The New Black Panthers are defending the incendiary cry of Michael Brown's stepfather, who urged Ferguson protesters to "burn this bitch down!" as a grand jury declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson.
Asked on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV whether Louis Head should be prosecuted for incitement, Minister Quanell X, national spokesman for the New Black Panther Nation and leader of the New Black Panther Party in Texas, said:
"Absolutely not. He's a father that has suffered a loss that you and I have not suffered. As a father, the system failed him and the system made promises to his family knowing the grand jury process that they did not keep.
"He's speaking out of hurt, pain, and a loss of a son. We should be empathetic and sympathetic."
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Head exploded as he stood by Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, amid a sea of protesters in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where Wilson, a white officer, fatally shot Brown, an 18-year-old black man, last summer, sparking weeks of racial unrest.
After the announcement that a grand jury had decided not to prosecute Wilson, Head reportedly responded, "Burn this bitch down!"
Throughout the night, protesters looted and burned local shops and torched a police vehicle.
Quanell said there was no place for such violence.
"I'm going to say to my brothers and sisters in Ferguson who's looting and burning down your own stores and destroying your own community, that's counterproductive, and it takes away from the call of justice for the Brown family," he said.
"Those who are looting — you are not helping the cause, you are hurting it, because we lose the integrity of moral authority. We have to call for justice, and you make our jobs very hard."