Michael Zinzun

Michael Zinzun (February 14, 1949 – July 9, 2006) was an African American Black Panther and anti-police brutality activist .

Early life Zinzun was born in Chicago and lived in the Cabrini–Green housing projects during the early part of his childhood. He told the Los Angeles Times that his mother was Black and his father was Apache, and that his father had eight other children. His father died when he was eight at which point his mother sent him to live with an aunt in Pasadena, California, where he graduated from high school. It was his home for much of his life. After graduation he became an automobile mechanic and ran a repair shop in Altadena. When the land housing his garage was purchased by an oil company Zinzun was evicted and his business forced to close. In 1974, he joined Los Angeles-area anti-police brutality activists B. Kwaku Duren and Anthony Thigpenn to form the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA). The Pasadena police department accused him of striking an officer (Zinzun was never charged with such a crime) while Zinzun claimed that he was wrongfully forced to the ground, sprayed with mace, and beaten with a flashlight. As a result of the incident Zinzun was permanently blinded in one eye. Following the incident he is quoted as saying "I'd rather lose an eye fighting against injustice than live as a quiet slave."

In 1989, he ran for a seat on the Pasadena City Council. During his campaign the City of Los Angeles and an assistant chief of the LAPD disseminated information that falsely claimed that Zinzun was the subject of investigation by the department's anti-terrorism division. Zinzun sued for defamation and was awarded $3.8 million. This award was overturned on procedural grounds in a 1991 ruling. On further appeal Zinzun won $512, 500.

Later career

Zinzun had a press pass, issued in Los Angeles, and for approximately ten years, he hosted and co-produced, with community activist and artist Nancy Buchanan, approximately 100 episodes of an hour-long monthly television show, Message To The Grassroots. The program dealt with issues related to urban communities, and played on Pasadena Community Network's Channel 56 and at other access television stations in the U.S. Topics of shows included wounds inflicted by the Los Angeles Police Department K-9 corps, the Iran–Contra affair and CIA connection to cocaine shipments into U.S. communities, apartheid in South Africa, the founding of Namibia, the political atmosphere in Haiti with guest commentator Ossie Davis, conflicts between black people and Latinos, and black-against-black gang issues.

Zinzun was an outspoken advocate of a gang truce between rival Los Angeles gangs, and organized one of the first ever, face-to-face truce meetings on his television show between members of the Bloods and Crips. He presented a series of shows during the trial of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King, which included frame-by frame analyses of video tape of the incident by George Holliday, which led to alternative explanations of the police officers' behaviors. Zinzun discovered that a second camera had captured King immediately after the beating and he debuted that footage to the world. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King decision, Zinzun was down among the burning buildings, on the streets, at the center of the event capturing rare video footage of rioters looting stores. He took cameras to Brazil and Namibia for episodes of the show.

Zinzun died on July 9, 2006, aged 57.