Members of the Black Panther Party of Self Defense were seen at a Philadelphia anti-ICE protest on January 8, following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, saying “if we were there, not a single person would have gotten touched.”
Members showed up at the Philadelphia City Hall protest with military-style weapons in hand.
Paul Birdsong, who identifies as the group’s national chairman, calls for ICE to be abolished and the Trump administration to be held accountable for violence being perpetrated in communities.
“You got people that are part of a cabal, that are self-serving … and they prey on the common folks of the United States,” Birdsong said.
Trained by some of the original party’s surviving members, the Black Panther Party is known in the City of Brotherly Love for hosting weekly free food programs in North Philly for years. Community members who stop by for free food are used to seeing the group’s members armed and ready, which creates a sense of security for those they serve.
Birdsong started recruiting members following the killing of George Floyd in 2020. He explains that his organization is not a Black nationalist organization, but is part of the internationalist Black Panther Party founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in the 1960s.