Duel of two films about Mumia Abu-Jamal

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Media-Justice-On-Trial-In-by-Hans-Bennett-100919-997.html

September 19, 2010

Media Justice On Trial In Philadelphia --The duel of two films about Mumia Abu-Jamal
By Hans Bennett

On Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 2 pm, Justice On Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal will premiere in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center and at 8pm at the Ritz East. This film's release date was moved up to confront the right-wing anti-Abu-Jamal film, "The Barrel of a Gun," by Tigre Hill, also premiering on Tuesday. While coverage of Hill's film saturates the Philly media, not one outlet has yet to report the huge story that the Constitution Center is hosting the afternoon showing of "Justice on Trial."

Media Justice On Trial In Philadelphia

--The duel of two films about Mumia Abu-Jamal

By Hans Bennett and Michael Schiffmann

(www.abu-jamal-news.com)

A new film, entitled The Barrel of a Gun, will be unveiled in Philadelphia on Sept. 21. The film is officially endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and Murdered by Mumia authors Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner, and based on the two trailers that have been released and public statements by the film-maker, Tigre Hill, that he believes death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is unequivocally guilty, we can safely expect that the film will be biased against Abu-Jamal, as is the case with the majority of mainstream media coverage about Abu-Jamal, particularly so in Philadelphia.

Supporters of Abu-Jamal are mobilizing to confront Tigre Hill's film. This film can be particularly dangerous now because of Abu-Jamal's current legal situation, where the death penalty may be reinstated by the US Third Circuit Court. In response, Journalists for Mumia has just published the latest issue of our newspaper (viewable here), where we confront Tigre Hill by laying out evidence of innocence and why Mumia's trial was unfair.

In our newspaper, we feature an updated version of the 2009 SF Bay View Newspaper article about the campaign seeking a civil rights investigation for Abu-Jamal, which focused on five pieces of evidence that the 1982 jury never saw, including 1) evidence of another person, named Kenneth Freeman, in the car with Abu-Jamal's brother, Billy Cook--there was a driver's license application in the front shirt pocket of Officer Faulkner at the time of the shooting and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office withheld this crucial piece of information from the defense; 2) Newly discovered crime scene photos that show police manipulation of evidence were taken by press photographer Pedro Polakoff, who states that he was completely ignored by the DA's Office when he tried to give his photos to them for evidence in 1981/1982 and 1995. Accompanying this is a special section focusing on the ballistics evidence, showing exactly why the shooting scenario presented by the prosecution is physically impossible. This includes the observation already made in defense filings in 2001 based on police photographs and now resoundingly corroborated by the Polakoff photos, that there are no bullet marks in the pavement where Abu-Jamal allegedly shot downward and missed Officer Faulkner several times.

There is another powerful media project being unveiled that will certainly challenge the FOP-endorsed film by Tigre Hill. Another film, in production for over four years, entitled Justice On Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, will premiere next Tuesday, Sept. 21, the same day that Hill's film is unveiled. The 2pm showing will be held at the prestigious historical building, The National Constitution Center, where Barack Obama gave his famous "race speech."

On learning about the coming presentation of the Hill film and its probably biased character, the production team decided to accelerate the completion of their own documentary. Producer Johanna Fernandez, a Professor of History at Baruch College/CUNY, says that the filmmakers "decided to confront Tigre's film with a more thoughtful exploration of the case after we saw the series of initial trailers that he released six months ago. Contrary to his claim of having found "rare new insight' into the case, the trailers pointed to a rehashing of the basic arguments put forth by ADA Joe McGill, who wanted to win a death sentence by any means necessary. We want to elevate the dialogue at a time when reasoned voices are needed."

The film's trailer, just released this week, features interviews with press photographer Pedro Polakoff and David A. Love, whose October 24, 2007 article in the SF Bay View Newspaper was the first in the US to publish one of Polakoff's photos. Another interview is with J. Patrick O'Connor, the author of The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who argues that Billy Cook's business partner and friend, Kenneth Freeman, was the actual shooter of Officer Faulkner. Also notable is an interview Jack McMahon, featured in the infamous 1986 official training video of the Philadelphia DA's office that specifically trained new prosecutors how to unlawfully exclude African American jurors without appearing to do so.

A Tradition of Corporate Media Bias

When covering the Abu-Jamal/Faulkner case, the mainstream media has almost always presented it as "open and shut," with overwhelming evidence of Abu-Jamal's guilt. Accordingly, this narrative says there is no evidence of an unfair trial and Abu-Jamal's worldwide supporters (including Amnesty International, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, the European Parliament, Japanese Diet, and many more) must therefore be ignorant fanatics. Or, in the words of Sam Donaldson of ABC's news show, 20/20, who in 1999 produced an infamous anti-Mumia hit piece (critiqued in the film Framing An Execution): "The people who support his release don't do so from a position of knowledge"They either oppose the death penalty, or they're campus rebels, or they're African-American activists who believe that a black man was railroaded, and will continue to believe it, no matter what's presented to them."

While certainly disgusting, the overt racism in Donaldson's comment about black activists is not unusual for big media coverage of Abu-Jamal.

This same mainstream narrative is now to be expected with the new film by Tigre Hill, "Barrel of a Gun," which has already been touted with great fanfare in the Philadelphia media. Indeed, Hill appears to take the anti-Abu-Jamal bias to an even more fanatical level with the argument, first presented with the release of the 2007 book Murdered By Mumia, that the shooting of Faulkner was a pre-planned hit, with Abu-Jamal and his brother Billy Cook out that night seeking to shoot and kill a police officer simply for the sake of killing a cop.

A Pre-planned Hit?

Granted, we have not yet seen the full-feature film, but the two trailers already released tell us a great deal about the film's perspectives.

The first trailer strongly implies that the killing of Officer Faulkner was the direct result of a long-harbored hatred of the police on Mumia's part and maybe even had been a pre-planned hit engineered by Mumia and his brother Billy Cook.

As noted above, this argument was first presented when the book Murdered by Mumia. A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice by Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner was released in December 2007. At that time, Smerconish presented prosecutor Joseph McGill as a guest on his radio show, and there, Smerconish and McGill jointly promoted this new "hit" theory for the first time.

The new film seems largely based on this argument presented on that show, and upon inspection, we see that many of the facts presented by McGill and Smerconish to support this are plainly false.

For example, McGill argued on the 2007 show that Billy Cook may have deliberately gotten pulled over by Faulkner by driving the wrong direction on
13th Street, so as to create a situation where Abu-Jamal could then sneak up from behind and shoot a distracted police officer in the back. McGill said: "It was awfully coincidental, that his brother is stopped going the wrong way on 13th Street"and then he stops and he's getting out. And again, Mr. Jamal, the coward he was, would wait until his back was to him, and then he ran across, and it almost happened simultaneously, and it just seemed to me, although I couldn't prove it, that it was AWFULLY coincidental."

In reality, there is no evidence at all that Billy Cook was driving the wrong way on 13th street, and McGill never introduced any evidence suggesting this at either Abu-Jamal's trial or Cook's preceding trial for aggravated assault in March, 1982, where McGill was also the prosecutor.

The contention is even squarely contradicted by prosecution witness Albert Magilton's testimony at Abu-Jamal's trial, according to which Cook approached the later shooting scene from Locust and not
13th Street. To this day, nobody knows why Officer Faulkner stopped Cook, but McGill dishonestly presents this as the first part of a sinister scheme to lure a police officer into a situation where his back is unprotected.

"The Barrel of a Gun"

At the sentencing phase of Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial, McGill cited a statement that Abu-Jamal made as the 15 year-old Lieutenant of Information of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), where Abu-Jamal, following the infamous assassination of BPP leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by the FBI and Chicago police, quoted the works of Mao Zedong, "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun," in order to characterize the rule-by-force approach of police in the US. (Our newspaper features an article detailing the murders of Hampton and Clark, here .)

This statement has been repeatedly taken out of context by Abu-Jamal's detractors in an effort to depict him as a crazed and out of control cop-hater who wanted to make a political statement by killing Officer Faulkner. By choosing "the barrel of a gun" for the title of his film, Tigre Hill appears to be following this same path of distortion, and it is very unlikely that his film will fairly contextualize the said statement.

It is important to understand the climate of police repression at the time. On Dec. 8, 1969 (just days after the Dec. 4, 1969 murders of Hampton and Clark), the Los Angeles Police Department mounted a chillingly similar early morning attack on the LA offices of the BPP, including the party's main office on Central Avenue. This time, the Panthers were able to fight back against the police, until they finally surrendered, with six occupants of their headquarters wounded and thirteen arrested.

A similar attack on Panther premises in Seattle, WA, planned for January, 1970 by federal agencies, was canceled only after Seattle's Democratic Mayor Wes Uhlman blocked it, expressing concern over "Gestapo-type tactics" that could lead to a time when every citizen would have to fear "the knock on the door at 2 o'clock in the morning."

This was the situation when a young Mumia Abu-Jamal was assigned to report on the state terror directed against the BPP. In this function, he flew to Chicago, personally inspected Fred Hampton's blood-soaked bed, reported on it for the BPP newspaper, and gave the keynote speech at Hampton's memorial service in Philadelphia.

It was in this function that he talked to the Philadelphia Inquirer's reporter, Acel Moore, for a front page article published on January 4, 1970. Moore wrote: ""Since the murders,' says West [for Wesley] Cook, Chapter Communication Secretary, "Black brothers and sisters and organizations which wouldn't commit themselves before are relating to us. Black people are facing the reality that the Black Panther Party has been facing: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' Murders, a calculated design of genocide, and a national plot to destroy the party leadership is what the Panthers and their supporters call a bloody two year history of police raids and shootouts."

Notably, McGill's reference to Abu-Jamal's prior membership in the BPP was blatantly unconstitutional. When Abu-Jamal challenged this constitutional violation, the courts rejected his claim, literally ignoring legal precedents that have granted new trials in other similar cases. Veteran journalist Linn Washington writes that in the early 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court twice refused "to consider Abu-Jamal's claim that prosecutors violated his First Amendment association rights with inflammatory references to his teenaged membership in the Black Panther Party. The U.S. Supreme Court, months after rejecting Abu-Jamal's first appeal, granted a new hearing to a murderer who challenged prosecutorial reference to his current membership in a violent white racist prison gang. Following the favorable ruling for the racist, Abu-Jamal unsuccessfully sought Supreme Court reconsideration of his association right claim citing that Court's ruling in the white racist's case."

"Months after spurning Abu-Jamal a second time, the Supreme Court granted a new hearing to a white murderer challenging prosecutorial reference of his membership in a devil worshipping cult. When giving relief to the devil worshipper, the Supreme Court cited the precedence of its ruling in the racist's case," writes Washington, concluding that "equal protection of laws seemingly should have provided an ex-Black Panther with the same protection of laws as a white racist and white devil worshipper given the similarities of their appeal circumstances."

Superior Knowledge?

The second trailer of Tigre Hill's film focuses on Officer Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, and carries a purely emotional message: Neither Danny Faulkner nor his widow Maureen will ever find peace unless Abu-Jamal is executed.

The first premise of this trailer's message is that, for some reason, Mrs. Faulkner has more knowledge of the events that led to the death of her husband than other people do, even though she, too, was not present at the scene. Thus, in her book Murdered by Mumia, co-authored with the Philadelphia talk show host Michael Smerconish, Mrs. Faulkner claims to know the exact facts of the case and how Abu-Jamal allegedly killed Officer Faulkner.

