Man who armed Black Panthers was FBI informant, records show [1]

The Bay Citizen
By Seth Rosenfeld, Center for Investigative Reporting
August 20, 2012 - 12:00 a.m. PDT

Research leads to FBI records showing radical activist was also an informant

The man who gave the Black Panther Party some of its first firearms and weapons training – which preceded fatal shootouts with Oakland police in the turbulent 1960s – was an undercover FBI informer, according to a former bureau agent and an FBI report.

One of the Bay Area’s most prominent radical activists of the era, Richard Masato Aoki was known as a fierce militant who touted his street-fighting abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining and arming the Panthers, whose members received international notoriety for brandishing weapons during patrols of the Oakland police and a protest at the state Legislature.

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