I can not understand why people insist in referring to Al-Amin (H. Rap
Brown) as an ex-Black Panther. why not refer to him as a former leader of
SNCC? what does "Black Panther" signify in this context? a violent criminal?
let's be a little careful about the hidden meanings of our very political
language. why not refer to H. Rap as a former Communist? after all, the
Panthers were Marxist-Leninists...
----- Original Message -----
From: <sixties@lists.village.virginia.edu>
To: sixties-l <sixties-l@lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 3:26 AM
Subject: [sixties-l] Opening statements expected in trial of ex-Black
Panther (fwd)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 23:57:56 -0800
> From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
> Subject: Opening statements expected in trial of ex-Black Panther
>
> Opening statements expected in trial of ex-Black Panther
>
> <http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/02/19/al.amin.trial/index.html>
>
> February 19, 2002
> Atlanta, Georgia (CNN)
>
> Opening statements got under way Tuesday in the trial of a former Black
> Panther whoin the 1960swent by the name H. Rap Brown.
> If convicted, Jamil Abdullah Abdullah Al-Amin, who went by the name H. Rap
> Brown in the 1960s, could face the death penalty.
> Al-Amin, now a Muslim cleric who ran a small grocery store till his
arrest,
> is charged with killing a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputy and
> wounding another on March 16, 2000.
> The surviving deputy is expected to testify that Al-Amin fired at them
that
> day when officers tried to arrest him on minor charges.
> The arrest warrant was for Al-Amin's failure to appear in court on charges
> of receiving stolen property and impersonating an officer.
> The deputies exchanged gunfire with a man standing near a black Mercedes
> Benz, and a spokesman on that day said the deputies might have wounded the
> man who shot at them.
> One deputy, Ricky Kinchen, died the next day. The surviving officer
> identified Al-Amin as the shooter.
> SWAT teams, helicopters and search dogs joined in a hunt that started with
> a blood trail. After entering a vacant house where police thought they'd
> cornered the shooter, they found more signs that the assailant may have
> been wounded.
> Four days later, authorities arrested Al-Amin in Lowndes County, Alabama,
> 175 miles southwest of Atlanta. He was not wounded.
> Police also found a rifle and handgun near his arrest location, and tests
> indicated they were the weapons that wounded Kinchen, a local newspaper
> reported. Ten days later, they also found a black Mercedes with bullet
> holes in it.
> Three months later, an Atlanta fugitive captured in Nevada confessed to
> killing Kinchen. He later recanted that statement.
> Black Panther past
> Born Hubert Gerold Brown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Al-Amin went by the
> name H. Rap Brown during the 1960s and served as chairman of the Student
> Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
> In 1967, he was charged with inciting a riot in Cambridge, Maryland, where
> he declared to hundreds of African-Americans: "It's time for Cambridge to
> explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come
around,
> we're going to burn America down."
> The next morning, a school and two city blocks burned.
> He later joined the Black Panther Party, which sought to empower
> African-Americans and confront and conquer social injustices. At one point
> he was minister of justice for the Panthers.
> As a Panther, Al-Amin exhorted African-Americans to arm themselves. "I say
> violence is necessary," he once famously said. "It is as American as
cherry
> pie."
> The Black Panther Party collapsed in the late 1970s, brought down by
> deaths, defections and infighting.
> Al-Amin, 58, converted to Islam while in prison serving five years for his
> role in a robbery that ended in a shootout with New York police.
> Until his arrest, Al-Amin operated the grocery in Atlanta's West End and
> was the spiritual leader of a mosque in the neighborhood.
> Neighbors credited Al-Amin, whom friends described as a humble and
> respectful man, for working to clean up drugs and prostitution in the
> low-income West End.
> Conspiracy accusations
> Al-Amin and his followers contend the state's case is bogus, and
represents
> the U.S. government's latest attempt to destroy the Muslim cleric.
> Because the accused in under a gag order, Ed Brown, Al-Amin's brother,
> serves as spokesman for the family.
> "This [murder arrest] is part of a pattern that has gone on for 35 years,"
> Brown said. "It started with his civil rights efforts and now it's Islam.
> Anything that shines a light on the corruption of this government or does
> not contribute to its process of corruption, they are opposed to."
> The government has cooked up a case against his brother, destroying
> evidence, Brown continued.
> "Both officers said they wounded the perpetrator. It was reported there
was
> a blood trail. They got a search warrant and mobilized the SWAT team based
> on the blood trail," he said.
> "But then when they arrested him and he wasn't wounded, they stopped
> talking about it."
> Al-Amin's dealings with authorities did not end when he converted to
Islam,
> records show. In 1995, he was accused of aggravated assault, but the
victim
> later recanted and said authorities pressured him to blame Al-Amin.
> From 1992 to 1997, the FBI staked out Al-Amin, suspecting him of
> gun-running. The agency generated 44,000 documents, records indicate, but
> failed to produce an arrest or indictment.
> "What explanation do they have for watching him?" Ed Brown asked. "They
> were so obsessed."
> Now, Al-Amin faces the death penalty if convicted. Brown said Al-Amin's
> death is what law enforcement has sought for years.
> "This is a very unforgiving country when you show this country its warts,
> when you hold the mirror up," Brown said. "If you happen not to share
their
> beliefs, they'll kill you."
>
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