You are here: Home / Archives for Cointel-pro

No Sellout-The Secret Malcolm X Tape w/ The FBI

February 26, 2010 By

Bay Area journalist Adisa Banjoko aka The Bishop who heads up the Hip Hop Chess Federation came to our SF State class yesterday and laced our students up with the important role Islam has played in Hip Hop culture.  One of the main topics he touched upon was the strong presence of Malcolm X and what he meant to Hip Hop.. We discussed the songs he was sampled in. We talked about the rappers who referenced him.. Adisa definitely went in..

He closed out the discussion by talking about Cointel-pro and Black Pro– the government program that proceeded it. Adisa talked about how the government had gotten over 3000 people throughout the country to spy on Black organizations and report their activities back to the FBI. Many people wavered and sold us out. others stood strong. We talked integrity and never selling out. He brought forth this  ‘secret recording’ that was made by the FBI when they approached Malcolm after he was suspended by Elijah Muhammad for mis-speaking after President Kennedy was assassinated.What we heard was absolutely riveting on a number of levels.

To start it was crazy to hear how bold and upfront our tax payer supported government agencies were in terms of going out and destroying our leaders and undermining the Black Liberation struggle. These guys were over the top bold in asking Malcolm to spy and sell out the Nation of Islam then known as the Black Muslims.

What was impressive was Malcolm’s resolve and his intelligence… he shut these FBI agents down..  This is definitely a MUST listen..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8CSQopxEf8

Here’s another link just in case

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z4giEVP57c

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Black History Fact: Exploring the Historic Links of Early Hip-Hop and Gang Culture

February 22, 2010 By

Share/Bookmark//

Exploring the Historic Links of Early Hip-Hop and Gang Culture
 by Davey D

According to the popular narrative, hip-hop grew out of gang culture in the South Bronx.

One of its pioneers – gang leader Afrika Bambaataa, who had turned his life around – used hip-hop to get people out of gangs and into something more positive.

Bambaataa had led a division of the Black Spades in the Bronx River Houses project before deciding to take his followers in a new direction, first by forming “the Organization“.

” Later, after learning about the Zulus of South Africa, who fought colonial rule, Bambaataa transformed the Organization into the Mighty Zulu Nation, now known as the Universal Zulu Nation.

It remains not only the oldest but the largest hip-hop organization, with chapters on every continent and tens of thousands of members.

Now on many levels that very familiar narrative is true. However, it’s so much more complicated. Most people when they hear this tend to gloss over the full significance of the gangs. Very few of us Hip Hop aficionados have rarely taken time to see how Bambaataa’s actions came about.

We don’t ask how gang culture played a role in birthing Hip Hop? Did Bambaataa bring about this turn around as a part of some government program or did he do this on his own? Was Bambaataa the only gang leader striving for positive change? Who were the other gangs and gang leaders alongside and before Bambaataa? Were the gangs in the 1970s the same as the gangs we read and hear about today in the news which are often depicted as violent prone and conduits for drugs, murder and mayhem?

Nobody will deny that much of what is reported is not true in particular instances but there is another side to the story.

Many of us caught a glimpse of that ‘other story’ when we read Bay Area author Jeff Chang‘s award winning book ‘Can’t Stop Won’t Stop A History of the Hip Hop Generation‘.

Here Chang loaned some keen insight into the Ghetto Brothers which was major Bronx gang that preceded the birth of Hip Hop.

Chang’s chronicling of the Ghetto Brothers brought to light some very important facts that are often overlooked including how highly organized the early Bronx gangs were and how they were highly influenced and politicized by the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords.

War councils, peace treaties and the forming alliances were highly structured with very few things done haphazardly. Many of the gangs were about protecting the community from the police, marauding racist white gangs that resented Blacks and Puerto Ricans moving into their rapidly integrating neighborhoods, drug addicts and drug dealers.

The most important facet Chang brought to life is the 1971 Gang Truce which was designed to unite all of the city’s gangs.

This historic gang truce was said to be loosely depicted in the opening scenes of the cult movie classic ‘Warriors‘ with the movie’s large dominant gang ‘The Rifts being a combination of the real life Ghetto Brothers and the Black Spades-New York’s largest gang.

