Podcasts about Black Liberation Army

In this gripping second installment, the Tall Boy Radio studio welcomes back a true titan of law enforcement history: Retired Lt. Cmdr. Vernon Geberth. Hosts Beans and Gaz dive deep into the formative years of the man who literally wrote the book on homicide investigation.This episode takes us back to the gritty streets of Queens, where a young Geberth found himself at a professional crossroads. Despite a record that spoke for itself, Vernon opens up about the sting of being passed over for promotion to Sergeant by a biased superior—a setback that only served to fuel his relentless drive to tackle the borough's most dangerous elements.The Misfire Miracle: In perhaps the most chilling moment of the interview, Vernon recounts a face-to-face encounter with a perpetrator that should have been his last. With a gun pressed against him and the trigger pulled, he discusses how a mechanical failure—a faulty firing pin—reinforced his unwavering faith in God and kept him in the fight.The Urban War: Geberth provides a raw, boots-on-the-ground perspective of the 1970s conflict with the Black Liberation Army, describing an era of policing that felt less like a job and more like a domestic insurgency.Taking Down Giants: From high-speed car chases through the narrow corridors of New York to the physical reality of subduing 6'8" villains, Vernon shares the adrenaline-fueled reality of street crime enforcement.Mafiosi and Murderers: We hear the stories of arresting made men and navigating the complex social hierarchies of the Queens underworld, where the stakes were always life and death.This isn't just a collection of "cop stories." It's a masterclass in resilience, faith, and integrity. Vernon Geberth discusses how he maintained his moral compass while operating in a world of extreme violence and systemic bias. Whether you are a true crime aficionado, a student of history, or someone looking for a story about overcoming professional adversity, this conversation delivers."I wasn't just fighting the guys on the street; sometimes I was fighting the guys behind the desks. But I knew my purpose." — Lt. Cmdr. Vernon GeberthGrab a cold one, settle in, and listen to a legend recount the wars he won before he ever became the 'Master of Homicide.'You can buy Vernon's book hereTHE GODFATHER OF HOMICIDE SECOND EDITION: VERNON J. GEBERTH A COP'S COP: Amazon.co.uk: CARDILLO, VINCE, LAWLESS, LINNY, PIRRO, JEANINE: 9798343415780: Bookstallboyradio.com

Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins sits down with former NYPD officer Jimmy Dennedy and NYC Brooklyn prosecutor Michael Vecchione for a gripping discussion on violent crime, justice, and redemption. Jimmy recounts the shocking murder of NYPD officers Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster by the Black Liberation Army, while Michael reveals the challenges of prosecuting those responsible. The conversation then shifts to something unexpected—redemption. After retiring, Jimmy began working in prison ministry, where he witnessed firsthand how even hardened criminals, including mobsters, can change their lives. This episode dives deep into: The reality of cop killings in New York City The struggle to prosecute violent offenders Inside stories from mob cases Redemption and transformation inside prisons Get the book Hard Guys Cry. If you're interested in true crime, mafia history, and real law enforcement stories, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Subscribe for more mafia history and true crime stories every week. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. [0:00] Hey, all you wiretappers, good to be back here in studio, Gangland Wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective and now turned podcaster. And I have another retired cop here on the show, Jimmy Dennedy. Jimmy, I tell you what, I had it down, Dennedy, like Kennedy. And our friend who’s been on here several times, Michael Vecchione. Welcome, Michael. Welcome, Jimmy. Thank you very much for having us, Gary. Thank you. All right. Michael has several books out there. He’s, he’s prosecuted the mob. That’s how I got onto him. He prosecuted the, he had something to do with the mob cops, Louis Eppolito. And I can’t remember exactly now. I should have made a note on that, Michael. What was the name of that book? [0:48] The name of the book? Friends of the Family. Friends of the Family. Is that those two New York PD coppers that were in the pay of? Louis Eppolito and Louis Eppolito was one of the cops. And you know what, Gary? during the, when Jimmy, when you talk to Jimmy, Jimmy has a kind of a, an odd situation regarding Louie Eppolito. And, and it’s a good story. I think he should tell you, tell your listeners. All right. Great. We look forward to that, Jimmy and Jimmy Denity, who was a New York city policeman. And he has a book, tough dies to cry. Hard guys cry. Let me do that over again. Yeah. I said, I left, I had it written down here and he had Jimmy Denity is here with us. He is a retired New York City copper, and he has a book, Hard Guy’s Cry. So welcome, Jimmy. [1:34] Good morning. Thank you very much for having me. All right, Michael, you and Jimmy, did you guys work together a little bit on the job? Did you know each other back then? Yeah, we certainly did. We’ve probably known each other now for maybe 45 or more years. I got to know Jimmy because I got assigned a case involving, unfortunately, the death, the murder of two New York City police officers who were assigned to Jimmy’s precinct at the time in Bed-Stuy. And it was a case that had been tried twice before I got it. And there were hung juries in both of the cases. And the DA at that point was going to just simply decide to not prosecute it anymore. And the head of the policeman’s union went to the DA, the district attorney, and said, listen, just give it one more shot. So I was at the time the head of a group called the Major Offense Bureau in the Brooklyn DA’s office. And I got, I’ll never forget this. I was sitting at my desk and the boss of the unit, the bureau that I was part of, came into my office and said, come with me. We’ll go to see the DA. [2:41] I didn’t know. I thought maybe I was in trouble for some reason, but I sat down and he said, listen, I want to give you one more shot. I want to take this case to trial one more time and you are the guy that we want to do it. So I was happy to do it. I tried a lot of cases by that point. And, and the best part of the whole situation, Gary is I met Jimmy Danity. That was, he, we became fast friends and I got to tell you a little funny story. He had been involved in the two other trials. [3:11] But when he sat down with me, the first thing he said to me was, or one of the first things was, do you eat lunch? I said, yeah, of course I eat lunch. Why? He said, the guy that tried the case before you and the one before him, they didn’t eat lunch. And by the time the afternoon came, their energy was all waned, had waned. And he said, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to have lunch on your desk every time you come back for the lunch break from the trial. And he did. There was a sandwich waiting for me every day when I came back, and he is the guy that brought it to me. But before the trial, we went out. Me, Jimmy, and detective from the Homicide Bureau, who was assigned to the case. [3:57] Tony Martin, went out to the scene. And again, another one of these scenes, which I’ll never forget. The scene was in the middle of Bed-Stuy on Troop Avenue. Jimmy, that was the, yeah. [4:10] Willoughby and Troop. Willoughby and Troop. So we’re on the street and the three of us are standing there right on the sidewalk. And we look around and I said to Tony, did you hit every one of these buildings looking for witnesses? Because there was a problem with the case with the witnesses. One had died in a very strange way. And so he looked around I don’t know if you remember this, Jimmy And he pointed to a building Diagonally across from the spot Where the two cops were shot And he said, Mike We never went into that building, And Jimmy and Tony went into the building, canvassed it and came up with two new witnesses. And so it was a wonderful experience working with Jimmy. He was a hard worker. He really was tied to this case in the sense that these guys were his friends. They were two guys who were gunned down for really no reason by a member of the Black Liberation Army at the time who was part of the Attica riots here in New York. He was actually one of the guys who started the Attica riots in New York. And he was out and he was with another guy. And we believe that they were going to meet another one of their fellow. [5:27] I don’t want to call them gang members, to set up a robbery. And that’s why they were in Brooklyn. And the case had so many ups and downs and twists and turns. And it was something which I obviously will never forget. But the best part about it, I’ll repeat myself, is that I met Jimmy Denity. And he and I have been friends from that point on until today. And so let me just get to the book because Hard Guy’s Cry to me was a labor of love. It really was. I got a call one afternoon and I’m sitting out on my deck and Jimmy calls me and we just got to talking and he asked me about doing a book about his life and his story. And I said, it’s great. There are lots of books out there about cops and street cops and what they’ve done on the street. He said, so he said, oh, but he started to now expand on it. And then he told me the second part of his career, which was the prison ministry in the federal prison and a state prison here in New York. And I said, Jimmy, you buried the lead. That’s the part of this book that I can sell to a publisher. Because Gary, you probably know this. You probably interviewed these guys who do books when they retire. This was just going to be one of those. Jimmy’s career on the street was terrific. [6:47] The only problem was there are lots of guys who have books out there like that. So when he told me the story about his prison ministry, I was working at the time with a partner of mine, Jerry Schmetterer, who has now passed away. And we both talked about it and we said, this is definitely a story. This is definitely a book. And it’s been a long journey, Jim, until we got to this point. We’ve had COVID. We’ve had the Minneapolis, the guy in Minneapolis who was killed and agents saying to us, nobody wants to publish a book about a good cop. Nobody wants to do that. You can’t sell this until I didn’t give up. I really didn’t give up. And I took the proposal and I rewrote it after Jerry died. And then I sent it out to a couple of publishers and one of them grabbed it and said, yes, I want to do this. And then believe it or not, Gary, his publishing company hit the skids in terms of being able to spend money. He went out of business. So I had one more shot and I gave it to the publisher of my novels. [7:55] And she finally is the one who said, yes, let’s do this. And then here we are today. [8:01] It’s really, again, I said this before, but it was a journey of love. It really was to tell this guy’s story. and we, I know I’m repeating myself, but we became such good friends that our families got to know each other. I went to Jimmy’s house for holidays. We really just became very good friends. And here we are. And I’m so happy that I was able to write this book because I really believe that the people who read it will say, wow, this is a great guy. This is a great guy. And he is. Interesting. Hey, Jimmy, I got a couple of questions for you. Now, you worked, that was the Rocco and Lori case, if I remember right. And everybody who worked big city policing at the time, that scared the dog shit out of us. It was like these guys just laid in wait for a couple patrolmen to walk by, stepped out and shot them. That was my impression. And I worked that kind of a neighborhood. And we were jumping. We were pretty jumpy for quite a while. And it wasn’t solved for a while. We knew it was some kind of a political act, or at least that’s what we’re led to believe. Did you guys feel the same way in New York? Let me just stop you for a second. The case that I did with Jimmy was Norman Cerullo and Christina Soames years later. The one that you’re talking about, Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster, was much earlier. [9:21] Jimmy was involved in it because he was a good friend of Rocco Laurie. They went to the academy together. But I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the right thing. [9:33] So that kind of a case, you actually went through two of them. So tell us about your feelings about that. Did that, how did that affect your dealings on the street? I was in the academy with Rocco Laurie, right? And we had both come out of the Marine Corps at the same time. And we worked out together. We boxed together. And some of the guys were slacking off. The guy’s name was Mr. Clean. He was the instructor. He would say, okay, now you’re going to box with Denny or you’re going to box with Laurie. Of course, they were slacking. We weren’t slacking. Oh, God. That was me. They said, Jenkins, go over there and box with one of those guys. No brother in Lime. [10:12] So we became close we we knew his wife he knew that time it was my girlfriend but that was my wife we had gone out to dinner and he was a really good man in the academy i won the gun for physical fitness he won the gun for overall excellence and we got pictures with our guns together and stuff. So I was working at midnight with this guy, Victor Grillo, nice guy. And a job came over. Cops shot in Manhattan. We were in Brooklyn. It’s on the other side of the bridge. So we’re saying, wait. And that became the ninth precinct. That’s where Rocco worked. So we used to call him the Rock. I hope it’s not the Rock. And it turns out it was him. These guys executed him. They were basically a domestic terrorist group. They were robbing banks. They were killing cops for no reason. They just walked past them, turned around, opened up on them. And they shot them all over the face to the groin. And then they took their guns and shot them. And some of the guns actually wound up out in St. Louis or in West Area. [11:16] So did it affect me? Absolutely. I became, I don’t want to say callous, but I was very leery of everybody. [11:26] And I started, my niche was guns. I locked up a lot of guys for a lot of guns. But anything to do with it, Black Liberation Army or anything, I used to accumulate information, intelligence information, and my locker was full of it. I’d lock up a guy, and they used to have years ago the little address books. I used to take their address books, and they would ask me information, the FBI, the Major K-Squad, Jimmy, have any information on this guy? And which I did many times, right? Fast forward several years later, I’m out, and I’m having a few cocktails, and then i drove back to the precinct the 79th precinct to meet a friend of mine bobby perry, and while i was at the front of the desk there’s a place they could check your messages if anybody calls you messages so i’m checking my messages and it came over shots fired then it came over cop shot then it came over two cop shot then i drove down to my civilian car right it was dark, and it was like help you know radio card door is open you know I mean blood all over the place he also shot his friend right and he’s laying it dead with a gun in his hand his blood all over the place it was a nightmare so let me figure this out but now everybody name others coming down because he’s cop-killing students a doubleheader so to speak and then I see the blood going across the street and the blood stops. [12:53] So obviously somebody was shot. It’s not our guys. And then I assume he got into a car. [13:00] So I’m trying to figure, is he going to go to the Spanish neighborhood or deeper into the black neighborhood? And I said, let me go to the hospital. So I drive to the hospital to see if they need blood or anything. And out of the corner of my eye, when I passed Lexington Avenue, I see there had been a car accident. A guy hit parked cars. I kept going. And then I told Mike, you know, my father gave us a game when we were kids. It was called Game in the States. at a map of the united states and you had two little electric wires and you plug one into the state and there’s a list of capitals on the other side and when you hit that the light would go on you got the right answer and as god is the lord a light went off in my head just like it was the right state capital yeah went to the hospital and they did you know and then this guy paulie has ever seen him he’s crying he was in plain clothes anti-crime i said paulie listen to me Two things. Once, I want to come in the car. I’m going to go back to the scene. Because when I got there, there was a Spanish guy on the pool across the street. And he was a little biggazy type guy himself. But he used to give me information. He used to give me information on his competitors. Yeah. [14:10] Yes. So when he saw me, you know, he ran. Right? I wanted to come back and talk to him. But on the way back, I said, Paul, I’m going to stop at this accident scene. This is, it’s just there. Yeah. Go back there. Ambulance is starting to pull away fire truck was there pulling away so i went over there they said it’s an accident scene the guy’s injured i said what kind of injury is it the guy said well he dressed his wound because he won he refused medical aid this guy so i said i just dressed his wound i saw undress the wound let me look at it i’m not undressing the wound i went over and i just ripped it off and it’s a gunshot wound yeah right yeah so all he had a radio calls the sergeant down and they bring a witness from willoughby avenue she comes down she says that’s the guy who killed the two cops so we get him put him in the ambulance right in the ambulance he’s a big boy this guy right and he goes reach and grabs my gun from my holster so now it’s like an arm wrestle for the gun between me him and paulie saracena and during this arm wrestle necessary force was used and the necessary force was used until he dropped the gun or he got the gun from him. Goes to the hospital. He has a Derringer behind his belt buckle and he has police handcuff key. [15:38] These guys are the real deal. Yeah, that’s a real deal. They train for this stuff. They associate but others that train they shoot you know what i mean so it’s just uncanny that rocko was my friend and he was murdered in a double police homicide and then a few years later i lock up a guy from the same team that killed two of my friends you know it was a nightmare and then we went to trial and that’s how i met mike and it’s a very. [16:09] It’s pressing on your brain. Yeah. Something like this happens. And then, and I don’t have to tell you, Gary, but then you get other cases. So you’re making more gun arrests, but you still have this. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s tough. It’s tough. But it was. I just want to interrupt for one second. One of the, Jimmy mentioned her. They brought a witness back to the scene to identify the, the bad guy. And, uh, and she was a great witness. She was there when the shooting occurred. She was actually moving into the building that the shooting happened in front of. And so the case was, we had a couple of, she was the best eyewitness to the case. And as Jimmy and Tony Martin, the detective who were assigned together after the actual arrest, because we had, they had to get the case together and look for more witnesses, et cetera. [16:58] They went one day to see this particular young woman to talk to her and see what was, if everything was still good, if she was okay. Turns out she was in the hospital nobody knew this she had gone into the hospital we were told because she had a cold she died in the hospital gary from a cold which is what we thought turns out she had encephalitis but the thing was at the time we said who goes into a hospital number one with a cold and who dies from a cold so we at that point not me but i wasn’t on the case yet, but others. And then when Jimmy told me this later on, I said to myself. [17:42] It’s got to be some connection to the bad guys. Maybe they poisoned her. Maybe they did something and we looked into it. It turned out, Jimmy, what was the disease that she had? I think she had herpes viral encephalitis in the brain. It’s a possibility that it can be induced. Yeah. So that’s what we looked at. And the medical examiner at the time of the death never really looked. The DA who had the case at the time thought, ah, this is a slam dunk. We had this witness, that witness. Jimmy arrests the guy and he’s got the bullet, which another thing happened. He wouldn’t allow the medical people to take the bullet out of his leg. It was the cop’s bullet. Yeah. So we wouldn’t, he wouldn’t let him do it. So we had to go with a, an x-ray of the bullet at the trial instead of the bullet itself. But it was, it’s a case with, as I said before, excuse me, many twists and turns. And it’s the whole story is in the book. And I don’t want to take away from Jimmy’s story here, but I have a legal question. You couldn’t get a search warrant to take the bullet out of a person. Is that? [18:51] We tried, and you know what the judge said? No. Uh-huh, okay. I just, I never ran into that. I’ve heard that before where the bullet stays inside and you can’t get it. I just. [19:03] I tried. The judge wouldn’t give us the search, the ability to search, quote unquote, which meant taking the bullet out of his leg. Anyway, so that’s where we, that’s where we met. And it was, it was quite a case. And Jimmy, I understand you, you go through your career and you see all these horrible things and you’re harding yourself. And you know, the title of your book, hard girls, hard boys, hard men cry. I don’t know why I got hard guys cry. I don’t know why I can’t remember. I should remember from Norman Mailer’s tough guys don’t dance, but hard guys cry. And so you harden yourself all those years, but then something happened in your life. Apparently that changed, changed that. I know after I retired, partly what happened to me is I became a lawyer and I started dealing with people from not particularly criminals, but many times relatives of people who had gone to jail. And I worked for public defenders and really got to know people on the other side and realize that we’re just two sides of the same coin many times trying to get along and trying to get by. So what happened in your life that changed that, your attitude? [20:11] When I retired, there was an old man who was a farmer, and it was like a late-year-type situation. This farmhouse was falling apart. The second floor was owned by raccoons. He had electricity in one room and no running water, but he was the calmest, nicest, most spiritual guy you ever wanted to meet. Almost no teeth. He had one tooth. And there was Louis Adamski. We used to call him Louis the farmer. So I used to take care of Louis. was taking over my house for Thanksgiving, Christmas, driving down this long driveway, see how he’s doing. And I didn’t see him for a while. So I drove down the driveway one particular day and I said, Louie, I haven’t seen you. You haven’t called. He said, he had bladder cancer. I said, really? I said, wow. He said, you had two surgeries. I said, you’re going for follow-up treatment? And he said, I’m supposed to go every 90 days, but he had no insurance, zero, no Social services, nothing. And the doctors were suing him. And they wanted his farm. He owned one-tenth of his farm. It had about 80 acres. But it was heirs. Everybody in his family had passed away. I said, Louie, you got to get follow-up treatment. So there was a city that’s not about a half hour away called Newburgh, New York. And there was a urologist I was familiar with. So I told him the story. This guy has nothing. He said to me, if you will drive him, I will treat him like the president of the United States. [21:40] So for two and a half years, just about every month, sometimes twice a week, it all depends when his visits were, I would drive Louie. So it was like an all day affair almost because I have my own business, so I don’t show up for work. What do I care? So I take care of Louie all this time and my friends are patting me on the back saying, oh, you’re Louie’s angel. So one particular day we go in and… [22:03] He, if Louis checker, he calls me into the, uh, his consultation room and he says, so your friend’s cancer is back. She got to be kidding me. He said, yeah, I feel it on his prostate. He said, he has someone for biopsy Friday. This was on a Wednesday. I said, I don’t know how he’s going to get there. It’s an old day. I said, doc, listen, I’m married to this guy for two and a half years. I said, I’ll take him. He said, you sure? It was an old day. I said, doc, I don’t care. He said, all right. He said, I’ll tell you what, as long as you’re going to take them, your PSA is just borderline high. He said, I feel there’s nothing on your prostate, but if you’re going to take it, let me give you a biopsy too. I said, fine, I don’t care. So I take, we both get the biopsy. The next Wednesday, he calls them both of us in. I have cancer as well, worse than his, right? So he got radiation. I went out to New York City. There was a top flight surgeon in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. And I told him the story like I’m telling you now. So he said, you got to cut that out of there. You don’t want it in there. So they cut me a half. They took it out. And in the recovery room, he comes in and he says to me, you weren’t Louis’ angel. Louis was your angel. He said, you had a C-grade cancer. It was starting to spread, but I got everything. [23:15] So he said, you would have been dead about a year and a half. He said, because you had no signs, no symptoms. By the time you had the symptoms, it would be all over. Yeah. So it changes the way you think that I was invited to go on to this, a religious retreat weekend, a Cresillo weekend. I didn’t want to go. I’m not a holy roller. It’s not my cup of tea, but I socially boxed in like friends. So then your wife has to go too. So my wife, Noraline said, oh, I’ll go. And I said, oh, yeah, now I got to go. So I go on this week. it’s it’s thursday friday saturday sunday you can’t bring a watch you didn’t have cell phones then right so you’re stuck there so i went and i hooked up for a couple of other ex-marines and this actor mike was poorly he was on the sopranos so i sit in the back like we’re just going to ride this one out oh we can write it out it turns out that it was very moving, it’s very moving and people spoke that thought they were like punks i knew them indirectly they had quite a story to tell and then, weekend was over and on the way back it was November and I was telling Mike I rolled the windows down it was like spring, spring in my mind you see things differently like these computer generated pictures you see what it is but if you stare at it long enough another picture comes out within the picture and kind of life came out of life for me I saw things differently, Then these guys asked me to go into the prison. [24:42] Listen, I say, listen, you’re a carpenter. You’re a plumber. You don’t know what these guys are. I’ve thrown these guys down stamps and shot a guy at my house. Crazy. Again, I’m socially boxed in. So we go up to the prison. It was 41 of us, 41 of us. It’s called the Kairos. It’s an interdenominational… [25:01] Prison ministry. So I sit in a big circle, piece of paper, it passes around. When you get it, you have to say who you are, where you’re from. So I get it. I said, my name’s Jimmy Danity. I live in Orange County, New York. I’m married. I have two children, and I retired from the Oak City Police Department. They booed me. I told Mike, it was like an old dog growling. Yeah. Yeah. I said, what am I doing here? So the next day, because you had to sleep up in the prison too, The next day, you’re at a table. So you have an inmate on either side. So there’s like maybe nine people at the table. And there’s three of us, six of them. And don’t ask them what they did. Never referred them as a prisoner, as a resident. They were like, guys, I grew up with their neighbor. I said, what did you do? You stupid. So it becomes, it was a religious weekend. But also, it’s practical life. And you guys were good. You know what I mean? I got along well with them. So we did every day and it was friday saturday sunday they finished and that’s it i’m done i’m done with this i said i’d do it and i’m saying i wonder if any of my guys would show up to a wednesday night they have a wednesday night follow-up at this organization i wonder if any of my guys would be there so you know what let me show let me go to one wednesday right all my guys. [26:22] Oh, my gosh. And that was the only, Gary, that was the only table where all of them showed up again. So that’s why he knew that this was the right thing for him. I’m sorry, Jim. I just want to know. And so this was still in the prison. Yeah. Back up the prison. Yeah. And they invited these guys. If you want, you can come to this follow up. At that time, every Wednesday at six o’clock, they could go into the chapel to this particular group meeting. So I just want to see if any of my guys are going to show up. They all showed up and then the volunteers drop off and then i said let me do another wednesday, and another wednesday and it comes like everybody wants to talk to you it’s like when you go into the pet store where puppies say they want you to pick them like pick me and it you get you wind up with a group i tell mike they’re my guys and then you wind up it’s a spiritual thing no question about it right it’s brand involved and everything but you go through life with these guys and a lot them have a lot of crazy situations yeah and one guy is a mafia guy and i think frankie and he wants to say jimmy this new guy he wants to talk to your jug it’s all right so he takes me behind this little interdenomination altar they got there right so i said hey don’t you he says remember me i said no he said you should you broke my nose so i said when did i break your nose He said. [27:46] Yeah, in the park on 53rd Street where we used to play hockey. He said, your brother, I remember you. I mentioned his name, his last name. I said, you were messing with the park attendant. I slammed a basketball in his face. You know what I mean? He never forgot it. They told Frankie, yeah, he was crazy before he went to the Marine Corps. I’d make guys in there. [28:04] I worked. Yeah. The drug cases that they had. [28:09] You know, I knew who their bosses were. I testified in Philadelphia against one of these guys’ big bosses. And it’s just, it was like almost an inside straight. It was like meant to be. It was meant to be. And then my parish priest, so then I started, I was in the denominational night. The Catholic guys had nothing. I started a Catholic night with a few other good guys, my friend Brian and a few other guys, right, on Thursday. So now I’m going there Wednesday and Thursday. So my parish priest said, the state maximum security doesn’t have anything like this. Let’s start one there. So I’m going Wednesday, the federal prison, Thursday to the state max. You know, and it, I did it for 25 years, two days a week. Wow. And if the guys in Brooklyn, where I was a cop, knew I was doing this, they say, wrong guy, definitely. Somebody else, you got the wrong guy. Yeah. It’s the way the good Lord leads you. Now, something changed in your life and it’s not like you had any control of it. It just, it changed. You opened yourself up. It seems to me like it. And you just didn’t have any choice but to go down this path. And you know what it is also, Gary, it’s also like you’re preventing crime. You’re doing the same thing only from the inside. From the inside, you want to change the way they think, the way they act. And there’s a million things I could tell you how I was able to change things in a prison. They’re going to stab somebody. The guy who was a rat. [29:32] And they didn’t like him. I didn’t like him. And I told him, listen, I like the guy. He said, you like the guy? Don’t get involved in this. I said, do what you want to do. I like the guy. They never touch the guy. Because if they do something like that, then they’re going to hurt you. [29:46] Gary, I think Jimmy should tell you, he’s talking about the effect he had on these guys. What really was the point of the prison ministry was to essentially make these guys, I think, better people and to change their lives. I think you should tell him, ask Jimmy, tell him the story of the Boston mobster because this one, this story has, it really hits home as to exactly what effect he had on someone who was one of guys that you might have on your show. someday. This guy was a really bad guy. And he was up there with Whitey Bulger, et cetera, in Boston. So I think it’s worthwhile to tell the story. And it really hits home in terms of how effective Jimmy was after being effective on the street, locking up these guys, what he did with the prison. So if you have a bit of time, I think it’s worthwhile to hear the story. Yeah, let’s hear it. I always want to hear stories about mobsters, anyhow. Yep. Go ahead, Jim. We were up at the federal prison, and it was during the holiday season, right? And the volunteer chaplain was Father Paul Papara, and he was giving a talk on forgiveness. So we had all these wise guys. It was a mess. They had all different guys. This particular time, a couple of wise guys, they had their arms folded, and they said, Father, you want me to forgive the guy that ratted me out? [31:05] He’s home with his family, and I’m here doing X amount of years left on my bid. So I raised my hand. so I said listen if this guy is lying and put you in prison for no reason shame on him he should rot in hell but if he just exposed what you did anyway you know you did it if you did it the good lord see you live in a fishbowl the guy just exposed you for what you did that’s, You have no bitch here, pal. Jimmy, this guy Jimmy, he’s a different name than him. Jimmy stands up and he says, listen, I’ve been in jail. I’ve killed people. I don’t want to, I forgive anybody. I want forgiveness. I’ll forgive anybody. So that was it. Eventually, Jimmy, a couple years later, goes home. So he called me at my office a couple years later and he wanted me to write a letter of reference to work at the docks with Homeland Security. I said, I don’t know how to write it. Put down that I was a prisoner and just what you thought of me. No problem. So I met him in the prison, stuff like that, right? [32:03] About a year after that or so, I get a call from him again. He says, hey, Jimmy, you got time? Hey, Jimmy. I said, good. I got all the time in the world for you. He said, what’s up, pal? He said, I was on a train platform. He says, and I see this guy. Him and his associate tried to kill me. They had stabbed me 13 times. He said, I already took care of his friend. And I walked up to him like a face-to-face with him. Then he recognized me the guy turned white and urinated all over himself because he knows he’s there jimmy says to me i put my finger on his face and i told him you know that thing you’re worried about right get out of here i forgive you i get the fuck out of here now and he says to me jimmy it would have been easier for me to clip this guy and to forgive the guy but i forgave him, And I’m saying, Jimmy, I’m so proud of you, I can’t, just, and he, for him to call me to tell me how he responded to that situation, you know, which was completely out of character to the old guy, the old Jim. He was very proud of himself, and I was very proud of him. [33:09] So that’s the story Mike has told. It was the story, quite frankly, Gary. Didn’t he have one of the Westies in there with him? They were some particularly brutal crew in New York City. Yeah, yeah, he did. [33:25] We had a few of them up there. We had Jimmy Coonan, who started the Westies. Oh, okay. Jimmy was there, and I was friendly with Jimmy because I knew guys that he knew. The guys at Otisville Prison is a high medium. [33:38] Lewisburg is a max so when guys behave even a max they could come down to the media so when he came down he never came to the services and stuff we were talking all the way on the side but another fellow was a Westie a tough guy you know what I mean they would, drive through jewelry stores, 50 miles an hour go inside and rob everything but they would go in there before with their girlfriends looking good dressed nice they knew where this stuff was and they would take everything and he wound up getting locked up for almost like a Lufthansa type thing at the airport only they got caught so he was at my first weekend in the prison and we became very close friends and I tried to help him and he responded very positively, and he’s sitting in a circle there’s a cross, whoever has the cross has the microphone, nobody interrupts when you’re done, the next guy talks, he was talking and we finished, the Spanish kid so the Spanish kid is talking and he’s talking, so I told him what are you talking for Rich he can’t be talking like that the kid’s talking so he didn’t come for a few months then he comes back right and we’re sitting there talking and then he has a cross and he puts his head down. [34:54] And he starts talking and he says, you know, something happened to me. You can’t explain it. You had a Spanish kid in the next cell, right? It was a new guy. They robbed the sneakers and the kid had no sneakers. I know he’s got his head down. Now I’m thinking maybe he robbed the kid’s sneakers, right? He says, I gave him my sneakers because I had an extra pair. And as he’s telling the story, his head is down. The floor is gray, but getting darker, the teardrops. He’s telling the story he’s crying and then he says maybe I’m not all bad after all yeah I said how can you think of yourself like that he eventually goes home so, we my wife Norley and I get invited to his wedding which is a no-no but the guy was home so and the wedding is on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. [35:46] Yeah so we go down at the wedding and we’re like the oddball there but He could introduce us to enough people, you know, and if you see change in people, it’s wonderful. If on the street, if you go to these religious retreats, people go jumping out like a gazelle. But in prison, if an elephant jumps in it, it’s a miracle. Yeah. I mean, if you see somebody that thinks that they’re ugly, they’re not ugly inside. So I found it very rewarding. And. They, I didn’t think they’d respond to retired law enforcement, but they responded well. Yeah. Because I spoke their language. Yeah. So it lasted 25 years, Gary. Yeah. I’ve got a couple of guys here in Kansas city that it’s not a spiritual kind of a thing, but I’ve become friends with them. And one guy told me, he’s fine. He said, he said, I can talk to you and you understand what I’m talking about. He said, all the rest of the people in my life anymore, cause he’s out of the life. He said, they don’t understand what I’m talking about. He said, I don’t have to get back into life, but I can talk to you and you know, you know, the people I’m talking about, you know what I’m talking about. I said, yeah, I do. [36:56] So obviously in case it was pretty obvious that we were, when we started to hear all these stories, when he told, told Jerry and I the story of the, the mobster who was crying because given the sneaker, that’s where the books, the title of the book comes from, art guys cry. But there’s one other guy in there that you should ask him about. And that is we had this, I don’t even know what to call him. He was really an oddball guy, a criminal in New York. He was a rich guy who owned a lot of, he ran art galleries and collected art galleries and collected paintings and got into the art world and was advising rich people as to what art they were buying. And it turns out he was basically a sadist. And he had another guy with him who he and the other guy wound up, he didn’t get charged with this, his partner did, wound up killing somebody. And when they found the body buried laying in the woods in upstate New York, he had one of those. [38:02] Sadomasochistic masks on him, his black mask. And this individual was one of Jimmy’s guys and he was a hardcore, am I right, Jimmy, in terms of not wanting help at all. He was just the kind of guy who, you know, if you help them, it was going to be a miracle. And he did. He helped them and it’s a miracle. And it’s worthwhile to tell the story about this guy. His name was Andrew Crispo. He’s no longer alive. And he was all over the newspapers here in New York City because of the whole masochistic, the sadomasochist activity that he was involved in. And that the picture of the dead body with that black mask on was all over the newspapers. And this guy, we have his picture in the book. If you see him, it’s butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He looked like the nicest guy in the world. Businessman. Turns out he was really one of the worst guys in terms of how he treated people. And Jimmy finally got to him. It was, to me, one of the more miraculous transformations when I heard all of the stories was this one because of what he was on the outside and what he became after Jimmy had him and he got out. He did not repeat his life the way that he was before here. Chris Bowe was a tough guy, right, Jimmy, in terms of getting to him? [39:28] Andrew, Sky Andre brought him down to one of our groups. And he asked me if he could bring his friend down the shirt. Everybody’s welcome, of course. And you’ve been around tough guys your whole life. Everybody’s a tough guy. You’re a tough guy. Everybody’s a tough guy. This guy had no muscle tone. He was like ashing in color. He looked like a raccoon. He had like rings around his eyes. And he was like creepy, creepy. So he came. And then he came for about seven years all the time. You get to know him, right? And he got grabbed for that sero-masochistic murder, but they couldn’t prove it. He got locked up, attempted kidnapping, the three-year-old daughter of the federal trustee. That’s why he was in jail now federal jail but he if you make a long story short he, doesn’t know who his parents are right and i’m not bleeding on i’m just telling you the way it is, he was dropped off at an orphanage as an infant and i was there for sentencing and this is what the judge said mr crispo he said before i sentence you i’d like you to know that i researched your history as a newborn you were dropped off in an orphanage right you remain there for 18 years where you were repeatedly beaten up and raped and. [40:47] But after leaving there, you managed to raise yourself up to get on the top of the art world, even owning a world-renowned art gallery in New York City. He said, for that, he said, I give you credit. However, then he banged him for seven years on the other thing. But he came down, and he had nothing spiritually. And if you sit with him and you talk with him, he kind of listened. He came around. [41:13] Like I told Mike, there was another guy. colombian guy his wife used to bring his daughter to work all the time so he came into the group a little late and he’s crying and then i said what’s the matter he said he said i’m not gonna see my daughter for two weeks i said well the comment told me once there’s a price for loving the price for loving is the absence of love you have to experience the love to miss it mr andrew who was sitting on our group andrew could you tell him a little bit about yourself oh yeah he said see the visiting room that you were in with your wife and the child, I’ve never been in there, and I’ll never be in there. And they said, there’s nothing worse than being alone, than being alone and no one cares. [41:56] And he came, and the rings went from his eyes, and then he became involved in all this other stuff. And he actually became a kind guy. He got involved with the church and things like that. And then he eventually went home. I’ll tell you the money he had. You need the money for an appeal? He sold one painting for $2.46 million. Oh wow the attorney’s fee that’s just one thing he had money but he had nothing yeah he had nothing and then when he went home he used to correspond you know and he’d write beautiful things thanks for the prayers thanks for your wife how’s your dog it’s not the same guy but he wasn’t like like what he’s tattooed tough guys he was like creepy tough and at the end when he left my opinion He was not. So if you can help somebody, it’s nice to help somebody if you can. Yeah. That’s interesting. That’s a true shift in the personality and to give somebody some spiritual hope in their life that they can, from what you’re describing to what he was to what he left when he left. That’s amazing. Exactly. That’s an amazing story. [43:01] There it is. Cry, The Journey of a Tough Cop from the Mean Streets to a Prison Ministry, Jimmy Dennedy and Michael Vecchione. Jimmy and Michael, I appreciate you guys so much for coming on and telling these stories. And guys, there’s a lot more stories just like this and better in the book. I’ll have links to get it down in the show notes. [43:22] And guys, you got anything last words you want to say? Anything you left out? [43:28] Gary, listen, keep getting those pension checks. [43:33] Yes, I will. I told my wife, Nora, put my feet in potting soil. If my toenail grows, that’s a sign of life. Keep getting that check. Really? [43:44] Thanks so much, Jimmy. All right. I just want to thank you. You’ve been terrific. And I hope that, I really mean this when I say this, people who get this book and read it or listen to it or however they want to get it into their, their mind, they’re going to love it because this guy’s story is just fantastic. And we touched on a few things, but we didn’t really touch, we didn’t get into the real meat that that’s there. And it’s, it was a, again, a pleasure to do this. So I’ve got one guy, I got one guy I talked to that has prison stories. I tell you what guys, there are so many great stories that come out of the penitentiary. It’s just, it’s amazing. I think part of these people don’t have much else current to talk about, so they tell stories from their past, and you get some great stories coming out of the prisons. Thanks a lot, guys. Gary. Thank you. God bless my friend.

