Farrakhan Calls for Halt to Gang Killings

Saying black males are playing into the hands of their “oppressors” by murdering one another in gang wars, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called on gang members “to honor one another as if each was God.”

Speaking at a Compton College symposium--”The Black Male: An Endangered Species”--Farrakhan charged Friday night that the problems of drugs and gangs are being used by the “ruling classes” as a way to curb the black population and keep blacks out of political and economic power.

Farrakhan has been accused of being an anti-Semite for his disparaging comments about Israel and Zionism but made no mention of either in his three-hour speech to an audience of more than 3,000. Nor were there any of the demonstrations by Jewish groups that have often marked Farrakhan’s Southland appearances.

Farrakhan said he hopes Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates can one day look at a crime summary and learn that no blacks have killed other blacks.

“And when (the police) get here and see that we love each other, then they are going to have to be cool,” he said.

Prediction for 2083

“By the year 2083 if blacks keep having babies at the rate they are, there will be as many blacks in this country as there are whites,” Farrakhan, 54, said. “And if we were to coalesce with other quote ‘minorities,’ we would control the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. . . . We would take control of the house where we were once sold as slaves.”

But he said blacks must shoulder their own share of the blame for the bloodshed in their communities.

“It’s not the whites who are killing blacks on the streets. It’s not Gates,” Farrakhan said. “It’s blacks who are killing blacks, and I’m not going to let you get away with that crap tonight. It’s easy to organize a march when someone is killed by a man in a blue uniform. But it’s not easy when he is killed by one of your own.”