Champion in the struggle against racism and police brutality

Michael Zinzun, former Black Panther and founder of the Coalition Against Police Abuse, died on Sunday, July 9, at his home in Pasadena. He was 57. Zinzun, who lost partial vision as a result of an attack by Pasadena police, successfully fought police brutality in Los Angeles and Pasadena in a struggle that continued throughout his life.

Beginning in the early 1970s and throughout several decades, Zinzun led countless demonstrations and campaigns

Michael Zinzun

against police attacks. His tenacity and refusal to back down to police threats, surveillance and physical harassment resulted in significant gains for the struggle against racist police brutality. These included winning a $1.2 million settlement against the Pasadena Police Department and the eventual disbanding of the notorious LAPD Public Disorder Intelligence Division, which routinely infiltrated and disrupted community groups fighting police abuse.

In addition, Zinzun’s uncompromising struggle against the police elevated the call for a civilian police review board in 1979, spearheading a ballot initiative calling for the creation of such a board. Although the initiative failed in the face of a massive and well-funded campaign by the LAPD and the City of Los Angeles, that struggle to hold police officers accountable for their crimes still continues to the present.

Through decades of passionate resistance to police brutality, primarily but not limited to the African American community, Zinzun remains a symbol of courage and determination against the racist policies of subversion and brutality of the LAPD and the LA city government. His legacy will continue to inspire and strengthen the struggle against racism and injustice.

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civil rights in memory police brutality racism