerprints belonging to BLA members were lifted from within: Ronald Carter, Twymon Meyers and Herman Bell.
The heat was on the BLA in New York and the group responsible for the deaths of Officers Foster and Laurie headed out of state. A caravan of three cars, one rented by Joanne Chesimard, fled to an already established safe house in St. Louis. It was February 16, 1972. After setting up in their new “set of bricks,” four of the group, Thomas “Blood” McCreary, Twymon Meyers, Ronald “Sha Sha” Brown and Ronald Carter, jumped in one of the sleds, a green Oldsmobile, and went out in search of newspapers for updates on the murder of the NYPD officers. Until now there had been no known link between St. Louis and the BLA. That was about to change.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has been around since 1808 and has always had a no-nonsense approach to police work and a rock solid reputation. Two patrolmen in the 8th district (at the time) Richard T. “Frenchie” Archambault and his partner, Larry Tinnell, spotted the green Oldsmobile on Grand Boulevard near Cass Avenue. It had a funky-looking cardboard temporary tag out of Michigan, so they lit it up and curbed it.
“Frenchie” approached the car and observed the four occupants. The story told to Officer Archambault didn’t add up. All the windows of the Oldsmobile were down (a clue to the new cops that shit might be getting ready to “pop off”… you don’t want all that glass flying around!) I imagine the men in the car were nervous and the driver’s skin was leaking. The driver, McCreary, was armed, as were the other three occupants. They were itching to kill some cops, and St. Louis was as good a place as any. Plus the trunk of the car was full of rifles and ammunition. If they got arrested they would be going to the “Walls” in Jefferson City for a long, hard time. “Frenchie” knew his world was about to go to shit in a rickshaw! In a matter of moments the interior of the car exploded in white-hot muzzle flashes as the four cut loose on “Frenchie” and Tinnell. “Frenchie” got hit, but the tenacity of the SLMPD rose to the occasion. “Frenchie” and Tinnell fired back with Frenchie scoring some solid hits on Ronald Carter, who was the front seat passenger and the one spoiling for a shootout (according to a later interview with McCreary). SLMPD has never been afraid of trigger work!
Responding officers engaged in a short pursuit and the crippled vehicle was abandoned, and a running gun battle ensued with three of the occupants. Carter was dead in the front seat after the exchange of gunfire, struck several times by “Frenchie” Archambault, but ultimately the “kill shot” was fired by one of his friends in the back seat.
Meyers escaped, but McCreary and Brown were wounded and arrested (one of them shot off a fence by a famous female SLMPD officer), the word spread quickly, the SLMPD wasn’t fucking around, either!
A search of the shot-up vehicle revealed a cache of weapons and the service revolver of NYPD Officer Rocco Laurie.
Herman Bell was eventually charged with the murders of Officer Waverly Jones and Officer Joseph Piagentini.
April 14, 1972: NYPD Officer Phillip Cardillo was ambushed responding to an officer in need of aid call in a Harlem mosque and was murdered. The ties to the Black Panther party, the Black Liberation Army and any spin-off group run deep. The Nation of Islam is as dangerous as their sympathizers in other groups.
May 2, 1972: New Jersey State Trooper James Harper conducted a car stop on the turnpike. His backup unit was Trooper Werner Foerster. Almost immediately, a gun battle started. When the smoke cleared, Trooper Foerster and a BLA member were dead. Trooper Harper was wounded. Also wounded was Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) who was charged with the murder of the trooper. She later escaped (1979) from prison and made her way to Cuba where she was granted political asylum where she enjoys celebrity status. She is still idolized by the community that spawned her and her treacherous allies.
November 14, 1973: Twymon Meyers (remember him?) after escaping during the shootout in St. Louis, met his end at the end of an NYPD officer’s gun in a gun battle in the Bronx. The deaths of Officers Foster and Laurie were certainly avenged.
Here in St. Louis, I have seen a resurgence in Black Panther tattoos, occasionally you might find a Huey Newton Gun Club T-shirt, and shirts emblazoned with the piece of shit who murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Danny Faulkner on December 9, 1981 (25 years old with five years on the job - shield 4699). His killer was also a member of the Black Panther Party.
Look into the history of these folks and get an idea about what goes on with them, whether you know they’re in your midst, or you haven’t a clue if they are or aren’t.
It’s literally a timeline of they kill us and we kill them right back and like the recent attacks in NYPD precincts, it’s nothing new. On August 29, 1971 a San Francisco a police sergeant was killed while seated at his desk when BLA members lit up the station house.
Can a leopard change its spots? Absolutely not, it’s still the same. Research the history of policing and our adversaries; it could save your life. Just noticing a particular T-shirt on someone, or a tattoo, or seeing a fucked-up license plate or temp tag on a bullshit car might just save your ass as well.
