I was a consultant on the new Black Panther film Public Enemy. Newsreel
footage and stills photographs that I took were also part of the film. I
think that it is a good film.
What I want to remind folks is that when stories are told parts are always
left out. We have to stop blaming Cointelpro for everything that destroyed
the Panthers. Cointelpro was a part, a big part but every Panther Ive
interviewed, my research of reading discovery material from legal cases , and
reading more than 350,000 FBI documents I know that personal and political
conflicts had a large degeee of responsibility that led to the
factionalization and downfall of the Black Panther Party. No one will ever
tell you the total truth of that period. Folks don't want to tell stories
that are not nice, talk about crimes, talk about foolishness, about mistakes
, etc. Folks don't want their families know what really happened. What
events they participated in that are now an embarassment , politically
incorrect or were wrong and bad or silly. I've been video interviewing
panthers, and folks who supported panthers for about 10 years creating video
histories. You would be surprised what is told to me off camera . We can
not blame the total downfall of the Black Panther Party on "Conintelpro.
roz payne
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