This past month (June 28 2008) at the Mitchell Housing projects in New York’s infamous South Bronx, those of us who are dedicated to unearthing and preserving Hip Hop history and culture were treated to a landmark moment. Former gang members came from all over the city and throughout the country to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Black Spades. It was an incredible sight to behold and gave folks an opportunity to soak up history that has long been hidden.

To start, the Spades came together because over the past few years many of the former members either through Zulu Nation or within their own organizations have been working to bring about peace and provide guidance to young people who have become attracted to New York’s new gang problem which consist of many west coast and Chicago gangs like the Bloods, Crips, MS13, Latin Kings and others.

Hip Hop dance pioneer Popmaster Fabel and a member of the East Harlem street organization the Savage Samuri, pointed out the irony of how Hip Hop provided a cultural imperative through traditional dance, music and artistic traditions helped move people away from the destructive aspects of gang life. Today through corporate co-option of the culture which manifests itself in the continuous highlighting of death instead of life, so much of commercial Hip Hop has now become a draw for youngsters to get involved with gangs.

Fabel who is putting the finishing touches of his ground breaking film ‘Apache Line From Gangs to Hip Hop‘ took time to explain in great detail why it was important to understand the inner workings of the street organizations that gave birth to Hip Hop. Fabel doesn’t use the word gang because he sees it as a media driven term that was attached to young Black and Latino youths who saw the older leadership in their community came decimated in the 1970s through the FBI’s Cointel-pro program, the Vietnam War, and War on Youth which later morphed into the War on Drugs.

Fabel painstaking details in his film how in the backdrop of that cultural and social devastation young people at that time attempted to find their voice and identity and a sense of family within the early Bronx street organizations.

Fabel then introduced me to Karate Charlie the former president of the Ghetto Brothers and prominently featured in Fabel’s film. Charlie who looks like someone in his 60s talked about how he was a former marine who went AWOL when he saw how the government had destroyed the Black Panthers and Young Lords and other leaders in the community. He talked about how it was disturbing to him to be fighting a war overseas when there was a war at home being waged on Black and Brown communities.

“I took off my government uniform and put on the uniform of the Ghetto Brothers and went about protecting our community”, Karate Charlie said.

He then talked emphatically about how he and others would teach everyone martial arts and to speak Spanish. He talked about how they fought to make sure heroin which was flooding the community much like crack did in the 80s would be kept out along with the dealers and addicts.

He also talked about how the Ghetto Brothers would patrol the subways and protect people long before Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels came along.

Karate Charlie of the Ghetto Brothers has just written a book called ‘I Smile to Keep from Crying‘. He ended by talking about how it was important that they tell their own stories and not have outsiders come along and exploit them and their message. Many of the Spades were guarded and wanted to make sure that the message of the day was unity and changing lives, not glamorizing death and mayhem.

Charlie’s story were reiterated throughout the day by other gang members who talked about how they saw themselves as children to the Panthers and Young Lords who really wanted to make a change and found themselves dealing with overwhelming forces outside their control. On the stage alongside the Spade pictures and memorabilia were old flyers of the Black Panthers and Young Lords.

As I listened to these stories I couldn’t help but draw parallels to what was depicted in the film ‘Bastards of the Party‘ put out by Bone who is a member of the LA Bloods and traced the groups history. His story had some much similarity to what these old Bronx gang members were talking about.

Fabel pointed out how many of the early gangs had a cultural elements that they used to communicate and express themselves. The Ghetto Brothers had a band that actually put out records.

The Black Spades adapted James Brown and changed the lyrics to his song Soul Power to ‘Spade Power‘. We saw that actually demonstrated that afternoon with some of the Spades doing their original dances. As I watched it you could not help note that long before the infamous Crip walk and Blood dances that are ritualistically done by gangs today and glorified by rappers in their videos, the street tribes before them had their own dances. As Fabel pointed out it what we were seeing was an example of that cultural imperative. He too later joined the circle and danced and showed off the moves that he had picked up from the generation before him.

