In addition, the glamorization of gangsterism was something that various ruling class elements had begun to champion and direct towards the Black lower classes in particular. This was especially after they saw how much attention the Black Arts Movement was able to generate. Indeed, they recognized that it could be used to misdirect youthful militancy while remaining hugely profitable.

They had in fact already misdirected Euro-Amerikan and other youth with the "James Bond," "I Spy," "Secret Agent Man" and other replacements for the "Old West cowboy and Indians" racist crap, so why not a "Black" counterpart? Thus was born the enormously successful counter-insurgency genre collectively known as the Blacksploitation movies: "Shaft," "Superfly," "Foxxy Brown," "Black Caesar" and the like, accompanied by the wannabe crossovers like "Starsky and Hutch," with the notorious Black snitch Huggie Bear. Psychological warfare!

Follow the psychology: You can be "Black, cool, rebellious, dangerous, rich, have respect, women, cars, fine clothes, jewelry, an expensive home and even stay high" - just as long as you don't fight the system or the cops! But if you don't go along with that script, get ready to go back to the early days, with its shoot-outs with the cops, going to the graveyard, prison on the run and exile!

But you can still be cool, even as a Huggie Bear style snitch and, interestingly, like his buddy, the post-modern day futuristic rat Cipher of "The Matrix," who tried to betray Zion in return for a fake life as a rich, steak-eating movie star. And most importantly: no more fighting with the Agents! Get it?

Furthermore, to bolster the government's assault, and to saddle the oppressed with a Trojan horse that would strategically handicap them for decades to come, they began to flood our neighborhoods with heroin, cocaine, marijuana and meth. Yes, all those drugs had earlier been introduced into these areas by organized criminals - under local police and political protection.

Now the intelligence agencies were using them in the same manner that alcohol had long ago been introduced to the Native Amerikans - and with the same intentions - and the later "foreign" trafficking in opium by the ruling classes of Europe and this country: to counter their propensity to rebel against outside control while profiting off their misery.

Newton began to indulge in drugs as a way to relieve the stress of all that he was facing. He became a drug addict, plain and simple. That, however, didn't upset the newly constructed gangster-cool that Hollywood, the ruling class and the government were pushing. Although many BPP cadre and other outsiders were very nervous about it, Newton's control was by then too firmly fixed for anyone to challenge.

At the same time, the reformist wing of the BPP did manage to make some noteworthy strides under its only female head, Elaine Brown. Newton's drug addiction and gangster-lifestyle-provoked exile caused him - on his own and without any consultation with the body - to "appoint" Elaine to head the Party in his absence. An exceptionally gifted woman, she relied on an inner circle of female BPP cadre, backed up by male enforcers, to introduce some clear and consistent projects that helped the BPP to become a real power locally.

It was a reformist paradigm, though, that could not hope to achieve any of the radical revolutionary changes called for earlier. In fact, within Newton's earlier writings he had put the cadre on notice of a point in time when the above-ground would have to be supported by an underground, in order to keep moving forward. Yet it was Newton who completely rejected that paradigm upon being released from jail, although he still organized and controlled a heavily armed extortion arm called "The Squad," which consisted of BPP cadre who terrorized Oakland's underworld with a belt-operated machine gun mounted on a truck bed, accompanied by cadre who were ready for war! In classic Euro-gangster fashion, Newton had turned to preying on segments of the community that he had earlier vowed to liberate.

Consequently, we can see all of the government's props bearing fruit: Newton's faction of the BPP had limited itself to both legal and underworld sanctioned methods: "co-option" and "indoctrination in reliance on passive approaches" - passive towards the status quo. They fell for the trick of severing all relations with those who would lead the BPP if they got to the next level of struggle. Separation from the most advanced elements: Through Newton's control, his faction was immersed in the "glamorization of gangsterism."

Finally, Newton, his faction and activists from all the other Amerikan radical and revolutionary groups succumbed to the terror and raw fear that was being leveled on them. All except those who waged armed struggle were killed, jailed, exiled or forced into hiding or into continuing their activism under the radar.

Epilogue on Huey P. Newton and his BPP faction

Elaine Brown both guided their faction to support Newton and his family in exile and orchestrated the building up of enough political muscle in Oakland to assure Newton's return on favorable terms. Thus he did return and eventually the charges were dropped.

Newton continued to use his iconic stature and renewed direct control of his faction to again play the cool political gangster role and, like any drug addict who refuses to reform, he kept sliding downhill, even turning on old comrades and his main champion, Elaine Brown, who had to flee in fear.

Sadly, for all practical purposes, that was the end of the original Black Panther Party. Checkmate!
Later, as is well known, Newton's continued drug addiction cost him his life, a sorry ending for a once great man.

© Copyright 2006 Russell Maroon Shoatz I. Maroon, a founding member of Philadelpia's Black Unity Council, which merged with the Black Panther Party, has been a political prisoner since 1972, long held in the control unit of SCI Greene, a supermax prison in western Pennsylvania. Address letters to Russell Shoatz, AF-3855, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370. Mumia Abu-Jamal is also at SCI Greene, and Prisoners of Conscience Committee Minister of Information JR visited with both of them recently. Read this entire essay at www.sfbayview.com or write to the Bay View and we'll mail it to you.

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