During his 1984 presidential campaign, Reverend Jesse Jackson used unwise language in what he thought was an off-the-record media conversation. His words about “Hymietown,” a reference to Jewish power in New York, allowed Jews to attack him.
I say to you as intelligent people, sit down and talk with Rev. Jackson. Sit down, Jewish leaders, and talk with us. We are ready to talk with you. Sit down and talk like intelligent people who have a future at stake.
We are not making any idle threats, we have no weapons, we [don’t] carry so much as a pen knife.
Leave him alone. If you want to defeat him, defeat him at the polls. We can stand to lose an election, but we cannot stand to lose our brother …
He has spoken beautifully about the wonders and the gifts of the Black woman, in fact, all women, and why women must never be oppressed.
Huey P. Newton, national defense minister of the Black Panther Party, raises his clenched fist behind the podium as he speaks at a convention sponsored by the Black Panthers at Temple University’s McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 5, 1970. He is surrounded by security guards of the movement. The audience gathered is estimated at 6,000 with another thousand outside the crowded hall. AP Photo
While I don’t have many childhood memories of growing up in Baltimore, one experience had a major impact on my life and thinking. As a youngster, I visited the Black Panther Party headquarters in the city, probably with my aunts or mother, where I learned about Black history through Golden Legacy comic books, and saw Angela Davis, on a poster with her full-blown Afro, as the most beautiful woman in the world.
What struck me most were the powerful images of Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, as well as images of Newton with Bobby Seale standing outside a Panther office.
I read “Revolutionary Suicide,” comrade Newton’s autobiography first published in 1973, in my early teens. Later as a teenager I read the “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” who was an inspiration for the Panthers.
The work of the Panthers, holding political education classes to awaken Blacks, standing against police brutality, running lunch and breakfast programs, free health clinics, early testing for sickle cell anemia, programs to teach and train Black children about themselves, race and oppression in America and beyond, was phenomenal.
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Many have been inspired by the bold examples of the Panthers and infused some of their activity into modern struggle, from boycotts, to prison advocacy, to political education and organizing, health awareness and services, to video monitoring of police and organizing Black youth.
We should respect the Panthers for their courage, love and even their militant style, complete with black leather jackets, sunglasses and berets, but we must never forget their intense suffering and slaughter.
We must also do more than just remember and lionize these soldiers in the Black Power and Black liberation struggle. According to the Jericho Movement, Black political prisoners languish in federal and state institutions, including Panthers and revolutionaries jailed some 55 years ago.
“Six Black radicals have endured decades of incarceration because of their 1970s membership in the Black Panthers or its offshoot, the Black Liberation Army. In 2018, there were 19 such political prisoners (and who knows how many before then).
After being incarcerated for 40 to 50 years, the other 14 were either released, died in prison, or died shortly after release. (Assata Shakur escaped prison, in 1979, to Cuba where she lives under asylum. She is now 76.),” said the Jericho Movement, which fights to free these freedom fighters.
“It is generally understood that the crimes for which these prisoners were arrested and convicted were pinned on them and/or led to disproportionate sentences by officials eager to neutralize and punish these political activists. They are political prisoners,” said the Jericho Movement.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as Black Panther and Black revolutionary H. Rap Brown, is among these prisoners. We need to do more than quote him from 1967, “Violence is a part of American culture. It is as American as cherry pie,” or talk about him during Black History Month.
We need to act now to save him.
The family and supporters of Imam Al-Amin are fighting to get him emergency medical treatment through a transfer to a different federal prison, one with a hospital. He was an enemy of the state according to the FBI and the U.S. government and was targeted as such.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, on left, in prison. Photo courtesy of @_freeimamjamilInstagram
During the 1960s and 1970s, he chaired the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and organized for Black voting rights and against southern segregation.
A leader of the Black Panther Party, he demanded justice for Black and oppressed people and condemned U.S. evils at home and abroad.
After years of being hunted by federal authorities, local officials and prosecutors, he served five years in a New York prison, where he converted to Islam in the 1970s, taking the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
Upon release, he moved to Atlanta, setting up a mosque in the city’s West End and organizing against violence, prostitution, crime and supporting the gang truce and urban peace movement of the 1990s.