They want you to be passive and quiet. But history tells a different story. We're joined by award-winning comic creator Ben Passmore, author of Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance, to dig into the stories that history books, and Hollywood, whitewash: De-sanitizing Resistance: We discuss how films and media often strip away the political intellect of figures like the Black Liberation Army, reducing revolutionary struggle to nihilism. Community as Armor: Ben puts the focus on true resistance as mutual aid. From the Jane Collective organizing healthcare, to prisoners organizing even from solitary confinement, the most radical act is building a culture of care. The Trap of Online Activism: In an age of surveillance capitalism, Ben warns that we must move beyond the "power fantasy" of social media. Real solidarity happens offline, face-to-face, building trust that algorithms can't suppress. As MAGA's Supreme Leader expands the surveillance state through Peter Thiel's Big Brother Palantir and unleashes a KKK gestapo through ICE, we must learn from unfiltered history and understand what it actually takes to survive. January 15th is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Civil Rights movement ushered in the Third American Revolution, defeating the authoritarianism of Jim Crow, which John Roberts' Supreme Court is bringing back. Listen to our episode on Stride Toward Freedom, the memoir by a young MLK Jr. after he captured the world's attention leading the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. For more on resistance strategies, listen to our episode on Gene Sharp, author of From Dictatorship to Democracy, and our interview with his protege Jamila Raqib, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution: Fire in Our Peace: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance.   Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available. Become a Democracy Defender at Patreon.com/Gaslit Show Notes:  Watch: A sobbing mother calls 911 as federal agents force their way into her home to chase down a DoorDash driver who was just trying to deliver food. https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/1q8vvwa/st_paul_mn_a_sobbing_resident_calls_911_as/?sort=old Trump Taps Palantir to Build a "Big Brother": How the administration is partnering with Peter Thiel's tech giant to monitor Americans. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html ACLU Investigates Police Use of Flock License Plate Surveillance: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/flock-roundup Project 2025 Tracker: Monitoring the conservative policy blueprint and authoritarian roadmap. https://www.project2025.observer/en Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators: A guide on how to target the businesses fueling the deportation machine. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/ice-businesses-boycott-campaign/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPR1kdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEezKLIFd9EZUL6g5uRoGAhj6cAItrut7MjpF8RislyssfXbo-V_-dZNqW2Fw4_aem_f4IvbocKBVROoBGqO-V_Kg Prairieland Defendants: Legal support and mutual aid for protesters. https://prairielanddefendants.com/ Police Accountability and Reform: An activist checklist for demanding transparency. https://activistchecklist.org/police/ The Singing Revolution: How music helped liberate the Baltic States from Soviet occupation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776): The full text of the pamphlet that sparked a revolution. https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1776ThomasPaine.pdf "The Voice of Dust and Ash": A documentary film on resistance and silence. https://vimeo.com/753111135?fl=pl&fe=cm Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism. https://share.google/t85l3THA4XfvEEbNo Whistleblower drops 'largest ever' ICE leak to unmask agents: 'The last straw' https://www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-data-leak/ Review: 'One Battle After Another,' What Black Women Call Life https://blacknerdproblems.com/review-one-battle-after-another/ EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: The Gaslit Nation Outreach Committee discusses how to talk to the MAGA cult: join on Patreon.  Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other:join on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other:join on Patreon.  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, join on Patreon.  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join,join on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, join on Patreon.  Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community