Unfortunately, Maureen Faulkner's claim to superior knowledge of the facts collapses on even the most superficial inspection of her book, a telling fact given the enormous resources in terms of access to the files of the DA's office that she and her co-author Smerconish could rely on while writing it.

Illustrative of the book's overall quality, are two grave factual inaccuracies from the very short chapter entitled "The Facts."

One is the assertion that key prosecution witnesses Cynthia White and Robert Chobert both "testified that they saw Abu-Jamal run across the street and fire at Danny." This is untrue in the case of Chobert, who actually only claimed to have seen the final, deadly shots at Faulkner. He never testified to having seen the beginning of the events, much less the alleged first shot from Abu-Jamal. This is an important distinction: If Abu-Jamal had indeed fired first and then also fired the deadly shots, this would in any case indicate first degree murder and thus eligibility for the death penalty.

Their second glaring inaccuracy is writing that Officer Faulkner shot Mumia in the stomach. He was actually shot in the chest, and this an important distinction because a shot in the stomach (which is lower than the chest) corresponds better with the prosecution's theory that Faulkner fired at Abu-Jamal from below, as he fell, after being shot in the back. Since the bullet entered Abu-Jamal's chest at a downward trajectory, it means that he was actually shot from above--a shot from below being all but impossible. This contradiction is a major hole in the prosecution's theory, and Abu-Jamal's detractors have long sought to conceal this fact from the public, as they are unable to honestly address it.

Statements made by Maureen Faulkner since she appeared on the public scene to campaign for Abu-Jamal's execution, make clear that she is not interested in the truth about the horrible event that the death of her husband certainly was. Rather, she wants a revenge that takes precedence over truth.

Mrs. Faulkner's indifference towards the facts of the case was again demonstrated during the Dec. 6, 2007 Today Show segment on the day of her book's release. When she was confronted with the newly discovered photos by press photographer Pedro P. Polakoff that show mishandling, manipulation, and misinterpretation of the crime scene, she quickly dismissed their significance, even though the authenticity of Polakoff's photos is not in doubt.

At the show's end, host Matt Lauer asked her "Maureen, when you're alone with your thoughts at night, when you even see pictures of the protests like the one we have across the street, does it ever cross your mind that perhaps they're right? Do you ever allow yourself to consider the fact that perhaps he didn't do it?" Faulkner's response? "He murdered my husband in cold blood and there is no doubt in my mind."

The Irreproachable Grieving Victim

The second premise is that as a crime victim, Maureen Faulkner is in a privileged position to demand punishment, "closure," and even the death of the purported perpetrator since only such measures can get her the "peace" she is entitled to.

This is based largely on assuming for herself and her family a monopoly of suffering. It's as if Abu-Jamal's years on death row have been one big party, and as if Abu-Jamal did not have family and friends who are being put through hell together with him--a fact that Faulkner, the FOP, and big media outlets rarely, if ever, mention.

Since nobody else apart from her family and friends deserves empathy or sympathy here, this becomes the singular cause of "A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice," the subtitle of her book, and as a result of this now decade-long stance of Maureen Faulkner (and of the artistic and moral decisions of filmmaker Tigre Hill), the entirely widow-focused second trailer for Barrel of a Gun can be reduced to one sentence: "On account of my unique suffering, I need and deserve to have Mumia Abu-Jamal executed."

This premise is also at the root of the long-held assertion by Abu-Jamal's detractors that when the movement supporting him seeks a new trial and rightfully argues that he was framed, this is somehow the ultimate insult to the grieving widow, Maureen Faulkner. This logic is similar to the common assertion that if you support Abu-Jamal's right to a fair trial, you must also support the killing of police officers. Accordingly, Abu-Jamal's supporters are accused of being somehow opposed to "justice for Officer Faulkner," when, in fact, most supporters think Mumia is innocent and didn't kill Officer Faulkner.

While this narrative is patently absurd to any open-minded person, it has been a powerful tool for Abu-Jamal's self-declared enemies in seeking to obscure the irrefutable evidence of an unfair trial and a frame-up. Out of respect and a fear of offending the "grieving widow," most journalists are afraid to ask Mrs. Faulkner challenging questions about the facts of the case, even though she is presenting herself as an authority on the case, and calling for Mumia's execution based on her alleged knowledge of these facts..

When for once The Today Show's Matt Lauer asked her challenging but fair questions, both Smerconish and Faulkner would later publicly express outrage, arguing that it was an insult to both the memory of Officer Faulkner and to Mrs. Faulkner.

Questions For Tigre Hill: The Crime Scene Photos

Along with many other events organized by Mumia supporters to which he was welcomed to, filmmaker Tigre Hill filmed the Journalists for Mumia press conference on December 4, 2007, featuring Pam Africa, David Love, Linn Washington Jr., and Dave Lindorff, where they focused on the newly discovered crime scene photos taken by press photographer Pedro Polakoff. Hill's film crew also came to our Dec. 8 slideshow presentation of the photos later that week. Therefore, we know, at minimum, that he is aware of the information we presented. If he chooses to not even acknowledge the Polakoff photos (as the mainstream media has almost uniformly done) this will be a deliberate choice on his part.

Big Noise Films' Justice on Trial trailer features several of Polakoff's photos alongside their interview with him, including the two-photo sequence showing that Officer Faulkner's hat was moved from the top of Billy Cook's car and then placed on the sidewalk for the official police photo. In contrast, Hill's first trailer shows many of the official police photos of the crime scene, but there is no mention of the Polakoff photos in the trailer or any other statements released by Hill. In light of this, we have some questions for him:

1) You feature the close-up police photo of Officer Faulkner's hat lying on the sidewalk. In your film, will you at least acknowledge that the newly discovered Polakoff crime scene photos show that the hat began on the top of Billy Cook's VW and was later moved to the ground for the police photos? Does this evidence tampering concern you?

2) None of the police photos you featured show prosecution witness Robert Chobert's taxi parked behind Officer Faulkner's car, where Chobert testified that he was parked when he allegedly witnessed Mumia shoot Officer Faulkner. Polakoff's photos also reveal that Chobert's taxi is missing, and this has been a key point we've made about Polakoff's photos in our campaign challenging the mainstream media to fairly report about them. There are many other problems with Chobert's trial testimony, like his contradictory initial statement to police that the shooter of Officer Faulkner had simply "ran away?" Will you fairly present this point we've made at two public presentations that you videotaped? What importance do you think this photo evidence has when evaluating Chobert's integrity as a witness?

3) Do you think the jury should have seen Polakoff's photos? What do you think is the significance of Polakoff's statement that he approached the Philadelphia DA's office to offer his photos as evidence and was ignored by them.

4) Testimony by the three core prosecution eyewitnesses Cynthia White, Robert Chobert, and Michael Scanlan, necessarily implies that bullets must have been fired into the sidewalk where Officer Faulkner came to lie. Since you have seen the Polakoff photos, as well as official police photos, you know that there are no bullet marks visible in the pavement. What, if anything, do you have to say about the implications of this?

Showdown in Philadelphia

As the September 21 duel of the opposing films approaches, the biggest question is whether or not the local media will give Justice on Trial fair coverage and in an amount equal to that received by Tigre Hill's The Barrel of a Gun.

Will the local media even acknowledge that the prestigious NationalConstitutionCenter, across from The Liberty Bell, is hosting a screening and panel discussion? So, far the entirety of media coverage in Philadelphia came from Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Dan Gross, in the form of a few short paragraphs in two separate columns (1 , 2).

However, this was before the later announcement regarding the ConstitutionCenter, so this significant development has yet to be reported on. As of Saturday night, the ConstitutionCenter showing has yet to be acknowledged. If this blackout continues, the Philadelphia public will be deprived from hearing about this historic venue. However, it will provide even further proof that the Philadelphia media is fanatically opposed to the public hearing the full story of the Mumia Abu-Jamal/Daniel Faulkner case.

--US journalist Hans Bennett and German author Michael Schiffmann are the co-founders of Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal, an independent media-activist organization that confronts mainstream media bias and creates its own multi-media projects. Their website is www.abu-jamal-news.com.


Author's Website: www.insubordination.blogspot.com
Author's Bio: Hans Bennett is a multi-media journalist mostly focusing on the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners. An archive of his work is available at insubordination.blogspot.com and he is also co-founder of "Journalists for Mumia," created to challenge the long history of corporate media bias, whose website is: Abu-Jamal-News.com

New Film: Justice On Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal

From Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal:

Friends,

Johanna Fernandez, one of our coordinators at Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal, has teamed up with a  film-maker, Kouross Esmaeli, and brought four years of video work to fruition in a new, high quality film on Mumia and his case. Check out the trailer above, and then also the press release and flyer that are attached.

Best,

Mark Taylor

Justice On Trial:  The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Special Press Screening  2 PM   With Press Discussion to follow
Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch St.   Philadelphia PA

Media members interested in attending should RSVP by emailing nmeeks@bgconnex.com, or calling  215/ 265-5471

Public Sneak Preview  8  PM
Ritz East
125 S. 2nd Street   Philadelphia PA

Suggested donation $8.      Tickets available at box office.

NYC Travel Info: 212 330-8029

Big Noise Tactical Media
For more information and to see the trailer, please visit http://bignoisefilms.org

NYC-International Perspectives on Police Terrorism and the Death Penalty

Panel Discussion:

International Perspectives on Police Terrorism and the Death Penalty

Thursday, October 7 at 6:00 pm
at
St. Mary's Church
521 W126th Street, between Amsterdam ave and Broadway

Speakers:
JR, Minister of Information, POCC/ and Host, Block Report Radio
Viola Plummer, December 12th Movement
Pam Africa, International Concerned Families and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Malcolm Shabazz (Grandson of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz)

Special Guest:
Cecil Guzmore, Pan-African Activist and Scholar, United Kingdom; Lecturer at the University of Jamaica; Columnist, Jamaican Daily Gleaner

Info: Call the Free Mumia Coalition, 212-330-8029

REMEMBER OCTOBER 9 IN PHILADELPHIA!

Mumia Abu-Jamal : “I am an outlaw journalist”

On August 29th, 2010, Reporters Without Borders Washington DC representative, Clothilde Le Coz, visited Mumia Abu-Jamal, prisoner on death row for nearly three decades. Ms. Le Coz was accompanied by Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, and his legal assistant, Nicole Bryan. The meeting took place in room 17 of the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Waynesburg, Greene county, Pennsylvania.

Reporters Without Borders: As a journalist who continues to work in prison, what are your latest reports focused on?

Mumia Abu-Jamal: The prison population in the United States is the highest in the world. Over the past year, for the first time in 38 years, the prison population declined.

Some states, like California or Michigan, are taking fewer prisoners because of overcrowding. State budgets are restrained and some prisoners are released because of the economic situation.

Prisons in America are vast and the number of prisoners is immense. It’s impressive to see how much money is spent by the US government and how invisible we are. No one knows. Most people don’t care. Some journalists report when there is a drama in prison and think they know about it. But this is not real : it is sensationalist. You can find some good writings. But they are unrealistic. My reporting is what I have seen with my eyes and what people told me. It is real. My reporting has to do with my reality. They mostly have been focusing on death row and prison. I wish it were not so. There is a spate of suicides on death row in the last year and a half. But this is invisible. I broke stories about suicide because it happened on my block.

