Cointelpro Vs. Black Panther Party

4 Pages 1034 Words

Cointelpro, what was it? Was it an organization created for fear and

distrust the US government, or was it a government intervention? Basically

Cointelpro was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular upsurge,

which swept the country during the 1960's.

When breaking the law, for example, exposure, harassment, or

prosecution for political crimes were getting out of hand, that's when the

Cointelpro came in. The Bureau took the law into it's own hands and secretly

used fraud and force to protect political activity.

We found out about the Cointelpro thanks to a FBI office, which removed

the secret files and presented it to the media on March 1971. A big scandal

began, because of the lawsuits and requests of the public for bringing out new

information about it. To control all of this damage, Congress and courts

commanded to the FBI to reveal the other half of the information about it, and to

promise it would not do repeat their actions again in the future. Although most of

the info was stored back into the "secret files", some was copied from the

originals and publicized.

The Cointelpro worked by secretly instruct their field offices to propose

schemes such as: misdirect, discredit, disrupt or otherwise neutralize certain

individuals and groups. The most intense operations were directed against the

Black movement, basically the Black Panther Party. The Black community had a

lack of material resources to fight back, so the FBI and police (whites in general)

took this as an advantage. Many other activities that opposed US intervention for

racial, gender or class were also main targets under convert attack. There was

no limit to those who used physical force or took up arms.

Till today we ask ourselves what effect did this all have and did it ever

really end? Well, it had a big effect on society. It reinforced the weaknesses...