This documentary can be split into two parts. The first half is a biography of Fred Hampton, a civil rights pioneer, community organizer, and Black Panther member. The second half is a stunning work of investigative journalism that provides clear evidence that Hampton was assassinated by the Chicago police.Hampton was called a dangerous revolutionary, but his message was nothing more revolutionary than social justice and equality. While there is certainly a revolutionary aspect to that, it is not the angry and violent rhetoric with which the state wanted to tar him. So they simply assassinated him and concocted a story that portrayed him how they wanted him -- dangerously violent. The facts of the case just don't fit that narrative, however.Hampton's story is not well known. That makes this film even more important. It is extremely dangerous to think that state-sanctioned political assassinations could not happen or do not happen in the United States. Hampton's death is tragic enough without us learning nothing from it. Fascism can rise anywhere, and it can be as petty as racist cops working for a corrupt city government or as insidious as a federal agency that engages in black ops against its own citizens.

This is definitely a documentary's documentary. This film does a great job of allowing you to see life through the eyes of those directly involved with this event.I find it just plain shocking and disgusting how those "officers of the law" who murdered Fred Hampton, who are supposed to exist for the purpose of upholding our rights yet never mind being tax-funded by us the people, for whom they exist, are bold enough to violate our rights!! It is even more outrageous that even with the -evidence- left at the scene, which blatantly contradicted the officers false testimonies, they were still allowed to walk free and unaccountable for murdering these two men with no real cause.It is because of this same corruption that our country is in the situation it is in right now; because of greed, lust for power, and lack of regard for their fellow man.Whether you agree with the cause Fred lived for or not, one thing can be certain; the rise of groups like the "Black Panthers" are a reflection of the society that we live in and how it fails to provide for its poor class while on the same token, blaming the poor class for its problems.This documentary did a great job of giving you more insight into the "Black Panther Party" and letting you know that they weren't just armed black people but that they stood for a lot more..It also makes you realize how similar the times are in terms of rights. In the film Fred refers to America as a capitalistic police state; fast forward to today were police or other govt officials can break in your house just on the mere "suspicion"of you being involved in "terrorism" lets you know that the same thing that happened to Fred can happen to anyone who thinks differently..All of this comes to mind as you hear his final quote of the film at the very end.Great job by all involved making the film at the time.

A powerful last third makes up for the technical rawness (including some sections where it's hard to hear what's being said).Hampton can be initially be tough to sympathize with, especially for an audience 40+ years later, as he preaches what sounds like a hopelessly naïve call for violent revolution. But the slowly growing evidence that the so-called 'shoot-out' in which he died was nothing less than the intentional murder murder of a charismatic black leader set up by the police is deeply chilling, and makes Hampton's call to take up arms in self-defense seem a little less unreasonable in retrospect.An important reminder of a now all-but-forgotten time in our not so distant history.

I saw this movie when i was a journalism student at NYU in the '70's. the organization that I belonged to-The Revolutionary Student Brigade-took the movie around to different collages and also showed it in Newark at a Project where a young boy-Charles Sutton-had been shot. The movie is an eye opener. There is no doubt in your mind as to why Fred Hampton was killed. It's a great job of investigative reporting. If your stomach is not already turned by what is currently called "news" this will do it for you. It will also make you mad to see what we were once, what we could have done-what we did do and how our potential was destroyed by the powers that be. We can all get along-we can doanything as long as we recognize who the enemy really is. The people united will never be defeated.