"An awful lot of the black panthers platform was around be allowed to protect their community from a marauding government. sound familiar?"
Yeah, sounds an awful lot like equally unacceptable fanatical groups devoted to holing up in compounds, tattooing crooked crosses on their faces, or heckling mourners. None of these extremists is particularly sympathetic to anyone hoping to live in a cohesive civilization. Defense is one thing, offense quite another. The Panthers formed from and played at the former, but were rightly infamous for the latter (though that aspect
was played up greatly by the press).
What I take issue with is that the "rap sheets" aren't what are used --rightfully so if truly the case-- to lock dangerous people up, and instead 'shortcut' laws are made to circumvent previously agreed-upon covenants on acceptable behavior to persecute the undesirables of the moment. Lots of unintended consequences when you operate that way. If the Panthers really are raping and pillaging the town, why not bring them in on that? If they really are just following officers around armed as the law had allowed them to do to monitor their activities around sympathetic protests, as the law had allowed them to do? What is the problem
in that instance? And if there is none, why make a law prohibiting that acceptable behavior?
"I have many friends on the police force and they all describe the Black Panthers in this area the same way: a gang with a Facebook page"
1) What gang
doesn't these days?
2) I'd bet an awful lot of cops feel the same about any organized political group of armed men*
"The NRA has come a long way from its racist upbringings."
Elaboration? I mean, it was formed by a bunch of white guys as opposed to black guys, but that doesn't necessarily equate to racism. I've never seen anything suggesting that was ever the aim or purpose uniting the organization. Honestly, their repugnant endorsement of the ban on open carry in CA was probably a protest of widespread societal turmoil as much as anything uniquely racial. Especially seeing how even-handed the organization was in many instances in the deep Jim Crow south at that time and historically.
I think what really gets lost in all this is how the notion of organized armed men weighs on the powers that be, like the Bonus Army and numerous other similar incidents. In every one, some very terrified politicians made very short-sighted and unconstitutional decisions in the name of the common good to better protect their sorry butts. Whether you think the BP protests (alone) were legal, it is foolish to ignore the impact they had.
The state's/nation's governments were
transfixed on these terrifying black men wielding power equal to the police; regardless of history or politics, it should be a chilling reminder just how
effective a deterrent the RKBA is at controlling governmental behavior. The lesson should be had to use that influence to illicit a desired response, rather than a panicked response that ultimately benefits no one.
TCB
*I say 'armed men' simply because I'm unaware of a protest movement or major conflict involving dissident armed
women. For all I know, the reaction would be different. Armed
men have a very direct connotation; soldiers and war, which bring up very primal responses in people.
