Panthers Prepare Plea

Panthers Prepare Plea

ANN ARBOR-The three White Panthers charged with bombing the secret CIA offices in Ann Arbor come to rial January 26th. The three (WPP Chairman John Sinclair, Deputy Minister of Education (Detroit Chapter) Jack Forrest, and Minister of Defense Pun Plamondon) are charged with dynamiting an office that they “were not even aware existed before the bombings occurred” according to the WPP.

In order to properly defend the WPP3, perhaps the two finest lawyers presently available to the Movement have been obtainedWilliam Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass, w ho handled the conspiracy cases of the Chicago Seven. (Bobby Seale, the eighth conspirator was of course NOT represented by Kunstler and Weinglass which led to his sentence for contempt and later mistrial. Bobby still faces four years in prison for contempt of court as well as the electric chair for murder in Connecticut on more bogus charges.)

In order to raise the $40,000 necessary to defend the Three, Jane Fonda has been speaking at a number of benefits and the like in the Motor City/Ann Arbor area; with the help of Miss Fonda, over $2000 was raised. At one area rally she spoke along with William Kunstler and Jennifer Dohrn, sister of Weatherwoman Bernadine. Fonda also played a tape made by Timothy Leary in Algeria to an audience of over 500.

Kunstler, who has taken over the case at no charge to the Three (the third lawyer, incidentally, is Detroiter Buck DavisDavis has an equally fine record as a Movement attorney in the local area) who rapped on a document concerning testimony J. Edgar Hoover had given to the House Appropriations Committee after the appropriations Hoover was speaking of were passed. Kunstler indicated that it was his opinion that more indictments of revolutionaries and activists were about to come down from the feds. This set, he thought would be aimed at the supposedly sacrosanct “peace movement”; hitherto, few peace creeps (or at least few people who have solely aligned themselves with ending the war without moving on even more basic issues such as racism and poverty) have felt the real wrath of facists that the more eclectic revolutionaries have, of course. Aside from a few true heavies like Dave Dellinger.

A conspircacy collective has already been formed, with headquarters at 8005 Dexter in Detroit (the trial will commence in Federal Court in the Motor City, though the alleged “crimes” were committed in Ann Arbor by notorious liar and revolutionary counter-punk David Valler). The collective is planning a number of fundraising benefits and projects, not the least of which will feature killer Motor City trumpet man Charles Moore’s group. (Moore was an original member of John and Leni’ Sinclair’s nascent Artist’s Workshop, which later evolved into the Trans-Love Energies Organization, which managed the MC5, and then the White Panther Party.)

Joe Booker, Chairman of the Detroit White Panther Chapter and a member of the Conspiracy collective, offered this analysis of the case: “Clearly this case, like so many others similar to it, reflects a basic contradiction. The contradiction being that a governement which has perpetrated the worst crimes against humanity in the history of the planet, is responsible for (for all intents and purposes) eliminating an entire race of man from the face of the Earth, ruined almost thoroughly the culture of the Black people while holding them slaves, and is at this very moment wielding total genocide against the Viet Namese people, has claimed no responsibility for the machine gun murder of Fred Hampton (or the other 27 murdered Black Panthers), has indicted 25 students for the Kent State Massace, is now attempting to convict three members of the White Panther Party for the “crime” of conspiracy to bomb.

“Of course, econtinued, “but no matter. What does a bombing like this mean when thought of in the context of say My Lai?”

“Surely a redefinition of the word crime is in order. It is criminal to starve in the world’s most technologically advanced country, improper food, education, housing, medical care are crimes and should be dealt with as such. Surely the best example of “crime in the streets” available is the murder of James Rector on the streets of Berkeley at People’s Park. And where do we find the ultimate in organized crime? Upon examination, in the goverment of the United States. A “criminal investigation” should be made, by the people, into the activities of the government and indictments brought against it for crimes against all of Mankind and the planet Earth. Any fair jury would ask for capital punishment. Dig?

The charges against John, Jack, and Pun would be phony if they were true (and they simply are NOT)...Probably the best way to explain that is to let William Kunstler tell it. Kunstler said that at one time he thought he was going insane, because he knew that after the bombing in which four black children died in a church in the South there were no extra FBI men assigned to Blacks.But after a few ROTC facilities were bombed a thousand new FBI agents were hired and millions of dollars added to the FBI’s budget. Kunstler concluded, “I said to myself, ‘Bill, you must not know what has real value in this country’”. Right on Mr. Kunstler, right fucking on.