“As far as my father’s health goes, it is deteriorating relatively rapidly. We’re dealing with a situation now where we’re in real time watching the system murder my father,” said Kairi Al-Amin, who is the imam’s son and attorney, alongside Atty. Maha ELKolalli. They talked about his life and death struggle in late December during an online forum hosted by the Islamic Circle of North America.
In Atlanta, he was accused of fatally shooting one and injuring another Fulton County deputy while facing some minor charges. He was convicted in 2000 of murder, despite another man confessing to the crime, say supporters. The man matches the description that the surviving officer gave and has a bullet wound in his shoulder the surviving officer said they put in him, they add.
Though convicted of a state crime, the imam served time in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado through an agreement where Georgia pays to have state inmates housed in federal institutions. Pressure led to his being moved to a federal penitentiary in Tucson, where he is still held far from his family and suffers today.
The 81-year-old imam’s medical issues include cancer, problems with his eyesight, blood clots in his legs, using a walker and massive swelling in his face, Kairi Al-Amin explained.
“He had a baseball-sized knot in his face and I’m just glad we were able to get that picture out to the public because saying is one thing, seeing it is another. They claim that they took him to the hospital for that knot,” he continued. But after talks with his father in December, the son said Imam Al-Amin hadn’t seen a doctor since November.
“No hospital in America is going to see a human being walk in with a baseball on their face and tell them, ‘well, you should see another doctor in two months. Maybe they can do something about that.’
And that’s essentially what they’ve done to my father. Not essentially, that’s exactly what they’ve done to my father,” he added. Pressure from supporters moved the appointment with doctors up; it was supposed to happen in January.
According to his son and Atty. ELKolalli, the growth has increased, leaving the imam unable to eat solid food, unable to see out of one eye, and having difficulty hearing.
They are pushing for his transfer to a federal prison in Butner, N.C., which has a hospital. “We want him free because he didn’t do this. But we also have to make sure that while they are holding him, that he’s being cared for adequately and that also is not being done,” said Kairi Al-Amin.
“Unfortunately, you see that Cointelpro still lives; it’s alive and well and kicking. There are things that happen that you just kind of sit back and you say, ‘oh wow, this is interesting how this is playing out.’ This is really just a simple process of transferring this man to a hospital,” Atty. ELKolalli observed.
“We want to see an immediate transfer; we want to see immediate medical treatment. We want people to make the calls and send the emails,” she added.
Supporters of the imam are producing a documentary. It’s a fundraiser. The hope is the project will be completed by summer and ready for resubmission to Netflix or other streaming platforms.
For more information about the campaign or to support the documentary, “What Happened To H. Rap Brown,” visit freeimamjamil.com.
“Confusion among the heads of the government of the wicked is destroying the foundation of their world. ‘AS THOU HAST DONE SO SHALL IT BE DONE UNTO THEE.’ This World of the wicked has confused the Black Man’s world for six thousand (6,000) years. Now, their world must be removed to make way for a better world and the All-Wise Omnipotent God Is Able and Capable of Confusing us so that we will do the things that we would not do if we were free to exercise sanity of mind and wisdom.
“IN ALL of America’s confusion, which some may refer to as her dilemma—but her condition is beyond that word—this is a grievous confusion of the head officials.
“THE BASIS of this confusion is due to the injustice that the American White people has done to her Black once-slave. Her confusion is also due to her effort to thwart the Aims and Purposes of Almighty God, to Bring About the resurrection of the blind, deaf and dumb Black Man. Allah (God) Who Came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom Praises are due forever, Will Do the reverse and Make you (White America), blind, deaf and dumb in what you are trying to do for your own security.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Speaks, July 13, 1973
It has been less than a month since Donald J. Trump returned to the White House and he has kept some promises: Freeing 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists who fought police and tried to overthrow the 2020 election.
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Clearing out the leadership of the Justice Department and threatening FBI employees as part of his retribution. Halting spending and shutting down U.S. aid programs as well as offering federal employees a dubious buyout, which thousands have taken.
Moving to close federal agencies, like the Education Department, empowering billionaire Elon Musk to break government and conducting witch hunts to make sure federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are dead.
Pushing tariffs against Mexico and Canada that led to “concessions” in a policy that shook Wall Street. Going after immigrants, sometimes detaining U.S. citizens and Native Americans, and at times using military planes to remove people from the United States.
