Police Brutality

• Major Black Panther aim-

  • Combat police brutality
• They stockpiled weapons for self-defence & tailed the police in hope of exposing their brutality
• • 1967- Black Panthers surrounded & entered the California state legislature to protest repressive legalisation- such actions coupled with their paramilitary uniforms, weapons & rhetoric- made the Black Panthers appear strong & fearless to those who had long been oppressed
  • These actions antagonised the white authorities & the Black Panthers were targeted by the police & FBI
• Chicago Eight


  • were arrested for conspiring to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
  • Bobby Seale was one of the Chicago Eight charged in 1969- was jailed & after release he left the Black Panthers- 1974
  • same year- 1974- Newton fled to Cuba in order to avoid frequent arrest
  • Seale eventually became a media celebrity
  • Newton-shot dead- 1989- Oakland by a drug-dealing member of a rival group