Perhaps the most incredible moment of the afternoon came when Karate Charlie came together and hooked up with Bam Bam who was an original leader of the Black Spades 1st division and the person who gave Afrika Bambaataa permission to use the name Bam. The pair had not seen each other in close to 40 years when they came together and attempted to put together the 1971 Gang Truce. Bam spoke passionately about what it meant when they all came together to unify. He talked about how the Spades protected the community. He then addressed the younger members and told them its easy to take a life, but if one is really tough try saving one. If you’re really tough try living instead of dying. Words cannot describe what was taking place.

Fabel reiterated that Hip Hop came out of the government’s attempt to crush leadership in our communities. What he talked about that afternoon clearly underscored what we heard from Spade members which is-Unity amongst disenfranchised and marginalized communities was and continues to be threatening to many who wish to keep the status quo.

But at long last many of these stories are finally coming to light in the movie Apache Line.

Fabel did his movie after coming face to face with a young Blood gang member in his class where he teaches. He saw this young man who was on a path to self destruction and wanted to help him and others like him out. Hence he spent the last few years meticulously documenting the culture and people who came before him who were in gangs. Fabel has been troubled by the Hollywoodizing of inner city gang culture which has stripped away the deeper meanings and messages. His film will force folks to go in a new direction.

Another highlight of the afternoon was talking with original Zulu King and B-Boy Charlie Rock who was once a member of Black Spades 22cd division. He talked about the early gangs like the Black Spades evolved into the Zulu Nation and later Hip Hop’s early crews. In our interview he identified many of the early Hip Hop Crews and talked about the gangs that they came from or were most likely affiliated with…

Charlie Rock

Rock also talked about how the Spades and other large gangs came under-fire from the police with some of the members assassinated. He talked about the police killings of members Wildman, Soulski and Meathead Ron.

Rock saw those murderers as part and parcel to the attacks and killings that were simultaneously happening to Panthers, Young Lords and other Black Liberation organizations. He talked about how the police hung him over a roof top and threatened to kill him. He attributed these attacks to the fact that the Black Spades were willing to confront the police and that the gang was so large and organized. They were a threat and he felt there was an attempt to cripple them by killing off members.

Rock reminded us that the Black Spades and other groups were not alone in the Bronx. There was a litany of white gangs who had proceeded them and in fact used to start trouble with groups like the Spades until they began dominating. In our interview Charlie Rock talks about white gangs like the Golden Guineas, The Ministers, the White Angels and the White Assassins. He also talked about how the police would sometimes help these white gangs in attacking the Black Spades.  Rock’s remarks were deep and reminded me of the stories we heard surrounding the origins of Black gangs in LA and in Chicago. At the center were white gangs and police reigning terror on the community. Rock speaks to this issue in our interview..

Below are some interviews we did during the 40th anniversary gathering of the Black Spades. We caught up with many of the members including original leader Bam Bam who gave Afrika Bambaataa his name. We spoke with Hip Hop legend Popmaster Fabel who is finishing up a documentary on early gang culture called ‘The Apache Line‘. We also hear from Karate Charlie who was the former President of the Ghetto Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwsdYU4yKM

We talk with Hip Hop legend Popmaster Fabel who talks to us about the important role early gang culture played in bringing Hip Hop to life. We also talk about how pop culture is exploiting gang life and leading people astray. Fabel explianed that early Hip Hop got people out of the gangs.. Today’s rap music gets people into them..We hear an impassioned Bam Bam, orginal leader of the Black Spades speaking to young gangbangers in New York, Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings etc and explaining the direction they should really be taking.. His words of warning are very powerful…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGYTeRUWK5k

At the 40th Anniversary of the Black Spades we see Bam Bam re-uniting and talking with Karate Charlie after 40 years.  They talk about how the two gangs merged together to stop the Hells Angels from coming into the Bronx and stepping to another gang….We chop it up with Popmaster Fabel about his new documentary The Apache Line from gangs to Hip Hop.. We also talk to him about the current move to try and pit Black against Brown.. Fabel gives a history of why that happens and talks about how early Black and Brown gangs came together.We also speak with Karate Charlie who is featured in Fabel’s documentary about the legacy of the Ghetto Brothers. He talks about how the Black Spades the Ghetto Brothers united and became a family. He also talked about how they protected the community against the police..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufPt8g617I

