Michael Zinzun

Michael Zinzun

Template:TOCnestleft Michael Zinzun , died 2006, was a Los Angeles activist. He was Apache and Black descent.

Black Panthers

In 1970 Zinzun joined the Black Panther Party. In the mid 1970s he joined Los Angeles-area anti-police brutality activists B. Kwaku Duren and Anthony Thigpenn to form the Coalition Against Police Abuse . The organization investigates allegations of abuse, provides support for victims and families, and agitates for justice in street demonstrations and courtrooms. CAPA acknowledges a direct descent from the Black Panther Party, with many former BPP members, but is a distinct organization many of whose members critique what they see as the intensely hierarchical and patriarchal tendencies of the now defunct BPP.

Almost from the moment of CAPA's inception the LAPD infiltrated and placed it under surveillance. The techniques used by the LAPD in spying on and undermining the organization closely resembled those used by the FBI COINTELPRO program. CAPA joined with other similarly victimized organizations to sue the department and won a monetary settlement and assurances that similar practices would not be reimplemented. Nonetheless it is the belief of many CAPA members that they are still targeted by the LAPD and other government agencies for domestic espionage, infiltration, and sabotage. As a result of the lawsuit the LAPD disbanded the Public Disorder Intelligence division responsible for the original infiltration.

After the 1979 police shooting death of Eula Love in South Central Los Angeles CAPA proposed a civilian police review board, modeled on similar boards in other cities, that would have had the power to fire and otherwise discipline abusive police officers and change police policies. A petition in favor of the review board did not garner enough signatures to place it on the ballot. Nonetheless, the effort was successful in helping the organization become better known in South Central.

In 1982, Zinzun was arrested for allegedly threatening police officers who were attempting to arrest two men in Pasadena. Charges against him were later dropped. In 1986 Zinzun, hearing the commotion of a violent arrest, rushed to the scene where he became involved in a scuffle with police. The Pasadena police department accused him of striking an officer (Zinzun was never charged with such a crime) while Zinzun claimed that he was wrongfully forced to the ground, sprayed with mace, and beaten with a flashlight. As a result of the incident Zinzun was permanently blinded in one eye. Following the incident he is quoted as saying "I'd rather lose an eye fighting against injustice than live as a quiet slave". He won a $1.2 million settlement from the department as a result of the events that night.

In 1989 he ran for a seat on the Pasadena City Council. During his campaign the City of Los Angeles and an assistant chief of the LAPD disseminated information that falsely claimed that Zinzun was the subject of investigation by the department's anti-terrorism division. Zinzun sued for defamation and was awarded $3.8 million. This award was overturned on procedural grounds in a 1991 ruling. On further appeal Zinzun won $512, 500.

After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Zinzun and CAPA became much more successful in getting the attention of elected officials due to concerns about police brutality as the stimulus for social unrest. By the 1990s Zinzun was a familiar guest on local television news and debate programs. Unlike most guests he wore clothes with a Black Power aesthetic (a hair net, bright t-shirts with radical slogans, etc.) and spoke in a confrontational and direct manner, invariably signing off by raising his fist and proclaiming "Forward ever. Backwards never. All power to the people!

Later activism

Zinzun had a press pass, issued in Los Angeles, and for approximately ten years, he hosted and co-produced, with community activist and artist Nancy Buchanan, approximately 100 episodes of an hour-long monthly television show, "Message To The Grassroots." The program dealt with issues related to urban communities, and played on Pasadena Community Network's Channel 56 and at other access television stations in the U.S. Topics of shows included wounds inflicted by the Los Angeles Police Department K-9 corps, the Iran-Contra Affair and CIA connection to cocaine shipments into U.S. communities, apartheid in South Africa, the founding of Namibia, the political atmosphere in Haiti with guest commentator Ossie Davis, conflicts between black people and Latinos, and black-against-black gang issues.

Zinzun was an outspoken advocate of a gang truce between rival Los Angeles gangs, and organized one of the first ever, face-to-face truce meetings on his television show between members of the Bloods and Crips. He presented a series of shows during the trial of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King, which included frame-by frame analyses of video tape of the incident by George Holliday, which led to alternative explanations of the police officers' behaviors. Zinzun discovered that a second camera had captured King immediately after the beating and he debuted that footage to the world. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King decision, Zinzun was down among the burning buildings, on the streets, at the center of the event capturing rare video footage of rioters looting stores. He took cameras to Brazil and Namibia for episodes of the show. Zinzun took cameras into the center of controversial housing projects in South Central Los Angeles, like Nickerson Gardens and Imperial Courts in Watts, Los Angeles to talk directly with residents about their communities.

Tribute to Ben Dobbs

On Sunday, June 7, 1981, the Los Angeles Chapter of the New American Movement sponsored a Tribute to Ben Dobbs for "His lifelong commitment to socialism". The event was held at the Miramar-Sheraton Hotel, Santa Monica, California. Sponsors of the event included Michael Zinzun.

Crack the CIA Coalition

Maria Guardado worked in the Crack the CIA Coalition with Michael Zinzun and Representative Maxine Waters. Maria's insistence on the connection between US intervention, the contra war in Nicaragua, the war on drugs and the devastation of the crack addiction epidemic in black and brown communities, all played a dynamic role in expanding the discussion and political work of this coalition, which was able to uncover the most sickest of crimes of the CIA and top US military and political officials of the 80's and 90's that accelerated the racist mass incarceration complex of today.

"Open Forum on Haiti"

"Open Forum on Haiti", with Maxine Waters, Pierre Labossiere, Margaret Prescod, & Michael Zinzun. Held at CSULA, 5/26/04.

Supporting Aristide

On April 7 2004 in the Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College. A multinational crowd of 2,000, mainly people from Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean, packed the hall to hear a program entitled "An Evening with Friends of Haiti: The Truth Behind the Haiti Coup."

A broad range of speakers and cultural performers ignited the stage for three-and-a-half hours to express heartfelt anti-imperialist solidarity with the besieged Caribbean country. Haiti has once again suffered a horrific atrocity with the U.S.-orchestrated kidnapping of its democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on Feb. 29.

The rally was co-chaired by Kim Ives and Karine Jean-Pierre from Haiti Support Network (HSN), with Pat Chin and Sara Flounders from the Workers World Party controlled International Action Center.

Other speakers included Alina Sixto, Family Lavalas New York/Tri-State Area; Rep. Major Owens of Brooklyn; Mario Dupuy, Aristide's state secretary of communication; Don Rojas, Amy Goodman and Bernard White, WBAI-Pacifica Radio; Ray LaForest, Haitian labor organizer, District Council 1707; Brian Concannon, human-rights attorney; Brooklyn College student Starr Bernard; Serge Lilavois, Support Committee for PPN; Los Angeles anti-police brutality activist Michael Zinzun; Dominican activist Marc Torres; and Haitian performers Marguerite Laurent and Phantoms.

References

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