Something I Said/Bring Back The Black Panthers
Something I Said/Bring Back The Black Panthers
Something I Said/Black Panthers
Hard as it is to believe, Murderapolis clearly has returned. Minneapolis has a homicide rate (32 and counting) like that of an Old Wild West town. The Minneapolis Police Department, that stronghold of selective neglect, isn’t doing a single thing concrete about the crisis these communities are in. For that matter, MPD brass blithely ignored signs and warnings as far back as the 1980s that drug gangs in Chicago, Detroit and Gary were extending their trade to the Twin Cities, specifically to capitalize on an untapped market in crack cocaine.
Gangs infested low-income neighborhoods with impunity while community activists protested police indifference and the MPD gave both activists and residents its behind to kiss. Now the department is running some rigmarole about studying tactics in other cities to see how they combat gang crime.
They don’t need to study a damned thing. Let them pretend these low-income neighborhoods that are ruthlessly being held hostage are nice little well-to-do White places like where they live. The drug gangs’d be running for the hills like the Ku Klux Klan was after them. They wouldn’t be far wrong, either.
The now-thriving gang infestation that took root did so without the first concern to the police department or the politicians who should’ve had their foot in the MPD’s behind. That was then, and it still is the situation. Face it, if something is going to be done about Black neighborhoods going to hell one after the other behind trigger-happy thugs, Black people have to be the ones to do it.
Mayor R.T. Rybak and his dog-and-pony publicity stunt of some years back hit on something with the transparent trotting out of grandstanding gloryhound Curtis Sliwa and his Alliance of Guardian Angels. Sliwa and subordinates strutted around downtown on Hennepin Avenue near where that White guy got shot coming out of Block E. They preened and postured for about a month; then, having made hay while the sun shone, they grabbed the publicity and ran.
The besieged streets and avenues of North and South Minneapolis were left to the criminals. They were ignored. See, Rybak had the wrong citizen’s group, since he was only interested in making that mall area seem safe enough for White folk to feel comfortable spending money.
What should’ve been done then, and what needs to be done today, is to establish a Minneapolis chapter of the Black Panther Party. That is not nearly as far-fetched as you may at first think — certainly no dumber an idea than Rybak not only condoning, but outright endorsing Curtis Sliwa and crew.
Call it a matter of desperate times necessitating very strong measures. Even the MPD detectives and beat cops who actually give a damn about Black life in urban Minneapolis are at a distinct disadvantage: They don’t know the neighborhood well enough. They punch out at the end of their shifts and go home to suburbia.
The Black Panthers, by their very nature as grassroots activists, are community members with an investment in their fellow citizens’ well being. And, they have direct, 24-7 access to the community’s information pipeline — guerilla intelligence.
Make sure they all attend those conceal-and-carry firearm instruction workshops and are duly licensed to own a gun. Then, turn them loose on those they need to be turned loose on. If the Minneapolis Police Department feels like being useful, it can serve as backup. They sure haven’t been much good for anything else.
Bottom line, nobody is going to protect their homes like the people who live there, because those are the people who are enraged and grief-stricken over the 32 murders as August 9. They are the ones whose neighbors, friends and family members are going in the grave before their time, whose lives are so under attack that safety under one’s own roof cannot be taken for granted.
They have the right to defend themselves and protect their community. By force, if it comes down to that. By, if need be, a return of the Black Panther Party.
Coming: “Angels Don’t Really Fly” EP by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. The crew: Me, Alicia Wiley, Stanley Kipper, Chico Perez, Jeff “Boday” Christensen, Aaron “Orange A.C.” Cosgrove and Yohannes Tona. Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. Fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Circle, to Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary columns Hobbes In The House and Something I Said. He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder comments on domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Twin Cities Daily Planet articles archived at www.tcdailyplanet.net/dwighthobbes