Black Panther

The Police used to ride through out neighborhood and watch the Black Panther's Drill Team perform. Then the police started cracking down on the drill teams . . . harassing kids . . . claiming that the small white wooden toy rifles that the kids had were real, and if they didn't get out of the street, they'd arrest them. We were dispersed from performing in our neighborhood, and they threatened the Block Club Patrol, and said we out after curfew. We had done what the Detroit Police couldn't . . . we were keeping our neighborhood safe, and a few of the businesses in our community were spending money on our little black asses. And this had been going on for three years.

Doing Block Club Patrol was a sign of maturity . . . and it was pretty easy to do too. All of us had martial arts training. So, at night when you were on patrol in the alley . . . and your dog started to barking at the Police or some other criminal snooping around there in the dark. All you had to do is . . . let go of the dog's leash, and run like hell. I can't say how dumb it felt when you'd get home all tuckered out from getting the piss scared out of you by the boogeyman . . . and you'd see your dog sitting there on the porch steps, looking at you like . . . boy, what the hell took you so long . . . there's a man out there in the alley with a got damned gun.