San Jose police demolish piece of history linked to Black Panthers
Nobody who swung a sledgehammer Friday at a slice of San Jose history shed any tears.
And with the help of a powerful backhoe, the crowd standing around a drab concrete guard shack on Hedding Street cheered and whooped as slabs of the small, boxy structure crashed to the ground and dust choked the air.
By midday, the guard shack built in 1972 for the trial of Black Panther activist Angela Davis was reduced to a mere memory.
Police Chief Rob Davis was glad.
"It's an eyesore and a traffic hazard," said Davis, who is not related to Angela Davis. "And I think we used to store junk in it during the '80s. It's one of those icons that we kept asking, 'Why isn't that gone already?' "
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And with the help of a powerful backhoe, the crowd standing around a drab concrete guard shack on Hedding Street cheered and whooped as slabs of the small, boxy structure crashed to the ground and dust choked the air.
By midday, the guard shack built in 1972 for the trial of Black Panther activist Angela Davis was reduced to a mere memory.
Police Chief Rob Davis was glad.
"It's an eyesore and a traffic hazard," said Davis, who is not related to Angela Davis. "And I think we used to store junk in it during the '80s. It's one of those icons that we kept asking, 'Why isn't that gone already?' "