AP/World Wide Photo
It's always nice to see public servants who enjoy their work.
I'VE been trying to do this story justice--okay, justice has nothing to do with it--for long enough now that I'm just gonna give up and let the jolly coppers above speak for themselves. No one's ever gonna do it better.
Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he died. Mark Clark was 22.
There was a big fight last year when a Chicago alderman tried to designate that block of Monroe Street "Fred Hampton Way". The FOP, after all these years, still clings to the idea that Fred Hampton's rhetoric made him a cop killer, and made his killers lawful. I propose a solution: let's take the name and the stain off J. Edgar Hoover off his federal building, and call it auld lang syne.
Cointelpro was ended by Congress during Nixon's reign, but its methods were revived during the current regime. The cops killed Fred Hampton with the help of an FBI infiltrator (working through the counter intelligence program) that had become chief of security for the Black Panthers' Chicago HQ.
ReplyDeleteFred Hampton's rhetoric was almost identical to that of Carleton Heston: Americans must be prepared to defend themselves against all enemies domestic and foreign, including the government itself. Hampton's crime was that he thought this self-defense was a right that could be embraced by African Americans.
So many stories to do justice to. For all the notorious Bull Connors of the South in that era, you really couldn't beat the cops of the the urban North for sheer instutionalized racist brutality. Daley's and Rizzo's Finests are well-known, but one day Michael Murphy's boys in NYC will get their due.
ReplyDeleteI do think the Checker Cab look for cops deserves a comeback, though.
The cops killed Fred Hampton with the help of an FBI infiltrator (working through the counter intelligence program) that had become chief of security for the Black Panthers' Chicago HQ.
ReplyDeleteIt appears Mr. O'Neal (the FBI infiltrator in question) committed suicide some years later. I didn't know that until looking for it just now - I always wondered what became of him.
Thanks, Doghouse, for the remembrance.