I need to write. There are millions of stories and some wonderful people here. Among these stories, the ones I chose to write are important, moving, fragile. I decide to write them but part of the calculation is to know whether it’s helpful or not. I have to think about that. As a reporter, you have a responsibility when you publish those kind of stories. Hopefully, it will change their lives for the better.

Do you think the fact you were a reporter affected your case ?

Being the "Voice of the Voiceless" played a significant role. And this expression actually comes from the title of a Philadephia Inquirer headline after I was arrested in 1981. As a teenager, I was a radical journalist working on the staff of the Black Panthers national newspaper. The FBI was actually monitoring my writings since I was 14. My first job was being a reporter. Because of my writings, I am far better known that any inmate in America. If it were not the case, I think there would have been less pressure for the Court to create a special law to affect my conviction. Most of the men and women on death row are not well known. Because I continue to write, this is an element that would have affected the thinking of the judges and made them change the ruling for not giving me a new trial. I think they were thinking “You’re a big mouth, you won’t get a new trial”. You expect a little more from a federal Court. Because of my case, a dozen of other cases can be affected.

What do you think of the media coverage of your case ?

Once, I read that I was no longer on death row. I was sitting here when I read it. I haven’t stopped sitting here for one second.

Because I was coming from the craft, a lot of reporters did not want to cover my case because they feared they would be attached. They had to face criticisms for being partial and sometimes they were told by their editors they could not cover it. Since the beginning of the case, people who could cover me best were not allowed to. Most of reporters I worked with are no longer working. They retired and nobody took the work over.

But the press should have a role to play here. Millions of people saw what was done in Abu Ghraib. Its leader, smiling on the pictures that have been published, worked here before going to Abu Ghraib. In death row, you have people without a high school degree who can decide whether someone lives or dies. For whatever reason, they have the power to make you not eat if they don’t want to. And none of that power is checked by anyone. There are informal rules. These people can make someone’s life a living hell on a wink. When I chose which stories I want to write about, I am never short on material. From a writing perspective, this field is rich.

No matter what my detractors are saying about me, I am a reporter. This country would be a whole lot worse without journalists. But to many of them, I am an outlaw reporter. Prior to prison, in my work for various radio stations, I met people from all around the world and despite my conflicts with some editors, I had the greatest job.

The support you receive in Europe compared to the support you receive here in the United States, is very different. How do you explain the difference and do you still believe international mobilization will be helpful ?

Of course it will. The European mobilization might be pressuring the US regarding the death penalty. Foreign countries, like European ones, went through a specific history of repression. There was an in-their-bones-knowledge of what it is to be in prison. They know about prison, death row and concentration camps. In the US, very few people had that experience. That speaks to how cultures look at things in the world. In Europe, the very ideal of death penalty is an anathema.

9/11 changed a lot of things in the US. People challenging or opposing the government would not be supported anymore. The press also changed. Things that were “allowable” became unacceptable after 9/11. I think 9/11 changed the way people thought and it changed the tolerance of the media. For example, even though 9/11 happened in Manhattan and Washington DC, the jail was closed for an entire day, here in Pennsylvania, and we were locked down.

To motivate more people around your cause, it might be helpful to get an up to date picture of you, today, on death row. Does the fact that we don’t have any updated picture of you affect your situation and the ability of more people to mobilize around your cause ?

Having a public image is partly helpful. The essence of an image is propaganda. Pictures are therefore not that important. The human image is the true one. There, I try to do my best. In 1986, prison authorities took recorders from reporters and you were only allowed a pen and a paper. Now that there is only the meaning of one article left, one can make monsters and models from his article.

If the Supreme Court agrees on a new trial, only your sentence will be reviewed. Not your conviction. How do you feel about staying in prison for life, if you are not executed ?

In Pennsylvania, life sentence is a slow death row. And under the state law, there are 3 degrees of murders. The first degree is punished by life sentence or death. The second and the third ones are punished by life sentence. People do not get out. The highest juvenile rate of life sentences is here in Pennsylvania. But here is my point, in Philadelphia, there were two other cases around my time were people killed a cop. The first one got aquittal. The second once, caught on a surveillance camera, did not get a death sentence.

How do you manage to “escape” death row ?

I have written on History, one of my passions. I would love to write about other things. My latest works are about war, but I also write about culture and music. I have an internal beat that I try to keep through poetry and drums. Very few things have matched the pleasure that I get from learning music. It’s like learning another language. And to write, that’s a challenge ! A music teacher comes every week and teaches me. A whole new world is opening to me and I get a better grasp of it now. Music is one of the best thing mankind has done. The best of our lives.

For further information and to offer support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, contact: Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan 2088 Union Street, Suite 4, San Francisco, CA 94123-4117 http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org

http://en.rsf.org/united-states-mumia-abu-jamal-i-am-an-outlaw-03-09-2010,38278.html

OCT 9TH IN PHILLY, AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY, SUPPORT MUMIA, STOP THE FOP

WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY : USA 10-10-10

WE DEMAND 100% ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY NOW! NO EXCEPTIONS (INCLUDING MUMIA ABU-JAMAL)!

Several key members of US anti-death penalty organizations have recently made a move to exclude Mumia Abu-Jamal from the movement to abolish the death penalty, arguing that Mumia's inclusion alienated potential law enforcement supporters of the abolition movement!!! This position caused an international uproar. October 9th will be a reaffirmation of a real and unifying abolition movement: 100% ABOLITION! NO EXCEPTIONS!

BE IN PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9

9 AM
RALLY AT THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE HEADQUARTERS (longtime fighters for executions and perpetrators of terrorism against those who fight for justice)
(Broad Street and Springfield Gardens)

10 AM
MARCH BEGINS

11:30
INDOOR RALLY BEGINS
LA FAMILIA
1310 North Broad Street

Scheduled Participants:
International representatives
Former Death Row Prisoners
Journalist Linn Washington
And many others

Sponsors: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Texas Coalition Group Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, International Action Center, Witness to Innocence (Philadelphia), Exonorees from Death Row.

NYC BUS INFO: Arrange purchase(212) 330-8029
BUSES LEAVE 6:30 AM, 33rd & 8th Ave.

Legal Update

There are new developments regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, the journalist who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for nearly three decades.

Federal Litigation:  A major step has been taken in the ongoing litigation to save my client's life. On July 28 we filed the Brief on Remand from the Supreme Court of the United States, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Beard, No. 01-9014.) It is attached. At stake is whether Mumia will be executed, or granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. We previously won on this issue, but early this year the Supreme Court ordered that the case be again reviewed by the federal court.

Petition to President Barack Obama (Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty):  Over 23,000 people from around the world have signed the petition, including three Nobel Prize winners. We need many more for this to benefit Mumia. Some of the signers are:  Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984); Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999); Elfriede Jelinek, Austria (Nobel Prize in Literature, 2004); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Colin Firth (Academy Award Best-Actor nominee, 2010); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); Robert Meeropol (son of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino); members of the European Parliament; members of the German Bundestag; European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights; & Reporters Without Borders, Paris.

How to Help:  For information on how to help, both by signing the Obama petition & donating funds, please go to Mumia's website  (http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).

Conclusion:  Mumia is in great danger. I will not stop until he is saved.

Yours very truly,Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan2088 Union Street, Suite 4San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal 
http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org

In support of Mumia: Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty statement

August 5, 2010

Statement of the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty
regarding the Campaign for Mumia Abu Jamal
and the Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty

During the last weeks, some abolitionist organizations and activists have approached us to ask
for our position in the matter of Mumia Abu Jamal and the communication issued by some
abolitionist organizations in the United States regarding the role of his campaign in the Fourth
World Congress celebrated last February in Geneva.

The Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty (PRCADP), as decided in a meeting of its
Steering Committee held on August 2, 2010, states as follows:

1. PRCADP endorses the campaign for Mumia Abu Jamal and recognizes the important role of Mumia in the abolitionist struggle;
   
2. PRCADP had no participation, neither was consulted, in the petition issued by US abolitionist organizations members of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (including the Puerto Rico Bar Association) about this concern; and
   
3. PRCADP strongly calls for unity, respect and solidarity between abolitionist organizations in the United States, as well as internationally.

Please direct any communication regarding this subject to Carmelo Campos Cruz, carmelocampos@yahoo.com.

Be in Philly for MOVE Sat., August 7!

PLEASE SUPPORT! FREE THE MOVE 9!!

From icffmaj@aol.com:

This call comes from Ramona Africa. New Yorkers, please call the Hotline at 212-330-8029 to travel with the NY Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

ONA MOVE, All!

As I'm sure you all know, this August 8th marks 32 years of unjust imprisonment for The MOVE 9. Our main activity is to pressure the parole board about their release but we won't let August 8th go by without reminding people what that day represents. We will gather at 11th and Market Sts. from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm on Saturday August 7th. We will have info to distribute to people and will be available to talk to people about The MOVE 9. Hope to see you there--Ramona

Just to remind folks of the August 8, 1978 events,  below is an August 8, 2004 Mumia Commentary. You can hear this in Mumia's voice at http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_8_8_04move.html or subscribe to Mumia's commentaries at his podcast website or on iTunes.

The Move 9: 26 years in Hell

WHAT A FAMILY WE ARE WHEN WE'RE ONE FORCE, ONE UNIT, A POWERFUL FORCE THAT NO SYSTEM CAN EQUAL, FOR WE HAVE THE POWER OF LIFE AS OUR ALLY, MY MAMA, OUR MAMA, THE LIFE FORCE OF MOVE, NO DIVISIONAL THING CAN EVER DEFEAT US AS LONG AS WE HONOR THE GRIP OF THE FAMILY ....
John Africa, MOVE Founder

For 26 years now, a group of revolutionaries known as the MOVE 9, have been encaged within prisons all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, all of whom face continuing sentences of 100 years, despite evidence of their innocence.

These men and women are all members of the MOVE Organization, who were captured, dragged through a show trial in Philadelphia Courts, and sentenced to a century in cages by the notorious Judge Edwin Malmed, who when asked, in a talk show radio interview to name those who were guilty of the crime of murder (of which all 9 were convicted), replied, "I haven't the faintest idea."

This writer knows this because it was I who asked him that question, and I who received the astonishing answer, on the air!

He would tell other reporters, "They were tried as a family, and I sentenced them as a family." It would seem that a more accurate response would be, 'I sentenced them because they *are* a family.'

They were convicted of being united, not in crime, but in rebellion against the system and in resistance to the armed assaults of the State.

They were convicted of being MOVE members.

Here's why I say that: On August 8th, 1978, when the police unleashed an armed assault on MOVE's home and headquarters in West Philadelphia, it ended the assault with the arrest of not 9 young men and women, but 12. Several of the women, young mothers, were, quite understandably, terrorized by the kind of violence they saw by the police, and quietly left the MOVE Organization. As soon as they renounced their memberships in MOVE, charges against them were dropped! Why, unless their very 'crimes' were nothing more than membership?

Understand that none of the MOVE women were charged with weapons offenses, yet all of them were sentenced identically to the men, who were given weapons charges.

For 26 years, both MOVE men and women of the MOVE 9, have continued their work, by living according to the Teachings of John Africa, despite their cruel incarcerations. Many are indeed Ministers of that Teaching, and work to counsel people in the prisons who are trying to withstand the onslaught of repression.

