PART II: Listing of Justice Department Report on BLA Activity from January, 1972 - January, 1976 "On the Black Liberation Army"
1972:
January 12. Houston, Texas - Members of the BLA are charged
June 6 for shooting and wounding of the off-duty Housing Police detectives.
January 19. Philadelphia, PA. - Two BLA members are arrested with two suitcases containing guns.
January 27. New York City - In the morning two patrolmen notice a car going through two red lights; when they approach to ask for a driver's license, the driver starts shooting; one patrolman is seriously wounded ... In the evening, two policemen, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, shot in the back by at least three persons; four suspects in the case are members of the Black Liberation Army; one suspect is later killed in a street battle with St. Louis police; the recovered pistol matches Laurie's.
February 16. St. Louis, Mo. - A Black Liberation Army member, tied to shooting of Foster and Laurie, is killed in a gun battle with police; two others are arrested.
May 10. Columbia, S.C. - Four BLA members arrested with guns.
August 8. Newark, NJ - BLA member who escaped after shooting sergeant and patrolmen on April 19, 1971, is captured.
September 9. Brooklyn, NY - Three BLA members, including one who escaped from DeKalb County, Ga. jail are arrested.
October 7. Los Angeles, Calif. - Police car bombing claimed by Afro-American Liberation Army.
December 28. Brooklyn, NY - An owner of a bar is kidnapped by the BLA and held for $20,000 ransom.
1973:
January 2. Brooklyn, NY - During the robbery of a social club, BLA members shoot and kill a victim.
January 10. Brooklyn, NY - After being confronted on a subway station by a patrolman, a BLA member fires a shot and escapes into the tunnel.
January 12. Brooklyn, NY - Two Housing detectives are shot in front of a bar after stopping two BLA members.
January 23. Brooklyn, NY - Two wanted BLA members are shot and killed by members of New York City police department after they are trapped in a bar. Two detectives are wounded.
January 25. Brooklyn, NY - Two patrolmen brothers assigned to same car are machine gunned by the BLA.
January 28. Queens, NY - Two patrolmen on patrol are machine gunned by BLA members, who escape.
February 9. Bronx, NY - Members of the Black Liberation Army robbed a bank.
February 23. Brooklyn, NY - Two BLA members are arrested with a carload of explosives.
March 2. Brooklyn, NY - A group of BLA members, stopped by officers looking for a robbery suspect, engage the officers in a gun battle.
March 6. Bronx, NY - Three BLA members are recognized by two detectives, and engage them in a gun battle. BLA members are joined by two more and escape by stealing a car and machine gunning a police radio car.
March 27. Brooklyn, NY - BLA members rob a supermarket.
April 10. Queens, NY - BLA members rob a bank.
April 12. Brooklyn, NY - Two telephone company men are held at gunpoint by the BLA when they are suspected of being police. They are told that they would be killed if they have guns, radio or shields.
May 2. New Jersey Turnpike - Members of the BLA are arrested after a shoot-out; one State patrolman is killed, one is wounded; one BLA member dies, the driver; one escapes, but is subsequently captured in East Brunswick, NJ.
May 19. Mount Vernon, NY - Two policemen are shot when they stop three BLA members pulling a stick-up.
June 5. New York City - A transit detective is killed when he stops two BLA members from entering without paying. Before he died he shot both of them; one is captured, and the other escapes.
June 7. Brooklyn, NY - A BLA member is captured by New York City police and FBI.
June 8. Brooklyn, NY - Two other BLA members are captured.
July 18. Bronx, NY - BLA members rob a bank.
September 2. New Orleans, La. - Members of New York City police department, New Orleans police department and FBI capture a BLA member.<
September 27. New York City - BLA member is charged with the murder of Patrolman Foster and Laurie; he escapes from King's County Hospital, but is captured on October 3.
November 7. New York City - BLA member is arrested as he attempts to turn himself in for being absent leave from the Army.
November 14. Bronx, NY - Members of the Black Liberation Army are slain after three years of pursuit by police; this member is the seventh BLA member to die in police shoot-out, 18 others have been arrested.
December 27. New York City - Three BLA sympathizers are caught attempting to free BLA members from the Tombs when police see one of them emerging from a sewer manhole two blocks away, outside the corrections department design and engineering unit that house blueprints.
1974:
April 17. New York City - The Tombs, four BLA sympathizers, armed with two hand-guns and acetylene torch attempt to free three BLA members; they flee when the torch runs out of fuel.
