San Francisco Chronicle
January 24, 2007

'70s in the Bay Area—Era of Radical Violence

By Michael Taylor
Chronicle Staff Writer

Michael Taylor reports on the history of terrorism in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970's.

Sideman & Bancroft Partner David Bancroft is extensively quoted in the article. From 1971 to 1978, Mr. Bancroft led the anti-terrorism office for the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco. "It was our sense, because of the kinds of cases we had, that the BLA (Black Liberation Army) was the military or paramilitary affiliate of the Black Panthers." ..."We'd get cases where (the BLA) would have significant amounts of guns, ammunition, explosives, passports, birth certificates and false identity material, and this permitted the Panthers to posture as a political or social movement while the paramilitary affiliate unabashedly did the dirty work." ... "There was that awful sinking feeling of the indeterminacy of it all, and so much of the BLA was a way for people to rationalize their own criminal instincts. These were killers, robbers and arsonists."