Part 2: An interview with POCC Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Deputy Ministers of Culture Rage

In November 1987, 19-year-old Larry Davis, the target of the biggest manhunt in New York history, in order to avoid being lynched by the NYPD, called the press and the FBI and publicly surrendered after 17 days on the run.

He escaped and, in the process, seriously injured a few of his would-be assassins. Seventeen days later, after the biggest manhunt in New York City history up until that point, Larry Davis called the press and the FBI and surrendered publicly to avoid a police lynching.

After being convicted of killing a drug dealer in a case that many say was hidden from the public eye, Larry Davis has spent the last couple of decades behind enemy lines. Right before he was assassinated, Davis had agreed to be interviewed by the BET series "American Gangster," where he was going to tell his personal story that is steeped n police corruption. Many believe it is no coincidence that he ended up dead.

Now read Part 2 of a three-part Block Report Radio interview with the POCC's Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Deputy Minister of Culture Rage, who happened to be a business partner of Larry Davis, discussing his importance to the Black community, the interview he was scheduled to have with BET's "American Gangster" and much more. Check out this Q&A.

MOI JR: Let me ask you, Chairman Fred, what is it that the Black community in particular and poor people in general take pride in when looking at Larry Davis?

Ch. Fred: A number of things: He went against all odds. He went against an occupying army, the big cahuna of capitalism. Minister Huey P. Newton made the correlation of the Amerikkkan troops occupyin' Vietnam, and he drew the correlation to the police that occupy our communities in Detroit, Chicago and New York.

Larry Davis stood in defiance of these pigs. I'm talking about a lot of times in the community we don't even question or challenge when the pigs come to you. It is not a question of whether they are right or wrong or whatever. In fact this brotha named Face of the Geto Boys, I like how he said it: "A lot of people disrespect God before they disrespect the law." Even if it is just one pig that comes in the community, they can tell us to do anything and we don't even question it.

I can't even recall the amount of forces, the amount of state sentries that they sent into the community to vamp on this brotha, to wipe him out and members of his family out. It is part of the breaking process to send a message throughout the community that this is how we get down on you.
Larry Davis flipped the script and again he inspired so many people. And it showed how the community, I mean this was a situation where elderly ladies and children provided a harbor for this brotha. You had situations where sistas were naming their babies after this brotha, out of honor and respect.

Again similar to this criminal Arnold Schwarzenegger sent the death warrant on Stanley Tookie Williams. He pointed out that fact that Tookie Williams even identified with Macolm X, Mumia Abu Jamal and George Jackson. The fact is that Larry Davis stood up and went toe to toe against an occupyin' army, the big cahuna of capitalism, Amerikkka. The New York Police is the same department that has a history of sticking plungers up the rectum of African men; it has a history of shooting down brothas over 41 times. Man, this brotha stood up and stood in defense of self-defense.

MOI JR: DMOC Rage, me and you were having a discussion earlier, and you were telling me a little bit about "American Gangster" and, like Chairman Fred said, we know who the real Amerikkkan gangsters are. What is the connection with this BET produced series and the Larry Davis assassination?

DMOC Rage: Well, off of the bat, the timing doesn't smack of coincidence to me at all. What I have been pointing out culturally is that there has been a phenomenon recently of the whole exposé genre of urban legends coming and telling their story, about how they was getting' it or whatever. Pretty much that whole cultural phenomenon, I can give credit and say that it was defined by a lot of Hip Hop publications like FEDS Magazine and a couple of other publications that followed suit.

What it has done is spawned into a whole literary media and hood campaign of re-broadcasting these stories. And along with the fame and wealth that some of these people portray, like Frank Lucas, Rich Porter from Harlem etc., comes the intrigue that they had with law enforcement. And what's happening is if you understand Amerikkkan culture, nothing can ever taint the concept of law enforcement, obviously the image of police helping old ladies across the street, getting cats out of trees etc.

And what's been happening has been that part of these exposés has been these different urban legends coming out and saying, "Oh yeah, we used to pay off the police or we worked for the police.

This judge, this D.A., blah blah blah blah." And what's happening is that there has been a blanket indictment on the entire concept of law enforcement across the country. And each one of these urban legends had a police component that painted them in the less dainty light than what they wanted to be painted.

Larry Davis, at the very end, I could vouch for (the fact that) he knew his story was the popper of them all, and he was excited. And couldn't wait to blow the lid off of the situation, because what his story represented was truly the demonic nature of how these law enforcement institutions work with disenfranchised and marginalized Black youth across the country, and his story was going to definitely pop the lid off of the whole situation.

