I saw the Stanley Nelson's The Black Panthers: vanguard of the revolution documentary last night, and thus have the police death squads of the 60s and 70s on my mind.
In the case of the murder of Fred Hampton, the D.A., Hanrahan, who gave the orders that lead to the "raid" on Hampton's apartment by that act ruined his career. Hanrahan was being groomed by the Daley machine to become mayor of Chicago. He didn't. He did become a defendent in a trial for conspiring in the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. The trial took place before a Daley-ish judge named Perry. Perry basically used his power as a shield for Hanrahan. The trial ended in a hung jury. Judge Perry then fined, actually fined, the plaintiffs.
But the People's Law office wasn't through. They appealed. The appeals system worked slowly, but in the end, this happened (from the People's law office site):
"In April 1979, the Seventh Circuit issued its opinion in Hampton. In a landmark decision authored by Judge Luther Swygert, the court reversed Judge Perry’s entry of directed verdicts, found there to be substantial evidence of a conspiracy between the FBI, Hanrahan, and the police to murder Fred and destroy the Panthers, found that the FBI had obstructed justice by suppressing 200 volumes of documents, and reversed the contempt citations against Flint and Jeff. Soon thereafter, Judge Swygert received a “Right on Luther” tee shirt, compliments of the People’s Law Office.
After the case was sent back to the District Court for trial it was assigned to a new judge. Utilizing the powerful Court of Appeals decision, we sought sanctions against the defendants for their obstruction of justice and fabrication of a second informant, complete discovery, and enforcement of the Court of Appeals’ finding that our evidence had proven a conspiracy among the defendants. Given these new realities, in 1983 the City, County, and FBI combined to provide a $1.85 million settlement."
Now,we will see how serious the opposition to Trump[ is. Will ICE agents and their command end up in court? I think a very good case could be made against them, particularly in the Abrego Garcia case. The Dems in Congress are much too chickenshit to stop the birth of our incipient Gestapo. Maybe, though, some law firm out there might try their hand.
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