New, law-and-order Black Panthers open office in Trenton

TRENTON-Divine Allah sat on a red plastic chair inside a one-room efficiency apartment in Trenton, trying to explain the need for black militarism in one of New Jersey's poorest cities. In a little more than a month since opening a Trenton office, Allah, the party's national youth leader, has met with street gangs, held food drives and traveled to the storm-torn Gulf Coast and clashed with police over alleged harassment. Like its predecessor, the New Black Panthers are no new adversary to law enforcement. The original Oakland-formed Black Panther Party, which died out in the 1970s, rose to fame in the 1960s with armed, televised speeches claiming police brutality. But these are not your father's Panthers: The new generation black revolutionaries does not focus on Communist ideals. ``We deal with more African-centered programs,'' said Allah, who heads the Trenton office. He said the new party is concentrating its fight on combating homelessness, gang violence and a poor educational system within the black community. An American flag even flies outside the new Panthers' Trenton office. That's out of respect for the group's landlord, a veteran who Allah says was the only one in the neighborhood willing to rent to them. ``That's the one compromise we made because we saw the brother had a heart,'' he said. A splinter group of the Nation of Islam, the new party made national headlines in 1998 when then party's founder, Khalid Muhammed, rallied an armed group of new Panthers to Jasper, Texas. The Panthers were prepared for a fight following the murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man killed when three white men dragged him from a truck, decapitating him. The new organization has 41 chapters around the world, including London and Germany. In New Jersey, the party has its state headquarters in Newark and the new Trenton office. Allah acknowledges the party's new brand of militarism, which includes anti-Semitic rhetoric and demands that public school systems ``stop teaching white supremacy to black children,'' has the caused it to be denounced as a racist group. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the new Panthers as a hate group, placing it in the same category with the Ku Klux Klan. Zachary Chester, president of the NAACP's Trenton chapter, said his organization does not support the group. Even some members of the original Black Panther Party, including founder Bobby Seale, have publicly criticized the new group. They filed a lawsuit several years ago to stop the new party from using the original group's name. But Allah, a 32-year-old car service driver who bears a striking resemblance to Black Panther founder Huey Newton, said the New Black Panther Party dismisses the criticism. Allah says the NAACP and others represent a black leadership that is too conciliatory toward white politicians and has turned its backs on poor black communities across the country. ``The Southern Poverty Law Center and the NAACP say we're racists, but they don't have to live with this right here, with bodegas on every corner,'' Allah said. ``We are militant and we hate oppression. But how can they say we're a hate group?'' Allah said the group's greatest struggle has not been fighting the ills of the inner-city. Instead, he said, the new Panthers are battling alleged harassment by local police. Allah has accused police of assaulting a local resident after the man questioned officers who were allegedly harassing several of its members outside a local nightclub. Police refused to comment, saying an investigation is under way. Once Trenton's national youth delegate, Allah was raised in the Donnelley Houses, a public housing project in North Trenton. ``I went to Catholic school,'' he said. ``I was a little preppie boy in a suit jacket.'' Allah became disillusioned with black community leaders during a youth delegation trip to Washington. He soon defected and was elected chair of the new Panther's Newark-based state chapter in 1997, quickly making a name for himself as an outspoken advocate in the community. He declines to say what his birth name is, calling it a slave name. ``I've met Bill Clinton and George Bush and Colin Powell. I thought we were going to talk about what's happening in our communities, about the drugs, about how people are starving,'' Allah said. ``A lot of my friends are dead or locked up or trying to get it together. But it was just a photo op.'' While the group's battle with police continues, the new Panthers say they have more pressing concerns. Hurricane Katrina and the government's response time in aiding poor and black communities on the Gulf Coast is ``one of the best examples to prove that racism still exists all over the world,'' he said. ``Now people shouldn't be surprised when they hear us say things,'' Allah said. ``The black Holocaust is still going on right now.''