Charles Garry : attorney for the Black Panthers

In July the Black Panther Party Toby told you told the world that. We must unite against fascism. It's encroaching in the lives of the black militants. Black people and crouching on the white radicals. And I don't I don't think very many people paid much attention to that. I don't believe that many of us took that very seriously. I believe that many of us thought. This was just rhetoric. Since July many things have happened. In the last five days all of the records of

panthers who've been harus door murdered have been compiled. Unfortunately. The party did not commence to keep records in an accurate manner. At its inception of the men and women who were harus or killed. We've had to put the records together. In haste because it demanded the world today requires us to present our case. The south after noon I talked to a representative of the Christian Science Monitor who called me

from Los Angeles and he wanted a record of the men and women who've been Harus. In Los Angeles. We were on the phone. Long distance call for a little over an hour and 10 minutes. But halfway through the reporters said to me he said if this doesn't tell the story nothing will tell a story. It showed a systematic arrest and Harris meant. Of men and women in Los Angeles County alone. For a period of almost two years. Where a man or a woman or a group of men and women would be charged with

murder. Would be held in jail for five or ten days or 20 days and all at once the charges would be dropped against them. The familiar buzz saw is the attempted murder or resisting arrest. The pattern in Los Angeles is the same pattern that exists throughout the United States where Black Panther Party has set up chapters and has proceeded to take care of business. The Black Panther Party in the last two years has expanded in bail bond premiums alone just at premiums

alone. Cash money that will never be returned to anybody. Some in excess of $200000. Think about that friends. Can premiums in excess of two hundred thousand dollars. I was just wondering how many lunches or breakfasts for children at that $200000 could be used for. I was just wondering how much medical attention and supplies. That two hundred thousand dollars could be used for. In the Ghetto communities. Twenty eight Panthers have been killed

murdered in the past two years. We have documented 19 of those cases. We're going to document the other nine. How many more men and women will have to be murdered. Before the American people wake up to their responsibility that they're not going to permit fascism in America. And a police state in America. As we sit here in this beautiful auditorium with the surroundings that it has of an informed community. Just eight miles away from here.

One of the most beautiful selfless human beings that I've had the pleasure to me. Is sitting in the county jail in San Francisco. Treated like a dog and an animal. Kept away from any of books or any form of literature that has any meaning or substance not permitted to receive any legal documents. He just sits there awaiting to be extradited to the state of Connecticut to be tried for conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder and face the electric chair. While we're sitting here in our comfort.

Getting ready for the. Commercial holidays for the season. One of the world's greatest revolutionary leaders in any side of the ocean. Is sitting in a penitentiary in San Luis Obispo. Facing 15 years for a crime that he did not commit any more than you did. His case is on appeal. Unless fascism is really here for everybody. Other than the members of the Black Panther Party and certain black militants and white

militants and if the rules of the bush walk courts are still operating. And if the conscience of the judges are pricked. Sufficiently he Newton's conviction will be reversed. But in the mean time he will have had spent three years in the penitentiary for a crime that most people will only spend six months to nine months at the most. Eldridge Cleaver one of the most brilliant contemporaries in modern literature

presenting local color up. Those of you who remember Bret Hart. He resents the local color. And says it as it is. Is going to have to spend the rest of his days unless as a change a radical change made living in exile. Fred Hampton Mark Clark I did not know Mark Clark and I didn't know Fred Hampton in Chicago. A brilliant aggressive down to earth. Tremendous charisma. Tremendous understanding affable.

Was killed murdered. Sasson aided. By sleeping in his bed at 5 o'clock in the morning. Three of the Black Panther Party headquarters in Los Angeles were raided in the wee hours of the morning. Aggression. By the police. But who pays for Gerano more commonly called by his friends as Gigi is facing a nominal bail of.

One hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 21 Panthers in New York. Have been in prison in the various prison islands of New York. For the last six months. On all kinds of wild and sundry charges. The bail for the twenty one is two million one hundred thousand dollars. Two million one hundred thousand dollars. David here your. Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party. Because he exercised his rights under the First Amendment.

On November the 15th now stands before the Bush world as public enemy number one. Thirty thousand dollars bail. $30000 bail premium $3000 in cold cash and one hundred and ninety percent collateral for the thirty thousand dollars before the bail bondsman would put up the bail. We couldn't get any better area bondsman derided we had to import a man a firm from Los Angeles to do it.

He had to have one hundred and ninety percent collateral so that he would put up. Thirty thousand dollars plus a $3000 premium. David Hilliard had already put up $20000 in bail on 100 percent collateral. For the so-called April 6 1968 events. And when this great big fat slob insurance company. Saw a chance to keep the $2000 premium that it had received. And get off of any liability. That's exactly what they

did. So afterward the thirty thousand dollars was raised in the federal court. And by the way we were required to dot every i and cross every T. David Hillard had to spend an additional four days in prison in a cell block. In Alameda County on the 10th floor of our courthouse in Oakland where the only ventilation comes in through a little small van't ends and a vent underneath the steel cage. That's the same cell that Huey Newton was forced to spend seven months of his confinement. That's the same cell that Eldridge Cleaver spent 24 hours.