Larry Davis, left, at Shawangunk maximum security prison with his nephew and protege Barry Davis in 2007

Robert De Niro and them came through (and) Warner Brothers, trying to make a film. And we do know for a fact that this definitely had the power structure shook, because they realized that it was out of their hands, and this guy that they tried to bury actually had a support network of people with their own interest who was ready to help him blow the lid - maybe not for the same political reasons he had and we may have, even for just the making of a buck part of it or just being a part of history, where they realized that there was a story there, and there is another component.

And in closing, what has me infuriated is the cowardly position that the press is taking, in particular the piece that the Daily News has done, and some of the other rags in New York, are completely omitting what was found to be corrupt precincts, which were the precincts involved in Larry Davis' situation. Operation Condor was busted around this time, where the cops where going around looking for collars (police term for arrests). They had quotas: "Get five collars a night," etc. A lot of these cops have been flushed away and proven to be corrupt. Not one mention of the corrupt police in all the stories written about Larry Davis.

MOI JR: Why?

DMOC Rage: Well, it's obvious, because they need to paint him, as they paint every other statistic of his nature, like he just hatched out of a vacuum and just decided to wild out and shoot police and sell drugs. They don't want to hook it up to a context, like Chairman mentioned, the context of you being forced to do these things by the system, and particularly the police who have the most vested interest in making a profit from using people like Larry Davis as a pawn.

So the media is an extension of this campaign. It's a tentacle of the state, and probably one of the most important tentacles of the state because it keeps everything calm and cool, and it is business as usual, man. And it stinks. You know it stinks, so it is also definitely a call to the Hip Hop community. All of you FEDS Magazines and Don's or whatever, well, this is your opportunity to give back, man, and make sure that this story is put in the proper context, and make sure that the hood knows who this brotha was, and make sure that we keep our legacies alive.

MOI JR: Chairman Fred, you were recently in the Bay Area, and me and you had a conversation about William O'Neal, who was a paid government informant who infiltrated the Black Panther Party. And he ultimately led to the assassination of Chairman Fred Hampton, your father, who lead the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. He did an interview years later, on "Eyes on the Prize," and what happened after that?

Ch. Fred: Well, shortly after the interview was broadcasted on "Eyes on the Prize," the state claimed that he committed suicide. In fact, it was in Maywood, Illinois. They say that he supposedly had jumped off of the bridge onto on-coming traffic on the expressway. However, we believe different, because he was set to do another piece, and we believe in the community, that the state got down on him.

But I just want to be real clear, that his name is not even in the same breath with the caliber of this brotha Larry Davis. And I just want to reiterate the difference, so people don't deal with absolutes, because some people might say, "OK, well this brotha was out there engaged in what we refer to as the trade. Why should there be any sympathy?"

I go with what a criminal psychologist said: When they go to a crime scene, you got to see who benefits. Who benefits with the assassination of this brotha? I'm talkin' about, again, the state benefits. And what distinguishes him? Why would they want the stories of stool pigeons like Frank Lucas? And why did the prosecutor - then, Giuliani - go push for a pardon on Nicky Barnes? Or why did the former Mayor of New York Ed Koch, even to this day, say that he has no tears for Larry Davis?

And this brotha, again, was cut from a different cloth. Even the fact that Frank Lucas sold his family out, Larry Davis defended his family. Even though, like we say, there are contradictions, but this brotha had some principle, some code amongst him and. like I say, as a victim. Let's go back to the time a lot of stuff just came out in the general community and exposed how the CIA had Ricky Ross on the payroll in L.A.

But go back to how people even viewed the crack cocaine era at that time, and the age of this brotha: He was a teenager. Even like in Sierra Leone with the diamond mines, it's similar to how a lot of them brothas over there are forced into what many people see as a fratricide, but it is actually a genocide, where the ruling class is pulling the strings with this here. But some of these brothas go through what we refer to as a cleansing process, where they recognize these contradictions and stand up and say, wait a minute, I'm going against the one who has got his foot on my back and not this other brotha who they are trying to force me to go against or force me to engage in some contradiction that is detrimental to my community.

This brotha, Larry Davis, went through a cleansing process. He stood up and defied the same entity that was responsible for forcing him and his counterparts - when I say counterparts, I mean other brothas and sistas in the community - to be subjected to this "lifestyle." So it was a cleansing process.

And this is what distinguishes him from such rats as Frank Lucas and the rest of these.

Let's look at why the state holds them up. Guiliani went and pushed for Nicky Barnes to get out. Right now, to this day, Ed Koch still talkin' about he has no tears, because they are clear that this brotha stood and still stands as a symbol of resistance.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and visit www.blockreportradio.com, hiphopwarreport.com and myspace.com/blockreportfilm.

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