Setting Blacks Against Each Other
Although the claimed purpose of the Bureau’s COINTELPRO spying operation on Black leaders was to prevent violence, some of the FBI’s tactics against the BPP were clearly intended to foster violence, and many others could reasonably have been expected to cause violence. For example, the FBI’s efforts to “intensify the degree of animosity” between the BPP and the Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago street gang, included sending an anonymous letter to the gang’s leader falsely informing him that the Chicago Panthers had “a hit out” on him. The stated intent of the letter was to induce the Ranger leader to “take reprisals against” the Panther leadership. In Southern California, the FBI launched a covert effort to “create further dissension in the ranks of the BPP.” This effort included mailing anonymous letters and caricatures to BPP members ridiculing the local and national BPP leadership for the express purpose of exacerbating an existing “gang war” between the BPP and an organization called the United Slaves (US). This “gang war” resulted in the killing of four BPP members by members of US and in numerous beatings and shootings.
Harassing Interviews
The FBI also resorted to anonymous phone calls. The San Diego field office placed anonymous calls to local BPP leaders naming other BPP members as “police agents.” According to a report from the field office, these calls, reinforced by rumors spread by FBI informants within the BPP, induced a group of Panthers to accuse three Party members of working for the police. The field office boasted that one of the accused members fled San Diego in fear for his life. The FBI conducted harassing interviews of Black Panther members to intimidate them and drive them from the Party. The Los Angeles office claimed that similar tactics had cut the membership of the United Slaves (US) by 50 percent.
