◆ SpookStack

38 Nos. 77-1698, 77-1210 & 77-1370 A brief recital of some of the evidence presented by plaintiffs substantiates this conclusion.22 The BPP was a black organization with a distinct political ideology and a variety of politically-oriented programs. documents offered by plaintiffs demonstrate that certain FBI activities directed against the BPP transcended mere “law enforcement,” and were designed to “neutralize” the BPP as a political voice on racial issues. Hanrahan testified that two of the principal goals of the unit his office assigned to investigate the BPP was to combat the anti-police propaganda the BPP had been disseminating in the black community and to mobilize support among blacks for police. And one of the pur- poses of the post-raid coverup was to prevent the development of widespread sympathy for the BPP cause which might have arisen out of a full disclosure of the facts surrounding the raid and the deaths of Clark and Hampton. Such purposes, if proven, bespeak of a class- based discriminatory animus which is at the heart of section 1985(8)’s prohibitions. There is no doubt that the plaintiffs have satisfied this requirement for proving a section 1985(3) claim. Reviewing the facts presented by plaintiffs in light of these standards, we find that the trial court erred when it directed verdicts as to plaintiffs’ conspiracy claims against Hanrahan, Jalovec, the raiders, and the federal defendants regarding their participation in the planning and execution of the raid. Plaintiffs presented con- siderable evidence, including FBI documents and ex- press statements by Hanrahan, from which reasonable persons could conclude that these parties shared a 22 continued . ; 1721, 1728 (1977) (“the legislative history behind section 1985(3) points unmistakably to the conclusion that discrimina- tion on [the basis of political beliefs or affiliations] was intend- ed to be actionable’). One of the foremost concerns of the drafters of the original section See was discrimination against individuals whose political affiliations were imbued with racial implications. See Avins, The Ku Klux Klan Act o 1871: Some Reflected Light on State Action and the Fourteent. Amendment, 11 St. Louis U. L. J. 331 (1967). 23 This evidence is examined in more detail. See, esp. supra at pp. 9-17.