The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York V. Lumumba Shakur Et Al"American justice ... and the violent fears that underscore it ... is the theme of Murray Kempton's brilliant examination of the landmark trial of a group of young men and women who came to be called the Panther 21. At five o'clock in the morning of April 2, 1969, approximately 100 members of the Special Services Division of the New York City Police Dept. were dispatched to capture 19 of the 21 persons, ' many of them Black Panthers, ' who had been indicted for arson, conspiracy and attempted murder. The narrative of 'The Briar Patch' explores both the mechanics of the police undercover operations that brought the Panthers to the bar, and those of their highly publicized trial. What especially distinguishes this book is the way Kempton illustrates each of the contending forces ... prosecution, defense, member of the jury ... acting out this great human drama from their own angle of alienation. As Mr. Kempton states, 'A man's spirit can be marked most clearly in its passage from the reform to the revolutionary impulse at the moment when he decides that his enemy will no longer write his history.' The furious heroics and posturings of the defendants in this extraordinary trial grew out of one such moment of self-determination. That moment, a watershed of American history, is recorded in 'The Briar Patch'"--Book description. |
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Afeni Shakur answered arrested Ashwood asked bail Bernard Levine Black Panther Party Bloom Bobby Seale bomb Brooklyn brother Bureau of Special called Captain Ford clients command conspiracy court courtroom Crain criminal defendants defense counsel Detective Roberts Detective Watson DETECTIVE WHITE Dharuba district attorney dynamite ELDRIDGE CLEAVER Ellsmere Tenants Council Eugene Roberts evidence felt Gene Roberts going grand jury Harlem heard Honor Huey Newton indictment jail Joan Bird judge Justice Marks Justice Murtagh Katz knew Kunstler Kuwasi lawyers Lefcourt looked Lumumba Shakur Malcolm Malcolm X McKinney Michael Tabor Negro never Oakland once Patrolman persons Phillips policeman Precinct prison prosecutor Ralph White remember reminded replied revolutionary Richard Moore Robert Collier seemed Sekou Shaun Dubonnet Shirley Jones someone Special Services street suggested talk tell things thought Tinnie Ibarrando tion told trial turned voice Walter Johnson William King witness Yedwah York