We caught up with original B-Boy and Zulu Charlie Rock who hails from the 22cd division of the Black Spades up on Gun Hill road in the Bronx.. He talks about how the Black Spades evolved and became the Zulu Nation..He talks about Disco King Mario and the founding Spade chapters at Bronxdale Housing project which was known as Chuck City…He also talks about a segregated New York,  the white gangs and corrupt police that waged war on the Black Spades.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycREFrL6-RA

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 4th 1969: 40 Years Ago the FBI Murdered a Black Panther-We Remember Fred Hampton

December 4, 2009 By

Share/Bookmark//

December 4th 1969: 40 Years Ago the FBI Murdered a Black Panther

http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/%e2%80%98i-am-a-revolutionary%e2%80%99/

“I am … a revolutionary” was the rallying cry of Chairman Fred Hampton, a leader so powerful that he could draw tens of thousands on a moment’s notice and therefore such a threat to the system that he was assassinated at the age of only 21, on Dec. 4, 1969. – Photo: Paul Sequeira

On Dec. 4, 1969, 40 years ago, Chicago police led by Cook County prosecutor Edward Hanrahan as part of an FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) operation stormed into Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton’s apartment at 4:30 a.m. Armed with shotguns, handguns and a .45 caliber machine gun and guided by a floor plan of the apartment provided by an informant, the police killed Defense Captain Mark Clark and critically injured four other Panthers.

They gunned their way through the apartment into Fred Hampton’s bedroom. There he lay sleeping, having been drugged earlier by an FBI informant. As he lay there, the cops stood over him and put two bullets in his brain, at close range.

Other Panthers, including Fred Hampton’s eight month pregnant wife, Deborah Johnson (aka Akua Njeri), were beaten, dragged into the street and charged with assault and attempted murder. Not one officer ever spent a day in jail.

Fred Hampton was assassinated by the police and dragged by his wrist to the door December 4th 1969

Following this murderous attack – where the police fired 99 rounds in the house and were completely uninjured themselves – Hanrahan brazenly lied that the police were under heavy fire from the Panthers. Among all the many thousands and thousands of actions that show why the Black Panther Party correctly dubbed the police “pigs,” few compare to the viciousness and lies surrounding the assassination of Fred Hampton.

The media took up and spread these lies from the authorities as if they were the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But the Panthers in Chicago – still shocked and grieving from the terrible loss of their key leader and with many of their core members now in jail – refused to give up. Instead, they turned to the people and mounted a defiant political counter-offensive.

The Panthers organized “people’s tours” of the apartment. Thousands came, first from the ghettos and then more broadly. Film crews and reporters were brought in. People saw with their own eyes. And the evidence was clear: All the bullet holes were coming IN. The famous picture supplied by the authorities and run in the Chicago Tribune at the time, showing a door supposedly riddled with bullets coming from the Panthers, was actually a door with nail holes. Even mainstream commentators felt compelled to speak out. Hanrahan had claimed that it was only through the “grace of God” that his men escaped with scratches.

The cops stood over Chairman Fred Hampton as he lay sleeping and put two bullets in his brain at close range. This is Chairman Fred’s bed after his murder. – Photo: Paul Sequeira

Mike Royko, then a columnist at the Chicago Daily News – and no Panther supporter – wrote in response: “Indeed it does appear that miracles occurred. The Panthers’ bullets must have dissolved into the air before they hit anybody or anything. Either that or the Panthers were shooting in the wrong direction – namely, at themselves.” (See “The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther,” page 102, by Jeffrey Haas, Lawrence Hill Books.)

 Fred Hampton was a 21-year-old leader of the Panthers who inspired all kinds of people to take up revolution. As Bob Avakian says in his memoir, “Many people throughout the country had been moved by Fred Hampton and had made a leap in their revolutionary commitment because of his influence – the whole way in which, before he was killed, he boldly put forward: ‘You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution.’” (See “From Ike to Mao …  and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist,” Insight Press.)

In one short year from the founding of the Black Panther Party in Illinois to the time of Fred’s murder, there was a transformation in the culture of society in Chicago. Based on the teachings of Mao Tsetung, the leader of the Chinese revolution, there was a “serve the people” ethos and culture the likes of which Chicago had not seen before.

