Posted on 07/09/2003 7:18:27 PM PDT by Coleus
Black Panthers in Morristown? Stay tuned
06/05/2003
MORRISTOWN - The 1960s may have ended more than 30 years ago, but a distant name from that age - the Black Panthers - could be rejuvenated in Morristown.
Abbett Avenue resident William Riley, claiming to be a member of the New Black Panther Party, came to last Tuesday's Town Council meeting to tell council members young people feel harassed by police when they walk around Morristown, notably in the predominantly black and Latino Second Ward. He warned council that police misconduct would be met with "maximum physical retaliation."
Riley, 31, told the council that Panthers from chapters in Newark, Paterson, Harlem and Brooklyn would come to Morristown sometime this week to talk to teenagers.
He claimed that youths have become the target of police harassment, alleging that one particular officer has jumped out from behind bushes at teens.
Riley said that the New Black Panthers, an offshoot of the original Black Panthers based in Newark and Paterson, would become present in Morristown to combat the drug problem, but said problems with youth were a result of social injustice.
Second Ward Councilwoman Raline-Smith Reid said Riley had an important message.
She noted after the meeting that there is a concern not just with what is happening with police, but what else is going on in the community such as the drug problem and gang activities.
Riley had called such issues the result of a problem, not problems in and of themselves.
Smith-Reid has noted there have been several complaints from people in her ward about how police are handling certain matters.
Councilman Donald Cresitello said bias incidents would not be tolerated. "If an officer is harassing young people then no one in Morristown would tolerate that," Cresitello said Monday. "We don't want our officers harassing anyone."
Riley said he has been a member of the new Black Panthers for two years and serves as a minister of defense, meaning he can train other members and speak on the group's behalf.
Riley said the Panthers are in Morristown and looking for a home. The group wants to find a space with enough room to host everything from social gatherings to mentor sessions. No phone number for the group could be found.
Riley reportedly dropped out of Morristown High School in his junior year. He said he had been a member of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam organization but decided to join the New Black Panthers, an offshoot of Farrakhan's group and not related to the original Black Panthers.
In fact, the New Black Panthers were denounced by members of the original Black Panther Party of the 1960s and 1970s, according to reports.
The New Black Panthers were formed in the early 1990s by Khallid Muhammad, who had been ejected from the Nation of Islam for views that were deemed too radical and anti-Semitic. He died in 2001. Malik Shabazz is now the national leader.
The organization is regarded as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.
According to the law center, an organization that tracks hate groups, former New Black Panther leader Muhammad called for a war when he addressed a crowd in the First Holy Temple of God in Christ in Detroit in September 2000. Muhammad had claimed there are only two kinds of white people: bad whites and worse whites.
Riley said his own past has given him the desire to help keep kids off drugs.
Riley is married with three children of his own. He works as a driver to deliver products in the tri-state area, was arrested in December 1995 and charged with three counts of manufacturing, distributing and dispensing a controlled dangerous substance, according to police. He spent less than a year in the New Jersey Department of Corrections and was released in October 1996.
Riley said he wants to give the children the chance to move toward social change.
Smith-Reid said she has very little knowledge about the New Black Panthers but added they have a right to set up in Morristown just like any other legal group.
Mayor John "Jay" DeLaney Jr. agreed, noting the Panthers have the right to come to Morristown.
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