Merry Christmas from the FBI!This year we lost a real one (another one), Assata Shakur. Freedom fighter, political refugee, mother, and MOTHER. From growing up under Jim Crow, to the Black Panthers, and on to the Black Liberation Army - from COINTELPRO to Cuba, this episode is about hope in times of chaos. Assata's story is crazy, it's unbelievalbe no one has made a blockbuster out of it yet. Rest in Power Assata, and Merry Christmas ALL!If you want to donate to the care of Kamau Sadiki:https://facebook.com/freekamausadikihttps://instagram.com/freekamausadikihttps://linktr.ee/freekamausadikiLittle bits of “Song For Assata” by Common & Cee Lo Green“Money's Too Tight To Mention” - Simply Red, a band I have always deeply disliked, up until this moment. The tides are turning on the old definitions of self, if my softening in Simply Red's direction is to be trusted. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sofiacaramella.substack.com/subscribe

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 3rd study session on William Rosenau's Tonight We Bombed The US Capitol. Gus T. first nabbed this book nearly two years previously while we were reading Harry Dunn's Standing My Ground - which details the January 6th, 2021 Terrorist Insurrection at the US Capitol Building. Dunn reminds readers that gangs of White hooligans previously attacked the Capitol building. Rosenau's non-fiction investigation provides comprehensive details about the Whites who carried out this violent behavior - which also included their participation in breaking Assata Shakur out of a New Jersey prison. This read may help us better understand the current group of Whites loosely branded "Antifa" and allow us to reconsider most non-white people's bedrock belief that: "Not All White People Are Racist." Last week, we learned how this gang of White lesbians were recruited by Dr. Matulu Shakur to help with "expropriating" funds from banks to bolster the Black Liberation Army. Gus thought it was significant that these White chicks identified themselves as the "White Edge." We learned about the life and times of William Morales, a member of the Puerto Rican "independence" effort who bombed numerous US facilities and is suspected of killing several people. The M19 members helped him escape prison and transported him to Cuba to avoid capture. We also got more details about the M19 hand in the escape of Assata Shakur. Rosenau says the White Women who hid Shakur in their car trunk, used their racial classification and presumed White innocence to help Assata abscond. #COINTELPRO INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as civil rights leader H. Rap Brown, is an American Muslim cleric and former Black Power activist whose life has spanned community organizing, political leadership, and later religious guidance. He died this week at the age of 82 in a correctional medical facility. We'll talk with Kalonji Changa and Dhoruba Bin Wahad about his legacy.  Kalonji Jama Changa is an organizer, founder of the FTP Movement, and the co-chair of the Urban Survival and Preparedness Institute and is co-founder of Black Power Media. He is also author of the bestselling book, “How to Build a People's Army” and co-producer of the documentary “Organizing is the New Cool.” Dhoruba bin Wahad is an American political activist and author, former leader of the New York Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army. He was one of the Panther 21 defendants charged in 1969 with conspiracy to attack New York City police stations. — Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post Remembering Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin w/ Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Kalonji Jama Changa appeared first on KPFA.