On March 13th, 1998, the brave and brilliant Merle Africa had her life stolen by 20 years in state dungeons. To many, many women in the prison system, she is remembered for her warmth and caring, but also for her spirit of resistance to prison injustices. Her death did not stop her spirit, which radiated through all who knew her, whether in, or out, of prison.

On August 8th, 1978, MOVE folks were protecting themselves from a vicious, premeditated, police and paramilitary act of urban war upon their home and offices. Under what America claims is its 'law', one has an alleged right to self-defense. But, when people actually do so, they are given all kinds of nasty names by the corporate media.

Not surprisingly, when the State hurts people, when they shoot people, when they *bomb* people (as they did to MOVE on May 13th, 1985!) they are never called nasty names. They are simply 'doing their jobs.' That's OK.

MOVE members from the August 8th attack are still fighting for their freedom 26 years later. They are: Janine Africa, Phil Africa, Janet Africa, Delbert Africa, Debbie Africa, Mike Africa, Chuck Africa and Eddie Africa.

Surely, 26 years is long enough! Join the Movement to Free the MOVE 9. Join the growing Friends of MOVE, which are literally, people from around the world.

Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Abolishing the Prison Industrial Complex

via Hans Bennett:

http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2010/07/abolishing-prison-industrial-complex.html

Part one of an interview with Criminal Injustice Kos co-editors Nancy Heitzeg and Kay Whitlock
By Angola 3 News

Focusing on the prison abolitionist movement, we interview two co-editors of an exciting new series at Daily Kos, called Criminal InJustice Kos, a weekly series "devoted to exploring the myths of 'crime', 'criminals', and criminal justice and the intersection of race/ethnicity/class/gender/sexuality/age/disability in policing and punishment. Criminal Injustice Kos is committed to furthering action towards reducing inequity in the US criminal justice system." Look for Criminal InJustice Kos every Wednesday at 6 pm CST.

Stay tuned for part 2, where we focus on the practicality of prison abolition and take a close look at alternatives to the US prison system.

Dr. Nancy Heitzeg (whose online name is "soothsayer99") is an activist educator and Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the interdisciplinary Critical Studies of Race/Ethnicity program at Saint Catherine University. She has written and presented widely on the subjects of race, class, gender and social control. Nancy is the author of Deviance: Rule-makers and Rule-breakers, and several articles exploring issue of race class gender and social control including: "Differentials in Deviance: Race, Class, Gender and Age" (in The International Handbook of Deviant Behavior, Routledge, forthcoming Summer 2010); "The Case Against Prison: in Prison Privatization: The State of Theory and Practice (forthcoming Fall 2010), "Education Not Incarceration: Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline"(Forum on Public Policy, Oxford University Press, Winter 2010); "The Racialization of Crime and Punishment: Criminal Justice, Color-Blind Racism and the Political Economy of the Prison Industrial Complex"(with Dr. Rose Brewer, which appeared in a special volume co-edited by Dr. Heitzeg and Dr. Rodney Coates, of American Behavioral Scientist: Micro-Level Social Justice Projects, Pedagogy, and Democratic Movements, Winter 2008); and Race, Class and Legal Risk in the United States: Youth of Color and Colluding Systems of Social Control" (Forum on Public Policy, Oxford University Press, Winter 2009).

Be sure to read our earlier two-part interview with Heitzeg, published by Truthout, part one: Visiting a Modern Day Slave Plantation and part two: The Racialization of Crime and Punishment.

Kay Whitlock (whose online name is "RadioGirl") is a Montana-based writer, organizer, and activist long engaged in progressive struggles for racial, gender, queer, environmental, and economic justice. She has written extensively on the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class in relation to police and prison violence, most notably in her former position as National Representative for LGBT Issues for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization. Her publications for AFSC include Corrupting Justice: A Primer for LGBT Communities on Racism, Violence, Human Degradation & the Prison Industrial Complex (pdf download and In a Time of Broken Bones: A Call to Dialogue on Hate Violence and the Limitations of Hate Crimes Legislation (pdf download). With Joey L. Mogul and Andrea J. Ritchie, she is the co-author of Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, forthcoming from Beacon Press in February 2011 – an analysis of queer criminalization, centering race, class, and gender, from colonial contact to the present.

Angola 3 News: Why do you consider yourself a prison abolitionist? What does this term mean for you?

Nancy Heitzeg: If one accepts, as I do, that prisons in the US are a contemporary extension of chattel slavery, that prisons are irredeemably rooted in racism and classism that prisons serve no purpose save corporate profit and raw retribution, then one must call for their abolition. Prison "reform" is insufficient if the very notion and reality of prison itself is grounded in inequality, injustice and destruction.

In a small yet dense book, Angela Davis asks Are Prisons Obsolete??? If prisons are indeed social structures rooted in racism, classism and fear – then we must take the questions seriously. We must try to imagine a nation – perhaps a world without prisons.

"As important as reforms may be, frameworks that rely exclusively on reforms help to produce the stultifying idea that nothing lies beyond the prison...We must give serious consideration to abolitionist strategies to dismantle the prison system...which preserves existing structures of racism as well as creates new ones...this is no more outlandish than the fact that race and economic status play more prominent roles in shaping the practices of social punishment than does crime." (Davis 1998 105)

I have always known people who were in prison and or known of others who were. I have always thought about prison. "Letter from A Birmingham Jail", Blood in My Eye, The Ten - Point Program of the Black Panther Party, The Attica Prison Uprising, and Free Leonard Peltier! all shaped my political consciousness from the youngest of ages. I have always studied the prison -- even though my area of graduate study and expertise was more broadly focused on deviance and all aspects of social control - formal medical and informal, the prison and correspondingly the death penalty always loomed as the sanction of last resort – the punishment fit for those who were to be most "feared" who represented at least in theory, the most dangerous of all rule-breakers. And soon it became comparatively clear that the definition and control of deviance was more closely linked to WHO the deviant was rather WHAT the deviant did. Some murderers were never arrested, others merely fined, and still others were imprisoned or executed. Same with all the rest: the robbers the assaulters the thieves the dealers of drugs and so on. Far from being mutually exclusive or race and class blind, systems of control are inter-dependent and over-lapping, and discretion often is shaped by discrimination. You can not be an honest scholar of the sociology of deviance without also being a scholar of social inequality – of race class gender sexual orientation and age.

Race, class and gender are inextricably bound up with the definition and control of deviance. To the extent that the privileged and empowered "norm" is white, male, financially well off, heterosexual and adult, then people of color, women, the poor, GLBTQ persons, and the young become "the Other", the "abnormal", the "deviant". Further, these "Others" have been subject to labeling and social control based on the intersection of race, class, gender and other differences. The "matrix of domination" shapes access to systems of social control as well as to social opportunity. And, while there are "deviants" of all classes, all races, all genders and ages, the models under which they are controlled reflect their relative social status. It became clear that prison was not really for the "worst" of all offenders because corporate white-collar crime is responsible for a least 5 times more deaths each year and 10x more money lost than so-called street crime. Prison was a place for the poor, the black/brown, the young – it was meant for those "others" we were lead to fear most.

So the prison is a site where justice was not served but where injustice was further re-inscribed, a place where punishment often does not fit the crime if there indeed was one, a place where social inequality was both the precursor and the antecedent. The prison is for me — with the many who write from within the walls – a site of resistance.

To be an abolitionist is just that – to strive to create and rediscover alternatives to incarceration, to find solution to "crime" that restores communities rather than decimates them, it is to ask the difficult questions that push us to imagine an end to the reliance on the prison and related retributive sanctions. To say, yes, that prisons are obsolete.

Kay Whitlock: I never set out to be an abolitionist, but that's where my journey inevitably led me (it is described in more detail in my essay "The Long Shadow of Prison: My Messy Journey Through Fear, Silence, and Racism Toward Abolition," which appears in Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States, edited by Solinger, Johnson, Raimon, Reynolds, and Tapia. There was no single grand moment of sudden political revelation – "AHA!" I didn't grow up in a liberal household; I was a white, working-class kid in a community where racism was fierce and, for many years, unchallenged. My journey took many years; it was marked by the never-ending accumulation of terrible facts and detail that illuminated the hydra-headed nature of the prison system and mass incarceration. That includes the obvious use of imprisonment historically to control people of color and poor people; horrific exploitation of prison labor; the too-limited, cramped, and ultimately false promises of "rehabilitation"; disenfranchisement of millions of people – mostly people of color – with felony convictions; endemic violence, use of torture, and abuse of human rights in U.S. jails and prisons; and the expansion of prison profiteering.

In the face of this accumulation of knowledge, I had a choice. Either I would have to close my heart and mind, or I would have to face these truths head on, and make a decision in line with my conscience, ethics, and spiritual belief (I am a Buddhist practitioner).

Really, it's as simple as that. If you know about mass violence and injustice, do you turn away, making justifications for your silence and indifference? Or do you act on what you know of the systemic hell of the U.S. incarceration system and how the misery it produces corrupts and harms every aspect of U.S. society? And, particularly relevant for me, when you're a white person and consider yourself anti-racist, what do you do about the evil of mass incarceration?

In my view, the role and reach of prisons in U.S. life constitutes one of the greatest moral crises of our age. To me, declaring myself an abolitionist means that:

• I am part of a growing, diverse, movement that seeks not only to abolish the institution of the prison in the United States, but also dismantle the confluence of public, private, political, and economic interests called "the prison industrial complex."

• over the years, I have come to see more and more clearly the ways in which the U.S. prison system is foundationally, fundamentally, and violently racist; it has been from the very beginning. Because I care passionately about dismantling racism and white privilege in this country, the abolition of the prison system seems to me an essential part of the struggle.

• I have come to see that human rights abuses and torture within U.S. prisons is normative, not a "bad apple" departure from the norm.

• I do not accept our society's increasing utilization of prisons to reinforce racism; to criminalize mental illness; to police and punish the very poverty it has created; to avoid coming to terms with a shattered public education system; and to police and punish sexual and gender nonconformity.

• in my view, only the call to abolition opens up sufficient creative and imaginative public space in which to think about what authentic justice might look like if the concepts of justice for all, community well being, and universal human rights were at the center of our vision addressing the understandable yearning for safety and security. Otherwise, we will simply accept the inevitability of prisons and never fundamentally challenge their nature, reach, and function in this country.

A3N: How does today's prison abolitionist movement related to the movement to abolish slavery in the pre-U.S. Civil war period? What is the legacy of pre-Civil War black chattel slavery on today's prison-industrial complex?

NH: The term abolitionist is a direct reference to the movement to abolish slavery. Again in Are Prisons Obsolete???, Davis argues that the prison industrial complex is indeed the new plantation – the latest in a series of historically uninterrupted efforts to legally and economically suppress blacks. As slavery inspired the abolition movement and Jim Crow segregation/extra-legal lynching inspired he Civil Rights Movement, so too the prison industrial complex must be resisted by new abolitionists.

And yes we can draw a direct link from slavery to the prison industrial complex. In the South especially, there is really no difference but the name in places like LSP Angola , an old plantation which immediately was transformed in to a penitentiary after the Civil War.