And he told the court in Alameda County that in all the 12 years that he'd spent in prison that was the worst hellhole he'd ever spent in all of these lives. And while we're sitting here and enjoying in a complacent manner all around us the oppression is going on. You don't recognize it until the oppression hits you when the oppression hits you it's too late. I would suggest that we do something about it before it starts hitting you. In the 30 years that I've been practicing law. I find that the old rules do not apply to the Black Panther Party.

Their new sets of rules new requirements new methods of Harris movement. I find that the judges are gutless. Without any backbone. Sure there's a judge here and there that has guts and and stands up against the onslaught of the police state that most of them are frightened. Most of them are racist but the pathetic part of it is that they do not realize that they are racists. Bobby Seale.

I'm with all of the things that he has to face. In that court room in Chicago. Where Daley demanded the right to defend himself. And after five weeks of begging and pleading for the right to exercise his rights under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Finally told that Judge that your are. You are a blatant fascist pig. You are trampling over my constitutional rights. You are not worthy to sit on that bench and decide the

fate of men and women for that. He was gag. Chained like a wild animal and when public opinion began to turn against the judge. What did he do. He declared a mistrial for Bobby Seale and he took advantage of his cloak and his oath of office. And his responsibility to humanity. And in vindictiveness and with hatred and anger in. Sentenced Bobby Seale. To four years in the federal penitentiary. Now he

couldn't do this legally. But the clever little judge worked out a little scheme. He knew that the United States Supreme Court had held that anyone who is imprisoned for more than six months is entitled to a jury trial. The little man knew that. So he took 16 different charges and he gave Bobby Seal three months on each one of those charges which added up to 48 months. He thinks he's going to get away with that. Is he going to get away whether. He will get away with it unless the people arrive.

Yes. You know. As I'm standing here talking to you I'm sure that there. Are in this audience at least 15 agencies of either the police department. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the CIA or the some other organizations that are not even familiar with it. They take down everything that's being said. No that isn't true they don't take down everything that's being said. They don't write down the things that I'm saying here right now. But when they leave years they'll go into their car or into a coffee shop or in a whorehouse.

And they will write down Charles R. Gary on the 19th day of December. At the hour of. 9:30 o'clock. Said there are people taking down notes and they and they go and write it down in a whorehouse. They take sentences out of context. The other day last Tuesday we went into court with David here to give you an example. We put the matter over to January to seven. So that we could prepare the necessary

legal documents to file our pleas. At which time I asked the court to permit Mr. Hilliard to be able to travel the length and breadth of the United States. And all hell broke loose. The government objected to it. He said to permit Mr. Hilliard to be out of the district of Northern California he would foment strife. And continue to harass and threaten the life of the president of the United States. Thank the judge wanted to know why Mr. Hilliard had to be treated any different from any other defendant.

The two experts that were brought here from the attorney general's staff in Washington. Finally had to admit that there'd be no reason to treat Mr. Hillard any differently. I was asked to prepare an order. An order was prepared. Along the lines. The judge indicated we got there at 1 o'clock. And it was finally signed by the judge at 5:30 that night. Harus meant hassling in the afternoon where Mr Hilliard was not present. Because all there was to be submitted was the order to be signed. In comes in two fat cats.

By the way more ways than one. I came in with an affidavit submitted to the judge. I said may I see the affidavit they said. He said no. I said I'd like to see it. The judge said give Mr. Gary a copy of the affidavit the affidavit stated that David here did at the Glide Memorial Church. You know you're not even safe in church anymore. David here you did the Glide Memorial Church last Sunday night. Sad again. We will kill the president. Now those of you who were there and this was signed

by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the judge would not consider that affidavit. The government demanded that the copy that they had shown me be taken away from me and I had to relinquish and give it back to him because I wanted the judge to sign that order for travel. Those of you who heard Dave last Sunday night at the Glide Memorial Church know that the statement made by that Federal Bureau of Investigation was a goddamn lie. All Dame did was to explain the language in which she used in speech on the fifteenth day of November. And the rhetoric of history in relationship to the dialectics of. American history in relationship to the onslaught and the

oppression of the men and women in the black ghetto. The telephone lines of the Black Panther Party. And anyone who converses with that organisation are constantly being tapped. They know before the members themselves what the Black Panther Party is going to do next. Let's talk about Bobby Seale in Connecticut for a minute. It was a man by the name Iraq but he was a black panther.

He was literally murdered. And we have every reason to believe and we intend to prove when the time comes that Rackley was murdered by police agents. Bobby Seal went to New Haven Connecticut on the 19th day of May. At the request of the University of Yale to speak there and received an honorary M and his expenses to go there to speak he left. New Haven Connecticut in the early morning around 5 o'clock on the 20th. Rackley was murdered on the 21st

of May. No one even mentioned. Bobby Seale until the twenty first day of August nineteen hundred and sixty nine. And all at once he becomes a dangerous fugitive. It's interesting enough that the moving papers that were submitted to the man in Sacramento. Stated by the intelligence officer as follows. Bobby Seale arrived. In New Haven spoke at Yale University. We picked him up there. This is the surveillance intelligence surveillance.