 The Panthers set up free clinics in neighborhoods of the oppressed, where before health care had been virtually unavailable. The Black Panther newspaper was sold everywhere. Posters from the paper were used for political education sessions in the communities and on campuses. Former gangbangers and student intellectuals became revolutionaries. The culture was so widespread in Chicago that conductors on the el and subway trains would announce, “All power to the people!” when calling out the stops where revolutionaries were getting off the train.

When the Panthers conducted “people’s tours” of Chairman Fred Hampton’s apartment after his assassination, thousands of followers lined up in the cold, and film crews and reporters were brought in

Hampton’s assassination was part of a broad campaign to smash the Black Panther Party and the burgeoning revolutionary movement that burst onto the scene in the 1960s. In September 1968, notorious FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called the Panthers “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country,” and by 1969 the Panthers were the number one target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations, which included 233 different documented operations, from assassinations like those of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark to attempts to turn street gangs against the Panthers, efforts to create divisions within the BPP and setting up Panthers on false criminal charges.

Hoover specifically aimed to prevent the rise of what he called “a Black messiah” – that is, he focused on taking out leaders and potential leaders of the masses. Revolutionaries like Malcolm X, George Jackson, Bunchy Carter and John Huggins in LA, and Fred Hampton were either directly murdered by the government or set up. These were counter-revolutionary criminal acts – not only were innocent people murdered by the U.S. government, but the ability of the masses of people to raise their heads and liberate themselves was grievously set back.

Fred Hampton drew out the best from all these sectors of the people, inspiring them with a revolutionary vision and calling on them to rise to being revolutionaries. And many thousands heeded the call. His famous chant, “I am…a revolutionary,” was transformative, as people would take it up, thinking seriously as they did so about what they were committing their lives to when they said it.

Leadership is critical to making revolution. Although revolutionary leaders like Fred Hampton were taken from the people and others capitulated to capitalism and gave up on revolution, the spirit of devoting your life to making revolution and doing all you can to hasten the day when revolution can be made still lives.

This story first appeared on Revolution, the voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

Accomplishments of the Illinois Black Panther Party

• Breakfast for Children Program – Chicago

• Breakfast for Children Program – Peoria

• Free People’s Medical Clinic

• Free Sickle Cell Anemia Testing

• Political Education Classes

• Community Control of Police Project

• Unified the street gangs of Chicago

• Multi-racial united front among the Black Panther Party, Students for a Democratic Society, the Blackstone Rangers, the Young Lords and the Young Patriots that was called the “Rainbow Coalition,” a phrase later taken by Rev. Jesse Jackson

40th anniversary events

In Chicago, “40 Years Later, 40 Years Strong! We Will Never Forgive! We Will Never Forget!”

4:30 a.m. – exactly 40 years later at the same address – at 2337 W. Chairman Fred Hampton Way (previously Monroe at Western): candlelight vigil with speakers

12 noon, same place: vigil with speakers

5:30-10 p.m., at Winnie Mandela School, 7847 S. Jeffrey Ave. (enter from parking lot): premier screening of “Chairman Fred Hampton Way,” produced and directed by Ray L. Baker Jr.; keynote speakers Akua Njeri, widow of Chairman Fred Hampton and chairperson of the December 4th Committee; Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee; solidarity statements from Black Panther Party members, POCC Minister of Information JR, POCC New Orleans and other POCC chapters, James Clark of the Mark Clark Foundation and brother of Mark Clark, Pam Africa of the ICFFMAJ, Ramona Africa of MOVE and the Last Poets; panel discussion

For more information, call (773) 256-9451.

In San Francisco, “Fred Hampton Commemorative Film Festival”: Illinois Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton was killed by Chicago Police and the FBI on Dec. 4, 1969. Commemorate the history and inspiration and the lasting impact of our revolutionary leaders!