The abolition of slavery did not result in the abolition of legitimated white supremacy in the law; it merely called for new methods of legally upholding the property interests of whiteness. The criminal justice system begins to play a new and crucial role here. There was a subsequent transformation of the Slave Codes into the Black Codes and the plantations into prisons. Following Reconstruction, the rights extended to blacks via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were quickly subverted by laws and Supreme Court rulings that upheld racism. Laws were quickly passed that echoed the restrictions associated with slavery, and criminalized a range of activities of the perpetrator was black. The newly acquired 15th Amendment right to vote was curtailed by tailoring of felony disenfranchisement laws to include crimes that were supposedly more frequently committed by blacks. And, the liberatory promise of the 13th Amendment – "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States"- contained a dangerous loophole- "except as a punishment for crime" This allowed for the conversion of the old plantations to penitentiaries, and this, with the introduction of the convict lease system permitted the South to continue to economically benefit from the unpaid labor of blacks. This practice in combination with a brutal convict lease system in many southern states effectively allowed for the perpetuation of slavery -- just by another name.

Following the end of legalized racial discrimination, there was an especially concerted effort to escalate the control of African Americans via the criminal justice system.

Marable (1983:120-121 makes this point, "...white racists began to rely almost exclusively on the state apparatus to carry put the battle for white supremacy...The criminal justice system became, in short, a modern instrument to perpetuate white hegemony."

These practices gain primacy during the post-Civil Rights years as the criminal justice system provides a convenient vehicle for physically maintaining the old legally enforced color-lines as African Americans are disproportionately policed, prosecuted, convicted, disenfranchised and imprisoned. The criminal justice system and its' culmination in the prison industrial complex also continues to guarantee the perpetual profits from the forced labor of inmates, now justifying their slavery as punishment for crime. Finally, the reliance on the criminal system provides the color-blind racist regime the perfect set of codes to describe racialized patterns of alleged crime and actual punishment without ever referring to race.

As Angela Davis (1997:62) observes, ""Crime is one of the masquerades behind which "race", with all its menacing ideological complexity, mobilizes old public ears and creates new ones."

The current racial dynamic of the prison industrial complex bears this out. Mandatory minimums for drug violations, "three strikes", increased use of imprisonment as a sentencing option, lengthy prison terms, adult certification for juveniles and the expanded use of the death penalty -- all disproportionately affect the poor and people of color. A brief glimpse into the statistics immediately reveals both the magnitude of these policy changes as well as their racial dynamic. Despite no statistical differences in rates of offending, the poor, the under-educated, and people of color, particularly African Americans, are over-represented in these statistics at every phase of the criminal justice system. While 1 in 31 adults is under correctional supervision and 1 in every 100 adults is in prison, 1 in every 100 black women 1 in every 36 Latino adults , one in every 15 black men, and 1 in 9 black men ages 20 to 34 are incarceration. Approximately 50% of all prisoners are black, 30% are white and 1/6 Latino .Race of victim race of offender and social class remain the best predictors of who will receive the death penalty

The racial disparities are even greater for youth. African Americans, while representing 17% of the youth population, account for 45% of all juvenile arrests. Black youth are 2 times more likely than white youth to be arrested, to be referred to juvenile court, to be formally processed and adjudicated as delinquent or referred to the adult criminal justice system, and they are 3 times more likely than white youth to be sentenced to out-of –home residential placement Nationally, 1 in 3 Black and 1 in 6 Latino boys born in 2001 are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetime. While boys are five times as likely to be incarcerated as girls, girls are at increasing risk. This rate of incarceration is endangering children at younger and younger ages.

KW: There is a clear and dreadful line of continuity connecting the institution of chattel slavery and policies and public/private interests supporting mass incarceration. Examine the Slave Codes and then the post-slavery Black Codes to see how readily "emancipation" morphed into "criminalization." Legal segregation followed; today, the racial impact of "get tough on crime" and the expansion of the prison industrial complex continue that direct line. (I want to note, too, that federal, state, and territorial laws criminalized traditional American Indian cultures and daily life. Luana Ross powerfully addresses this in her book, Inventing the Savage: The Social Construction of Native American Criminality. The criminalization of immigrants, today particularly immigrants of color, deserves our attention.)

But so many people – I would certainly guess most white people – in this country are neither aware of these facts nor particularly want to know them because they shake up our tendency to want to believe that systemic racism is either gone or well on the run. In my work, I meet countless people who believe that that slavery is a relic of the past; that black people should just "get over it" and "move on." There is enormous resistance to learning about and recognizing just how the prison-industrial complex works in our society – and how low-income people of color provide the bodies that produce the profits for the incarceration industry.

In my work, I am particularly intrigued with the amount of anger so often directed at anyone who raises these questions – even anger from much of the liberal-left, particularly white folks. The depth of that anger, the depth of refusal to engage these historical and contemporary facts tells me that we're dealing with enormous fear here. Racial fear; Racism. In many cases, that racism is not intentional; it certainly is unexamined. But nonetheless it is always there, at the very heart of things. Abolition discussions pull the rug out from under the cozy fiction that we actually are entering a post-racial phase in U.S. history and give lie to the comforting bromide that slavery is behind us.

In many respects, I believe that contemporary abolition discussions mine the mother lode of racism in the United States.

A3N: What do you think are common public misperceptions of the abolitionist movement? What roles do mainstream educational institutions and the corporate media play in creating these misperceptions? How can abolitionists best confront these misperceptions and constructively engage the general population?

NH: We must confront false assumptions and stereotypes that are fueled by media. The fears that lead to excessive prisonization are fueled by public misperceptions of crime...A substantial body of research documents the role of media - especially television – in constructing perceptions of crime, public images of the criminal, and subsequently shaping public policy.

Of particular note is media- generated hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s that inextricably linked and over-inflated "teen super-predators", inflated accounts of gang-violence and the crack cocaine "epidemic" -- all were unmistakably characterized as issues of race.

As Walker Spohn and DeLone note:

"Our perceptions of crimes are shaped to a large extent by the highly publicized crimes featured on the nightly news and sensationalized in news papers. We read about young African American and Hispanic males who sexually assault, rob and murder whites, and we assume that these crimes are typical. We assume that the typical crime is a violent crime, that the typical victim is white, and that the typical offender is African American or Hispanic."

The TV world of crime and criminals, however, is an illusion. These assumptions are false.

The reality of crime is very different from what media images suggest. An examination of official statistics (gathered annually by the F.BI. and U.S. Department of Justice and published in Uniform Crime Reports) presents data that is the exact opposite of what media presents to us.

The reality of crime is this: most crime is undetected/unreported, that which is related to property; rates for all crime are declining; the "typical" offender for all crimes is white; the "typical" victim is African American; and crime tends to be an intra-group event. Countering these media myths of crime with the truth – whenever and wherever we can – is first and essential task of abolitionists.

KW: Well, it seems important to first underscore how mainstream media – now almost wholly corporate controlled – helps to demonize prisoners, typically downplays news about police misconduct and the systemic nature of prison violence, and promotes "get tough on crime" policies. In the hands of most media, crime becomes simply another commodity. The more sensational, lurid, horrific, and terrifying, the more profitable it is. About a dozen years ago, a guy named Steven M. Chermak did a study of crime reporting (Victims in the News: Crime and the American News Media 1995), and he found that over half the crime stories he looked at were primarily based on police and court records. Not surprising, but it limits not only the source filter, but also the perspective and information that might be available.

So the stories are framed almost entirely by arrest records, police reports, and hurried exchanges between prosecutors, police, and reporters. Now, that material may be incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate in whole or in part. But accuracy or the wholeness of the story doesn't matter. That's the narrative. The perspectives of victims – of some kinds of crimes – might be incorporated a little bit. But you can be pretty sure that the people already considered `criminal' – whether they have been rightly charged or not; whether they have been convicted of a specific offense or not – are not going to be there in any meaningful way. Not even if they have been brutalized or mistreated within the criminal legal system. That's not really a "crime." After all, don't "criminals" deserve to be treated as scum? Aren't they automatically less than human? And how often are the stories of people whose lives are shattered by corporate misconduct and exploitation centered in the reporting of corporate-controlled media? So there's a profound bias in what stories we hear, and whose voices are heard from the beginning, framing the narrative.

We almost never hear the stories that are more complicated: how, for example, police often blame victims of "hate" or interpersonal violence for assaults against them – particularly if those victims are poor, people of color, and may be profiled as undocumented immigrants. We hear about prison rape as a gigantic, homophobic joke – and the image of gay men – so often framed as black in discourse about prisons as thugs, disease spreaders, rapists and sulliers of innocent, heterosexual white men (caution: link to racist and homophobic analysis) is reinforced, when in truth, incarcerated queers actually are disproportionately targeted for sexual violence. And there's a thudding silence in the mainstream media surrounding the experiences of most people in prison.

It's no surprise then that so many of us who don't routinely have to deal with law enforcement violence end up with the false idea that most people in prison are irredeemably violent; that they are sadistic murderers and rapists. And that prison is the only line of safety that protects "us" from these alleged violent predators. We aren't encouraged to think critically about the racial and class coding that typically goes into these images. No accident that the "revolving door" rapist image, promoted by supporters of the first Bush, then running against Dukakis for the presidency, was Willie Horton, a black man. White people, particularly, aren't encouraged to think of prisoners as members of our communities, as our neighbors. But for countless people of color, of course, prisoners are members not only of their communities, but also their families.

Today, of course, we've turned crime and policing into entertainment-rich "reality" shows on television (caution: this is an entertainment blog link). No question there who are the good guys and the bad guys. So we learn to consume demonized criminalizing images (pdf download) and police pursuit and mistreatment of those demonized "others" as both enjoyable and energizing. That is truly obscene.

I know from my own experience that many folks believe that we abolitionists are out of touch with the reality of violence and care more about "criminals" than "victims." That we are ready to loose hordes of psychotic, murdering rapists on the public because we don't care about holding anyone accountable for the harms they do to others. In fact, we are viewed as eager to "excuse" their actions. Over time, many people have come to believe that only prisons keep us "safe" from violent others. And that to even question these myths is the same as an intentional attack on "victims of crime." I know from personal experience that many think we are "unrealistic" and know nothing about the devastation of violence and crime firsthand. So wrong – but it is such a prevalent belief.

The majority of people I know in the abolitionist movement – including myself – have experienced violence not only at the hands of individuals in the community – in families, schools, at home, on the streets - but also at the hands of police or prison officials. And I don't know anyone who believes that any of this violence is unimportant or "excusable."

But we cannot just "counterattack" with our own demonizing narratives about law enforcement and those who disagree with us in order to challenge these perceptions. That just keeps the cycle going. I do believe we have to lay bare terrible truths about prison violence, but do so within frameworks that lift up the kinds of visions of community that we all hunger for. Unless there is something to fight for, and not just something to fight against, we will be on the defensive.

We also have to be willing to wrestle with difficult questions, not dodge them. Let's face it: there are some scary people who are exceptionally violent and not inclined – for whatever reasons – to change. They are relatively few, and we certainly shouldn't structure a whole policing/imprisonment system around them. But what do we do to help ensure that those few very violent folks won't keep harming others without just recreating the brutal system we have now?

And I think we have to deploy many tools in our struggle: facts and figures, yes, but also cultural means of humanizing the stories we have to tell. Most of all, we need to produce more cultural forms of imagination – poetry, visual art, video, theater, movies, dance, posters, novels, new media – that are powerful enough to even momentarily interrupt the fear that drives the anger that so often shuts down discussion.

