PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - November 4, 2008 - Just after 12:00
noon, Fox News reported that two Black Panthers were at one location in
Philadelphia, guarding the doorway to a polling station. One carried a
nightstick and confronted a citizen who had gone into the polling place. That
citizen called police. The citizen reported that police removed the Black
Panther with the nightstick, but the other, who lives in the area, remains near
the door.”
The New Black Panther Party said yesterday it would send its members out to the polls to ensure its interests on Election Day.
Minister Najee Muhammad, national field marshal for the New Black Panther Party, and Uhuru Shakur, local chairman of the Atlanta chapter of the party, took turns reading statements from Dr. Malik Shabazz, leader of Black Lawyers for Justice and attorney for the party.
“We will not allow some racists and other angry whites, who are upset over an impending Barack Obama presidential victory, to intimidate blacks at the polls,” said Muhammad. “Most certainly, we cannot allow these racist forces to slaughter our babies or commit other acts of violence against the black population, nor our black president.”
Muhammad added, “We must organize to counter and neutralize these threats using all means at our disposal. This is a great time for our people, and we must ensure that peace prevails for our people.”
Shakur said the New Black Panther Party does not hate white people, but it does not like racist white people who try to harm the black community.
Shakur added, “We warn you, leave Barack Obama alone and leave our babies alone because black people are a spiritual people and a people who are trying to do right, and we will not hesitate to take up our legal rights of self-defense.”
Shakur said the New Black Panther Party believes the plot that was foiled in Crockett County was not an isolated incident and that the party will do what it can to protect members of the black community on Election Day.
“We will be at the polls in the cities and counties in many states to ensure that the enemy does not sabotage the black vote, which was won through the blood of the martyrs of our people,” he said.
As members of the New Black Panther Party said “Black Power,” Andrew Chirwa, an Alamo resident and native of Malawi in Southern Africa, urged everyone at the press conference to shout “Black Power” together.