Newton, Seale, and Cleaver all spoke, proclaiming that the community would not get justice from the government, nor from its arm, the police. In outlining the Party’s program, they emphasized that black people would never be safe and secure if they depended on the police to protect them. The police were part of the problem, extensions of the oppressive power structure. Black people would be safe only if they took the situation into their own hands and defended themselves. At one point, Newton explained what kinds of guns people should buy. He pointed to Panther John Sloan stationed on a rooftop. Sloan did a weapons demonstration, and people cheered wildly.

That day, something startling occurred that had never happened at any other Panther event. Neighbors showed up with their own guns. Some of these people had seen the armed Panthers at the previous rally and decided to bring their guns this time as a gesture of support and solidarity. Others, seeing the Panthers for the first time, went home to get their guns and returned. One young woman who had been sitting in her car got out and held up her M-1 for everyone to see. The Panthers passed out applications to join their party, and over three hundred people filled them out. According to FBI informant Earl Anthony, he “had never seen Black men command the respect of the people the way that Huey Newton and Bobby Seale did that day.”