Showdown in Desire: The Black Panthers Take a Stand in New Orleans

15. Double Dirty Tricks

15 double dirty tricks On the fifth and sixth days after the standoff, the police pulled what many considered to be two dirty tricks. A lot of New Orleanians remember the first one, probably because it involved a celebrity. But amazingly, very few remember the second, the final arrest of the Panthers. Even the man who ordered it has forgotten. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, a notice had circulated throughout Desire entitled “The Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention .” It stated: “The structure of legality in America rests upon the Constitution of the United States. The U. S. Constitution was written by propertied men, many of whom were slave-holders who wanted to keep power and property for themselves and for future generations of their class. To do that they elevated property rights above human rights.” The notice concluded with the announcement, “The Black Panther Party has called for a Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention to be held in Washington on November 27 through 29. The major purpose of the Convention will be to write a new Constitu tion which will meet the needs of all oppressed people in the United States—Black, Red, Yellow, and White.” On the flier was a number to call for transportation.1 On November 24, five days after the showdown, Jane Fonda arrived in New Orleans to protest HANO’s efforts to evict the Panthers from their apartment in Desire. Her career as an actress had taken an activist 119 turn in response to the Vietnam War. As reported by the States-Item, Fonda, wearing a green turtleneck sweater, brown buckskin pants, and a navy pea coat, appeared at the HANO office shortly before noon to “help arouse the public consciousness as to what is happening to the black people.” A hundred or so sign-carrying demonstrators chanted, “Kill poverty, not Panthers.” She urged her audience to “find out for yourselves” what was happening there instead of believing what was in the newspaper.2 Expressions on the signs carried by picketers read: CRIMINAL TRESPASSERS—HANO, GIARRUSSO, LANDRIEU; WHITE PANTHERS SUPPORT BLACK PEOPLE; GUNS KILL PEOPLE; HANO, GIARRUSSO, LANDRIEU WANTED FOR MURDER; POWER COMES FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN.3 According to the States-Item, “The marchers, mostly college-age but including some older persons and mothers with children, were about evenly mixed racially. The demonstration was peaceful and there were no incidents except for some heckling from bystanders.”4 Praising the NCCF efforts in resisting the police attempt at eviction , Fonda told the paper, “How can we smug white people say what black people should do? We have done nothing for centuries to stop the violence perpetuated against them.” She said she had been working with the Black Panthers nationally , raising money for their cause for about a year and a half. She called them a “disciplined organization.” The States-Item reported that from the demonstration, Fonda went to Loyola University’s Field House, where she told a large group that “Desire is a concentration camp where a reign of terror exists.” She said that the terror was being perpetuated by the New Orleans police, not by members of the NCCF. The next day, November 25, Fonda rented four cars from Hertz to transport the Panthers and their supporters to the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Washington D.C. Before they got out of town, they were stopped by the NOPD, and all were arrested. In a special edition on December 1, the NOLA Express reported: “The pretense at legality was very thin. The police thought, or at least would have the public think, that they captured a gang of ‘militants ,’ including the bulk of the NCCF chapter. In all, two members douBle dirty triCkS 120 of the NCCF were in the caravan. The other 23 arrested, including a mother of two, seven juveniles, and six whites, were proclaimed guilty of walking into the NCCF headquarters earlier in the day to sign some papers. For this they were charged with two counts of criminal trespass and one count of criminal mischief each.”5 Former intelligence officer Larry Williams remembered it this way during an interview with me in 20056 : “When Jane Fonda came to town, I was assigned to follow her around. She got nasty. She called me an Uncle Tom. She called me a sellout. She’d stop what she was doing. She’d point me out—‘cause...