11 Facts About Michael Zinzun

Michael Zinzun was an African American Black Panther and anti-police brutality activist.

Michael Zinzun told the Los Angeles Times that his mother was Black and his father was Apache, and that his father had eight other children.

Michael Zinzun's father died when he was eight at which point his mother sent him to live with an aunt in Pasadena, California, where he graduated from high school.

In 1982, Michael Zinzun was arrested for allegedly threatening police officers who were attempting to arrest two men in Pasadena.

In 1986, Michael Zinzun, hearing the commotion of a violent arrest, rushed to the scene to observe the arrest, resulting in police beating him severely.

The Pasadena police department accused him of striking an officer while Michael Zinzun claimed that he was wrongfully forced to the ground, sprayed with mace, and beaten with a flashlight.

Michael Zinzun had a press pass, issued in Los Angeles, and for approximately ten years, he hosted and co-produced, with community activist and artist Nancy Buchanan, approximately 100 episodes of an hour-long monthly television show, Message To The Grassroots.

Michael Zinzun was an outspoken advocate of a gang truce between rival Los Angeles gangs, and organized one of the first ever, face-to-face truce meetings on his television show between members of the Bloods and Crips.

Michael Zinzun presented a series of shows during the trial of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King, which included frame-by frame analyses of video tape of the incident by George Holliday, which led to alternative explanations of the police officers' behaviors.

Michael Zinzun discovered that a second camera had captured King immediately after the beating and he debuted that footage to the world.

Michael Zinzun took cameras to Brazil and Namibia for episodes of the show.