Netflix to Produce Film About The Black Panthers’ 1969 Stand Off With LAPD’s SWAT Team

Netflix is producing a film that will take us back to the civil rights movement. The streaming network has greenlighted a period drama called Stand Off, which took place in December 1969, when The Black Panthers endured a four-hour stand-off against a newly-formed police force known as the “SWAT team” in Los Angeles.

During the police raid, a shoot-out erupts and Daryl Gates calls in for tougher reinforcements by requesting permission from the Department of Defense to use a grenade launcher. Eventually, six Black Panther members surrendered, with four of them being injured. Four officers were also injured in the raid. During their trial, all six Panthers members were acquitted of the most serious charges brought against them, including conspiracy to murder police officers, because it was ruled that they acted in self-defense.

Interestingly, five days prior to SWAT raiding the L.A. chapter, BPP member Fred Hampton was shot and killed at point-blank range in his bed during a raid by the Chicago Police Department. His pregnant girlfriend was in bed next to him at the time of the shooting.

According to Deadline, filmmaker Justin Lin, who directed four Fast and the Furious films and Star Trek Beyond, has been tapped to helm the movie based on a script penned by Black Swan writer Mark Heyman. The film will be told from the perspectives of the Black Panthers and the SWAT unit, and explore ramifications of the conflict that are still felt today.