-Fred Hampton was a black activist from Chicago – an extraordinary speaker, youth organizer for the NAACP.

-He joined the Black Panthers and shone so brightly that he was made chair of the Chicago chapter when he was only 20.

-He founded the Rainbow Coalition, which brought together Black and Latino activists and radical anti-poverty Catholics.  He forged an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them make peace and work for social change.

-In 1967, when he was just 19, Hampton was identified by the FBI as a “radical threat.” The FBI tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation to get the groups he’d drawn together to distrust each other, and getting an FBI plant next to him as a bodyguard.

-(This is part of an illegal FBI program called COINTELPRO, which aimed to paint black civil rights activists (among others) as violent and threatening.  If you’ve only seen pictures of the Black Panthers as armed and dangerous revolutionaries, and never heard of their children’s breakfast program, their community health clinics, or their “copwatch” patrols, this is why.   It’s because COINTELPRO was a highly successful work of political propaganda.)

-On December 3, 1969, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, and then several Panthers gathered at his apartment for a late dinner.  One of them was the FBI plant bodyguard, who drugged Hampton.

-At 4:45 AM on December 4, a squad of Chicago Police officers and FBI agents with a warrant to search for weapons stormed the apartment. Investigations later showed they fired between 90 and 99 times.  The Panther on security detail, Mark Clark, was holding a shotgun.  He was shot, and the gun went off into the ceiling.  This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.

-Fred Hampton, in another room, didn’t awaken.  He was shot in his bed.  Twice, in the head, at point-blank range.  He was 21.

-Four weeks after witnessing Hampton’s death, his finance Deborah Johnson gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr.  That’s him in the photograph, visiting the grave of a father who died before he was born.  A resting place riddled with bullets.

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  • Robert7301201@slrpnk.net
    21·
    4 days ago

    This is going to be harsh at first but bear with me. The reason you’re being treated like an NPC is because you’re acting like one. You copied that answer directly from ChatGPT, and from what I can tell didn’t put any original thought into it.

    You didn’t make that post, ChatGPT did and you let it use your name. I want to hear from YOU, the person who poured their effort into a post explaining themself and sharing their life experiences with us. It makes me happy that there’s other people I can connect and relate to about the struggles in life. That’s what I want from Lemmy. If I wanted pure information, I’d get an RSS reader. I want to hear how people’s thoughts and insights relate to their experiences.

    I don’t know what the role of AI should be. I recognize that AI often gets things right, but it also hallucinates with great confidence. I also have no way to prove if you or anybody else truly has a cousin that works in tungsten alloy. I do think there’s an inherent value in human anecdotes. They tell you about the person and can spark followup discussion. I could ask you about the tungsten alloy second hand market, and you might have an interesting story about how rich people love to flaunt giant blocks of tungsten, but then get bored and sell them. Those stories have value to me.

    I also recognize that AI can be a ton of fun to spit ideas with, but it’s not good on its own. Your ideas are what drives it. If you asked it for a estimate for if it was made of a titanium alloy as well, now you’ve added a bit of your own ideas to the discussion. We can build on that and discuss the merits of tungsten vs titanium. The questions you choose to ask is at least one way to express your individuality.

    The Lemmy community will gradually decide over time what the role of AI is. Right now, a lot of us fiercely attack any signs of AI in hopes of defending the human element. I’m sorry you were yelled at, and you don’t deserve to be treated like that. I respect your openness and the fact that you took time to write your reply.

    I hope you’ve found some value in my response and it connects to you on some level. I hope you continue to practice theater and it brings you joy.