On the global stage, he made a major announcement Feb. 4, while hosting accused war criminal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump declared at a news conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” the president also said. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. will “own” Gaza, redevelop the area as the “Riviera of the Middle East,” and would use military force to accomplish his goals if necessary. It is estimated that just removing Gaza’s rubble, after decimating Israeli bombings, will take 15 years.
“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,” Mr. Trump said from the East Room of the White House. “This was not a decision made lightly.
Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” he added.
With his clear words dominating global headlines and news coverage, White House officials and supporters were “Trump-splaining” the next day, backing away from military intervention, America owning Gaza, the permanent removal of 1.8 million people and much of what the president said.
Confusion and anger rose in the Muslim world and among other nations.
There was even confusion inside the president’s party. “I thought we voted for America first,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on social media. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,” he posted on X.
The Democrats are confused about how to respond to the president and leader of the free world. They don’t know which way to go, which Trump challenge to address and how to appeal to White voters. They are lost, bereft of new ideas to solve serious problems the U.S. faces. Apparently not even Democratic strategists have found the magic political key.
Lawsuits were filed and federal courts held up some monarchical Trump dictates. Confusion grew. Were the president’s actions legal, would the Supreme Court get involved? What would that mean?
The American people are confused with politics dividing families, growing extremism and anger, economic uncertainty, personal insecurity and fear for the future.
Is any of this good for the United States? Does it bode well for her survival? Can she stop or check her fall? Can she end the confusion?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warn she cannot as God Himself is bringing her to ruin for her evil done to her once slaves and their children and evil perpetrated on the Indigenous people of this land.
“I APPEAL to you Black Brothers and Sisters, you should unite with me and enjoy heaven while you live, now, or suffer the consequences through the lack of the necessities of life,” wrote the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a July 1973 edition of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, which was published by the Nation of Islam.
“THE WORLD OF CONFUSION is breaking up with all kinds of disagreement between factors and factors. Take for instance—never has America had so many strikes. Everyone is against the other. If this is not a CONFUSED WORLD, then point out to me one that is more confused,” he continued.
“IN the government of America, there is nothing that is at peace in it. There is no agreement. Everybody is dissatisfied. Everybody is showing their dissatisfaction by disregarding the way that they have been going. Worker is against worker. Politician is against politician. —A CONFUSED WORLD, AMERICA.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Student National Assistant Minister Ishmael Muhammad delivers Saviours’ Day 2025 message titled, “Repent, For the Kingdom of God is at Hand.” Photo: Courtney X
The Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day usually concludes with a keynote address from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. This year there was a different speaker and a very poignant message.
His National Assistant Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, son of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, delivered words given to him from Minister Farrakhan.
Over the past year, Minister Farrakhan has not spoken at the instruction of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, observed Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad.
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We have seen Minister Farrakhan as a lovely song but haven’t acted on the words he taught, Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad continued. “Death is at the door now,” he said. The world is in a critical hour, he noted, delving into the subject Minister Farrakhan gave him:
“Repent, For The Kingdom Of God Is At Hand.” God is trying to save us from ourselves and what we have brought on ourselves, the punishment and wrath of God, Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad continued, in his Feb. 23 remarks.
Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an, the book of scripture of the Muslims, that if He were to punish humanity for their sins, not a single soul would be left alive on the earth.
Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad spoke from the packed sanctuary of Mosque Maryam. Thousands more listened in a huge temporary structure on the Nation of Islam property and overflow facilities on the grounds of The National Center, headquarters of the Nation of Islam.
When the people are off course, Allah (God) seizes them with distress and affliction that they might change and, out of His mercy, offers a grace period to allow them to change, he explained.
The world is being wracked by upheaval, unprecedented and deadly weather and crises, which is part of God urging change, Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said. God does not want to kill us, he added.
God offers us a grace period but when we have not taken advantage of that “grace period,” penalties accrue, he explained. “The grace period is up for us to correct our behavior confess our faults turn from our wicked ways and seek God’s forgiveness.” Next comes the consequences of our own actions, he warned.
Our focus must be on changing ourselves, not focusing on wrongs we perceive in others, he added.
The message was not just for common people. It was for leaders of governments and the nations of the earth. President Trump, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and global leaders are going to have to bow to the divine Supreme Being, Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said.
