‘Rats cause riots’ defendants released: 1967
Jesse Gray, leader of a “rats cause riots” demonstration inside the U.S. Capitol, is shown August 7, 1967 after his release from jail on a disorderly conduct charge related to the “rats” protest.
To his left is Donald Weems (later Kuwasi Balagoon), also arrested and released. Weems would later gain fame as a Black Panther, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a New Afrikan anarchist and a defendant in the Panther 21 and Brinks robbery trials.
The demonstrators entered a House visitors’ gallery and began chanting “Rats cause riots!” in protest of the defeat of a bill that would have provided funds for rat control.
Police herded the group out of the Capitol building in a wild melee that resulted in eight arrests and three injured police officers.
At one point a male demonstrator screamed, “Kill me! Shoot me!” Captain L. H. Ballard of the Capitol police responded, “See if I don’t, you bastard.” Ballard reached for, but did not draw, his gun.
Before returning to New York, Gray threatened to “relocate” New York City rats to Washington, D.C. in protest. When organizing in New York in 1963, Gray had people bring rats “live or dead” to court proceedings and to city hall. The threat garnered widespread publicity—and fear—among Washington’s elite.
The backdrop to the action was that following the 1967 black uprisings in Detroit, Newark and other cities, a number of lawmakers moved to kill anti-poverty measures.
George Romney, governor of Michigan, said, “We ought to deal with these people on the basis of the laws of treason.” Another presidential hopeful George Wallace of Alabama scoffed at complaints of poverty saying a “firmer hand” is needed to stop rebellions. He added that the outbreaks were “downright lawlessness” and that, There’s no other reason, no other excuse”
Weems was born in Lakeland, Md. and attended Fairmont Heights High School in Prince George’s County..
He was acquitted along with all the other defendants in the New York Panther 21 case.
The Panther 21 were arrested and accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attacks on two police stations and an education office in New York City.
Among the 13 defendants who went to trial were Afeni Shakur (mother of Tupac Shakur), Lumumba Shakur, Ali Bey Hassan, Michael Tabor, Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, Jamal Joseph, Abayama Katara, Baba Odinga, Joan Bird, Robert Collier, Sundiata Acoli, Lonnie Epps, Curtis Powell, Kuwasi Balagoon, Richard Harris, Lee Berry, Lee Roper, and Kwando Kinshasa.
The trial eventually collapsed and the twenty-one members were acquitted of all charges.
Captured and convicted of other various crimes, he spent most of the 1970s in prison.
Balagoon escaped from prison several times, going underground and resuming Blackl Liberation Army (a successor organization to the “armed struggle” wing of the Black Panthers) activity.
He was finally captured and charged with participating in an armored truck armed robbery, known as the Brinks robbery in West Nyack, New York, on October 20, 1981, an action in which two police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady, and a money courier (Peter Paige) were killed.
Convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment, he died in prison of pneumocystis pneumonia, an AIDS-related illness, on December 13, 1986, aged 39.
While in prison, the openly gay Balagoon authored several texts. His writings that have become influential among black and other anarchists since first being published and distributed by anarchist prisoner support networks in the 1980s and 1990s.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskrYMxau
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
‘Rats cause riots’ defendants released: 1967
Jesse Gray, leader of a “rats cause riots” demonstration inside the U.S. Capitol, is shown August 7, 1967 after his release from jail on a disorderly conduct charge related to the “rats” protest.
To his left is Donald Weems (later Kuwasi Balagoon), also arrested and released. Weems would later gain fame as a Black Panther, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a New Afrikan anarchist and a defendant in the Panther 21 and Brinks robbery trials.
The demonstrators entered a House visitors’ gallery and began chanting “Rats cause riots!” in protest of the defeat of a bill that would have provided funds for rat control.
Police herded the group out of the Capitol building in a wild melee that resulted in eight arrests and three injured police officers.
At one point a male demonstrator screamed, “Kill me! Shoot me!” Captain L. H. Ballard of the Capitol police responded, “See if I don’t, you bastard.” Ballard reached for, but did not draw, his gun.
Before returning to New York, Gray threatened to “relocate” New York City rats to Washington, D.C. in protest. When organizing in New York in 1963, Gray had people bring rats “live or dead” to court proceedings and to city hall. The threat garnered widespread publicity—and fear—among Washington’s elite.
The backdrop to the action was that following the 1967 black uprisings in Detroit, Newark and other cities, a number of lawmakers moved to kill anti-poverty measures.
George Romney, governor of Michigan, said, “We ought to deal with these people on the basis of the laws of treason.” Another presidential hopeful George Wallace of Alabama scoffed at complaints of poverty saying a “firmer hand” is needed to stop rebellions. He added that the outbreaks were “downright lawlessness” and that, There’s no other reason, no other excuse”
Weems was born in Lakeland, Md. and attended Fairmont Heights High School in Prince George’s County..
He was acquitted along with all the other defendants in the New York Panther 21 case.
The Panther 21 were arrested and accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attacks on two police stations and an education office in New York City.
Among the 13 defendants who went to trial were Afeni Shakur (mother of Tupac Shakur), Lumumba Shakur, Ali Bey Hassan, Michael Tabor, Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, Jamal Joseph, Abayama Katara, Baba Odinga, Joan Bird, Robert Collier, Sundiata Acoli, Lonnie Epps, Curtis Powell, Kuwasi Balagoon, Richard Harris, Lee Berry, Lee Roper, and Kwando Kinshasa.
The trial eventually collapsed and the twenty-one members were acquitted of all charges.
Captured and convicted of other various crimes, he spent most of the 1970s in prison.
Balagoon escaped from prison several times, going underground and resuming Blackl Liberation Army (a successor organization to the “armed struggle” wing of the Black Panthers) activity.
He was finally captured and charged with participating in an armored truck armed robbery, known as the Brinks robbery in West Nyack, New York, on October 20, 1981, an action in which two police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady, and a money courier (Peter Paige) were killed.
Convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment, he died in prison of pneumocystis pneumonia, an AIDS-related illness, on December 13, 1986, aged 39.
While in prison, the openly gay Balagoon authored several texts. His writings that have become influential among black and other anarchists since first being published and distributed by anarchist prisoner support networks in the 1980s and 1990s.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskrYMxau
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.