You're listening to an AirWave Media Podcast.

This episode contains language, imagery, and depictions of racial violence.

Please listen with discretion, pause the episode and come back if you need to,

and take care of yourself. The immediate, violent, criminal reaction of the

occupants in shooting at announced police officers emphasizes the

extreme viciousness of the Black Panther Party. After a 50-minute gun battle that

caused Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton his life,

Sergeant Gross described the braid as 50 minutes of hell and a miracle,

a miracle because not one policeman was killed, a miracle because not more

policemen were shot. The words of the FBI of Hoover's memo which was sent to

every FBI office in the country that had in a major city that had a Black Panther

chapter was, we must prevent the rise of a Messiah who could unify and

electrify the Black masses.

It's a cold night on Thursday, December 4th, 1969. At 2337 West Monroe Street

on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, a people's gas truck pulls up on the

street ominously and randomly. 14 plain closed police officers

emerged from this truck and they aren't empty handed. With them in tow,

they have pistols, a shotgun, and a machine gun. But perhaps the most important

thing that they had was a detailed map of their target location.

That a map of the apartment where members of Chicago's Black Panther Party

were sleeping, including Chairman Fred Hampton.

I'm Andre and this is the Redacted History Podcast.

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