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Free Geronimo Pratt: 'Nam Vet Political Prisoner

By Pat McCann

Pat McCann
VVAW Maryland

Political prisoners in South Africa, most notably Nelson Mandela of the ANC, are in the news these days. Bracelets identifying political prisoners and the year they were imprisoned appear on the wrists of anti-apartheid activists. Eight ranking Azanian political prisoners of the ANC and the PAC recently won freedom from prison in South Africa.

Closer to home, however, little attention is given to America's political prisoners. One such prisoner is Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt, incarcerated for 20 years for a murder he did not commit.

Geronimo Pratt was the leader of the Los Angeles Black Panthers in 1968, and deputy defense minister of the national Black Panther Party. Geronimo is also a decorated veteran, who served in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam and later in the Dominican Republic.

Geronimo was convicted in 1972 for the murder of Caroline Olson in Santa Monica, California in 1968. At the time he was 400 miles away in Parkland at a national Black Power conference. He was convicted on the perjured testimony of an FBI informant, one Julius Butler. Caroline Olson's wounded husband made a positive identification of a different person, but that was suppressed by the prosecution, as was the fact that Butler was an FBI informant.

Geronimo Pratt is the victim of an FBI frame-up. As part of J. Edgar Hoover's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), the L.A. FBI established "Operation #1" to neutralize Geronimo because of his leadership of the Panthers. Additional FBI dirty tricks include the fact that the FBI placed at least 3 informants on Pratt's legal defense team, suppressed the testimony of FBI Special Agent Wesley Swearingen that Geronimo was framed, "lost" wiretaps of the Oakland Black Panther Party Headquarters during the time Geronimo claimed to be there, and still refuses to honor court subpoenas to release evidence necessary to prove Geronimo's innocence.

Geronimo Pratt has served 20 years (including 8 years of solitary confinement in the hole—a 5 by 6 foot cell) for a crime he did not commit. His real crime is being a freedom fighter. Our struggle cannot afford to abandon him. In 1981, Amnesty international recognized Pratt as a political prisoner. There is a continuing resolution in Congress, introduced by Ron Dellums (D-CA) to conduct hearings on Geronimo. But it is up to us to produce the groundswell of public outrage to demand justice for Geronimo Pratt!