Extreme Prosecution: In Search of Black Enemies

A Black Agenda
Radio commentary by Glen Ford

"When it comes to the
Black Panther Party, the U.S. government never forgets."

The rulers of the United States require Black villains -
menaces to society - in order to maintain the legitimacy of their
governance. If such villains do not
exist, the U.S. government's organs of coercion will entrap the unwary into
playing the role of public enemy. In the event that actual, serious resistance
to the racist rule of the rich does arise, as with the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense, beginning in the late Sixties, the U.S. government does not
hesitate to engage in murder and barbaric torture to reassert its authority.

The American criminal injustice system is running
amuck on both coasts. In San Francisco, eight former members of the Black
Panther Party face 37-year-old murder charges in the killing of a police
officer. The defendants are now senior citizens. This is the government's
second attempt to convict ex-Panthers in the 1971 shooting. Back in
1975, charges against three of the men were dismissed, because confessions were
obtained by torture. But when it comes to the Black Panther Party, the U.S.
government never forgets. Someone must play the villain, even if the objects of
official hatred are all hovering around 60 years of age. The FBI seems
incapable of feeling shame, and so perpetuates the persecution of aging Black
Panthers long after the organization's dissolution and in the absence of any
conceivable threat to the prevailing order. That's because, like a shark that
will drown if it doesn't keep constantly on the move through water, the
government's machinery of repression is always in search of enemies in order to
justify its existence.

"Federal prosecutors are pit bulls when it comes to
punishing Black villains - including Black villains of their own creation."

Throughout U.S. history, African American males have been
the enemies-of-choice. Whether it's lynching parties or federal "counter
intelligence" programs, the hunt is always on for...somebody, usually somebody
Black. The Bush regime needed to find and punish Americans who were conspiring
with Al Qaida to attack targets in the United States, in order to justify the
police state under construction since 9/11. Inconveniently, no such Americans
existed, so the federal police decided they'd organize the conspiracy,
themselves. The feds hired Arab con men
to wave wads of cash in the faces of impoverished Black men in the Liberty City
ghetto of Miami. Some of the men were homeless, they had only one pistol
between them, and no explosives of any kind, but the FBI claimed the Liberty
City 7 were intent on blowing up the Sears Tower in Chicago. After all, some of
the men had sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden, in a ceremony concocted by the
FBI and the Arab con man with the 50 thousand dollar bulge in his pocket.

Two trials ended in hung juries, but federal prosecutors are
pit bulls when it comes to punishing Black villains - including Black villains
of their own creation. After already having spent between five and eight
million dollars on the Liberty City 7 case, the prosecution wants a third crack
at sending the hapless Black men to prison forever. As with the San Francisco
Eight, the U.S. political police have no sense of shame. They don't seem to
understand that torture of the helpless, entrapment of the not-too-bright, and
dogged pursuit of the elderly demeans the dignity of the state, making
government power appear illegitimate. In the end, it is the prosecutors who are
undermining the authority of the state.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

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