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THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY NATIONAL MINISTRY OF CULTURE

PO BOX 25332, NEWARK, NJ 07101201-602-0780September 23, 2008



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



NEW PANTHERS IN COURT FRIDAY!



On Friday, September 26th, two of the five members of the New Black Panther Party who faced arrest after the

police attack on Sunday’s Harlem Day Parade, will be in court to answer the charges they have been faced with.

They will appear at 100 Centre Street, Part F, in Manhattan at 9a.m.“The community should pack the court for these

young warriors who put themselves on the line in their defense,” insisted Sis. Khadijah X of the Party’s Brooklyn

chapter.Sis. Khadijah’s son, Hannibal, was among those arrested and will be in court on Friday.This past Sunday,

the New York City Police Department, in a reckless and outrageous expression of police abuse,senselessly attacked

the New Black Panther Party’s contingent in the highly regarded annual Harlem Day Parade. The incident resulted in

five members of the Party being arrested and several officers sustaining injuries. The appears to have been set off by the

unwarranted pushing of a Panther who was doing nothing more than keeping his contingent in line as they were marching in formation

up 135th Street by a police officer. The behavior of the police infuriated participants and spectators alike and could have easily

degenerated into a full-fledged riot where scores of people could have been hurt on both sides. The five Panthers arrested, whom the

community is now calling the ‘Harlem 5,’ are now facing charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting a police officer. This

coming Sunday, September 28th, there will a community-based critical review of the incident at the Harlem chapter’s weekly meeting. This will take

place at the National Black Theatre, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 126th Street at 12 noon , and there will be a speak out on the streets

immediately afterwards in front of the Harlem State Office building after Sunday’s meeting about 2p.m.. They are being guided every step of the way

by their national chairman attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz and have vowed to continue to “raise hell,” in his language. Any witnesses to the incident are

especially encouraged to come out and participate in the dialogue. For more information, please call 917-420-8662…





THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE SOUTH WARD CONTINUES On Tuesday, September 30th, there will be a ‘Quality of Life Unity Rally,’ at the

corner of Bergen Street and Custer Avenue at 12 noon, in the ongoing struggle to prevent an unwanted liquor establishment from coming into this

historic Black neighborhood. This event, echoing its ongoing theme ‘Futures Not Funerals,’ is being organized by a powerful united front of

community elements, led principally by elder Carolyn Kelly-Shabazz of First Class Championship Center, and including Imam Aqeel Mateen of United

Muslim Inc., Church leaders Evangelist Dorothy Statham and her husband Rev. Ronald Statham of Gethsemane Church of God in Christ, Rev.

Pauline Ballard of the Pentecostal Prayer Center, Zayid Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party, author Sandra West, editor of the Encyclopedia

of the Harlem Renaissance, and most recently Sha Reagins, principal of the TEAM Academy, an incredible charter school just two blocks from the

contested site of the liquor establishment, among many more. Area law states that a community can stop the opening of any liquor establishment if

churches and or schools within a certain radius oppose its opening for public safety reasons. Several weeks ago, the neighborhood resistance

effort rallied around community clergy and held a Unity Prayer Vigil which included a nearly block-long ‘wall of silence,’ a high form of protest speak

to the appreciation of the community. The prayer vigil was an expression of area clergy’s opposition. The rally on the 30th will bring together both

the opposition of area clergy and schools. “Haven’t we had enough funerals for our kids who we are losing to the madness of these streets?”

asked Carolyn Kelly-Shabazz, a principal organizer in the resistance. “Here we are with a chance to prevent some of the negative influences that are

claiming our kids from coming into our community, crossing every legal ‘t’ and dotting every legal ‘I,’ and yet the City continues to drags its feet on

this issue. How long are we going to be held hostage to this process?”Unlike the protest focus of the previous gatherings, this gathering will also

showcase some of the enormously positive things happening with the neighborhood’s youth. This will include a spotlight of the TEAM Academy’s

students. “This new administration is supposed to be a ‘Quality of Life’ administration. Yet they continue to drag their feet on our right to be heard.

All we are saying is be consistent with your policy, not hypocritical. What about the ‘quality’ of our children’s lives,” said Muhammad, the Party’s

national minister of culture. For more information, please call 973 318 7013…



FREEDOM FIGHTER’S TRIBUTE TO BE HONORED IN OCTOBER



The previously scheduled tribute to fallen Panther freedom fighter Basher Hameed will be rescheduled for some time in October. The event,

originally scheduled for this past Monday, was postponed to honor the 40 day mourning period observed by Hameed’s family in keeping with his

Islamic beliefs…