We have to reach that emotional spot in people where they begin to recognize that they also have something to contribute to the story, and something profoundly important to gain from new approaches. We have to begin to deconstruct "us" and "them" in the general population, even as we seek to tell the truth about what happened– what is happening - and why. The story of how we got to this miserable state of affairs and what we can do to get out of it.


Angola 3 News is a new project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ABOLITIONIST COMMUNITY

IN DEFENSE OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is appalled by the news that several individuals of leading anti-death penalty organizations have signed a confidential memorandum stating that the "involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the U.S. coalition for abolition of the death penalty." The memo further argues that the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty should not highlight Mumia's case because doing so "unnecessarily attracts our strongest opponents and alienates coalition partners at a time when we need to build alliances, not foster hatred and enmity." (http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117)

This memo was drafted on December 21, 2009, yet it only recently came to light following the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held on March 4 in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting, a telephone call came in from Mumia Abu-Jamal, and he addressed the audience. At this point, several members of U.S. abolitionist groups got up and walked out in protest.

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty strongly condemns this action and completely disagrees with the approach to the anti-death penalty struggle that this memo puts forth.

First of all, we unequivocally support and endorse Mumia Abu-Jamal in his struggle for justice. We believe in his innocence and see Mumia's case as fraught with many of the same injustices as other death penalty cases--racial bias, police misconduct and brutality, and prosecutorial and judicial prejudice.

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row for the past 28 years and remains there because the courts, under pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, have thwarted his efforts to win his freedom. From his prison cell, Mumia has galvanized an international movement of support towards his efforts to win justice. He has written numerous books and articles shedding light on our prison-industrial complex as well as other historical and current political issues. He is widely read, known and respected. His commentaries on prison radio are nothing short of brilliant. He has helped to educate millions of people about the true workings of the criminal justice system. But most importantly, he has been an inspiration to all those fighting to win abolition, lending his voice of hope, his encouragement and his unfaltering determination to our movement.

So why would a delegation of U.S. abolitionists would get up and walk out of a meeting when Mumia addresses the audience? Shouldn't they have stood and applauded?

The explanation for this reprehensible action is explained in the secret memo, which basically puts forth the argument that to have anything to do with Mumia's case ruins the chances of winning abolition of the death penalty.

Why? Here is what the memo states, in part: "The support of law enforcement officials is essential to achieving abolition in the United States. It is essential to the national abolition strategy of U.S. abolition activists and attorneys that we cultivate the voices of police, prosecutors and law enforcement experts to support our call for an end to the death penalty."

This statement points to a very disturbing direction that we have observed in recent years among some organizations in the abolition movement--of compromising our message in order to win the support of conservatives. This has lead leading death penalty organizations to downplay the impact of race in the criminal justice system and to advocate reaching out to law enforcement as a means of winning abolition of the death penalty.

Those who espouse this strategy ignore or downplay the role that police play in railroading many poor people and African Americans onto death row. They ignore the role that police, prosecutors and judges play as guardians of an unjust legal system that disproportionately targets the poor and people of color. The outcome of this strategy has led to the marginalization of prisoners like Mumia, whose voices from behind prison walls are so important in this fight.

The individuals who drafted the memo go on to identify the voices that they seek to include: "The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (the media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal, who has had so much public exposure for so many years, threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups."

We in the CEDP couldn't disagree more with this strategy. We believe the most "persuasive factor" in changing public opinion is to build a vocal, visible movement that forthrightly puts forward its demands-- instead of working to make our message palatable to the opposition.

Consider the analogies to past struggles. What if Martin Luther King compromised the goals of integration in order to reach out and try to win over segregationists? No, he reached out to organize and uplift progressive forces into fighting for change. That is the kind of strategy we need.

The men and women on death row across the country--including the guilty--are not our enemy. The enemy is the system of punitive thought that portrays them as monsters so that the public can feel okay about killing them. It is part of the punitive philosophy upon which the legal system is based--the same system that breeds crime in the first place, that gives so little support to victims of abuse, that says it believes in rehabilitation but then won't fund it, that says it believes in education but then takes money away to build prisons instead.

We reject the logic of having the Fraternal Order of Police as a partner or ally. The FOP has organized against our efforts to win justice for Mumia, for Troy Davis, for the Burge Torture victims in Chicago and countless others.

Our approach is based on an anti-racist perspective. We know that the history of aggressive policing, sentencing and the death penalty has its roots in slavery--that the tough on crime rhetoric of lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key is racially coded language.

The Campaign stands completely and unequivocally with Mumia Abu-Jamal. We also stand by a different strategy to win abolition.

Instead of marginalizing voices like Mumia, we should be developing more innovative and creative ways to put them forward--and not just Mumia's, but others, including Troy Davis, Rodney Reed and Kevin Cooper, to name a few. We need to put the human face on this issue. We need to build a movement that challenges the racism and class bias nature of the death penalty--and to point out that these injustices exist in the broader criminal justice system as well.

In order to build a fight that can win real justice, we cannot marginalize "divisive" issues like racism. Instead, we have to take them on frontally. And instead of reaching out to the conservative elements in society, we should be reaching out to progressive elements and building bridges there. Let's not forget that the lowest level of support for the death penalty (42 percent) was in 1966, at the height of the civil rights movement. Let's work to place the fight for abolition squarely in the progressive camp, where it most surely belongs.

FREE MUMIA! ONWARDS TO ABOLITION!

London Mumia Film Showing/Demonstration

From:  Emma Lewis:

In Prison My Whole Life

Tuesday 20th July
7pm

Karibu Education Centre
7 Gresham Road
Brixton
London
SW9 7PH

Tickets on the Door

£3

A film about Mumia Abu-Jamal

A Father, A Journalist,

A Revolutionary

AN INNOCENT MAN ON DEATH ROW

Introduction from the film narrator William Francome

==============

FREE  MUMIA DEMONSTRATION
WEDNESDAY 28th July
4 - 8pm

US EMBASSY
24 Grosvenor Square
London W1A 1AE


Mumia Abu-Jamal’s legal team is engaged in a pivotal litigation in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.

At stake is whether Mumia will be executed or granted a New trial. The initial brief will be submitted by Mumia’s legal team on July 28th.

Come anytime for as long or as little as you can to support Mumia and join the global fight against the Death Penalty.

For more info. Contact ThePanAfrikanVoice@gmail.com

Or Tongogara on 02088014731

Report on July 8 Hearing

From Ramona Africa:


LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA’S REVOLUTION

As most of you no doubt know by now, we had a hearing in court today, July 8th, on the murder complaints that we filed against officials involved in the May 1985 bombing and murder of innocent MOVE family members.  The issue is very simple and very clear.  Officials deliberately dropped a C4 bomb on our home and the bomb ignited a fire which officials deliberately refused to put out.  When we attempted to get out of the blazing inferno, cops deliberately shot at us to try to prevent any of us from surviving.  As a result of this, eleven innocent MOVE men, women, children and numerous animals were literally burned alive and found to have bullet fragments in their bodies from police gunfire.  Not one single official in these past twenty-five years was ever charged with murdering our family.  I’m the only one to be charged with anything and imprisoned.   We, the MOVE family, filed private criminal murder complaints against officials responsible for the murder of our family.  The district attorney’s office refused our complaints so we appealed to common pleas court.  Judge Frank Palumbo refused our complaints, adhearing to assistant district attorney William James’ arguments that it’s been twenty-five years and “it wouldn’t be in the interest of the commonwealth” to persue these charges.  This is not surprising but it is unacceptable and we are appealing Palumbo’s decision.  There is no statute of limitations on murder in Pennsylvania and how can it not be in the interest of  the commonwealth, the people, to prosecute obvious murderers?

The MOVE 9 have been in prison for thirty-two years for the false accusation of killing a cop even though officials destroyed the scene of the crime within hours of arresting my family and even though the trial judge stated after convicting and sentencing my family to thirty to one-hundred years that he didn’t have the faintest idea who killed that cop and the trajectory of the fatal bullet proves that MOVE didn’t kill him.   The murder of my family was witnessed around the world.  There is no question about who murdered innocent MOVE family members yet the didtrict attorney’s office refuses to prosecute these official murderers.  The didtrict attorney’s office fights everyday to prosecute people, even when they have little to no evidence against the person.  In this case, however, the district attorney’s office is fighting tooth and nail to keep from prosecuting these official murderers.  Why?  They are telling people very clearly that cops and officials can murder people, burn people alive, including babies, and not be held accountable but if anybody is even suspected of killing a cop or official they’ll be hunted down and punished to the harshest extent possible.  People need to take this seriously and people should be outraged about it.  How many times does this system have to tell people that our lives are worth nothing, that only the lives of rich folks, cops and officials mean anything or are worth anything? 

Officials accuse MOVE of being violent, confrontational and having no respect for their legal system.  MOVE have never been violent but we do believe in the instinctive right of self defense which has nothing at all to do with being violent.  We will always confront anybody that attacks us or tries to hurt us or any family member and I defy anybody to prove that to be wrong, and why would anybody have respect for a system that has always shown itself to be racist, unjust and vicious.  People wonder why we of MOVE take the strong position we do against this rotten system, why we come after it the way we do, well the position of district attorney Seth Williams and judge Frank Palumbo tells you why.

MOVE is always  gonna fight injustice, we ain’t never gonna stop, and if our enemy labels our fight criminal or illegal, so what.  What would you expect from your enemy?

For more info or to get involved, contact MOVE at 215 387-4107/ onamovellja@aol.com

7/13 MOVE Documentary Showing/Mike Africa, Jr. in Philly

From:  icffmaj@aol.com

Friends of the MOVE 9, Sankofa Community Empowerment and MXGM-Philly
Invites You To:

MOVE: Confrontation in Philadelphia
A documentaryWednesday, July 13, 2010
6-8 pm
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia

Discussion afterwards with:
Mike Africa Jr., MOVE Organization
Gabriel Bryant, Sankofa Community Empowerment

MOVE: Confrontation in Philadelphia is a fast-paced, independently created documentary film of the events in the late seventies which lead up to the Philadelphia police arrest of members of nine MOVE members, who are currently serving a 30-100 year sentence. The video journalists reveal the complex relationship of media bias, police harassment, and subtle economic motivation in the violent removal of MOVE.

For more information contact us at MOVE9SupportCommittee@gmail.com or Iresha.Picot@gmail.com
www.MOVE9parole.blogspot.com

Come to court in Philly Thursday 7/8 for the hearing on murder charges for the 1985 bombing

From info@freemumia.com:

The MOVE organization is informing people that there is a hearing in Room 504 of the Criminal Justice Center at 9:00 am on Thursday, July 8, 2010 before Judge Frank Palumbo.  This hearing is on the private criminal murder complaints that we filed against officials for murdering our family (men, women, babies and animals) in the May 13, 1985 bombing of our home.  Prosecution officials, including the recently elected first Black District Attorney of Philadelphia, Seth Williams, have never held these murderers legally accountable for murdering our family members so we filed murder charges.  Seth Williams denied them so we are now in Common Please Court. 

We're encouraging everybody to attend this hearing and pay attention to what happens because this doesn't only affect MOVE people, it affects everybody that has never gotten satisfaction or justice when their loved ones have been murdered by cops. 

Join us on the 8th and let our unified voices be heard in the righteous demand that official murderers be held legally accountable for their crimes in the same way that cops demand that anybody they even think murdered one of their own be held legally accountable.

