New Black Panther Party Charleston Rally: ‘This is War’

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — At a speech during a rally Tuesday night a block from the scene of the Charleston massacre of nine black churchgoers, New Black Panther ally Shaka Shakur treated the criminal attack as war, calling for “freestanding militias” to surround churches and claiming that alleged shooter Dylann Roof was a “solider” who “carried out his mission” after being trained and sent by others.

Shakur was introduced by New Black Panther Party leader Malik Zulu Shabazz, who started by contrasting his group with the forgiving, Christian attitude of many Charleston residents by saying that the Black Panther affiliated speakers are the “No Forgiveness Squad. The Death to our Enemies Squad.”

Shabazz introduced his “longtime comrade” Shaka Shakur, who drove from New York to speak at the event. Shakur was dressed in camo fatigues and wearing a patch with the green, black and red version of the American flag that’s been adopted by the Black Power movement against the traditional American flag.

Shakur made it clear time and again in his speech that Roof’s actions meant war.

Any time you can come into a church and murder people while they praying, that’s an act of war. That’s an act of war. I don’t care what religion you down with, I don’t care what, you should be surrounding these churches from now on with free standing militias. That’s what we need.”

Shakur went on to say, “You’ve got to patrol these streets and let these pigs know, look, if you want to do it that way, we’ll do it that way.”

Shakur explained why he believes the attack by Roof was a coordinated plan and why the time and choice of target were no accident.

Despite a lack so far of any evidence that Roof acted in concert wih anyone else, the theory comes up over and over again from the modern Black Power movement and has trickled down to a number of black citizens Breitbart News has spoken to. Last Thursday night an activist named Sista Solove said Roof “was sent” and suggested the police and the KKK were behind the shootings.

At Tuesday’s speech, Shakur said:

He wasn’t no murderer. He was a solider. He choose a side and he carried out his mission. When you gonna carry out yours?

It’s worth nothing that Shakur’s speech came about ten minutes after Shabazz had suggested that audience members “complete” the 1822 slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey, where the former slave had planned to kill as many white people as possible. When Shakur asked the crowd when they will carry out their missions, it came shortly after Shabazz told them, “We got to complete what Denmark didn’t finish. Denmark didn’t finish his mission.’

After Shakur asked the crowd when they will carry our their mission, he paused and laid out a theory that Roof was sent by an unnamed “they”:

Did you hear what I just said? Ain’t nobody brainwashed him. Nobody tricked him. They trained him. And when his training was ready and he was ripe, they sent him out to carry out the mission. Nobody chased him. They knew where he was going. They gave him enough time to get your affairs in order because you got to go in and take one for the team. So they pretended like they didn’t know where he was at so he could take care of his affairs.

Throughout his speech, the all black audience of about 250 was heard responding positively and enthusiastically.

Shakur concluded the talk about Roof being sent by others by saying, “This is a war, family.”