Posted on 04/30/2006 8:47:13 AM PDT by JaggedEdge
DURHAM - The national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense says his group intends to march at Duke University on Monday to "deal directly" with lacrosse players about charges of rape of an escort service dancer at a team party.
Duke's campus police are coordinating with the Durham Police Department to prepare for the black-separatist group, which has a reputation for coming to its protests armed.
Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Washington lawyer who is the leader of the New Panthers, said he will be in Durham to rally with local black leaders and monitor progress of the criminal case against Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, the two students charged with raping and kidnapping the dancer.
"We are conducting an independent investigation, and we intend to enter the campus and interview lacrosse players," Shabazz said Thursday. "We seek to ensure an adequate, strong and vigorous prosecution."
Duke is a private institution, and its campus is private property. Shabazz said he has not sought permission to enter but that his group has "received no word that we are not welcome."
John Burness, Duke's vice president for public affairs and community relations, said Thursday that the university will allow a controlled march on campus, as long as the New Black Panthers follow specific rules.
"As an institution we support free speech, and we will treat them like any other group," Burness said. "But we do not permit weapons. We will take necessary steps to keep the campus safe."
One of the key tenets of the New Black Panthers is owning firearms and knowing how to use them, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a national Jewish group that has monitored Shabazz and his followers for years.
"They are a racist and anti-Semitic group," said Myrna Shinbaum, a spokesperson for the New York-based league. "These guys come armed. They carry shotguns to demonstrations. The authorities down there should know this."
Asked whether his followers will be armed when they come to Duke, Shabazz chuckled and said, "I don't know if I can comment on that."
A flier distributed by the group this week displays photos of Finnerty and Seligmann and calls for those who have "had enough of disrespect and racism from Duke" to assemble at the front gates of the university's West Campus at 10 a.m.
"We as black men cannot sit idly by and allow white men to rape black women, regardless of what our sister (who by nature is a queen and a divine black woman) was doing," Shabazz is quoted as saying in a media release announcing the event.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Shabazz said he and several local black leaders will meet with Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong about the case Monday. Nifong did not return a message late Thursday seeking to confirm that a meeting is planned.
A "town hall" meeting is also planned at 6 p.m. Monday at St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church on Fayetteville Street. Shabazz is set to be the keynote speaker. The Rev. Philip R. Cousin Jr., the minister of the church and a Durham County commissioner, did not return calls about the event. Representatives of the NAACP and the Nation of Islam are also expected to attend.
New Panthers' origin
The New Black Panthers is listed as a racist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization more often cited for its efforts to monitor the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. The Panthers is also disavowed by the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, named for the activist who helped found the original Black Panther Party in 1966.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the New Panthers are a black separatist militia founded in 1990 by Khallid Muhammad, who was removed from a top leadership post at the Nation of Islam after Louis Farrakhan reportedly found his statements against Jews, Catholics and homosexuals too radical.
Shabazz became the group's leader in 2001, after Muhammad's death. He has drawn media headlines in recent years for claiming that Jews were evacuated from the World Trade Center before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and voicing support for Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" who was found eligible for the death penalty this month for his role in the Sept. 11 plot.
Shabazz, who said the group's current membership numbers in the "low thousands," backed away from claims published in a Durham newspaper Thursday that the New Black Panthers are providing security for the dancer and her family after she received death threats.
The accuser's mother told The News & Observer on Thursday that Panthers came by the family's house Wednesday and offered their protection, but the family decline
Got a Life!!
Thanks for the ping and the post.
More chickens coming home to roost at another fine American university. Expect professors from NC Central, UNC and Duke to be arm and arm with these folks seeking a new kind of justice: lynching someone tried in the media.
Has she bought brought the Reverend Jesse "I have a Scheme" Jackson on board, yet?
Members are on Durham street corners, handing out fliers to publicize a town hall meeting they are organizing for next week.