He spoke directly to Mr. Trump: “You can’t succeed the way you’re going, you’re full of yourself.” Mr. Trump, you must turn to God for protection from your faults because all are subject to the law of cause and effect, and none can hide from God, Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad warned.
Jonah was a miracle among the prophets because Ninevah, the rich and strategic city he was told to warn, was saved. The king came out in sackcloth and ashes and the entire city repented.
Before Jonah’s success, he ran away from his mission and was asleep on board a ship as a severe storm raged. Jonah confessed he was responsible for the storm and was running from God, said Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad.
The crew and captain reluctantly threw him overboard. Jonah was swallowed by a whale but after three days was released and went on to complete his mission to Ninevah.
“This nation is like a big ship and a storm is happening but we’re asleep, in the mancave, getting tipsy as the whole world is being rocked and God is rocking nations and countries, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad said the worst is yet to come,” said Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad.
The worst is yet to come? Yes. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been warning our people and the world to turn from evil and turn to Allah (God) for some 70 years.
His message given to Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad is a touchstone message in the history of Minister Farrakhan’s ministry, our people and the world. We must change and change now.
When we grow more and more recalcitrant in our sinful rebellion, we hasten God’s wrath against us. Our failure to submit brings us face to face with death.
Panelists and attendees pose for photo at event featuring a discussion about the Black Press in Chicago. Photo: Haroon Rajaee
“We wish to plead our own cause; For too long others have spoken for us, now we speak for ourselves.”—John Brown Russwurm and Samuel Cornish, Freedom’s Journal, 1827
The struggle for Black self-determination in the United States has been long, arduous and dangerous. Central to that struggle has been our need for information and the ability to define ourselves.
It led to the credo of the Black Press:“We wish to plead our own cause; For too long others have spoken for us, now we speak for ourselves.” These words were written byJohn Brown Russwurm and Samuel Eli Cornish, who established Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned newspaper in America, in 1827.
So, when I was invited by the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists to join a discussion about the Black Press in Chicago, I agreed to join the forum at Navy Pier.
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I was on a panel with Myiti Sengstacke Rice of Chicago Defender Charities, Melody Spann-Cooper of WVON-AM, and Noel Bentley of DePaul NABJ was our moderator.
Audience member asks a question during Black Press event held Feb. 27 in Chicago.
Chicago Defender Charities help support the newspaper, which is digital only. Ms. Spann Cooper is chair and CEO of Midway Broadcasting Corporation, whose flagship station is WVON-AM 1690, Black talk radio Chicago.
Both of these entities have incredible histories: The Chicago Defender, founded by Robert Abbott in 1905, helped drive the Great Migration of Blacks in the South to the North in search of brighter days that changed the country.
Spann-Cooper’s father made WVON into a powerhouse for Black news, thought, expression and action that reverberated throughout the Windy City and into the rest of the country. WVON went on air in 1963.
The Final Call started publishing in 1979 as the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan started rebuilding the Nation of Islam and has maintained longevity as an award-winning publication.
But times are hard now with some outlets closing. And, diversity, equity and inclusion which primarily benefited White women, just like affirmative action, is dead.
Like others, Blacks are in an “entrepreneurial” journalists’ space, working to capture their audiences, followers and their financial support. Since we are all in the position of “doing for self” perhaps we can work better together.
Corporations and companies are not our friends. You can have a strategic relationship, business relationship or personal relationship with them. But don’t ever confuse somebody who isn’t even your friend with somebody that loves you.
Robert Abbott and Pervis Spann loved Black people and wanted to see us progress and prosper. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has the mission of his teacher the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad to resurrect the mentally, morally, economically and spiritually dead Black man and woman. That is the mission of The Final Call.
From left, Myiti Sengstacke Rice of Chicago Defender Charities, Melody Spann-Cooper of WVON, and Naba’a Muhammad, editor-in-chief of The Final Call, were panelists at a recent Black Press event sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. Photos: Haroon Rajaee
Minister Farrakhan loves Black people and has devoted over 70 years of his life to our complete liberation and freedom, justice and equality. He has been under constant condemnation, attacks, lies and plots from the enemy. But he has never wavered in his commitment to us. He has only gotten stronger.
Black people need someone who loves them and who is eager to fight for them. This isn’t the time to be afraid or a sell out when our people are suffering, confused and under vicious assault from within and from without our community. Our people need help. Our people are brilliant, and our people are in the crosshairs of our enemies.
