San Francisco 8: The Spirit of Richard Brown – Represent Our Resistance

“This case against eight former Panthers and Panther supporters charged with the murder of a San Francisco policeman in 1971 was thrown out of court in 1975 because the evidence used by the prosecution was obtained by torture,” writes Jacobs. Of course, Jacobs injects, if “the purpose of torture is something other than the procurement of credible evidence or confessions, then it doesn’t really matter as to its effectiveness.”

I see the goal of COINTELPRO as not only an effort to destroy the physical bodies of these individuals, but also to destroy the very embodiment of the collective spirit of resistance. How have Black Americans best “expressed the bankruptcy of the capitalist system” in America? Eradicate the body that would dare defend itself and thus advocate fearlessly for the self-determination of Black Americans – and still, that spirit of Sojourner Truth, DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Diane Nash, Kwame Ture, Malcolm X and many others is present, exposing the injustice and inequality in America.

Brown said that the Monday, December 3, 2007 court proceeding should focus on “prior motions like the use of shackles or double jeopardy for Harold Taylor,” who is being charged again for the same crime. The judge could also rule on the original use of torture to obtain confessions. Whatever the judge rules, some of us will know it is an attempt to “normalize” what cannot be “normalized,” as in deadened or eradicated, as in lost forever.

The danger with the San Francisco 8 case is that the public will not understand the connection between this case and Democratic Rep. Jane Harman’s H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act or Democratic Senator Feinstein’s S 456: Gang Abatement and Prevention Act 2007 in which the eight men could be charged as a “gang” or “terrorists.” Both bills would expand the powers of a COINTELPRO agenda against Black people in general and particularly compound the efforts of Black activists working on behalf of their communities. In the Joint Statement from the San Francisco Eight, the eight men directly address their representation as “aggressors”: