How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered Fred Hampton (40th Anniversary)

[EFerrari]

“The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther”

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the death of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

On December 4th, 1969, Chicago police raided Fred Hampton’s apartment and shot and killed him in his bed. He was just 21 years old. Black Panther leader Mark Clark was also killed in the raid.

While authorities claimed the Panthers had opened fire on the police who were there to serve a search warrant for weapons, evidence later emerged that told a very different story: That the FBI, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and the Chicago police conspired to assassinate Fred Hampton. Noam Chomsky has called Hampton’s killing “the gravest domestic crime of the Nixon Administration.”

Today, on this fortieth anniversary of his death, we spend the rest of the hour on Fred Hampton. We speak with attorney Jeffrey Haas. He is the author of a new book, “The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther.” In 1969, Haas co-founded the People’s Law Office, whose clients included the Black Panthers, SDS, and other political activists. He was the attorney for the plaintiffs in the federal suit “Hampton vs. Hanrahan”, filed against the Chicago police. the prosecutor, and later the FBI.

Footage courtesy of the 1969 documentary “The Murder of Fred Hampton,”produced by the Chicago Film Group. Now available through Facets multimedia in Chicago.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/4/the_assassination_of_fred_hampton_how

Hampton's fiance who was at the scene describes what happened.

[panader0]

1. I remember this well

In '68 I started as a freshman at Willamette in Salem. My roommate was a young black man, just 16 (Iwas 17). He had the long leather coat, with a large 'Free Huey" button. I learned a lot that year. Mulana(sp?) Ron Karenga came and spoke (pre Kwanza). Those were heady times.

[EFerrari]

3. Juan Gonzalez mentioned this morning that it was Hampton

that coined the term rainbow coalition.

I was 13 in 69 and didn't learn about any of this until much later.

[eridani]

31. Yes, indeed. He was starting to help Appalachian poor white people in Uptown

--organize free breakfasts for children. Black leaders making populist demands who are starting to have big crossover appeal tend not to have normal life spans.

[EFerrari]

2. Commemorate the 40th anniversary of Chairman Fred Hampton’s assassination

Friday, Dec. 4 – events in Chicago and San Francisco, details below



On Dec. 4, 1969, 40 years ago, Chicago police led by Cook County prosecutor Edward Hanrahan as part of an FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) operation stormed into Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton’s apartment at 4:30 a.m. Armed with shotguns, handguns and a .45 caliber machine gun and guided by a floor plan of the apartment provided by an informant, the police killed Defense Captain Mark Clark and critically injured four other Panthers.

They gunned their way through the apartment into Fred Hampton’s bedroom. There he lay sleeping, having been drugged earlier by an FBI informant. As he lay there, the cops stood over him and put two bullets in his brain, at close range.

Other Panthers, including Fred Hampton’s eight month pregnant wife, Deborah Johnson (aka Akua Njeri), were beaten, dragged into the street and charged with assault and attempted murder. Not one officer ever spent a day in jail.


http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/%E2%80%98i-am-a-revolutionary%E2%80%99/

[glitch]

4. Excellent show today.

The bit at the end where Cheney and Rumsfeld tried to subvert the Church Committee's investigation of COINTELPRO and how the assassinations went all the way up the chain to Nixon was a healthy reminder of exactly who these people were and are. Never forget.

The Spitzer interview was excellent as well.

[EFerrari]

5. One more kick before it goes down the memory hole.

[BeHereNow]

7. I'll kick it too!!! Great show today, thanks for posting the link.

Hampton was a threat to the PTB.
Just like Martin, Malcolm and the Kennedy brothers.
Paul Wellstone is in good company.

BHN

[EFerrari]

19. I put up the four vids "The Murder of Fred Hampton" in the video forum.

Reportedly, the cop that executed Hampton walked away saying, "Bobby Rush is next".

[leftstreet]

6. K&R

Thanks for kicking this. I missed it

[gratuitous]

8. I'm sure the cops had a real good reason

And besides, we've come so far since that time, haven't we? All post-racial and everything. We even have a black president!

[EFerrari]

12. The Chairman was a dangerous man. He talked about education

and breakfast programs and coalition building.

Did you see the video? His fiance tells the story with his son on her lap.

[Hannah Bell]

9. k/r

[Gabi Hayes]

10. murder has no statute of limitations. what do you have to say about that, Barack?

justice, or

just us?

[EFerrari]

11. Fred Hampton was 21 years old. n/t

[EFerrari]

13. Some images of our good brother Fred Hampton

[G_j]

14. I listened to this today

thank you Democracy Now!

[EFerrari]

15. Somehow, I never realized how young he was and how many

of our government resources where put into murdering a young man who was barely of drinking age.

[G_j]

16. I know, the FBI supplied the floor plans

of where he lived to the police,
who blew him away with machine guns!

[EFerrari]

17. It looks like the FBI mole drugged him, too, to make him easier to kill.

[G_j]

18. he was the BP's minister of security

cointelpro..

[scarletwoman]

20. K&R. Thank you for marking this anniversary.

No revolution allowed here. AIM found that out, too.

sw

[EFerrari]

24. The belly of the story is important.

:)

[anaxarchos]

21. Kick...

[Blue_Tires]

22. thanks for this...

ugh...another proud chapter in the FBI's storied, honorable history....

[ConsAreLiars]

23. Cointelpro here, the Phoenix Program in Vietnam. That is how they keep and extend their power.

Assassinations in Latin America and Africa and the Middle East and Asia. Training hirelings to rape and murder and torture.

That is them, and that is how they maintain their power.

I suspect Pres. Obama has learned this, and now knows his place and obligations.

edit to add - rec'd, of course.

[Number23]

25. lol Whenever I read this kind of thing, I have to remember that my mom was a Black Panther

My massively over-educated mother who travels to Kenya to work with Masai women. Sometimes I totally forget what a thoroughly cool and awesome person she is and has been for a long time. I should call her. :)

Kicked and rec'd. Thanks for the info

[EFerrari]

26. Number 23, call your mother!

lol

[Number23]

27. lol I will!

:hi:

[eridani]

32. Yes, you should! Right now! n/t

[nofurylike]

28. k & r. thank you for posting this, EFerrari.

"gravest domestic crime"

.....


peace and solidarity

[nofurylike]

29. kick

[nofurylike]

30. one more kick so all can read.... nt

[EFerrari]

34. Thank you!

:hi:

[nofurylike]

35. ...

:hi:

thanks again, EF!


solidarity, always!

[blindpig]

33. k&r

[nofurylike]

36. kick

[nofurylike]

37. kick

[nofurylike]

38. kick

[nofurylike]

39. g'night kick. painful history. please care intensely. nt

[FarLeftRage]

40. Bookmarked, K & R...

Never forget!

[EFerrari]

41. Fred Hampton was only 21. I still can't believe that.

He did so much and he was basically just a teenager.

Thanks for the kick.