Minister Farrakhan once told me The Final Call is to be a watchman on the wall, scanning the horizon for threats or anything that could endanger our people.
Mainstream media today are not good watchmen. Many are bought out by corporations, biased, and afraid to seek and speak the truth as the country goes further and further into hell.
With mainstream media losing public confidence and trust, the Black Press isn’t dead if we do our job. Our job is serving the interests of our people. We are only a relic if we are out of step with the time, which requires building and acting based on our agenda and not someone else’s.
By Allah’s (God’s) Grace, The Final Call will outlive White outlets Blacks once took pride in working for.
Black buying power is projected to reach $1.98 trillion by 2025 and could reach $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion by 2030. The Selig Center for Economic Growth estimates Black buying power accounts for nine percent of America’s total buying power.
If we as a people focus on capturing our part of the trillions of dollars we spend, we have enough to sustain our operations and fund the survival of an independent Black nation. But we must be bold and constantly working to master what we do.
Capturing our niche of our market in order to serve our people must be what we are committed to. We don’t worship at the altar of the almighty dollar; the dollar is a tool used to preserve, protect and defend the people we love.
Supporters of the Pakistani religious group "Jamaat-e-Islami" chant slogans during a rally against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza, in Karachi, Pakistan Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Do you really think you can reason with murderers?
Israel broke the Gaza ceasefire, which was a cruel farce, and restarted its operations to destroy the Palestinian people in the enclave on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved with murderous impunity under the protection of President Donald Trump, who is unapologetic in backing Israel.
Per usual, after Netanyahu-directed slaughter, talk of “negotiations” with the accused war criminal has surfaced
“Since Israel resumed its scorched earth bombing of Gaza on March 18, which has killed more than 890 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, the U.S. and Israel have justified the horrors by blaming Hamas, saying the group’s negotiators had rejected a U.S.-drafted offer to extend the ceasefire,” reported Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News, a journalist whose independent news outlet has a presence on the Substack platform.
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“While this narrative dominated much of the Western news coverage surrounding the end of Phase One of the ceasefire deal on March 1, the reality is that this was a deliberate propaganda tactic pulled from Israel’s well-worn playbook of the past 17 months.
“From the start of the ‘ceasefire’ that went into effect on January 19, Israel repeatedly violated the terms by continuing to target Palestinians in Gaza, killing more than 130 during Phase One of the deal and preventing the delivery of the agreed-upon number of tents, mobile homes, fuel, and construction equipment.
Government officials in Gaza repeatedly accused Israel of allowing fewer aid trucks to enter the Strip than the agreed 600 per day. Israel also violated its commitment to begin the complete withdrawal of its forces from the Philadelphi corridor near the Egyptian border after the last exchange of captives on the 42nd day.”
According to Axios, “The U.S. gave Hamas a new proposal through Qatari mediators in an effort to release American hostage Edan Alexander and break the stalemate in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, one U.S. official and one Israeli official said.”
“ ‘Qatari mediators told Hamas that accepting the U.S. offer would likely lead to Trump pressuring Israel to resume full talks. A senior Hamas official, however, told Drop Site that the U.S. offer was not new.’
‘This was a proposal one month ago,’ the official said, adding that Hamas publicly announced its willingness to release Alexander as a gesture of goodwill and linking it to the continuation of negotiations. ‘Israel then broke the [ceasefire] agreement,’ he added,” according to Drop Site News.
Given the suffering of Palestinians, it is not hard to understand why Hamas might consider forging an agreement with people who never keep their agreements. Hamas will never, however, achieve peace and security with people who promise only to deceive.
“But who will pay for the killing of Palestinians, men and women, and children? Who will pay for the destruction of the Palestinian life and culture, and civilization?”
Asked the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in his Saviours’ Day 2024 address in Detroit, “What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
“Who will pay for that! They don’t think they are going to pay! And Netanyahu now thinks, like Pharaoh, he is God—and he talks to America like he is God.”
“God wanted me to say today what is said in the scriptures about Nebuchadnezzar.After I saw the war council, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad showed me, just the next night, in bold letters: ‘NEBUCHADNEZZAR.’
When I started reading about Nebuchadnezzar, he was a man who was so wicked, that God took out of him the heart of a human being and gave him the heart of a beast.
“Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family, and let it happen and not think of a humanitarian crisis? The crisis is not just what is happening to the Palestinians.”
In his message, Minister Farrakhan said, “Do you know that our Palestinian family, they don’t have strong friendship in the Muslim world. Why is that? Are we Muslims? Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, ‘You are not a Muslim if you don’t want for your brother what you want for yourself.’
Now, I know that the Muslim world feels the pain of the Palestinians, but they are afraid—afraid to stand. And from the rostrum, I am asking the Muslim world to stop fearing the consequence of standing.”
This is the Day of Judgment and the Master of the Day of Judgment is on hand. The evil-doers cannot and will not escape His hand. They will meet the destruction they have so richly earned.
As for the rest of us, as nations, and individuals we should fly to Allah (God), get on His side and stay there. The Holy Qur’an tells us those we deem powerful cannot call back a fly who steals a morsel of food from their plate. Weak are the invoker and weak are the invoked, it says.
Flags flown at half mast at the Chicago Police Headquarters in Bronzeville in honor of the two officers that were shot during a traffic stop in West Englewood, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
In a country where time is often spent majoring in minor things, issues that should be placed on an elevated level are ignored or neglected—and that neglect can have major consequences.
Consider a “pilot program” underway in Chicago that allows police officers in Englewood, a majority Black neighborhood, to arrest and charge people with felony gun possession crimes without the oversight of prosecutors.
Newly elected Cook County Prosecutor Eileen O’Neil Burke introduced the dangerous approach in a neighborhood that has suffered from police abuses and had Black lives destroyed as a result.
Cook County States Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke
She also introduced a program that demands trusting a police department where planting guns, evidence and forcing false confessions remain major problems and concerns.
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Chicago has a well-documented history of police torture and a police department already under a feckless federal consent decree that is supposed to ensure reforms. It hasn’t.
In Chicago, a “study of federal settlements from 2000-2023 shows the city paid out nearly $538 million in settlements and jury awards for wrongful convictions and nearly $138 million more for private outside legal fees,” ABC News 7 reported last year.
The nefarious new program was implemented in Englewood’s 7th Police District in January with no opportunity for public review. But residents and aldermen came out April 5 for a meeting with the district police commander and representatives of Ms. Burke’s office.
“There was no consultation between us, not from the state’s attorney’s office or from the 7th District commander whom we have a generally good relationship with and open communication,” said Dion McGill.
A member of the Chicago Police District Council in Illinois, representing District 7. He took office in May 2023. His current term ends in May 2027.
He is one of three elected councilors chosen as part of an attempt to bring accountability, work with police and get Englewood’s sentiment and feedback on programs and initiatives.
“Englewood has historically been one of the most overpoliced, over-surveilled, under-resourced communities in our city,” said Mr. McGill, in an exclusive interview the day after the community meeting.
“Englewood has consistently been a place where programs are tested and programs are piloted,” he said. “Another alderman actually made a point that the focus of this is guns. And she said, ‘Well, our gun crimes are down.
They’ve been down, and actually our gun crimes are actually lower than some of the other districts. So why didn’t you go there and pilot this program?’ ”
Instead of prosecutors reviewing body cam footage, police reports and approving charges, cops control the entire process with a police lieutenant deciding if charges are valid.
According to media reports, the program is expanding into the 5th Police District, whose residents are a little over 90 percent Black.
“The Cook County Public Defender’s Office opposes the expansion of this initiative. Strategies that focus solely on end users of firearms do little to address the supply or demand of firearms and often carry unintended and harmful consequences,” the office warned.
“Public safety must be pursued through strategies rooted in fairness, accountability, and due process—not through shortcuts that compromise the integrity of our legal system and increase the likelihood of harm to those we serve.”
Bolts, a non-profit that initially broke the story, noted, “Felony review is a first line of defense against unconstitutional stops and searches, flimsy evidence, and other deficiencies that could cause a case to be later thrown out.
After police make a felony arrest, they notify the Cook County prosecutor’s felony review division, where an on-call prosecutor examines each case to determine whether the charges are appropriate and whether they have sufficient evidence.
They might review body camera footage or police reports, interview the arresting officers, or even act like another detective on the case, helping police collect evidence and interrogate suspects.”