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 7th study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams provided specifics about how Assata Shakur escaped from prison in November of 1979. Apparently, prison guards failed to adhere to many of their own codes and policies for operation a penitentiary. Following her escape, Shakur's mother Doris and other attempted family members faced extraordinary scrutiny from the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force and local law enforcement. We also hear about Williams' role in bringing the so called "Atlanta Child Murder" victims to NYC to discuss the horrible case of murdered and missing black children (mostly black boys) in Atlanta, Georgia. #COINTELPRO INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 6th study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams details being found in contempt and forced to served nearly two weeks in greater confinement. Too the dismay and fear of the prison staff, Williams took extensive notes of the prison abuse she observed and read non-fiction books during her confinement. The guards denied her access to clothes, toilet tissue and even water, but they allowed her plentiful access to cigarettes. Once done with her sentence, Williams attempted to contact do-gooder White attorney Robert Bloom to coordinate their defense strategy. Bloom had failed to respond to all of her previous inquires. When she attempted to speak with him at court, a black guard strangled and arrested her. The charges were easily dismissed, but it furthered her suspicions about Bloom's involvement in Assata's case. The White lawyer eventually admitted that his black male client had been pressured to testify against Assata for more lenient sentencing. Bloom refused to testify to all this in a court of law and under oath. #PrisonBreak INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

On today's show, guest host Kalonji Changa speaks with Mawuli Davis, renowned civil rights attorney, human rights organizer and author with over 30 years of experience in the Movement for Black Liberation and Whitley Carpenter, Senior Criminal Justice Counsel and Policy Manager for Forward Justice. She focuses on researching, developing and advocating for effective policy changes related to reducing racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Later in the show, we'll chat with Dhoruba bin Wahad, an American political activist and author, former leader of the New York Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army. He was one of the Panther 21 defendants charged in 1969 with conspiracy to attack New York City police stations. And finally, we'll speak with Jian White, filmmaker, memory worker, writer & organizer with the Mobilization 4 Mumia and several other affinity groups around Philadelphia, PA. — Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post National Conference of Black Lawyers, Free Mumia and More w/ Guest Host Kalonji Changa appeared first on KPFA.

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 5th study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams described the difficulty of defending a "militant" black defendant in the System of White Supremacy. Assata was to be tried in Middlesex County, NJ for allegedly killing a White officer in 1973. In Middlesex, there were no black jurors and everyone believed Assata was guilty before the trial. One White judge accused black people of being too lazy to register to be considered for jury duty. The proceedings were moved down the road to Morris County, where Race Soldiers violently removed the niggras in 1894. In the midst of this legal turmoil, Assata was also being charged with kidnapping other drug dealers and robbing banks across the land. #COINTELPRO INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 5th study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams described the difficulty of defending a "militant" black defendant in the System of White Supremacy. Assata was to be tried in Middlesex County, NJ for allegedly killing a White officer in 1973. In Middlesex, there were no black jurors and everyone believed Assata was guilty before the trial. One White judge accused black people of being too lazy to register to be considered for jury duty. The proceedings were moved down the road to Morris County, where Race Soldiers violently removed the niggras in 1894. In the midst of this legal turmoil, Assata was also being charged with kidnapping other drug dealers and robbing banks across the land. #COINTELPRO INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the fourth study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams described her challenging journey to becoming a lawyer. She reminds listeners that there were very few black attorneys at the time (little has changed 60 years later). Once she breaks through to the court room, she immediately works to provide access for other black males and females to become lawyers. Williams' White legal colleagues were very dissatisfied with what they perceived as "affirmative action"/DEI handouts for niggra lawyers. We also learned about Assata Shakur's growth into an attempted counter-racist. Her aunt Evelyn read wild and Racist newspaper accounts of Assata - where she was accused of every crime known to man. After the 1973 shootout on the New Jersey turnpike, Assata was gravely injured and facing accusations of being a "cop killer." Race Soldiers with badges surrounded her hospital bed and shouted Nazi salutes and Racist insults. #COINTELPRO INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the second study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams described her journey to becoming an attorney. She shouted out Eugene Kinckle Jones and other black people who helped her through the years of school and labor to becoming a lawyer. She then tells readers about helping her parents fight to retain their beach front property in Wilmington, North Carolina. A large number of Wilmington Whites engaged in unjust networking to steal this property, and they even managed to punish a few individuals who attempted to help Williams's black parents keep their land. #SobrietyWouldBeBest INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: http://cash.app/$TheCOWS Call: 720.716.7300 Code: 564943#

Graphic novelist Ben Passmore joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new graphic novel Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. Passmore explains the mix of personal reflection and historical storytelling in the book which follows the main character, a version of himself, time-traveling through a century of the Black radical tradition. Passmore talks about imagining a fictional self visiting Black historical figures and spotlights Assata Shakur, a well known member of the Black Liberation Army, who passed away last month. Passmore reflects on Shakur's life and considers how her story highlights the broader struggles and resilience of Black activists whose work is marginalized in mainstream histories. He emphasizes that the book focuses on less prominent figures within the Black radical tradition, providing a corrective to previous whitewashed narratives. He talks about activists and thinkers interested in goals ranging from liberation to reform, as well as community-based forms of resistance and education. Passmore reads from Black Arms To Hold You Up. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Ben Passmore Black Arms to Hold You Up Sports is Hell Your Black Friend and Other Strangers Others: We Will Return In The Whirlwind Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975 by Muhammad Ahmad — Charles H. Kerr Publishing Going to the Territory Assata Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Graphic novelist Ben Passmore joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new graphic novel Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. Passmore explains the mix of personal reflection and historical storytelling in the book which follows the main character, a version of himself, time-traveling through a century of the Black radical tradition. Passmore talks about imagining a fictional self visiting Black historical figures and spotlights Assata Shakur, a well known member of the Black Liberation Army, who passed away last month. Passmore reflects on Shakur's life and considers how her story highlights the broader struggles and resilience of Black activists whose work is marginalized in mainstream histories. He emphasizes that the book focuses on less prominent figures within the Black radical tradition, providing a corrective to previous whitewashed narratives. He talks about activists and thinkers interested in goals ranging from liberation to reform, as well as community-based forms of resistance and education. Passmore reads from Black Arms To Hold You Up. To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Ben Passmore Black Arms to Hold You Up Sports is Hell Your Black Friend and Other Strangers Others: We Will Return In The Whirlwind Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975 by Muhammad Ahmad — Charles H. Kerr Publishing Going to the Territory Assata Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the second study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. Last week, Williams provided details about her family's roots in Wilmington, North Carolina. She shares her ancestors' conflict with the Klu Klux Klan and the local System of White Supremacy, but she does not mention the 1898 White Supremacist Coup. This event is still discussed more than a century later, had an enormous impact on the evolution of the black population in the area, and took place just a couple years before the birth of Williams' parents. Decades later, her family migrated to New Jersey - where the rape and castration of black people continued. #SobrietyWouldBeBest INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: http://cash.app/$TheCOWS Call: 720.716.7300 Code: 564943#

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the debut study session on Evelyn Williams's Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial Lawyer Who Defended The Black Liberation Army. We read our 4th biography of the year in recognition of the recent passing of Assata Shakur. The Katherine Massey Book Club read Assata's autobiography a decade earlier, where she reveals extraordinary details about her childhood and what led to her becoming an attempted counter-racist and member of the Black Liberation Army. Williams is Shakur's aunt, and has her own fascinating experiences with the System of White Supremacy. She details watching her niece become a "cop killing," terrorist who Whites wanted shot on site before her 2025 death from natural causes. Inadmissible Evidence addresses the White Supremacist COINTELPRO campaign and its lethal impact on non-white people and provides more details about how Shakur escaped from a New Jersey prison after being convicted of murder. #MumiaAbuJamal INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: http://cash.app/$TheCOWS Call: 720.716.7300 Code: 564943#

In this episode of “Let's Talk”, Ern dives into a mix of headlines, heartbreak, and hip-hop.