For more info, contact us at 215 387-4107

THE MOVE ORGANIZATION

----------

The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition NYC is travelling to Philly this Thursday in support of MOVE's filing of charges against top Philly officials responsible for the bombing of MOVE's home in 1985 and the killing of 6 adults, five children and many animals.  No Philly official was ever indicted, let alone convited, for this historic crime against innocent individuals, who happen to be Black and who happen to oppose everything this government stands for.  Be there this Thursday if you can.  We must let these criminals know that we will not forget and will not forgive the very governmental structures that continue to perpetrate horrific crimes by keeping the MOVE 9 in prison (the very crimes the 1985 MOVE protests were about) and continue to fight for Mumia's execution.

Call 212 330-8029.  We are planning to arrive in Philly in time for the 9:00 am hearing.

Videos from July 4 Demo for Mumia

From info@freemumia.com:

Great videos from Sis. Fatirah!!
------

Here are some short videos from the July 4, 2010 demonstration for Mumia Abu-Jamal:

Short clip of July 4, 2010 demo for Mumia Abu Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjTpciPK6ps


Baba Zayid Muhammad as Fredrick Douglass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfagwN7DTMU


Kevin Price reads John Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F02PlIFhv84

The MOVE 9 Parole Hearings -- An interview with Ramona Africa

The MOVE 9 Parole Hearings
--An interview with Ramona Africa

By Angola 3 News

Video-interviewed by Angola 3 News in May, 2010, Ramona Africa is the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre of 11 members of the MOVE organization. Founded in the early 1970s by John Africa, MOVE is a mostly black religious and family-based political organization that, in their words, works "to stop industry from poisoning the air, the water, the soil, and to put an end to the enslavement of life - people, animals, any form of life."

In the early morning of May 13, 1985, police had already surrounded MOVE's rowhouse at 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia when Philadelphia Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor declared on the bullhorn, "Attention MOVE, This is America! You have to abide by the laws of the United States!" Minutes later, the military-style assault on MOVE began. Police shot tear gas and detonated explosives on the front and both sides of MOVE's house. The gunfire from police reached at least 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the first ninety minutes, including 4,500 rounds from M-16s; 1,500 from Uzis; and 2,240 from M-60 machine guns.

Following an afternoon standstill, Mayor Wilson declared to the media that he would now "seize control of the house…by any means necessary." At 5:27 PM, Philadelphia police used a State Police helicopter to drop a C-4 bomb that had been illegally supplied by the FBI. When the bomb exploded on MOVE's roof, it started a small fire that the police and fire department allowed to burn, and eventually destroyed 61 homes, leaving 250 people homeless: the entire block of a middle-class black community.

Ramona and 13 year-old Birdie Africa would both recount that police had shot at the occupants of the house when they attempted to escape the fire. Giving her personal account of the massacre, Ramona says today that immediately after the bomb was dropped "those of us in the basement didn't realize that the house was on fire because there was so much tear gas that it was hard to recognize smoke. We opened the door and started to yell that we were coming out with the kids. The kids were hollering too. We know they heard us but the instant we were visible in the doorway, they opened fire. You could hear the bullets hitting all around the garage area. They deliberately took aim and shot at us. Anybody can see that their aim, very simply, was to kill MOVE people—not to arrest anybody."

Despite official police denials of shooting at MOVE when they were trying to escape the fire, The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (The MOVE Commission) appointed by Mayor Wilson Goode confirmed Ramona and Birdie's accounts, concluding that "police gunfire prevented some occupants of 6221 Osage Ave. from escaping from the burning house to the rear alley." The deaths of the five MOVE children "appeared to be unjustified homicides which should be investigated by a grand jury," concluded the MOVE Commission.

However, no one from the city, police, or fire department ever faced criminal charges. In sharp contrast, after Ramona survived the bombing, she was charged with conspiracy, riot, and multiple counts of simple and aggravated assault. At her trial, all charges listed on the May 11 arrest warrant were dismissed by the judge. "This means that they had no valid reason to even be out there, but they did not dismiss the charges placed on me as a result of what happened after they came out," says Ramona today.

At trial, Ramona successfully defended herself against the most serious charges, but after being convicted of the lesser charges, Ramona would serve 7 years in prison. If she had chosen to sever her ties with MOVE, she could have been released on parole after 16 months. Since her release from prison, Ramona has tirelessly worked as MOVE's Minister of Communication, speaking around the world in defense of the MOVE 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all political prisoners.

In 1996, Ramona successfully sued the City of Philadelphia for the 1985 police assault, she was awarded $500,000 for pain, suffering, and injuries. Relatives of John Africa and his nephew Frank James Africa, who died in the incident, were awarded a total of $1 million. Another $1.7 million was paid to Birdie Africa, now Michael Moses Ward.

Essentially a symbolic gesture, the jury ordered that Ramona also receive $1 per week for 11 years directly from Police Commissioner Sambor and Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond, but this was overruled by Judge Louis Pollack on grounds that the two had not shown "willful misconduct," and were therefore immune from financial liability.

The MOVE 9

On August 8, 1978, Philadelphia Police launched an earlier military-style assault on MOVE's home in Powelton Village. During this assault, Officer James Ramp was shot and killed by what many believe was friendly fire. For example, veteran Philadelphia journalist Linn Washington Jr. stated in the 2004 documentary film MOVE,  narrated by Howard Zinn, that "the police department knows who killed Officer Ramp. It was another police officer, who inadvertently shot the guy. They have fairly substantial evidence that it was a mistake, but again they'll never admit it. I got this from a number of different sources in the police department, including sources on the SWAT team and sources in ballistics." Washington has elaborated on this further in a 2008 interview.

Nine of the adult MOVE members inside the house that day (Janine, Debbie, Janet, Merle, Delbert, Mike, Phil, Eddie, and Chuck Africa.) were jointly convicted of third-degree murder for Ramp's death and sentenced to 30-100 years. In 1998 Merle Africa tragically died while in prison. The remaining eight of the MOVE 9 became eligible for parole in 2008. An online petition and letter-writing campaign supporting parole cited several different arguments. The petition/letter declared that:

--The sentencing judge stated publicly that he did not have the faintest idea who shot the one bullet that killed Officer Ramp. Nine people cannot fire one bullet.

--Many supporters of parole feel that Officer Ramp was actually shot by police "friendly fire," because it would have been ballistically impossible for MOVE to have shot Ramp, who was across the street from MOVE's house. These supporters believe that because of MOVE's position in the basement, bullets coming from there would have had an upward trajectory, yet the medical examiner testified that the bullet entered Ramp's "chest from in front and coursed horizontally without deviation up or down." Even the authenticity of official ballistics are in dispute. At a pre-trial hearing, in open court, the Judge allowed the prosecutor to literally use a pencil and eraser to change the medical examiner's report to conform with the medical examiner's testimony about the bullet's trajectory.

This theory about the bullet's trajectory could have been tested, but MOVE\'s house was illegally demolished that very day, and police did nothing to preserve the crime scene, inscribe chalk marks, or measure ballistics angles. A few days before, a Philadelphia judge had signed an order barring the city from destroying the house, but this order was violated. In a preliminary hearing on a Motion to Dismiss, MOVE unsuccessfully argued that destroying their home had prevented them from proving that it was physically impossible for MOVE to have shot Ramp.

--Yet, other supporters of parole cite the average 10-15 year sentence given for third-degree murder. MOVE prisoners have now served 2-3 times this sentence. Isn't 30 years enough? Merle Africa, who has died in prison, and these surviving eight have already paid a terrible price for what happened on that day.

Despite these strong arguments for parole, the MOVE 9 were denied parole in 2008 and again in 2009. Ramona Africa has criticized two clauses that were implemented to deny parole in 2008 and 2009.

First is the "taking responsibility" clause, which basically demands a prisoner admit guilt in order to be granted parole. "That is not acceptable, because it is patently illegal. If a person was convicted in court, to then demand that they admit guilt -- even when they are maintaining their innocence, as the MOVE 9 are -- is ridiculous. The only issue for parole should be issues of misconduct in prison that could indicate one's not ready for parole. Other than that, an inmate should be paroled," explains Ramona.

Second is the "serious nature of offense" clause. "This is patently illegal too because the judge took this into consideration and when the sentence was issued, it meant that barring any misconduct, problems, new charges, etc. this prisoner was to be released on their minimum. To deny that is basically a re-sentence. We're dealing with these issues because when our family is up for parole, we don't want to hear this nonsense."

This year, the three women have already been denied parole. Janine and Debbie will be eligible again in two years, and Janet, for no specific reason, got a three year setback. However, the parole board has yet to rule on the four men, so MOVE is still urging supporters to contact the parole board in support of them. Call (717) 787-5699 and write a letter to: PA. Board Of Probation And Parole/ Central Office; Riverfront Office Center; 1101 South Front Street; Harrisburg, PA. 17104.

Stay tuned for part two of our video interview with Ramona, where Ramona gives her own personal account from May 13, 1985 and explains about the new murder charges that MOVE is filing against the City of Philadelphia for the massacre of 6 adults and 5 children that day.

--For more information about August 8, 1978 and the MOVE 9, please read the Born Black Magazine article, Attention, MOVE: This is America!

--Watch Confrontation in Philadelphia, MOVE  (narrated by Howard Zinn) and the 2008 MOVE 9 Parole Video Series.

--Visit www.onamove.com and www.move9parole.blogspot.com.

Watch the video at this link:
http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2010/06/move-9-parole-hearings-interview-with.html


--Angola 3 News is a new project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

JR and Pam Africa will be on "Where We Live" tonite at 8 pm on WBAI

From Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC:

JR, Minister of Information of Prisoners of Conscience Committee and host of Block Report Radio on Pacifica at Berkeley and Pam Africa of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal will be on "Where We Live" on WBAI (99.5 FM) tonight. That's Thursday July 1, at 8 PM.

JR will be discussing the film about the Oakland community struggle for justice in the face of vicious police killings that will be showing at the Solidarity Center on Friday night, July 2 at 7 PM (55 W. 17th Street, 5th floor), and Pam will be talking about the upcoming rally in Philly on U-lie 4th, as well as the July 8th hearing on the MOVE filing of murder charges against 3 city officials responsible for the 1985 assault and murder on the MOVE family.

Tune in at 99.5 FM or listen live at www.wbai.org/ and join us for the activities on July 2, July 4, and July 8!

The Secret Memo from the "Anti-Death Penalty Movement"

From This Can't Be Happening
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/116

Mon, 06/28/2010 - 22:25 — Anonymous

CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM to ECPM
from the US members of the Steering Committee of the WCADP
Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the US coalition
for abolition of the death penalty

ECPM has unilaterally, and over objection, determined to give the Mumia Abu-Jamal case a prominent role in the upcoming 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, including the participation of Mr. Abu-Jamal's lawyers and his direct participation by telephone. The US members of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty do not agree to this, because it will be counter-productive to our effort to achieve abolition in our country.

The Abu-Jamal case, regardless of its merits, acts as a lightning rod that galvanizes opponents of abolition and neutralizes key constituencies in the cause of abolition. Continuing to give Abu-Jamal focused attention unnecessarily attracts our strongest opponents and alienates coalition partners at a time when we need to build alliances, not foster hatred and enmity.

