Forty nine years ago, on this day, December 25th, 1976,1976 12 25 The Nation “Was Fred Hampton executed” – https://www.thenation.com/article/society/was-fred-hampton-executed/
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 332ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that the use of violence – up to and including assassination – against political opponents/”the rabble” is as American as apple pie.
The specific context was that one of the key goals of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program was to prevent coalitions forming across race and class. Nightmare scenario is when you can’t divide and conquer. So, Fred Hampton, who eschewed the gun-toting of other Panthers, and was trying to build a Rainbow coalition with poor whites and Puerto Rican activists was a nightmare.
What I think we can learn from this – the Nation did (does) some good journalism.
What happened next
“The families of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments. The case went to trial before Federal Judge J. Sam Perry. After more than 18 months of testimony and at the close of the plaintiff’s case, Perry dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, ordering the case to be retried. More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 million.[77] The two families each shared in the settlement”
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
December 25, 1988 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands says “the earth is slowly dying”
December 25, 1989 – business press pushback about Global Warning “panic” begins…