In May 1973, Assata Olugbala Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in which she was accused of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and assaulting Trooper James Harper. This resulted in her indictment of first-degree murder of Foerster and seven other felonies related to the shootout. A member of the Black Panther Party, she became a prime target of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Counterintelligence Program. When she joined the Black Liberation Army and went into hiding, between 1973 and 1977, she was placed on the FBIs Most Wanted List for three bank robberies, the kidnapping and murder of two drug dealers, and the attempted murder of two New Jersey police officers. In March 1977 Assata Shakur was convicted of murdering state trooper Werner Forrester and was imprisoned. Two years later she broke out of the maximum-security wing of Clinton Correctional Facility in New Jersey, pistol in hand, as she and three cohorts sped out of the prison grounds. In 1984 she was granted political asylum in Cuba where she has lived ever since. On May 2, 2013, the FBI added her to the Most Wanted Terrorist List, the first woman to be listed. "Assata Shakur: A 20th Century Escaped Slave" is the story of Assata Shakur, before she became a fugitive and since.https://amzn.to/3VZGd6fBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Assata Shakur (1947-present) was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was imprisoned and convicted of murdering a police officer. She escaped prison in 1979, and has lived in exile in Cuba ever since. In 2013, she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List. For Further Reading: Assata: An AutobiographyAssata Olugbala Shakur (1947- )AssataShakur.orgFor the past six years, we've been telling the stories of women you may or may now know– but definitely should. This month, we're bringing back our favorite Womanica episodes from across our back catalog. These are women throughout time and around the world who made their mark. History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.Follow Wonder Media Network:WebsiteInstagramTwitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Baller Lifestyle Podcast – Episode 594 From salty listeners to diamond-studded butt crack piercings, Brian and Ed are back with another wide-ranging breakdown of the week in sports, culture, and general nonsense. RIPs We pay respects to notable figures who left us this week, including Bobby Cain—the first Black student to graduate from an integrated high school, former Packers lineman Bill Ferrario, Bengals RB Rudi Johnson, Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur, and Loyola's beloved Sister Jean. SPORTS Dave Portnoy rages against lightning delays: “If you get struck, so be it.” Cal State Bakersfield coach Rod Barnes steps down after his assistant is arrested on human trafficking, drug, and weapons charges. Seahawks great Shaun Alexander announces he and his wife are expecting baby #14. Brock Purdy's health is again in question, this time due to toe soreness. EMAIL & VOICEMAIL Listeners bring the heat: Deep Dark Nuts isn't buying the “retirement” rumors. Kmacktex grills Brian & Ed about the new 45-minute “hard out,” Patreon value, and whether the guys are more Brett Favre or Barry Sanders. All Texting No Tweeting fact-checks the NFL's crime vs. policing narrative and wants answers. NON-SPORTS Conjoined twins Abby & Brittany Hensel spotted holding a baby, fueling speculation. Larry Wilcox claims Erik Estrada once had him fired from CHiPs—but years later, they became best friends. Marc Maron and Shane Gillis blast the Riyadh Comedy Festival while Burr, Hart, and Pete Davidson perform in Saudi Arabia. Cardi B admits she spent $13k on a diamond butt crack piercing… then lost it in the toilet.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for September 29, 2025. 0:30 We start today's show with the looming threat of another government shutdown— the “Schumer Shutdown.” Democrats are demanding $1.5 trillion in new debt spending, including free health care for illegal immigrants, funding for failing media outlets, and cuts to rural hospitals. But could this shutdown be the opportunity that President Trump has been waiting for? 9:58 Plus, we cover the Top 3 Things You Need to Know. Four people were killed during an attack on a mormon church in Michigan over the weekend. President Trump announced a 21 point plan to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Over the weekend, New York Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race for reelection. 12:40 Get Prodovite Plus from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 13:43 We tackle a deeply troubling trend — the rise in attacks on people gathered in prayer and worship. Are these attacks random or are they part of a broader assualt on the nation's moral and spiritual foundations? 16:36 We ask American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson : If there were a reality TV competition to find the best dinner date, who would you send to win? We discuss what makes someone a great dinner companion. 23:26 We discuss the NFL’s announcement that Bad Bunny will headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. We tackle Bad Bunny’s outspoken criticism of ICE, his previous statements about not performing in the U.S., and the potential cultural and political implications of giving him one of the world’s most visible stages. 26:08 We Dig Deep into a controversial tweet from the Chicago Teachers Union honoring Assata Shakur, a convicted cop killer and former member of the Black Liberation Army. We review her criminal history, her escape from prison, and her life in exile, questioning why a teachers’ union would celebrate such a figure. 32:34 Get TrimROX from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 33:41 We discuss the sudden exit of incumbent NYC Mayor Eric Adams from the mayoral race and analyze the remaining candidates, including Republican Curtis Sliwa, Independent Andrew Cuomo, and Socialist Zohran Mamdani. 36:43 Plus, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is a surprising Bright Spot in the Democrat Party. Fetterman stands out for refusing to label Republicans as Nazis or fascists and advocating for civil discourse. From supporting Israel and denouncing terrorism to urging negotiation over government shutdowns, Fetterman’s pragmatic approach offers a rare example of independent thinking within the Democratic Party. 40:40 Chinese immigration has skyrocketed in Mexico, pushing out Mexican businesses, and China is trying to do the same in the US. And it's time that we stand up to China and say, "Whoa!" 42:50 And we finish off with a woman who was able to find her voice with the help of technology. Follow us: americangroundradio.com Facebook: facebook.com / AmericanGroundRadio Instagram: instagram.com/americangroundradioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Assata Shakur, a fugitive and member of the Black Liberation Army, died at the age of 78. She was given political asylum in Cuba in 1979 after escaping prison for killing a New Jersey police officer six years prior. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't celebrate until you win! Colts lose to the Rams. Two horrific mass shootings over the weekend. Time for Schumer to retire. The rest of the WNBA is now getting the message: The officiating stinks and the WNBA brass wants it. Lefties lecturing Republicans on how to be decent. Mamdami: "We will slowly buy up the housing on the private market and convert properties into communes." JMV: Colts should have won that game. ICE detain criminal illegal alien who was the SUPERINTENDENT of Des Moines Public Schools. Farrah Fawcett-Majors Memorabilia Mirror. Michigan and North Carolina mass shootings: What in the world is going on here? Chicago Teachers Union is being slammed for celebrating the "life and legacy" of cop killer and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur. Mike Braun let's redistrict already. Noblesville Selected as Site for USA Gymnastics Training & Wellness Center and Office Headquarters. Video games maker Electronic Arts is being taken private by a Saudi-backed consortium assembled by Jared Kushner and Silver Lake in a $55bn deal. What in the world is going on with these shootings in Michigan and North CarolinaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scholar, leading public intellectual, author, and special contributor, Dr. Cornel West talks about the life and legacy of the revolutionary Black Liberation Army leader and thinker, Assata Shakur, and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4: 6:05pm- Assata Shakur—a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973—has died in Havana, Cuba of age-related health complications. She had been placed on New Jersey's Most Wanted List. However, mainstream media has simply described her as the “godmother and aunt of rapper Tupac Shakur.” 6:25pm- Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie, “One Battle After Another,” releases today—and it's getting rave reviews. While promoting the film, DiCaprio revealed prospective agents wanted him to change his name to “Lenny Williams” when he was first breaking into Hollywood. 6:40pm- REPLAY: Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (09/26/2025): 3:05pm- A new report from the New Jersey Globe suggests NJ gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill wasn't allowed to “walk with her graduating class in wake of a Navy Academy cheating scandal.” What was her exact role? New Jersey voters deserve transparency. 3:10pm- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now calling for a criminal investigation into the release of Mikie Sherrill's military file. Rich notes that her record release and the NJ Globe report are entirely separate stories—as Democrats attempt to muddy the waters. 3:20pm- Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. In a post to social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 3:30pm- Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton. 3:50pm- Things just keep getting worse for Mikie Sherrill—now her husband is also ensnared in the Naval Academy's massive cheating scandal! 4:05pm- Dr. Wilfred Reilly—Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University & Author of “Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss Major League Baseball adopting artificial intelligence to determine strikes. What impact will AI have on commercial trucking and other blue-collar jobs? Plus, are sex robots inevitably a part of our future? 4:30pm- Dr. Victoria Coates—Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation & former Deputy National Security Advisor—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss President Donald Trump's visit to the United Nations earlier this week where he implored Europe to stop buying Russian oil as it's being used to fund Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. Plus, the city of Philadelphia—the birthplace of freedom and individual liberty—is planning to fly the flag of Communist China. Dr. Coates is author of the book: “The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win.” 5:05pm- Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. In a post to social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 5:30pm- Flashback: Some of James Comey's worst lies—including while under oath, testifying before Congress! 6:05pm- Assata Shakur—a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973—has died in Havana, Cuba of age-related health complications. She had been placed on New Jersey's Most Wanted List. However, mainstream media has simply described her as the “godmother and aunt of rapper Tupac Shakur.” 6:25pm- Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie, “One Battle After Another,” releases today—and it's getting rave reviews. While promoting the film, DiCaprio revealed prospective agents wanted him to change his name to “Lenny Williams” when he was first breaking into Hollywood. 6:40pm- REPLAY: Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in ...

Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, has died in Cuba at 78. Shakur was convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper, escaped prison in 1979, and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. Her decades as a fugitive made her one of the FBI's most wanted figures, with a $2 million reward for her capture. Cuban authorities said she died in Havana of health complications and old age. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed with the latest news from a leading Black-owned & controlled media company: https://aurn.com/newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, has died in Cuba at 78. Shakur was convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper, escaped prison in 1979, and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. Her decades as a fugitive made her one of the FBI's most wanted figures, with a $2 million reward for her capture. Cuban authorities said she died in Havana of health complications and old age. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed with the latest news from a leading Black-owned & controlled media company: https://aurn.com/newsletter Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI Daily Rundown: September 26, 2025: Your daily briefing on the real world business impact of AIListen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-tech-daily-news-rundown-chatgpt-gets-proactive-with/id1684415169?i=1000728616673

It was in Plainfield, NJ, in 1971 where our guest - Ashanti Alston - joined The Black Panther Party, radicalized in the wake of the 1967 Newark Riots and Malcolm X's assassination years earlier. Ashanti would begin his life as an anarchist on that day, and it has guided his every step – through the Panther Party, then the Black Liberation Army, his incarceration, and his work honoring the sacrifice of political prisoners in the name of Black liberation with The Jericho Movement. Ashanti sits with us now with a 21st-century view of the impact of his radical brothers and sisters and the lessons learned from a lifetime of seeking Black liberation. __________________________ Black History Year (BHY) is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school and explore pathways to liberation with people leading the way. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work. Hosting BHY is Jay (2020-2023) and Darren Wallace (2024). The BHY production team includes Jareyah Bradley and Brooke Brown. Our producers are Cydney Smith and Len Webb for PushBlack, and Lance John with Gifted Sounds edits and engineers the show. BHY's executive producers are Julian Walker and Lilly Workneh. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kanya D'Almeida joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her life changed when a manuscript by Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, a former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army showed up in an envelope on her doorstep in 2011, the decades he spent in the Pennsylvania prison system, how their experiences with political violence and civil war intersected, becoming his biographer and building comradeship across the bars, Sri Lanka's history of conflict, channeling complicated feelings into dedication for writing a book, violence as the only language America knows how to speak, and her new book I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner.    Ronit's upcoming memoir course: https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story    Also in this episode: -being a diasporic writer  -being a multi-genre author -the role of self-criticism   Books mentioned in this episode: On a Move by Mike Africa Jr. Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur    Russell "Maroon" Shoatz was a dedicated community activist, founding member of the Black Unity Council, former member of the Black Panther Party, and soldier in the Black Liberation Army. Kanya D'Almeida won the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, becoming the first Sri Lankan and only the second Asian writer to hold the honor. She was awarded the Society of Authors' annual short story award in 2022. Her journalism has appeared in Al Jazeera, TruthOut, and The Margins, and her fiction has appeared in Granta. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied under Victor LaValle.   Connect with Kanya: https://twitter.com/kanyadalmeida https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/russell-shoatz/i-am-maroon/9781645030492/?lens=bold-type-books   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