7-9:30 p.m. at 522 Valencia St., San Francisco, near 16th Street, one block from BART: a showing of films on Fred Hampton, revolutionary and servant of the people; his enemies: how they murdered him 40 years ago today; and the lessons for today. Chairman Fred Hampton said, “You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution!” Sponsored by Collision Course Media, It’s About Time BPP, Freedom Archives, ILPS-Bay Area Grassroots Organizing Committee, Committee to Free the SF 8, Haiti Action Committee, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, BAYAN-USA (NorCal)

Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report: ‘Remembering Fred Hampton, 40 years later’

Bruce Dixon, a member of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1969 and 1970, offers a personal recollection of Fred Hampton, murdered by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 4, 1969.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Straight Outta Utah: The Origins & Evolution of the Hip Hop Police

April 24, 2009 By
dbanner1newparis
Many have been led to believe that the survelience of rap artists by police started in New York the birthplace of Hip Hop. Ground zero is actually in Utah with a black officer who once infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. This is an incredible story that will blow you away…

by Davey D

ronstallworth-captionMany people have long believed the first Hip Hop cop came out of New York City and recently arrived on the scene sometime after 9-11. Much of this is centered on Hip Hop’s infamous Hip Hop Task Force which was led by former NYPD detective Derek Parker. He and that task force has been the subject of several high profile news stories, a documentary and a book he authored.

The truth of the matter is that Hip Hop’s first cop is a gentleman by the name of Ron Stallworth who comes out of Utah. He’s the author of 4 books dealing with the topic of gangster rap including; 1)Gangster Rap: Music, Culture & Politics, 2)Significant Developments in Gangster Rap Music Since the Rodney King Uprising, 3)Bringin’ The Noise—Gangster Rap/Reality Rap in the Dynamics of Black Revolution, and 4)Real Niggas: Gang Bangin’ To The Gangsta Boogie in AmeriKKKa.

If that’s not enough Stallworth has testified before Congress and the Senate Judiciary Committee where he submitted some very compelling papers. Stallworth books were written when gangsta rap first started to come out of Los Angeles in the early 90s and continued to be updated to the day he retired two years ago. His books are department issued, self-publications which have been read widely by his fellow officers. They are extremely thorough, very detailed and have a keen political analysis that would actually shock most people outside of law enforcement because of some of the positions and conclusions Stallworth takes. In addition to breaking down the lyrics, street culture and gang connections behind the songs and groups Stallworth and is Utah based unit (Department of Public Safety) kept tabs on, his books gave prophetic warnings as to what would likely happen if certain police suppression based policies and practices weren’t changed or completely eradicated.
Stallworth felt that it was important his fellow officers had a clear understanding of the socio-economic and political conditions that gave rise to some of the material put out by so called gangsta rappers and Afro-centric socially conscious rappers. He let his fellow officers know why some of the rap songs being put out advocated for harm and outright killing of police.

KKK leader David Duke

In a recent interview Stallworth noted that some of his analyses did not always fit well with his brethren, but he vowed to remain objective and speak the truth. In pt1 of this 3 part interview we talked with Sergeant Stallworth about his unique background in Law Enforcement. His biggest claim to fame is how he as a brown skinned African man managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado and even be offered the position of Klan chapter leader. His Klan membership card was issued by to him personally by KKK leader David Duke.(that is shown in the picture above). His incredible police work led to the eventual dismissal of Klan members who had joined the United States Army with a couple of members actually working at NORAD. (North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). This is a crazy story that in many ways eclipses his work in Hip Hop and will keep you riveted on the edge of your seat as Stallworth provides the blow by blow details. In parts 2 and 3 we talk about Stallworth work in Hip Hop.

Listen to pt 1 of  3 of this Breakdown FM Interview

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/72749/

————————————————————————

For the purpose of having background information here’s the story of Stallworth stint with the Ku Klux Klan

Black sergeant was ‘loyal Klansman’
By Deborah Bulkeley

About 25 years ago, Ron Stallworth was asked to lead the Ku Klux Klan chapter in Colorado Springs

Problem was, the outgoing Klan leader didn’t know that Stallworth is black.

“He asked me to take over the lead because I was a good, loyal Klansman,” said Stallworth, who had been in constant phone contact with the Klan leader while leading a yearlong Colorado Springs police investigation into the Klan.

Stallworth later moved to Utah, where he recently retired after nearly 20 years as an investigator for the Utah Department of Public Safety. He says he’s amazed that no one ever caught on to the investigation he led starting in 1979. After he was offered Klan leadership, he quietly disappeared.

As a memento Stallworth still carries his Klan membership card” signed by David Duke.

“It was one of the most fun” investigations, he said. “Everybody said it couldn’t be done.”
Stallworth communicated with Klan leaders using the telephone. A white officer posing as Stallworth went to the meetings.

