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Should Geronimo Pratt be compensated?
By John L. Burris
Special to AUGUSTA FOCUS
While attending the Essence
Magazine Music festival in New
Orleans in July, I had the opportu
nity to speak with and observe
Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, the
former Black Panther now free on
bail after serving 27 years behind
bars for a murder he said that he
did not commit.
I was struck by his serenity and
Iconcluded that this man was one
of the great heroes of the 20th
century. It is not a far stretch to
compare his struggle, and the rami
fication of the government put
ting him in jail for 27 years, with
the great struggle of Nelson
Mandela. Both were put in jail not
for true criminal misconduct, but
for their beliefs. And when you see
Pratt you can only imagine that
his ability to endure and keep per
spective can only be because of his
sense of commitment to the social
issues and ideals that motivated
him and were the underpinnings
of the Black Panther Party of the
19605.
For this the entire nation owes
him at the very least, a strong nod
of appreciation for the courage he
has shown.
On a more practical level, does
thegovernment owe him anything
else for 27 years of false imprison-
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When the government crosses
the line and deliberately engages
in misconduct, they should have
to pay.
ment? As a lawyer, it seems to me
that fairness would mean repay
ment financially for the grave in
justice of robbing him of his young
and middle years. In my view as a
police misconduct lawyer, when
the government crosses the line
and deliberately engages in mis
conduct, whether it is police bru
tality of the physical kind, or false
arrest, or even worse, conspirato
rial conduct to stamp out political
dissent, they should have to pay.
In this case, we are talking about
violation of civil rights where gov
ernmental agencies, whether we
are talking about the FBI, the Los
Angeles Police Department, the
LA County District Attorney’s
Office and even the State
Attorney’s Office — all of these
agencies knew 2t one point in time
that Geronimo Pratt was inno
cent of the charges against him,
but did nothing to free him.
They failed to take the honor
able position and were prepared to
let Pratt rot in jail for the rest of
his life rather than acknowledge
A Closer Look
their wrongdoing. Even now, the
Los Angeles District Attorney’s
office, after being soundly repudi
ated in court, refuses to give up
the ghost and is still seeking to
retry the case.
Itis not often that society has an
opportunity to right a wrong to
individual during that person’s
lifetime. The President apologizes
for slavery when none of those
people are alive. Some members
of Congress also would like to
apologize for slavery, but refuse to
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evendiscuss theidea of reparation
although the white population
gained many benefits which still
reverberate today for the centu
ries of free labor black provided.
We have here a great opportu
nity to say to Geronimo Pratt and
other members of the Black Pan
ther Party, to other victims of mis
conduct that are still alive from
that period of government spon
sored police abuse, that yes, we
were wrong. And that while we
cannot repay all of the activists
who fell victim to our conduct, we
can symbolically repay them
through our compensation of
Pratt.
John L. Burris is an Oakland,
California-based civil rights at
torney and media commentator.
LETTER
SRR
Medicare to undergo radical,
life-threatening changes
Warning: Medicare is about to
undergo the radical and life
threatening changes. Two of Con
gress’ bad ideas—raising the eli
gibility age from 65 to 67 and
means testing weather beneficia
ries—have gotten a lot of public
ity. But there’s more, and it only
gets worse.
For one very bad idea, the Sen
ate bill has a proposal to charge a
ss_co-payment for home health
carevisits, beginning with the very
first visit if there has been no
hospital stay immediately preced
ing it. The typical Medicare home
health care recipient is a woman,
75 years old or older, who has an
average income of $8,365. The co
payment, which could cost a ben
eficiary $760 a year, would, by
itself add an onerous burden to
the sickest and frailest women,
who are already paying more than
one-third oftheir home health care
expenses out of their own pockets.
And, if that were not enough,
another provision of the bill will
CELLULARONE
AUGUSTA FOCUS JULY 24,1997
raise the Part B Medicare pre
mium, which covers outpatient
services, from its current $43.80
per month to $82.60 in 2004. The
combined effect of these changes
is a potential annual increase of
sl,looin out-of-pocket health care
costs.
But what this really means is
that the poorest and most vulner
able older people—mostly
women— will not only have to
give up their home care life line—
their Part B coverage—they will
lose any access to the care they so
desperately need.
There are several other, equally
mean-spirited provisions in the
budget agreement. Each of them
alone would do grievous harm to
older Americans. Taken together
they add up to abreach of contract
between the government and the
citizens whose old age it is sup
posed to protect.
Jeanette Cummings
Director, CSRA Agency on
Aging
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