While Abu-Jamal still attracts some positive attention outside of the United States, it is at a real cost to the US abolition effort. In 1999, the world's largest association of professional law enforcement officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced a boycott of organizations and individuals who support Abu-Jamal. Bills have been introduced in both houses of the US federal legislature condemning the naming of streets for Abu-Jamal. The result is that Abu-Jamal, rather than abolition of the death penalty, becomes the issue and the focus of attention. That is dangerously counter-productive to the abolition movement in the US.
The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal, who has had so much public exposure for so many years, threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups.

The support of law enforcement officials is essential to achieving abolition in the United States. It is essential to the national abolition strategy of US abolition activists and attorneys, that we cultivate the voices of police, prosecutors and law enforcement experts, to support our call for an end to the death penalty. It was key in New Jersey and in New Mexico, it is fundamental to abolition throughout the US, and it will be a primary focus for 2010 and beyond. We have begun to make real progress with police officers and prosecutors speaking out against the death penalty as a failed policy.

«In a national poll released in 2009, the nation's police chiefs ranked the death penalty last in their priorities for effective crime reduction. The officers did not believe the death penalty acted as a deterrent to murder, and they rated it as one of most inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars in fighting crime .... "

Death Penalty Information Center, The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report, December 18,2009. If the 4th World Congress gives Abu-Jamal and his lawyers the focus and attention proposed by ECPM, the US movement for abolition will be exposed to a serious backlash that will directly damage the delicate alliances we are building with essential groups. As international representatives of the US abolition movement, we cannot agree to the involvement of Abu-Jamal or his lawyers in the World Congress beyond attendance.

For these reasons, providing Abu-Jamal the World Congress stage will require us to consider how to distance our programs in order to protect our vital alliances with our key partners and constituencies. To be effective ad- vocates within the US we must and will continue our strategic approach to abolition with our core allies and our evolving partners. Featuring Mr. Abu-Jamal's case as ECPM has proposed presents an unacceptably high risk of fracturing a developing but still fragile alliance with vitally important constituencies - constituencies that can either help our movement reach the goal of abolition or severely hinder our progress.

Elizabeth Zitrin (DPF), Renny Cushing and Kate Lowenstein (MVFHR), Speedy Rice (NACDL), Kristin Houle (TCADP), Juan Matos de Juan (PRBA)

21 December 2009

http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/116

FRIDAY JULY @: Screening of Operation Small Axe and Q&A with Brother JR

From Free Mumia Coalition NYC:

This film showing is a prelude to the Annual 4th of U-lie Protest for the continued denial of justice for Mumia, the threat of his execution, and the demand for a Civil Rights Investigation of his entire case. Remember, Mumia too was and continues to be a victim of police terrorism. That will be Sunday, July 4th, 10 AM – 2 PM between 5th and 6th Streets on Market Street. We will then join the Avenging of the Ancestors until 4:30 PM.  Call 212 330-8029 if you would like to travel to Philly with the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.

Join us at the NYC Premiere of 

Operation Small Axe
followed by Q & A with Brother JR

Friday July 2 - 7:00 pm
at the Solidarity Center
55 West 17th Street, 5th Floor

Suggested donation: $10 (no one will be turned away)
Light refreshments will be available

"Operation Small Axe" is a documentary about police terrorism in Oakland California in 2009 and the people's resistance to it. The documentary concentrates on the internationally known case of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon.

The film includes scenes from the Oakland rebellion and shows footage of the community shutting down Mayor Ron Dellums when he failed to take any action or even make a statement against the cold-blooded police murder of Oscar Grant. People voicing their opinion in the film include Cynthia McKinney, Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr., attorney John Burris, journalist Davey D, activist Angela Davis, and Willie Ratcliff, the publisher of the Bay View Newspaper plus more. The film is directed by Adimu Madyun.

JR Valrey, Minister of Information of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee, was charged with a felony as part of the varying charges brought against more than 100 of the protestors. The charges against him and the others were ultimately dropped because of the community's strong stand. The cop charged with brutally killing Oscar Grant is on trial in LA and a verdict is expected within two weeks.
There is much to learn from this intense struggle which took place in Oakland as we all face the constant threat of police terror.

Message to the U.S. Social Forum from Mumia Abu-Jamal

Ona Move!

Dear Friends at the Social Forum;

As I write this, it has just been announced that the petro-multinational, BP, has failed at its ‘Top Kill’ plan, and the Gulf of Mexico is being more fouled by the hour.

If ever there were a time to honestly question the madness at the heart of capitalism, it is now, as people are repulsed by what they are seeing, week after week, and now month after month, of environmental wreckage, corporate greed, and government subservience.

Because, in truth, this is what capitalism, unbridled, unregulated, looks like: the spoilage of the natural world for private gain.

Just a few weeks ago, we saw the Supreme Court essentially write off the damages awarded to the devastated native population of Alaska, who suffered from the Exxon Valdez disaster. Their award was cut by over 90%, making it a windfall for Exxon. It’s no wonder their bottom line is looking so good.

Again – that’s capitalism!

If folks at this Forum don’t grasp this moment, to build the Movement, then this moment will pass, and the era of crony capitalism will give us all nightmarish dystopias that will make these days look like the good old days.

To quote the late, great Kwame Ture, “Organize! Organize! Organize!”

This is written, by necessity, several weeks before the Forum, but I’m willing to bet that even as these words are heard, either the leak will not have been fixed; or, even if it is, then the Gulf waters are still as foul, still as toxic, still as ugly: if not worse.

If the struggle isn’t to make such environmental crimes such as these unthinkable, then it is for nothing.

Thank you all! Ona Move!

Long Live John Africa!
Mumia Abu-Jamal

FREE MUMIA COALITION AT US SOCIAL FORUM! SEE YOU THERE!

From info@freemumia.com

Dear Supporters and Friends of Mumia,

About ten days ago, we let you know that International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition will be in Detroit at the upcoming US Social Forum. We specifically mentioned the Prison Assembly that we have participated in planning. That Assembly will take place on Thursday, June 24 between 1 and 5:30 PM in Cobo Hall . Sundiata Sadiq will be representing us at that Assembly Both Suzanne Ross and Sundiata were involved in its planning conference calls. In addition, we will be participating in the People's Assembly on Cointelpro. Suzanne will be present at that. That workshop is taking place at the same time as the Prisoner Justice Assembly, also in Cobo Hall, at 1 PM. We think both the Assembly and workshop are very important not only in their own right, but specifically for our work to free Mumia.

As for workshops: we will be participating in three of them.

US POLITICAL PRISONERS: LEONARD PELTIER, MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, AND THE CUBAN FIVE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1-3 PM, WC3, Room 348,
Delaney Bruce, Chair, National Free Leonard Peltier Committee, Marjorie Cohn, past Presdient of the National Lawyers Guild, Pam Africa , International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal & Suzanne Ross, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), Stan Smith, Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5. We will be discussing similarities and differences between these three cases and how we can help each other to free them all.

YOUTH & STUDENTS TO FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1-3 PM

Learn about the case of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, why young people continue to be inspired by him 28 years after his incarceration on Death Row, and why his case continues to be so important today.
Larry Hales, leader of the March 4 student/youth protests, recently visited
Mumia, and Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Sundiata Sadiq will be present at that workshop.

THE LONGEST RIDE FOR THE CUBAN FIVE, MUMIA, AND PELTIER: TRANSFORMATION MINISTRY, THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 10AM – NOON

The Longest Ride for the Cuban Five, Mumia, and Peltier.
Disciples of the Healing of Humanity! The Transformation Ministry.
We don't know much about this workshop but we will be there as we have been working very hard for the past year as members of the Riverside Church Prison Ministry in New York (the legendary church at which Dr. Martin Luther King gave his 1967 speech against the US war against Vietnam).

Also, look for our table. We will have large visible signs about Mumia. We could definitely use help in giving out palm cards, getting letter/petitions to Eric Holder signed, selling Campaign for a Civil Rights Investigation buttons and the Amnesty International Report on Mumia's case.

If you'd like to contact us, and we look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, call Sundiata Sadiq at 914-672-5807 or Suzanne Ross 917-584-2135. We will be in Detroit by Monday night and staying through at least Friday.

Ona Move! Long live Mumia! Long live the people's struggles! May this coming week energize, clarify, and unify us all!


--Mumia is Innocent!  Stop the Frame Up!  Free Mumia!--

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
P.O. Box 16, College Station, NY, NY 10030
212-330-8029, www.FreeMumia.com, info@FreeMumia.com

ANNUAL JULY 4 PROTEST FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

CONTACT: ICFFMAJ, 215-476-8812

BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH STREETS ON MARKET
PHILADELPHIA
10AM - 2PM
JULY 4

HELP BUILD AND SUPPORT OUR ANNUAL JULY 4 PROTEST FOR MUMIA WHICH WILL BE HELD FROM 10AM-2PM IN PHILADELPHIA BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH STREETS ON MARKET! THIS YEAR THE THEME IS "ANCESTRAL UPRISING!" AND WILL FEATURE SUPPORTERS DRESSED AS OUR REVOLUTIONARY ANCESTORS! (WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO PORTRAY BRO. MALCOLM X AND BRO. FREDERICK DOUGLASS, SO PLEASE BE IN TOUCH IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE INVOLVED). THE AVENGING THE ANCESTORS COALITION WILL TAKE OVER FROM 3 TO 5PM AT THE SAME LOCATION AND WILL FEATURE OUR ANCESTORS ENSLAVED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON.

JOIN BRO. IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE AND THE INT'L CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL IN LETTING THIS SYSTEM KNOW THAT WE HAVE COME TOO FAR TO TURN BACK NOW AND WE WILL NEVER, EVER STOP FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE FOR MUMIA!

IF YOU NEED TRANSPORTATION, PLEASE CALL THE FREE MUMIA COALITION (NYC) AT (212) 330-8029

URGENT! Phone Campaign for Chuck Africa

 

ONA MOVE! I'm sending this email out to inform you of a very serious situation happening with our brother, Chuck Africa. This falls on the heels of us exposing Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney and all of the information we were able to put out during media interviews marking the twenty-five years since the bombing. Also, we just got a June 21st hearing date on the murder complaints we filed against officials for murdering our family in 1985. This government is now targeting Chuck and the signs are very clear. First, Chuck was recently transferred from SCI-Graterford, where he was with our brother Mike Africa to SCI-Retreat, a Pennsylvania prison where there is no other MOVE person. Officials at SCI-Retreat put Chuck in the hole and we just received a letter from him that he was attacked by an inmate. that's how this system operates when they target somebody. They isolate you and then do all manner of things to put pressure on you and ultimately arrange to take you out if nothing else breaks you. They did it with Leonard Peltier, only Standing Deer, the person who was supposed to assassinate Leonard, couldn't do it and he exposed the conspiracy. Chuck and all of the MOVE 9 are soon coming up for parole and we know this system does not want any of the MOVE 9 out here on the street but this goes beyond parole - Chuck's life is at stake here. We know that these people are capable of doing anything to avoid releasing innocent MOVE people from prison and we put nothing past them. We're asking people to contact SCI-Retreat (570 735-8754) and speak to the Superintendent, James McGrady about this situation. Chuck says that a key player in this set up is a guard named L.T. Dukes, so his name should be mentioned. Chuck's full name and number is Charles Sims Africa #AM 4975. We know we don't have to tell you to expect officials to feign ignorance of any problem and probably deny everything but don't fall for it. Something serious is happening with Chuck and we're not taking it lightly at all. Thanks for your support.

Ramona Africa
for the MOVE Organization