“The challenge for me was to maintain the conversation flow,” Stallworth said. At the same time, Stallworth also led an undercover investigation into the Progressive Labor Party, a communist group that protested at Klan rallies.

Stallworth, of Layton, worked 30 years in law enforcement in four states. Stallworth’s undercover experience and research led him to become a nationally known expert on gang culture. He calls the Klan investigation “one of the most significant investigations I was ever involved in because of the scope and the magnitude of how it unfolded.”

The investigation revealed that Klan members were in the military, including two at NORAD who controlled the triggers for nuclear weapons.

“I was told they were being reassigned to somewhere like the North Pole or Greenland,” Stallworth said.
The Klan investigation isn’t the only time Stallworth has been mistaken for a white guy.

He’s been contacted by academics about his “scholarly research” on gangs. One such academic “said he was so impressed that a white Mormon in Utah could write such an impressive work on black gang culture.”

Stallworth said he laughed and explained that not only is he not white or Mormon, he started his college career in 1971 and remains about 2 1/2 years shy of his bachelor’s degree.

Stallworth started to work on gang activity for the Utah Department of Public Safety in the late 1980s. He wrote a report that led to the formation of Utah’s first gang task force — the Gang Narcotics Intelligence Unit that involved the Utah Division of Investigation and the Salt Lake City Police Department.

“Based on what was going on at the time, I knew about the L.A. gang problem,” he said. Utah gang suspects were “telling us they were Crips from California.”

Stallworth said of his work in Utah, it’s his investigation of gangs that he’s most proud of.
“It’s had a lasting impact, first and foremost, on law enforcement,” he said.

Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Association and retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said about 15 years ago he “heard about this guy in Salt Lake who was becoming an expert” in gangsta rap music. So, he invited Stallworth to speak on the topic. It was the first of a series of lectures Stallworth gave on street-gang culture.

“I don’t know that any of us ever listened to it,” McBride said. “Where he was instrumental with us was pointing out to listen to the words, to listen to what these gangsters were saying.”

The two both testified in a 1993 homicide in which a Texas state trooper was killed by a 19-year-old gang member, McBride said. Stallworth was the expert witness on the connection between gangsta rap and gang culture in the case, McBride recalled.

Leticia Medina, executive director of Utah Issues, said she started working with Stallworth on gangs in the late 1980s, when the first Metro Gang Unit was under development. She was a youth corrections provider at the time.

“He was very interested in what my perspectives were,” she said. “I learned from him as much as I hope he learned from me.

“Law enforcement is not something that I grew up trusting. I had an opportunity to deal with a cop and see his world,” she said.

At the time, Medina said, law enforcement wasn’t involved in the community.

“They started the Metro Gang Unit, and everyone knew who the gang unit was,” she said. “One key that Ron worked on was getting to know the community and community leaders. . . . Law enforcement needed to be trained in cultural competence and gang culture.”

Stallworth has self-published four books on gang culture and has testified before Congress on gangs and violence. He also served as the state’s first gang-intelligence coordinator.

In 1994, he was selected by the U.S. Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence centre to participate in a national street-gang symposium, the results of which were presented to the U.S. attorney general.
Now that he’s retired, Stallworth plans to remain active, politically and otherwise.

Stallworth is chairman of the Black Advisory Council and serves on Layton’s Parks and Recreation Commission and Planning Commission. He also was one of several applicants for a vacant City Council seat in Layton. Stallworth didn’t get the seat but says he plans to run for City Council.

He coaches a youth track team for 9-to-14-year-old boys and girls, and would like to volunteer for the Huntsman Cancer centre, which cared for his wife, Micki, before her death.

Stallworth is also going back to school. He wants to complete a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration at Columbia College.

Medina said she wouldn’t be surprised if Stallworth continues to speak up on issues close to him.
“Now that he’s retired, watch out,” Medina said. “He is very committed to all these communities. He is also very committed to the career he chose as a law-enforcement officer. . . . People need to take the time to really listen to him.”