The fliers have mugshots of Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, the two lacrosse players accused of raping the stripper at a party on March 13. The fliers say, "Had enough of disrespect and racism from Duke University?"
"It is your particular speculation which strikes me as at best sterotypical and at worst racist; labeling black women as Wefare Queens is uncalled for."
I'm pretty sure that blueminnesota struck a nerve . . the truth hurts dosen't it?
I think this nasty clown went to Howard, not Harvard. They have succeeded in chasing the simpletons of the Duke Lacrosse team offcampus, as according to local press reports they have left en masse out of fear (so much for "macho" athletes). The unfortunate thing is that many Duke students who had nothing to do with their wiseguy antics may get caught up in this and targeted by hate groups such as this one.
If I were one of the La Crosse players the only way this POS would be interviewing me was while he was looking down the barrel of my 357. I would be armed and armed heavy that day and if one of the kids were my son you can bet the whole family would be around armed to the teeth.
Who does this asshole think he is threatening people who are innocent until proven guilty. IMO the woman was never touched by any of these players. The DA started this crap he better bring his lunch , because its getting out of hand.
I'm pretty sure that blueminnesota struck a nerve . . the truth hurts doesn't it?
What nerve? What truth? What are you trying to say? The World Wonders.
Note to Editors:
Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead sent the following email message this evening to the university’s students, faculty and staff, as well as to the parents of undergraduates
As you may know, we learned from reports in the news media last evening that an organization known as the New Black Panther Party had announced that it plans to hold a demonstration at the Chapel Drive entrance to West Campus on Monday morning, May 1. These reports indicated the group intended to enter the campus and that they may be carrying guns. Guns are not permitted on Duke’s campus.
This afternoon, Duke Police were in contact with representatives of that organization. Duke Police were told that the group plans to hold a press conference/demonstration on Durham city property outside West Campus on Monday at 10:00a.m. They informed Duke Police that they have no intention of entering the campus to be disruptive in any way. They also assured us they will not have guns.
Durham Police will require that any demonstrations on city property near our campus will abide by all appropriate state and local laws.
Exams Week begins on Monday. This is a period of considerable stress for our students, especially following the already stressful events of the past several weeks. We will not let the safety of our campus be jeopardized, nor will we allow our students’ lives to be disrupted.
Duke University will have additional officers assigned. Any attempted access by this group to our campus will be tightly restricted and no disruption of the university will be permitted. This information has been conveyed to the representatives of the New Black Panther Party. Again, they have assured Duke Police that they plan to peacefully assemble off of our campus and do not intend to enter university property.
Duke has gone through a difficult period. I am proud of the way this campus community has responded to the many tensions and pressures we have been facing. I wish our students well on their exams. All university activities will go on as scheduled on Monday. Duke Police is taking all necessary precautions to ensure that this is the case.
Ditto that. They wouldn't get within 100 yards of me.
FNC reported yesterday that all the lacrosse players are off campus as a result of the Black Panthers being in town and a lot of other families have taken their kids out of school for the weekend and Monday.
And Duke? Freedom of speech? They suspended a student for an email.
Sorry Shabazz (or whatever stoopid name you give yourself this week), all the money and Free Stuff you're planning to land with your protest is already being given to the illegals. The Sixties are over, the hippies lost. Sorry.
The last time I saw the FBI data, black/white rape was ~35X more prevalent than white/black rape.
Your assumption that a "right-thinking, conservative, fine black Freeper" would be offended by the comment seems "stereotypical, and at worst, racist," to me.
DURHAM - If and when the Duke lacrosse case gets to a courtroom, more than the defendants will be on trial.
So will the Durham police and the prosecutor leading the case.
Durham officials and defense lawyers expect withering scrutiny of the most publicized criminal investigation in city history.
>""As an institution we support free speech, and we will treat them like any other group,"
Has Right to Life ever been allowed to march on Duke's campus?<
Better yet, how long has it been since military recruiters or ROTC has been welcomed on the Duke campus?
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