October 28, 2010 – Newark NJ: The New Black Panther Party held a emergency press conference in defense of Erika Hankerson, a mother traumatized by Newark police. The conference was 12 noon at Newark City Hall. Area Panther leader Zayid Muhammad spoke for the family who is already in litigation for the beating of Hankerson’s son Travis Rattray and plan to sue for this incident. The police officer involved in the beating of the 14 year old boy is facing criminal police brutality charges outlined in an indictment returned by an Essex County Grand Jury. See more information on the police misconduct incident with Travis here.
Michael T. McPhearson, a native of Fayetteville North Carolina was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Desert Shield /Desert Storm, also known as Gulf War I. Michael joined the Army Reserve 1981 as an enlisted soldier at the age of 17 and attended basic training the summer between his junior and senior high school years. He is a ROTC graduate of Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. His military career includes 6 years of reserve service and 5 years active duty service. He separated from active duty in 1992 as a Captain.
Now living in Newark, New Jersey, Michael is currently the National Coordinator for United for Peace and Justice. He is a former Executive Director of Veterans For Peace.
His volunteer social and economic justice activist work includes membership in Veterans For Peace, the Newark based People's Organization for Progress, Military Families Speak Out, the American Civil Liberties Union and the former coordinating committee member for the Bring Them Home Now campaign against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Secretary of the Saint Louis Branch of the NAACP. Michael is the publisher of the McPhearsonReport.com.
Michael's son joined the Army in January 2004 and served one tour in Iraq. He separated from the military in 2007.
In December of 2003 Michael returned to Iraq as part of a peace delegation to examine the state of the occupation firsthand. He has also traveled widely within the United States and to Istanbul Turkey and Bologna Italy as a speaker on the U.S. peace movement and world peace.