And he went to the Black Panther Party headquarters at midnight. And they followed him another place and they also followed him out. Leaving New Haven Connecticut at 5 o'clock. On the morning of the 20th. Pray tell when would he have had time. To commit murder or to plan murder or to get involved in any way either directly or indirectly especially to a man that he did not even know and never heard of before. And yet he's facing the death penalty. But there is hope. When I say there's hope there's hope.

We've demanded that they'll be a special congressional investigation of the action of all the police departments together with the Department of Justice and its auxiliary agent not by the House Committee on Un-American Activities by the house Internal Security Committee and whatever else they call themselves. But by congress men and women. Who have integrity. Not very many of them but there are some there. To do the investigating and do the work that's necessary to bring out the facts.

We also stated that we intend to file a petition charging the United States government that within its own confines. There are two nations. One white. Which dominates the black nation itself within itself without any rights. We intend to document the heresy that's been going on. For over a hundred fifty years. We intend to present to the United Nation and chart. This administration and the previous administration. The local police and their agents with genocide on the Black Panther Party which which is only a forerunner. Of genocide not only against all black people

brown people yellow people and red people and a poor white people. We intend to present that this cry that we have raised this vocalization has now reached many many quarters in America to such an extent. And if you read. Von Hoffman's article in The Chronicle yesterday which lays it out cold he is not a lawyer. He's not a member of the Black Panther Party and yet he analyzes coldly and deliberately and factually the things that the Black Panther Party has been saying to the public at large.

And we've been trying to say it in the courtroom. This morning. Reverend Abernathy. You talked about. The role of the Black Panther Party and its importance and its crime and its need and the work that its doing records for children and other things. The Black Panther Party is doing any correlated and he quit at that. But the police state and fascism that's approaching America. You already know that a commission has been formed. With former Justice Goldberg and other concerned citizens to see that the truth comes out as to what's happening to the Black Panther Party.

And what is significant is in what's happening to the Black Panther Party. And look who's trying to get into the act. The Department of Justice. This man Mitchell who tried to tell you that soon after the inaugural of the this man who's a friend of David here. That he's going to recommend to the Congress of the United States to take away the right of bail in any case that involves any form of violence for a period of 60 day or anything that involves in any form of narcotics.

Some of us raised an eyebrow. And said the man is talking about law and order. But it wasn't until last month. When he had one of these stooges introduce a bill to that effect. Concentration camps go in any penitentiary in California and you see nothing but black and brown faces. Occasionally you see a white face in the penitentiary. We've had presidential commission after presidential commission telling us the reasons for all of these things. The most recent

one came out last week. They spent a million and a half dollars. Of a commission to tell you that the reason that we have problems in America is because a man and women in the ghetto are dissatisfied and have lost faith and confidence in the system. Can you beat that. Million and a half bucks to do that. Not one single judge will read that report. The district attorney will scoff at it. The police chief will say these men in high places are soft on communism. Once in a while a lawyer like myself will read it and quote it and try to ask a prospective juror if he knows anything about it and the district attorney will

object to it and the judge will say. Counsel watched the relevancy of that. You know I'm satisfied that the laws we stand. We know it today is completely irrelevant to the needs of the contemporary society that we're living in. Thanks. Thank you. For too many years we lawyers have been rubber stamps for the system. A system that rotten.

To the core. Thank a system that for the benefit of those who have it as against people who do not have it. A system that's made to perpetuate. The role of the 76 corporations run the destiny of this country. We need change radical change abrupt change. You notice I'm not using the word revolutionary. Because you've got to be careful what rhetoric you know.

And if you ladies and gentlemen don't believe what I'm saying to you here today I don't say in open court to judges and juries you're mistaken. I do. Thank you. I told the court today in a case of lost yet they lost that they. Were attacking the grand jury in San Francisco. Told the court. I said it's time that the public officials including the judges remember that they were the servant. Other people and that they should fear the people and the people should not be fearing them. Thank you. Thank you.

America is at the crossroads today. The system will either have to abruptly change or a lot of other things are going to happen. And I'm not going to be the one that's going to make these other things happen because the people are not going to put up with it any longer. We're not going to have a society. That's being run by 76 corporations and the Stooges that they pig to run the country. And we're not going to be satisfied in handing Tweedle-Dum. For our next governor our next president.

If we have fascism for everybody like we have fascism for majority the black ghetto and the brown ghetto and particularly the Black Panther Party. And if it becomes impossible. To stand before a court room and defend your client I for one will withdraw. As a member of the bar. That may make a lot of people happy but I do not ever intend to be a fixture in a courtroom in order to give the semblance of Due Process of Law and say Heil Hitler. Thank you I'm

very revealing.