Former Black Panthers arrested for 1971 homicide using evidence obtained through torture

Stunned friends laud the men they know now
Leslie Fulbright and Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers, 25 January 2007

Talk in the Western Addition, whether on the steps of old Victorians, on the benches near the community center or among residents of the housing projects, is centered on Richard Brown.

Not the Richard Brown who police say participated in the killing of a police officer 35 years ago, but the Richard Brown who is a father, community activist and mentor to neighborhood youth.

And at a Bayview district community center, some workers on Wednesday were still reeling from the news that Richard O’Neal, a 57-year-old maintenance man who changed their lights and joked with them, did not show up for work because he is in jail.

Brown, 65, is among eight men charged Tuesday with murdering San Francisco police Sgt. John Young and conspiring to commit murder in other attacks. O’Neal, who also lives in the Western Addition, was arrested but charged only with conspiracy. [More]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jen Nessel, CCR, 212.614.6449
David Lerner, Riptide Communications, 212.260.5000

January 23, 2007, New York
– Authorities in San Francisco today announced the arrests and indictments of former Black Panthers in the 1971 killing of police officer Sgt. John V. Young despite the use of torture to obtain confessions. Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) compared the documented torture by law enforcement of Black Panthers arrested in New Orleans in 1973 to the documented torture the U.S. government has practiced recently at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.

CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said, “The case against these men was built on torture and serves to remind us that the U.S. government, which recently has engaged in such horrific forms of torture and abuse at places like Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, has a history of torture and abuse in this country as well, particularly against African Americans.”

CCR Attorney Kamau Franklin said, “These indictments are an attempt to rewrite history- the history of the Black Panthers, the history of COINTELPRO, and the history of the Civil Rights Movement.”

In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the course of several days to obtain information from members of the Black Panthers who were stripped naked, beaten, blindfolded, covered in blankets soaked with boiling water, and had electric probes placed on their genitals, among other methods. A court ruled in 1974 that both San Francisco and New Orleans police had engaged in torture to extract a confession, and a San Francisco judge dismissed charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling. Two years ago, a grand jury convened in San Francisco to reopen the case, but several of the men involved felt they were being wrongly compelled to testify and refused to attend the proceedings.

CCR represents victims of torture by the U.S. at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, as well as Canadian rendition victim Maher Arar. In addition, CCR has filed suit against the NSA for the warrantless domestic spying program authorized by President Bush; the COINTELPRO program illegally spied on Black activists in the Sixties and Seventies and engaged in numerous unconstitutional acts against Civil Rights organizations.

About CCR

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights demonstrators in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

via SDS/Thomas Good

Legacy of Torture
The War Against The Black Liberation Movement

The film will be followed by a Tribute to John Bowman who joined our ancestors December 23, 2006
3pm at the African American Cultural Center
762 Fulton (and Webster streets) in San Francisco

Further Reading:
A Legacy of Torture: From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act by Ron Jacobs

via MDS