It was in Plainfield, NJ, in 1971 where our guest - Ashanti Alston - joined The Black Panther Party, radicalized in the wake of the 1967 Newark Riots and Malcolm X's assassination years earlier. Ashanti would begin his life as an anarchist on that day, and it has guided his every step – through the Panther Party, then the Black Liberation Army, his incarceration, and his work honoring the sacrifice of political prisoners in the name of Black liberation with The Jericho Movement. Ashanti now has a 21st-century view of the impact of his radical brothers and sisters and the lessons learned from a lifetime of seeking Black liberation, that he shared with Jay in January 2023. __________________________ Black History Year (BHY) is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school and explore pathways to liberation with people leading the way. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work. Hosting BHY is Jay (2020-2023) and Darren Wallace (2024). The BHY production team includes Jareyah Bradley and Brooke Brown. Our producers are Cydney Smith and Len Webb for PushBlack, and Lance John with Gifted Sounds edits and engineers the show. BHY's executive producers are Julian Walker and Lilly Workneh. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buy the book here, or here. Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990.This historical period spans the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of postcolonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. It focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy's Red Brigades. Many of these movements were deeply connected to culture, including cinema, and they expressed their values through it. Twelve authors, including film critics and academics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the production, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions.Including over two hundred illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements, including feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined alongside grindhouse cinema and lesser-known titles by a host of all-but-forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South that deserve to be rediscovered. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Buy the book here, or here. Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990. This historical period spans the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of postcolonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. It focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy's Red Brigades. Many of these movements were deeply connected to culture, including cinema, and they expressed their values through it.  Twelve authors, including film critics and academics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the production, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions. Including over two hundred illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements, including feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined alongside grindhouse cinema and lesser-known titles by a host of all-but-forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South that deserve to be rediscovered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meg investigates the incendiary story of the Weather Underground and their far leftist principles. Jessica reads into the absurd publishing industry brouhaha over John Ehrlichman's tell-all “Witness to Power”.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

For nearly half a century, Russell 'Maroon' Shoatz was a political prisoner of the United States. Prior to his incarceration, Shoatz fought against US capitalism and imperialism as a member of the Black Panther Party, and then as a soldier of the Black Liberation Army. Due to his two successful escapes from prison and organizing behind bars, Shoatz spent two decades in solitary confinement. Despite this brutal repression, Shoatz continued to struggle for liberation, leaving behind a trove of political writings that continue to inspire revolutionaries to this day. Shoatz's children, Russell Shoatz III and Sharon Shoatz, join Rattling the Bars for a discussion on his newly published memoir, co-written with Kanya D'Almeida, I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner.Studio / Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcast

“Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle's Back” with Ashanti Omowali Alston This week, we're sharing words from anarchist, author, organizer and former participant in the Black Panther and Black Liberation Army, Ashanti Omowali Alston, in the key note address at the 2024 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville. The presentation was entitled “Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle's Back”. You can support Ashanti's GoFundMe here. Transcript PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) From the ACAB website: Trusting in solidarity, the mysterium of spirituality, and a promise from god knows where—a “where” that at this historical moment, might just be Palestine. What does it mean TO BE in the midst of all this right now? RIGHT NOW! M. Ashanti Alston is a revolutionary Black nationalist, anarchist, abolitionist, speaker, writer, elder motivator. A long-time member of The Jericho Movement, he is presently an advisory board member of the National Jericho Movement and co-founding board member of the Center for Grassroots Organizing (Vermont land project). He continues giving talks and writing inspirational analyses concerning the dismantling of the myriad oppressive regimes in which we find ourselves enmeshed. Ashanti is one of the few former members of the Black Panther Party who identifies as an anarchist in the tradition of ancestor Kwesi Balagoon (BPP & BLA). He developed abolitionist politics in the early years of Critical Resistance. He has helped save the life of a baby pig with animal liberationists, learned depth-queer politics from being challenged, and wants to see non-ego eldership partaking through sincerely loving the younger generations who truly want to ‘CARRY IT ON.” You can find other recordings from the 2024 ACABookfair at acabookfair.noblogs.org. Announcement Phone Zap for Granville CI in North Carolina Prisoners have been filing grievances at Granville CI, a prison in Butner, North Carolina, to no avail complaining about a lack of the legally mandated showers and access to the exercise yard, and are asking for phone calls and emails to demand a resumption of serving these basic needs despite any claims of understaffing: By Joseph ''Shine White'' Stewart How many prisoners must die and how long must we languish in solitary confinement subjected to these harsh and unconstitutional living conditions before there is a public outcry? The deficiencies in the day-to-day operations of this prison have been longstanding/persistent and well documented. In the past I've reported on the culture of abuse, negligence and unprofessionalism here at Granville Correctional. Over the past couple of months the conditions have only worsened. Those of us who are assigned to Restrictive Housing for Control Purposes (RHCP) are being deprived of showers, recreation, subjected to inadequate health care and other unconstitutional treatment. Pursuant to Chapter C subsection .1205(A) of the NCDAC policy and procedure manual, prisoners assigned to RHCP will have the opportunity to shower a least three times a week. Lately prison staff have been using the excuse that there is not enough staff to give us showers or even saying that they are too tired to do showers. As always I must maintain my integrity and be honest when reporting on these conditions. The laziness and neglect I am mentioning here doesn't apply to all the staff. Sergeant Jones, the second shift sergeant here in C-1 building, makes sure that we are afforded the opportunity to shower. However when it's not her shift or if she's not scheduled to work we're likely not to receive showers if there is a shortage of staff. Despite being demoted to a less restrictive solitary confinement setting I've yet to be offered to exercise outside. Pursuant to Chapter C section .1206 of NCDAC policy and process manual, prisoners assigned to RHCP shall he allowed one hour per day, five days per week to exercise outside of the cell, moreover the outdoor exercise cages should be used as the primary exercise area. During the exercise periods we are to be allowed to exercise unrestrained. As when it is time for us to take showers the same excuse is used to deprive us of any recreational time. They don't have enough staff. As mentioned I haven't been afforded outside exercise for almost three years now despite being demoted to a lower security level. Recreation here in C-1 building consists of us being placed in full restraints and allowed to pace up and down the tier for one hour. Lastly, custody staff are having any medical appointments cancelled claiming there isn't enough staff to escort is to the nurse's station. This includes mental health appointments as well. Of course the foregoing isn't all that needs to be addressed, however these are the issues that my peers and I find to be the most important, thus we entreat that the reader call and demand redress for the aforementioned issues. Warden James Williams and unit manager Eldridge Walker are responsible for promulgating the aforementioned policies and procedures and for the allowance of the aforementioned practices/customs, therefore they are the individuals who should be held accountable. Please contact these officials repeatedly: Granville Correctional Institution warden, James Williams - 919-575-3070 (call main line and ask for warden's office) Granville CI C-1 Unit Manager Eldridge Walker- 919-575-3070 (call main line and ask to be connected to Unit Manager Eldridge Walker) NCDAC Dep. Director of Rehabilitation/Correctional Services Maggie Brewer - maggie.brewer@dac.nc.gov - 919-733-2126 (call main line and ask to be connected to Brewer's office) NADAC Internal Affairs Director Anthony Smith - 919-715-2632 anthony.smith1@dac.nc.gov Script for calling and emailing: "I am (calling/emailing) to demand that prisoners being held in solitary confinement in the C-1 building be afforded the opportunity to shower and exercise outside according to NCDAC's policies and procedures and pursuant to their U.S. Constitutional rights. I am demanding that an internal investigation be conducted at the Granville Correctional concerning the grievances being made by prisoners there and I demand warden James Williams and C-1 unit manager he held accountable for the deliberate indifference they have demonstrated." . ... . .. Featured Track: Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow (instrumental) by Funkadellic from Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow

Activist, journalist, and lawyer Anoa Changa joins to talk about her father, Black Liberation Army (BLA) member and former political prisoner Baba Masai Ehehosi, who transitioned on April 1, 2024. The conversation touches Baba Masai's lifelong commitment to Black liberation, sovereignty, freeing political prisoners, and the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. Anoa shares personal reflections on her father's impact and experiences on life and activism, as well as his influence within organizations like Critical Resistance, The Jericho Movement for Political Prisoners, and the Republic of New Afrika.Listeners will gain insight into Baba Masai's enduring dedication to justice, his role in shaping movements against political repression, and his advocacy for prisoners' rights. We talk about the examples he set in his actions, the importance of inter-generational knowledge community, and how we can continue to honor and uplift his legacy through our organizing."Masai worked for the liberation of his people for over 50 years, and held a profound presence in the multiple organizations he was in. A co-defendant of Safiyah Bukhari captured by police in 1973 as a BLA member, Masai began working with the American Friends Services Committee (AFSC) and was staff of the AFSC's Criminal Justice Program in Newark, NJ after being released from 14 years of prison in Virginia. At AFSC, Masai worked to close security housing units and end torture against imprisoned people through AFSC's Prison Watch Program. At the time of his passing, Masai was also the current Co-Minister of Information for the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, an advisory board member ofThe Jericho Movementworking on the Jericho Medical Project for both state and federal prisoners, and was supporting the Prison and Gang Program of Al-Ummah and the Imam Jamil (Al-Amin) Action Network." — Critical Resistance You can read more about Baba Masai here. You can find Anoa here.You can find the Jericho Movement for Political Prisoners here.

Political organizer, community worker, and former political prisoner Jihad Abdulmumit discusses his life, and the Jericho Movement for Political Prisoners.