May 3. New York City - After failing to release prisoners at the Tombs, BLA members flee to New Haven, Connecticut where they rob a bank and shoot a policeman. Three are captured, others escape.
June 2. New York City - BLA members attempt to shoot two policemen on the Delaware Bridge, and are arrested; they have a large supply of guns.
August 5. Brooklyn, NY - A female is arrested after attempting to smuggle hacksaw blades to BLA prisoners.
August 15. Brooklyn, NY - One BLA member escapes, one is shot, and a third gives up after an escape attempt. The escapee is captured a few blocks away.
October 20. Connecticut State Prison - A white female is arrested trying to smuggle a gun to BLA prisoners.
1975:
February 17. Rikers Island, NY - BLA members subdued by guards after getting the keys (with a wooden knife as a weapon) from a guard; police receive a telephone call soon after the incident saying that five men armed with shotguns, one in wetsuit, are setting off in three rafts; one raft is found with a map, a set of oars, swim fins, (3) three .38 caliber bullets, and 9mm bullets.
May 25. Brooklyn, NY - A Black Liberation Army member falls to his death in an escape attempt; a second member is recaptured near the prison; two other BLA members return to their cells after the one fell.
1976:
January 19. Trenton, NJ - At Trenton State Prison, there is an 11- hour shooting rampage; an inmate was killed in the opening exchange of gunfire, was one inmate who began the incident by shooting a guard in an escape attempt; another inmate who instigated the incident, was convicted of murdering a State Trooper in a shoot-out between BLA members and police on the New Jersey Turnpike; inmates threw a homemade grenade at police and guards as they rescued a wounded guard.
The names of Comrades mentioned in these police reports have been omitted, as some are no longer functioning in the same capacity, imprisoned or dead. It is our policy not to reveal the names of Comrades who have acted within our organizational underground formations.
The defensive-offensive launched in 1970-71 politico- military initiatives was based upon the degree of repression suffered in the Black community due to COINTELPRO police attacks. The politico-military policy at that time was to establish a defensive (self-defense) front that would offensively protect the interest of the above-ground political apparatus aspiration to develop a mass movement towards national liberation.
Again, it must be stated that in the early seventies, the Black underground was the armed-wing of the above-ground BPP, which because of the split and factionalism prevented adequate logistics, and communications between cadre(s) and focus in the Black underground in various parts of the country.
It was this situation which caused the greatest problem to the advent of the Black Liberation Army, upon which the commencement of armed struggle could be said to be premature. Premature in the sense that subjectively, our capacity to wage a sustained protracted national liberation war was not possible.
This was due to the split in the above-ground political apparatus, the Black underground still depending on the above-ground for logistics and communications; the Black underground comprising of militants who had not grown to political maturity, and without a politico-military structure and strategy to merge the Black underground into a national formation employing both stable and mobile urban and rural guerilla warfare, in conjunction with the rising militancy of the oppressed masses. In the same regards, the objective reality for armed struggle was present, that being a historical transition evolving from the civil rights movement, the riotous 1960s, the creation of the BPP chapters in Black communities across the country of which fought bravely against police attacks, the mass mobilization in support of the Vietnamese national liberation war, etc. Hence, the commencement of armed struggle by our forces was according to the development of history.
By late 1971, it was ordered for the black underground to enter a strategic retreat, to reorganize itself and build a national structure, but the call for the strategic retreat for many cadres was too late. Many of the most mature militants were already deeply underground, separated from those functioning with the logistics provided by BPP chapters who in the split served to support armed struggle. The repression of the State continued to mount, especially now that the Black underground was hampered by internal strife with the loss of the above-ground political support apparatus (with virtually no support coming from existing Black community groups and organizations).
It should be stated, a major contradiction was developing between the Black underground and those Euro-American forces who were employing armed tactics in support of Vietnamese liberation struggle.
By 1973-75, this contradiction became full blown, whereby, specific Euro-American revolutionary armed forces refused to give meaningful material and political support to the Black Liberation Movement, more specifically, to the Black Liberation Army. Thereby, in 1974, the Black Liberation Army was without an above-ground political support apparatus; logistically and structurally scattered across the country without the means to unite its combat units; abandoned by Euro-American revolutionary armed forces; and being relentlessly pursued by the State reactionary forces - COINTELPRO (FBI, CIA and local police department). Thusly, it was only a matter of time before the Black Liberation Army would be virtually decimated as a fighting clandestine organization.