Even at my young age, I was aware of the community's indignation at the news that Chicago's cops had murdered Fred Hampton. People weren't exactly shocked. Hadn't Martin Luther King Jr, been murdered a year earlier? Hadn't Malcolm X been murdered three years earlier? Anyone who openly championed self-empowerment of an oppressed population received a prison sentence or a bullet. Because Chicago Police Department had carried out the assassination, it was within the realm of possibility that the United States Government had a hand in the murder. At the same time, the CPD went on a rampage, arresting those they believed associated with the Black Panther Party. I recall how a gnawing fear threaded its way through the community. If you openly supported the Black Panthers, then the cops painted a target on your back.
Memories of that period convinced me to purchase a copy of Jeffrey Haas' "The Assassination of Fred Hampton." As a lawyer for the Hampton family, Haas challenged Ed Hanrahan (the State's Attorney who organized the murder), members of the CPD (who carried out the hit), and members of the FBI (who relayed the orders that the hit must take place). CPD had no intention of admitting they carried out an assassination. In his book, Haas relays his battle to win the case against homicidal law enforcement personnel supported by judges who seemed as hostile toward the lawyers who represented the BPP as they were hostile toward the BPP, and unethical lawyers who acted as though no behavior was too low in their defense of the cops.
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