Posted on June 25, 2013

‘Kill Whitey’ Panther Is Held on Gun Rap

Laura Italiano and Jamie Schram, NY Post, June 22, 2013

The tattoo on his face says, “Kill Whitey” in block letters, and cops say the gun he carried was loaded and unlicensed.

But that didn’t stop Maruse Heath — head of the Philadelphia chapter of the New Black Panther Party — from claiming that he’s really all about charity and outreach as he was arraigned on a gun-possession charge in Manhattan last night.

“It is my understanding that the New Black Panther Party is the functional equivalent of the KKK,” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Ryan countered as Heath, 41, was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 bail for getting busted allegedly with a gun in Harlem Thursday night.

Heath, aka “King Salim Shabazz,” was arrested on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard as he left a meeting of New Black Panther Party members. {snip}

Maruse Heath

Maruse Heath

Heath was unjustly “jumped” by cops as he left the meeting and walked near Seventh Avenue, said his lawyer, Brad Foster, in arguing unsuccessfully for low bail.

“It is no crime to belong to the Black Panther Party,” the lawyer argued. The group does, “charity work within the local community, outreach to the homeless, and works with at-risk youth who are at risk of becoming criminals.”

“I don’t believe there’s any justification for the stop,” he added. “It’s very dark, 10:30 at night,” he said of cops’ decision to stop Heath for allegedly wearing a bulletproof vest. “They grabbed him by the shoulders and cuffed him and he was in custody.”

But the prosecutor argued that the diminutive Heath was wearing a whopping size-52 ballistic vest — obvious in almost any light.

{snip}