The state’s attorney’s office has said the change will put officers back on the street more quickly, instead of waiting for approval of charges from prosecutors. This logic, with a billion dollar police department and one of the major prosecutorial operations in the country, goes nowhere and cannot be trusted.
In addition, how can such power be vested in police in a city with a “reputation as the False Confession Capital of the country?” This is how Alexa Van Brunt, of the MacArthur Justice Center, described the Windy City.
If the program isn’t bad enough, Englewood may be the worst choice for a wrong approach.
In 2017, the “Englewood Four,” who were threatened and coerced into giving false confessions in a rape and murder, reached a $31 million settlement paid for by taxpayers. It is one of the largest settlements in Chicago’s history.
The four Englewood residents were wrongly convicted as teenagers. They served between 12 years and 17 years in prison.
Last year, a separate $50 million settlement was reached with four other Black males wrongly convicted as teenagers.
An attorney in that case said, “three of the officers involved in this case—James Cassidy, Kenneth Boudreau, and Frank Valadez—framed four other teenagers (the ‘Englewood Four’), including my client Terrill Swift, just nine months before the teens in this case were arrested. Yet these officers have never been held to account for stealing so many young lives.”
Even with the oversight of prosecutors, we have suffered massive injustice at the hands of police and prosecutors. In the Englewood Four case, a former prosecutor who broke with the office opened the door for their exoneration.
A Black woman, Kim Foxx, walked away from the county prosecutor’s office after being hounded by the mainstream media, the police union and others after being elected to introduce reforms. She may not have been perfect, but she tried to bring some balance to a grossly biased and imbalanced system. She’s gone now.
As Mr. McGill noted, Ms. O’Neil Burke ran on being tough on crime. “But if tough on crime means decimating communities, I’m not with it,” he said. “I think our carceral system is one of the worst messes known to humankind, and I think it needs to be reformed top to bottom.
So, if we can find ways to keep people out of it, reform, rehabilitate, and restore, and get them into the community to be productive citizens, I’m going to be in favor of that 100 percent.”
“We need third-party review of everything because of that lack of trust. Do I trust you, the state’s attorney? Do I trust the officers who’ve been known to do some nefarious things? Do I trust the judges who’ve been known in the past in Illinois to do some nefarious things?” he asked.
As a beginning, Mr. McGill wants a pause placed on the program in Englewood and a lot more discussion.
We cannot afford to be ignorant, apathetic or oblivious to what is happening around us. Our very survival is at stake, and we must take responsibility for ourselves.
That means organizing, working and actively protecting our communities, our children and our interests. We cannot depend on others for what we can and must do for ourselves.
Now, all of these wonderful men and women that are my helpers, they go through something to be a helper, you know? And everybody can’t take it, especially in a military-line organization.
The Nation of Islam: See, this is not any kind of “organization,” this is absolute military! And let me tell you something: You don’t need to be in any organization that’s not military. Christian family (you know the song): “Onward Christian Soldiers.” But how many Christians are really soldiers?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Paul (in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 6) was trying to get us to put on “the whole armor of God,” that we may be able to stand against the wiles of Satan. Satan is a wily beast. And if you don’t have on “the helmet of salvation.” … well what is meant by “helmet?”
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The blood of Jesus will put a “helmet” on your head because he is so wise. If you lived the life he taught you, studied the wisdom he gave you, (then you will be able to say): “Oh man, my helmet is on strong, man!” But you can’t play this “game” (called “life” without The Armor of God); so, you have to also put on “the breastplate of” what? “Righteousness.”
We love talking “God.” It’s nice. And we’re in the church, spiritually masturbating: doing things that make us feel good, but not living the life of Christ. If you don’t want to live the life that you preach, you’re no damn good. … Do you know it is righteousness that keeps you (“sustains you”) in a world like this?
Do you know why they hate The Nation of Islam? It doesn’t mean that we are righteous, but we are striving to be righteous; and if you strive to be better today than you were yesterday, you are putting on your breastplate of righteousness. Then you have “the sword of” what? “The Spirit [which is The Word of God].” (Ephesians 6:17)
“The sword of The Spirit”: What is “spirit?” It’s the energy of life itself! You can’t go to war and not have any spirit!
See, when you know God, The Knowledge of God takes the fear out of you. … Dear brothers and sisters, fear is your worst enemy. Fear chokes you; fear won’t release you to be the great man, the great woman, the great child, the great thinker. You can think beyond where you are, you can do bigger than what you are doing if only fear were removed from your hearts.
