HOUSTON, Texas – A Texas Black Panther leader claims the shouts at a recent protest of “off the pigs” were not threats to kill cops, but rather were calls for the police to stay out of black neighborhoods. The comment came during an airing of Houston based Fox 26’s Isiah Factor Uncensored in response to a Breitbart Texas video that caught a group of heavily-armed Black Panthers shouting “Off the Pigs,” and “Oink Oink … Bang Bang!”
Fox26 News’ Isiah Carey hosted a discussion between Yahcanon, the president of the local New Black Panther’s Party and Breitbart Texas political news contributor Bob Price regarding the Sandra Bland protest last week at the Waller County, Texas, jail.
Carey started the show by saying it was about “a story that blew up my Facebook and Instagram pages.” He noted that Breitbart Texas was in the “front and center” at the protest and that Bob Price was with his camera, “all in their faces, getting video.”
Carey said, “What upset so many people in the community – we showed video and posted a picture of the New Black Panther Party walking around with their assault rifles and they were sending a definite message to the people of Waller County and the law enforcement out there.”
Sandra Bland is the woman who was arrested in Waller County after an altercation with a Texas trooper where he brandished a Taser and told her, “I’ll light you up.” Bland allegedly assaulted the trooper by kicking him several times in the leg. The case has received national attention after she was found dead in her cell after spending three days in the jail, as reported by Breitbart Texas. An autopsy ruled she committed suicide.
The “Minister of Information,” and president of the local New Black Panthers Party, Yahcanon (pronounced “yak-a-nan”), led the Black Panthers as they marched in the street in front of the jail chanting – “Whose streets?… Our streets!”
Many of the members of the group were armed with shotguns, hunting rifles, and AR-15 style assault rifles.
Most looked like they were simply holding their weapon; however, one of the Black Panthers took an aggressive grip on his weapon holding his rifle with his finger indexed slightly above the trigger.
During one of the chants the group shouted in a back and forth marching style cadence song:
The revolution is on, said the chant leader. Off the pigs, the group chanted back. The chant continues, Time to pick up the gun … Off the pigs. No more pigs in my community… Off the pigs. No more brothers in jail … Off the pigs. No more sisters in jail … Off the pigs. The pigs are gonna get scared … Off the pigs. The pigs are gonna get dead … Off the pigs.
In another chant, the leader attacked Planned Parenthood. He said, “We’re so stupid we are killing ourselves.” He talked about the millions of black babies who have been killed by abortions at Planned Parenthood.
While on the show, Price said, “When you are telling, saying very strongly that you want to kill police officers. I don’t see how that helps anybody. I don’t see how that helps the next young black man, the next young black woman, that is stopped by the police officer who is going to be even more on edge now, because he does not know who is in that car. I don’t see how that helps at all.”
Yahcanon replied, “Well, that is totally not true, we never said anything like that.”
Price challenged the Black Panther president saying, “You said, ‘Off the Pigs. Off the Pigs.’ Repeatedly, ‘Off the Pigs.'”
Yahcanon said, “Well, that’s the difference between white America, and black America. You know, we all say things sometimes that doesn’t quite mean that, so you have to sit down and get an understanding exactly what we are talking about.”
He said, “When we say ‘Off the Pigs,’ we want the pigs out of our communities, harassing our people. We don’t want to kill anybody, we are peaceful people … We are not the ones here because we went and did anything wrong to somebody… It is because of what somebody else did to us in our communities.”
Price came back on his point again and said, “But before that you said, ‘Off, Off. Bang. Bang’. …How am I supposed to interpret that? More importantly, how is a police officer supposed to interpret that statement?”
When asked, Yahcanon replied, “Well, we don’t care about how police officers interpret anything. We want police officers to quit killing unarmed black people. That’s what we want them to do.” Price replied that he did not want police officers killing any unarmed people.
Carey asked Yahcanon about what he thought about white Americans labeling his organization as a hate group similar to the KKK.
The Black Panther leader replied, “The media is the fourth branch of government and they push the agenda of this country. To paint everything that is positive in the black community in a negative light. To keep everything off-set.”
Yahcanon told the journalist that his group is a political party and he said that people are not educated because they do not sit down and talk with us. He said, “You have the Democrat Party, the Republican Party, the Tea Party, and you have the New Black Panther Party,” and asked, “How is that a hate group?”
Carey asked the Black Panther leader how he thought the media was misleading the public when the media just reports what it sees.
Yahcanon replied that the media needs to uncover the history of the Black Panthers and “what the Department of Justice and its own government has done to these people.” He said the media needs to go back and cover what happened to Black Wall Street when they are being attacked. He said they just try to live peacefully, and every time they try to do so, KKK members, members of the government, or the National Guard are called in. He said, “We are a peaceful people.”
Carey asked Yahcanon about the weapons they were carrying in Waller County. He said we have all seen the Oathkeepers in Ferguson.
He also said he saw so many hatemongers on his Facebook page, and that he was surprised by all of the Hispanics using the “N-word.”
Yahcanon said that Hispanics are striving to emulate the European community because that is what you need to do in this country to succeed. They think they can make it by hating us, he said.
Black Panther Party’s Yahcanon and Breitbart Texas’ Bob Price discuss march in Waller County. (Photo: Breitbart Texas/Lana Shadwick)
Price said he takes exception to the term and told the Black Panther leader that he would like to talk to him about the things they agree upon, about Planned Parenthood killing black babies, and about the crimes against the black community that have taken place because of the government.
Price said perceived violent threats make it hard to sit down and have a meaningful discussion.
Yahcanon retorted, “We are through having conversations with people that hate us. We have been through the civil rights movement, we have been through the Voting Rights Act, we asked for dashcams, then we asked for Tasers, then we asked for body cameras. All we are doing is continuing to show people actually what is going on. Conversations are not getting it. We been here at the table … It’s treating knowledge of the enemy. We are just not with that anymore.”
Black Panther Party’s Yahcanon (L), Breitbart Texas’ Bob Price (C) and Fox 26’s Isiah Carey (R) discuss march in Waller County. (Photo: Breitbart Texas/Lana Shadwick)
Isiah Carey is the host of a new Fox 26 Houston show, the Isiah Factor Uncensored. The show is aimed at bringing a lively debate about the news into a community setting. The show is broadcast live every Friday at 9:30 p.m. from the L.A. Bar and Ragin Cajun restaurant near Houston’s Galleria.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served Texas as a prosecutor and an associate judge. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2