————————————————————————

The Hip Hop Police-pt2 (Orgins & Evolution)

We continue our conversation with Sergeant Ron Stallworth who pioneered the whole Hip Hop police thing. In this podcast we speak to Ron about how and why he got involved with Hip Hop. He explained that he had no intention to become any sort of expert or to keep tabs on rappers. He’s an old school type of cat who was working in Utah department of Public Safety. One of the things this department was charged with doing was engaging the youth gangs. In the late 80s and early 90s Stallworth noted that many of the white Mormon kids started to associate themselves with Crip and Blood culture out of South Central LA and Compton and thus formed gangs. This sort of attachment puzzled Stallworth who eventually made trips to Los Angeles and teamed up with gang task force leaders to see first hand how gangs were operating and how and why they had such a hold on white kids in Utah. He eventually discovered that gangster rap via groups like NWA is how these white Mormon kids were getting their leads and cues. They were fascinated with what they concluded was ‘black culture’.

Out of necessity Stallworth had to become an expert in this new subgenre of Hip Hop. The rest they say is history. Stallworth felt it was important to truly understand the culture. He then began to see how police misconduct had fueled a lot of the rage being expressed in the songs. This led to Stallworth writing a ten page paper which contained his conclusions and observations became the basis for his first book.

In this interview Stallworth breaks down the methods he used to gather intel. He said it was all about connecting the dots and that ironically many of the rappers themselves through their lyrics and album covers which showed graffiti, street signs and other key indicators that provided all the information he and other law enforcement officials needed to paint a picture. He talks about how the biggest challenge he faced was explaining to other officers the perspective of the rappers and how and why law enforcement needed to change some of their approaches. He wanted the police to study the artists, and find common ground which he felt could lead to better relationships in the community.

He admitted that many officers were invested in maintaining a negative outlook and too often over-reacted to situations that could best be diffused with better understanding. In our interview Stallworth referenced a situation in Detroit involving NWA where plain clothes officers rushed the stage after the group attempted to perform the song ‘Fuck tha Police’. In order for Stallworth to maintain what he saw as an objective outlook he would write the books that was issued to the department on his own time and publish them with his own money and resources.

During our interview we discussed the history of surveillance in the Black community in particular Cointel-Pro. Stallworth explained in great detail how and why what he was doing was not the same as J Edgar Hoover who started the program in the late 60s.

First and foremost he felt Hoover crossed the line and violated the constitution. In fact he noted that Hoover needed to be jailed. With respect to his operation, he basically listened to the material put out by the artists and then cross referenced what they said with police resources. In other words if a rapper said he was down with gang, then Stallworth would check that out and see if it was true or not. If an artist took a picture of a street sign and put it on his album cover, he would check it out and see what the deeper significance behind it. In short many rappers were telling on themselves.

Listen to pt 2 of this Breakdown FM Interview

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/72750/

————————————————————————

The Hip Hop Police-pt3 (Orgins & Evolution)

“We conclude our three part conversation with retired Sergeant Ron Stallworth the original Hip Hop cop. Here we talk about the 4 books he’s written on Hip Hop Culture and Gangsta Rap. We pay particular attention to the book he wrote on Hip Hop activism. He spoke about the things he saw and heard within Hip Hop that predicted what would eventually take place during the Rodney King rebellion in 1992.

Stallworth noted that today rap music has been neutralized and has lost a lot of its urgent message. He says today kids are all about making money and that’s clearly reflected in many of the songs that are commercially viable. Says we live in a time when people want to escape poverty. We spoke about the Stop Snitching Movement. He personally finds it disgraceful; however he understands the sentiments behind it.

He says people in the community are getting the wrong message when they are being asked to tell while Congressmen remain silent when they are asked to speak out. We talked about studio gangsters. Stallworth said there are a number of rappers who say lots of things in records that don’t add up when he checked them out. He cited Snoop Dogg and Ice T as glaring examples. He also talked about the 2Pac case and Suge Knight. He said if he was running the investigation into Pac’s killing he would start with Suge. He then talked about the Death Row organization and it being a unique in the sense that it was represented by both Bloods and Crips. Lastly we talked about the music industry and the role that street gangs played and how they are perceived by law enforcement versus traditional organized crime like the Mafia. We talked about how and why the street gangs came under surveillance and why we don’t hear as much about the mob.

Listen to pt 3 of this Breakdown FM Interview

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/72751/

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Breakdown FM Interviews, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page