by: Oren Segal
July 14, 2016
The leaders of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), the largest organized anti-Semitic and racist Black militant group in America, will be in Cleveland July 14-17 ahead of the Republican convention, where they will likely inflame the already tense situation following the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota and the killing of five police officers in Dallas.
The NBPP is one of a number of extremist groups protesting in Cleveland during the GOP convention.
Hashim Nzinga (left) and Malik Zulu Shabazz (right) lead protestors in Charleston
Exploiting high-profile shootings for publicity and sometimes calling for violence against law enforcement is a common tactic of the NBPP. This is especially concerning since the racist and anti-Semitic Chairman of the NBPP, Hashim Nzinga, told Reuters on July 13 that the NBPP members protesting in Cleveland will be armed. Nzinga stated, “If that state allows us to bear arms, the Panthers and others who can legally bear arms will bear arms.”
While Nzinga and other prominent NBPP leaders such as “spiritual advisor” and former Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz attempt to portray themselves as civil rights activists, in reality they inject bigotry and violent rhetoric into high-profile racially-charged events.
Some instances of the NBPP leaders calling for violence against law enforcement in response to such events include:
- In May 2015, in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore, Shabazz organized protests and called for violence against law enforcement on Fox News Radio’s “The Alan Colmes Show.” Shabazz told Colmes that “those young Baltimore youth are liken to the Palestinians battling an Israeli occupier…some people might need to get hurt in self-defense.”
- After Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, Shabazz and other NBPP leaders traveled to Ferguson, aggravating the situation there. Shabazz led protesters in chants calling for the death of the officer who shot Michael Brown. Using a megaphone, Shabazz yelled, “Who do we want?” The protestors responded, “Darren Wilson!” Shabazz: “How do we want him?” Protestors: “Dead!”
- Shabazz wrote on Facebook on August 14, 2014 that if the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown was not released, he would release the officer’s name and address to “give the demonstrators a clearer target.”
- NBPP Chief of Staff Chawn Kweli posted a statement on Facebook on August 10, 2014 regarding Ferguson that read: “IF NEED BE PUT AS MANY AGGRESSORS IN THE COFFINS THEY PICKED OUT FOR YOU IN SELF DEFENSE…IF YOU DIE, DIE LIKE A WARRIOR.”
The NBPP has also made more general calls for violence after high-profile killings, including:
- On Black Power Radio in June 2015, regarding protests after the death of Freddie Gray, Shabazz justified the burning down of a CVS and told his audience that “we’re gonna stop all of this goddamn talking and raise up an army and deal with you motherf----rs”
- In June 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, Shabazz organized a rally in front of the Emanuel AME Church in the aftermath of the shooting that killed nine people in which he stated, “Denmark Vesey [who planned a slave rebellion in 1822 in which he intended to kill the governor and set fire to the city] had a plan to kill all the slave masters in the state. Denmark Vesey had a plan to kill every last one of them and kill all their goddamn families, and we need some new Denmark Veseys today. We gotta complete what Denmark didn’t finish. He never finished his mission, but the real children of Denmark Vesey is [sic] out here today.”
- In 2012, the NBPP, then under the leadership of Shabazz, also offered a $10,000 reward for the “dead or alive” capture of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Florida.
- The NBPP’s Tampa chapter Chief of Staff, Michelle Williams, spoke on the group’s web radio program on April 2, 2012. “I am for violence if non-violence means we continue to postpone a solution to the American Black man’s problem just to avoid violence,” she said. Williams added, “This could not have happened in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the Black man over there ain’t scared to kill a cracker…If someone put their hands on you, you better send that goddam cracker to the cemetery grave.”
Additionally, NBPP also has used these high-profile shooting cases to make other racist and anti-Semitic statements:
- In a Black Power Radio broadcast on July 4, 2016 titled “America on the Hotseat: The End of White Supremacy,” Nzinga stated, “We're dealing with a beast, man, and we gotta speak power to truth, and we gotta unite. We’re dealing with the Jewish onslaught…People should get the Jewish Onslaught by Tony Morton about how these Jews have hacked into my email today and how these Jews control the media and control so damn much…and run America…”
- In a May 2015 online radio broadcast regarding the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore, Nzinga injected anti-Semitism into the discussion, employing a common trope of his: that a supposedly Jewish-controlled media nefariously portrays Black people in a negative light. “And with your Jewish and your mostly menorah, I mean majority, uh, minority-owned TV stations, going to paint a picture like something’s wrong with us,” Nzinga stated.
- Related to Ferguson, Nzinga addressed the NBPP on the August 11, 2014 online broadcast of Black Power Radio titled “Murder In Missouri– Michael Brown And Blood Thirsty Pigs– The Battle Is On!” Nzinga claimed that white Americans are committing “genocide” against Black males: “The Black male is being exterminated…The ones who are not being exterminated, they’re pushing them to be gay and fags so they won’t be productive on reproducing babies. This is about genocide.”
- Nzinga also blamed the shooting in Ferguson on the supposedly Jewish-controlled media. “Jews’ media and the Jews’ TV, they have made it look like we’re the villains of America…” said Nzinga. He also blamed violence in Chicago on Mayor Rahm Emanuel who he described as “a Jew, and that Jew is a master at propaganda.”