The story of the fight against fascism across the African diaspora, revealing that Black antifascism has always been vital to global freedom struggles. At once a history for understanding fascism and a handbook for organizing against, The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024) is an essential book for understanding our present moment and the challenges ahead. From London to the Caribbean, from Ethiopia to Harlem, from Black Lives Matter to abolition, Black radicals and writers have long understood fascism as a threat to the survival of Black people around the world—and to everyone.  In The Black Antifascist Tradition, scholar-activists Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill Mullen show how generations of Black activists and intellectuals—from Ida B. Wells in the fight against lynching, to Angela Y. Davis in the fight against the prison-industrial complex—have stood within a tradition of Black Antifascism. As Davis once observed, pointing to the importance of anti-Black racism in the development of facism as an ideology, Black people have been “the first and most deeply injured victims of fascism.” Indeed, the experience of living under and resisting racial capitalism has often made Black radicals aware of the potential for fascism to take hold long before others understood this danger. The book explores the powerful ideas and activism of Paul Robeson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Claudia Jones, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, and Walter Rodney, as well as that of the Civil Rights Congress, the Black Liberation Army, and the We Charge Genocide movement, among others. In shining a light on fascism and anti-Blackness, Hope and Mullen argue, the writers and organizers featured in this book have also developed urgent tools and strategies for overcoming it. Jeanelle Hope is Director & Associate Professor of African American Studies Bill V. Mullen is Professor of English and American Studies at Purdue University. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The story of the fight against fascism across the African diaspora, revealing that Black antifascism has always been vital to global freedom struggles. At once a history for understanding fascism and a handbook for organizing against, The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024) is an essential book for understanding our present moment and the challenges ahead. From London to the Caribbean, from Ethiopia to Harlem, from Black Lives Matter to abolition, Black radicals and writers have long understood fascism as a threat to the survival of Black people around the world—and to everyone.  In The Black Antifascist Tradition, scholar-activists Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill Mullen show how generations of Black activists and intellectuals—from Ida B. Wells in the fight against lynching, to Angela Y. Davis in the fight against the prison-industrial complex—have stood within a tradition of Black Antifascism. As Davis once observed, pointing to the importance of anti-Black racism in the development of facism as an ideology, Black people have been “the first and most deeply injured victims of fascism.” Indeed, the experience of living under and resisting racial capitalism has often made Black radicals aware of the potential for fascism to take hold long before others understood this danger. The book explores the powerful ideas and activism of Paul Robeson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Claudia Jones, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, and Walter Rodney, as well as that of the Civil Rights Congress, the Black Liberation Army, and the We Charge Genocide movement, among others. In shining a light on fascism and anti-Blackness, Hope and Mullen argue, the writers and organizers featured in this book have also developed urgent tools and strategies for overcoming it. Jeanelle Hope is Director & Associate Professor of African American Studies Bill V. Mullen is Professor of English and American Studies at Purdue University. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The story of the fight against fascism across the African diaspora, revealing that Black antifascism has always been vital to global freedom struggles. At once a history for understanding fascism and a handbook for organizing against, The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024) is an essential book for understanding our present moment and the challenges ahead. From London to the Caribbean, from Ethiopia to Harlem, from Black Lives Matter to abolition, Black radicals and writers have long understood fascism as a threat to the survival of Black people around the world—and to everyone.  In The Black Antifascist Tradition, scholar-activists Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill Mullen show how generations of Black activists and intellectuals—from Ida B. Wells in the fight against lynching, to Angela Y. Davis in the fight against the prison-industrial complex—have stood within a tradition of Black Antifascism. As Davis once observed, pointing to the importance of anti-Black racism in the development of facism as an ideology, Black people have been “the first and most deeply injured victims of fascism.” Indeed, the experience of living under and resisting racial capitalism has often made Black radicals aware of the potential for fascism to take hold long before others understood this danger. The book explores the powerful ideas and activism of Paul Robeson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Claudia Jones, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, and Walter Rodney, as well as that of the Civil Rights Congress, the Black Liberation Army, and the We Charge Genocide movement, among others. In shining a light on fascism and anti-Blackness, Hope and Mullen argue, the writers and organizers featured in this book have also developed urgent tools and strategies for overcoming it. Jeanelle Hope is Director & Associate Professor of African American Studies Bill V. Mullen is Professor of English and American Studies at Purdue University. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The great Pat Picciarelli returned to talk about the Black Liberation Army's war on New York City cops in the 1970s, as dramatized in the 1978 TV movie "To Kill a Cop." We also watched Mr. T's "Be Somebody...or Be Somebody's Fool."

Assata Shakur (1947-present) was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was imprisoned and convicted of murdering a police officer. She escaped prison in 1979, and has lived in exile in Cuba ever since. In 2013, she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List.  For Further Reading:  Assata: An Autobiography Assata Olugbala Shakur (1947- ) AssataShakur.org This Black History Month, we're talking about Revolutionaries: Black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments, colonial rulers, and enslavers. These women had the courage to imagine radically different worlds – and used their power to try and pull those worlds into view. History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should. Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.  Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran. Follow Wonder Media Network: Website Instagram Twitter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Raoul Peck became known for his filmmaking and fight for racial justice with the released of his Academy Award-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro which attempts to complete James Baldwin's unfinished book about the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Medgar Evers. It was followed by another documentary series, Exterminate All the Brutes. In his latest film, Silver Dollar Road, Peck completes his trilogy about the economic injustice Black people face worldwide.Silver Dollar Road closes the circle with a look at a modern-day family's fight to keep the land they purchased soon after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Notes From America Executive Producer, André Robert Lee sits down with Raoul to discuss how he came across the story in his latest film, and why he feels compelled to make these movies today.  Plus, we hear how Assata Shakur Became one of America's most wanted in 1973 when state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike pulled over her and two members of the Black Liberation Army. Tragically, guns were fired, people were killed, and in the aftermath, a political standoff between Shakur and state law enforcement began. Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter): @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here. Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.   

Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were once members of the radical activist group the Weather Underground. In 1981, they helped members of the Black Liberation Army rob a Brink's armored car at the Nanuet National Bank. Their son, Chesa Boudin, was 14 months old at the time. He spent his childhood visiting his parents in prison. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. Sign up for Criminal Plus to get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, members-only merch, and more. Learn more and sign up here. Listen back through our archives at youtube.com/criminalpodcast. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this conversation we talk to Santi Elijah Holley about his recently published book An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created.  A history of the political family that included Tupac, Assata, Afeni, Dr. Mutulu, Salahdeen, Lumumba, Zayd and many others. What does it mean to take the name Shakur? What were some of the key relationships and sites of politicization for these folks? Holley's book gets into many of these questions, and examines the radical organizing and political activity of many of the Shakurs and of their comrades like Sekou Odinga and Bilal Sunni-Ali.  There are aspects of this book we appreciated as there's a lot of important history here that gets brought into one place. These figures are often looked at in isolation, in a depoliticized context, as icons or simulacra. In other places we read about them as individual figures in histories of formations like the Black Panther Party or the Republic of New Afrika. So we appreciated seeing them discussed in relation to one another and some of the events and people who shaped their political development. As you will see in this discussion both Josh and I also have our criticisms of this book and how it presents this history. As usual, we do not debate with the author here, but we do ask multiple critical questions about aspects of the book that we felt either did not do justice to the legacy of people being examined or do not help people see the New Afrikan Independence Movement as a living struggle that people still engage today in a variety of ways in various organizations. As always, we welcome further dialogue on that from folks who are involved in those movements if they wish to engage with us. We will also link some of our other discussions about that history and with people who struggle in the tradition of New Afrikan independence today. Most importantly today we want to uplift Baba Sekou Odinga who features prominently in this book, and prominently in the history of Black Liberation struggle in this country. He was recently hospitalized and has been released to a rehabilitation facility, but he needs our support. We are not going to plug our patreon this episode and instead ask that folks contribute to this fund for Immediate Relief Support for Sekou Odinga Other related links: Sekou Odinga episode Jamal Joseph episode  Claude Marks episode  Dhoruba bin Wahad episode  Jalil Muntaqim episodes 1, 2  Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur on Sanyika Shakur Kamau Franklin and Kali Akuno Kamau Franklin on Liberated Zones Theory   Stop Cop City discussions: 1  & 2  Free The Land! Edward Onaci on the History of the Republic of New Afrika Building Infrastructure: Identifying Tactics for Sustainable Formations: A Panel Discussion Supporting Jailhousee Lawyers Speak

Content Notice: This episode contains discussions of sexual violence & rape This is the conclusion of our discussion on Orisanmi Burton's forthcoming book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. This discussion was recorded on the same day as the previously released episode, so you may catch references back to that conversation or to others we've had with Burton over the last couple of years. We'll link those in the show notes. Here we largely move into discussion of Attica itself, but this is not the blow by blow rendition that you have likely heard elsewhere. We talk about Attica through George Jackson's idea of the Black Commune, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Abolition Geography, we talk about how in the words of the Institute of the Black World “the men of Attica were different than their captors,” and we talk about the demand that prisoners be repatriated to a non-imperialist country. We also talk about Burton's findings on the repression faced by the prisoners after the slaughter of 39 men 52 years ago today. While we don't talk in graphic detail about all of that repression, a trigger warning is still necessary as we talk about sexual violence in that discussion.  We close by talking about Burton's work on the Black Liberation Army and how examining the prison as a site of struggle helped him develop a more capacious view of the BLA than what we find in most representations of who they were and what animated their activities. We're very grateful for the time that Orisanmi Burton has spent with us over the course of this interview and our other conversations over the past couple of years. We hope folks get as much out of these conversations as we do, and we strongly recommend that people pre-order Tip of the Spear if they haven't already. This is our 4th episode for the month of September. If you appreciate the work that we do, the best way to keep it coming is to join the amazing folks who make this show possible at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism by giving as little as $1 a month or $10.80 per year.  Links: pre-order Tip of the Spear Part 1 of this discussion Prior episodes with Orisanmi Burton

Orisanmi Burton returns to the podcast to discuss his forthcoming book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. We recorded this episode on August 21st the anniversary of the assassination of George Jackson, and we release it on September 9th, the 52nd anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. We spoke with Dr. Burton for over three hours and will release the conversation in segments. In this episode we talk about Dr. Burton's methodology and why this book is different from other historical renderings of Attica, something that will immediately be apparent as we get into the discussion.  We talk in this episode about the relationship between prisons, slavery, war and the law. Burton also shares reflections on the New York City Jail Rebellions of 1970, also known as the Tombs Rebellion or the Tombs Uprising. We talk about ways that Dr. Burton works with political Blackness and different notions of manhood through meditations from Queen Mother Moore and Kuwasi Balagoon. Burton reflects on how rebels gained leverage in zones of captivity and recalibrate our understanding of the Panther 21 by examining their impact and influence as political actors amid their repression. We also discuss different aspects of the lesser known November 1970 Auburn Prison Rebellion. In the remainder of our conversation with Orisanmi Burton we will discuss his work's treatment specifically on the Attica Revolt. This is our 4th conversation with Orisanmi Burton and we will link the others as even though they are on separate writings, they all relate to this book and interventions within it and fill in gaps we don't cover in this episode.  If you haven't already, go out and pre-order this book. I mean no disrespect to the other authors who've written great books this year, there are some other great contenders, but this is the best book that I've read this year. And if you like what we do, please become a patron of the show. As I mentioned last time, this podcast keeps me more than busy with full-time work. And I know it keeps Josh extremely busy as well. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. We have some special announcements coming soon there too that you won't want to miss.  Our previous episodes with Orisanmi Burton