Satan distorts past and present truth of Jesus
Did you know that the biggest trick that Satan has pulled on the human family is his deceitful way he represented Jesus Christ? Please bear with me; we can go in a little deeper water, okay? Family, look at this: The enemy knew that Jesus was the man.
To all my Christian family, you’ve got the right man! You just don’t know yet how to properly represent him, because the enemy made you think 2,000 years ago was The Jesus you fell in love with. We, The Nation of Islam, know the true history of Jesus as taught by God Himself!
Jesus 2,000 years ago was not The Messiah, he was a prophet. He was the last prophet to the Jews. (“What Farrakhan?” Yeah, I’m coming strong now.) He was the last prophet to the “House of Israel”—the entire White race.
They were made to raise hell; everywhere they have gone, they have destroyed the peace of the human family. But they decided when they translated the Bible to make the work of The Messiah, which is so magnificent, instead of putting it in the right time frame.
They made us look 2,000 years ago, and that man was not The Messiah! In fact, he learned that he was 2,000 years too soon to end the civilization of the Jews. In the civilization of the Jews, they are the boss: this is their world.
“Oh wait a minute, I know a few Jews; they’re not … see now, he’s an anti-Semite.” Stop it. I am a truth-teller.
To my Mexican family: Why aren’t the real dark indigenous Mexicans in power? Look at South America. In practically every country the ruler is White, and he claims he is “Peruvian,” he is “Bolivian,” he is “Ecuadorian,” he is “Brazilian,” he is “Venezuelan,” he is “Columbian.”
But look at the country, and look at the dark people that are there. They never reach where their power would allow them to reach, but they are so masterfully manipulated by a memetic White man.
When I say a “memetic White man” (and brothers and sisters, you pay close attention to this point): A “memetic White man” is a White man that takes on, like a chameleon, the language, the culture, the history, the folk music of the place where he goes.
So, you have Mexicans, but they are Mexican Jews; they run the country. You have German Jews; Polish Jews; Ukrainian Jews; Russian Jews; Lithuanian Jews; Estonian/Latvian/Denmark Jews; Sweden/Norway/Finland Jews; you have Italian Jews; you have French Jews.
And everywhere they are, they take on the language, the culture, but they run the money; they run the business. When there is a Jewish holiday, everything gets silent. They are very wise people. So, Jesus was their last prophet.
Prophets don’t come because things are right. That’s like the sheriff visiting your house. What is he doing there? “Something is going on here,” that’s why the sherriff comes.
Well, when God sends a prophet, it’s not because you’re doing right, it’s because you’re doing something wrong that has stirred the anger of God, and now the prophet wants to warn you and correct you, to put you back on a right course.
So, Jesus, he was no “Jew.” See, we want them to challenge what we say—and you (scared-to-death Negro), just shut up and sit down—and tell them, “Come on out and meet Farrakhan in the public!” You can’t defeat Elijah Muhammad’s wisdom! I know you can’t!
I know all of you have Jewish friends. I’ve got some, too! But when you know them, and you are not afraid to say who they really are, they move to destroy you. I have a daughter who lives in Mexico. She was educated there and has a Jewish friend.
And I guess she was staying overnight, and so she decided to ask the girl, “Why is it that you don’t like Jesus?” And the little girl told her: “Because he called us devils.”
Now, a lot of you say: “Jesus did that? He said that?” Go back home and pick up your Bible; all right, scholars, theologians, come on, go get your Bible! Jesus: His mother Mary was an Egyptian woman, and Jesus was a member of the Black nation.
He came to warn the Jews that the end of their time was coming! He thought he was the one that was to end their civilization, and he found out he was 2,000 years too soon.
So, what did White folk do? They used Jesus’ name to shield a dirty religion under the holy and righteous name of a servant of God. Jesus never taught anywhere in the Black world—not The Jesus of 2,000 years ago.
The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement. “Can you prove that, Farrakhan?” Yes. See, the Jews have control over those agencies of government. … This enemy: he is so angry with Farrakhan, that now if you like me you have to either hide it (or lie about it), especially if you want advancement in the White man’s world. …
Why do they hate me with so much passion? Because Jesus, my brother, who was their last prophet, was 2,000 years too soon. I am on time.
