It’s still Black Panther Party History month. One of the hardest times for the Black Panther Party was the arrests and trials of “The New York 21” a classic “provocateur” action by the United States government. That became a standard way to tie the organization up with bogus court cases and huge legal fees. The “New York 21” later called The Panther 21 were a group of New York Black Panther Party (BPP) members who were arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in a pre-dawn raid on April 2, 1969. The 21 arrested Panthers—at first called the “New York 21” but later referred to as the “Panther 21″—were charged with over 200 counts of conspiracy in what was characterized as a BPP terror campaign against the city of New York, including attacking police stations, murdering police officers, and bombing public buildings.
“By the time the trial began in October 1970, the case had been narrowed to 13 defendants and 156 counts of conspiracy. The trial lasted seven months and was the longest and costliest in New York state history. When it concluded in May 1971, after revelations that undercover police agents in the BPP had played key instigator roles, the jury acquitted all 13 defendants of all charges..This method of arresting Panthers for “made up” charges or for crimes actually committed by paid informants became an on going problem for the rest of the party’s existence …… At 4:30 a.m. on April 2, 1969, the NYPD’s Bureau of Special Services performed a coordinated raid on the homes of twenty-one members of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party. The arrestees, nineteen men and two women, were charged by Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan with conspiring to “murder policemen and blow up four police stations, five department stores, railroad lines, the Queens Board of Education building, and the Bronx Botanical Gardens.”
The arrested New York Panthers were:
Sundiata Acoli (a.k.a. Clark Squire)
Kuwasi Balagoon (a.k.a. Donald Weems)
Joan Bird
Cetewayo (a.k.a. Michael Tabor)
Robert S. Collier
Lonnie Epps
Richard Harris
Ali Bey Hassan (a.k.a John J. Casson)
Jamal Joseph (a.k.a. Eddie Joseph)
Abayama Katara (a.k.a. Alex McKiever)
Kwando Kinshasa (a.k.a. William King Jr.)
Larry Mack
Mkuba (a.k.a. Lee Berry)
Mshina (a.k.a. Thomas Berry)
Baba Odinga (a.k.a. Walter Johnson)
Sekou Odinga (a.k.a. Nathaniel Burns and Nathaniel Williams)
Shaba Om (a.k.a. Lee Roper)
Curtis Powell
Afeni Shakur (a.k.a. Alice Williams)
Lumumba Abdul Shakur (a.k.a. Anthony Coston)
Dhoruba bin Wahad (a.k.a. Richard Moore).
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