BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY:
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S IMPACT ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
POLICING THE POLICE
“We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives us a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self-defense.”
-The Ten-Point Program, 1966
The party used the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms for self-defense, to justify their right to carry weapons in public spaces, to “Police the Police.”
“Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
[Source: United States Bill of Rights]
Panthers would say their right to observe police officers during arrests, and especially doing so by using a California state law where a weapon was allowed in public, as long as it was “non-concealed.” The Panthers therefore carried guns while patrolling the streets, and would confidently explain their constitutional right to do so when confronted.
“A clip from Sean Rameswaram's interview with Bobby Seale on "The Gun Show" talks about an encounter with a Police Officer.”
[Source: More Perfect]
“violence exercised in self-defense, which all societies from the most primitive to the most cultured and civilized, accept as moral and legal. The principle of self-defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi, who sanctioned it for those unable to master pure nonviolence.”
– Robert F. Williams; Negroes with Guns, 1962
"Cartoon shown in The Black Panther Newspaper, 1967 [Left] & Cartoon Depicting two Panthers "busting" a cop for harassing a woman [Right]"
[Source: The Black Panther Newspaper]