This video contains footage shot around San Diego during the July 13, 1969, Black Panther riots and other anti war civil unrest that was common in the US in the late 1960's and early 1970's. COINTELPRO- The FBI Efforts to Promote Violence Between the Black Panther Party and the United Slaves (US Org.) In November 1968, the FBI took initial steps in its program to disrupt the Black Panther Party in San Diego, California by aggravating the existing hostility between the Panthers and US. A memorandum from FBI Director Hoover to 14 field offices noted a state of "gang warfare" existed, with "attendant threats of murder and reprisals." between the BPP and US in southern California and added: In order to fully capitalize upon BPP and US differences as well as to exploit all avenues of creating further dissention in the ranks of the BPP, recipient offices are instructed to submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures aimed at crippling the BPP. As the tempo of violence quickened, the FBI's field office in San Diego developed tactics calculated to heighten tension between the hostile factions. On January 17, 1969, two members of the Black Panther Party -- Apprentice "Bunchey" Carter and John Huggins -- were killed by US members on the UCLA campus following a meeting involving the two organizations and university students. One month later, the San Diego field office requested permission from headquarters to mail derogatory cartoons to local BPP offices and to the homes of prominent BPP leaders around the country. The purpose was plainly stated: The purpose of the caricatures is to indicate to the BPP that the US organization feels that they are ineffectual, inadequate, and riddled with graft and corruption. In the first week of March, the first cartoon was mailed to five BPP members and two underground papers, all in the San Diego area. According to an FBI memorandum, the consensus of opinion within the BPP was that US was responsible and that the mailing constituted an attack on the BPP by US. On 3/27/69 there was a meeting between the BPP and US organization. . . . Wallace [BPP leader in San Diego] . . . concluded by stating that the BPP in San Diego would not hold a grudge against the US members for the killing of the Panthers in Los Angeles (Huggins and Carter). He stated that lie would leave any retaliation for this activity to the black community. On March 27, 1969 -- the day that the San Diego field office learned that the local BPP leader had promised that his followers "would not hold a grudge" against local US members for the killings in LA -- the San Diego office requested headquarters' approval for three more cartoons ridiculing the BPP and falsely attributed to US. One week later, shortly after the San Diego office learned that US and BPP members were again meeting and discussing their differences, the San Diego field office mailed the cartoons with headquarters' approval. On April 4, 1969 there was a confrontation between US and BPP members in Southcrest Park in San Diego at which, according to an FBI memorandum, the BPP members "ran the US members off." 22 On the same date, US members broke into a BPP political education meeting and roughed up a female BPP member. 21 The FBI's Special Agent in Charge in San Diego boasted that the cartoons had caused these incidents: The BPP members ... strongly objected being made fun of by cartoons being distributed by the US organization (FBI cartoons in actuality) ... [Informant] has advised on several occasions that the cartoons are "really shaking up the BPP." They have made the BPP feel that US is getting ready to move and this was the cause of the confrontation at Southcrest Park on 4/4/69. The truce had ended. On May 23, 1969, John Savage, a member of the BPP in Southern California, was shot and killed by US member "Tambuzi". The killing was reported in an FBI memorandum which staked that confrontations between the groups were now "ranging from mere harassment up to and including beating of various individuals." Despite this atmosphere of violence, FBI headquarters authorized the San Diego field office to compose an inflammatory letter over the forged signature of a San Diego BPP member and to send it to BPP headquarters in Oakland, California. The letter complained of the killing of Panthers in San Diego by US members, and the fact that a local BPP leader had a white girlfriend. Sylvester Bell, was killed in San Diego by US members. On August 36, 1969, the San Diego office, of US was bombed. The FBI believed the BPP was responsible for the bombing. The San Diego office of the FBI viewed this carnage as a positive development and informed headquarters: "Efforts are being made to determine how this situation can be capitalized upon for the benefit of the COINTELPRO .... " (Video courtesy of San Diego Police History Museum.) United Against Police Terror - San Diego http://uaptsd.org/

• published: 12 Sep 2014
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