IrisBright
7th December 2008, 03:52
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Enemy of the State (http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/mumia-abu-jamal-enemy-of-the-state/)
Posted by Mike E (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129785784) on December 2, 2008
http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mumia.jpg?w=281&h=380 (http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mumia.jpg)
by Mike Ely
“They don’t just want my death, they want my silence.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal
From Panther to Voice of the Voiceless
On August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo was in a combative mood at a special afternoon press conference in Philadelphia’s City Hall. Just hours before, Rizzo’s police had staged a massive raid on the home of the radical MOVE organization on Powelton Avenue. After attacking the house with intense gunfire, tear gas and a flood of water, police arrested the MOVE members and publicly beat Delbert Africa as he surrendered.
At City Hall, Rizzo was blunt with the press: he expected them to close ranks in support of police actions. Then, from the crowded pack of reporters, a young Black journalist spoke out in the resonant tones of a radio broadcaster. He raised pointed questions about the official police story Rizzo had just laid out.
Mayor Rizzo exploded in fury and spat out a thinly veiled threat: “They believe what you write, and what you say, and it’s got to stop. And one day–and I hope it’s in my career–that you’re going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do.”
The journalist who challenged Rizzo that day was Mumia Abu-Jamal. He had spent a decade exposing the racism of Philadelphia’s police and legal system.
On December 9, 1981, three years after this press conference, at the age of 27, Mumia Abu-Jamal fell into the hands of the police. He was shot, almost killed by a police bullet, arrested, and repeatedly brutalized in custody. And then, in a trial borrowed from Kafka or Alice’s Wonderland, he was condemned to death for the shooting of policeman Daniel Faulkner.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has not spent a day in freedom since. He is now on Death Row–defying the sterile isolation of the SCI Greene prison: writing, speaking out, and opening the eyes of a new generation to the injustices of the system.
Prominent political figures in Pennsylvania’s political and legal establishment made their start in the machine of Philadelphia’s notorious Mayor Frank Rizzo. They built their careers on the suppression of radical forces within the city’s Black community. Among them are Ed Rendell, now governor of Pennsylvania and a prominent figure in the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and Ron Castille who was elevated tothe Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The 1981 imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal is a skeleton in their closet. And they have worked, at every turn, to keep their cover-ups intact and put him to death.
The story of Mumia Abu-Jamal is the story of a young revolutionary journalist who dared to challenge the notorious brutality and corruption of Philadelphia’s power structure–and who was railroaded onto death row in a stark exercise of political persecution.
This is a story of profound injustice. And there is the danger of an ultimate injustice: the execution of this political prisoner. With Mumia’s case at a critical point in the legal appeal process, what people say and do about this case is a matter of life and death.
Most media discussion of Mumia repeats the official version of events, as crafted by Philadelphia prosecutors and promoted by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Mumia is described as a “convicted cop-killer” who was caught red-handed, sentenced with due process, given elaborate chance to appeal, and now faces a deserved execution. Every part of this official story defies the facts.
A crucial argument in this official version is the claim Mumia could not have been a victim of political repression– that he was not seen as a significant threat to the system–when he was arrested in 1981.
But the life and work of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the years before 1981 tell a different story.
For the rest of this article, visit the Kasama Project here:
http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/mumia-abu-jamal-enemy-of-the-state/
Posted by Mike E (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129785784) on December 2, 2008
http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mumia.jpg?w=281&h=380 (http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mumia.jpg)
by Mike Ely
“They don’t just want my death, they want my silence.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal
From Panther to Voice of the Voiceless
On August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo was in a combative mood at a special afternoon press conference in Philadelphia’s City Hall. Just hours before, Rizzo’s police had staged a massive raid on the home of the radical MOVE organization on Powelton Avenue. After attacking the house with intense gunfire, tear gas and a flood of water, police arrested the MOVE members and publicly beat Delbert Africa as he surrendered.
At City Hall, Rizzo was blunt with the press: he expected them to close ranks in support of police actions. Then, from the crowded pack of reporters, a young Black journalist spoke out in the resonant tones of a radio broadcaster. He raised pointed questions about the official police story Rizzo had just laid out.
Mayor Rizzo exploded in fury and spat out a thinly veiled threat: “They believe what you write, and what you say, and it’s got to stop. And one day–and I hope it’s in my career–that you’re going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do.”
The journalist who challenged Rizzo that day was Mumia Abu-Jamal. He had spent a decade exposing the racism of Philadelphia’s police and legal system.
On December 9, 1981, three years after this press conference, at the age of 27, Mumia Abu-Jamal fell into the hands of the police. He was shot, almost killed by a police bullet, arrested, and repeatedly brutalized in custody. And then, in a trial borrowed from Kafka or Alice’s Wonderland, he was condemned to death for the shooting of policeman Daniel Faulkner.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has not spent a day in freedom since. He is now on Death Row–defying the sterile isolation of the SCI Greene prison: writing, speaking out, and opening the eyes of a new generation to the injustices of the system.
Prominent political figures in Pennsylvania’s political and legal establishment made their start in the machine of Philadelphia’s notorious Mayor Frank Rizzo. They built their careers on the suppression of radical forces within the city’s Black community. Among them are Ed Rendell, now governor of Pennsylvania and a prominent figure in the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and Ron Castille who was elevated tothe Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The 1981 imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal is a skeleton in their closet. And they have worked, at every turn, to keep their cover-ups intact and put him to death.
The story of Mumia Abu-Jamal is the story of a young revolutionary journalist who dared to challenge the notorious brutality and corruption of Philadelphia’s power structure–and who was railroaded onto death row in a stark exercise of political persecution.
This is a story of profound injustice. And there is the danger of an ultimate injustice: the execution of this political prisoner. With Mumia’s case at a critical point in the legal appeal process, what people say and do about this case is a matter of life and death.
Most media discussion of Mumia repeats the official version of events, as crafted by Philadelphia prosecutors and promoted by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Mumia is described as a “convicted cop-killer” who was caught red-handed, sentenced with due process, given elaborate chance to appeal, and now faces a deserved execution. Every part of this official story defies the facts.
A crucial argument in this official version is the claim Mumia could not have been a victim of political repression– that he was not seen as a significant threat to the system–when he was arrested in 1981.
But the life and work of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the years before 1981 tell a different story.
For the rest of this article, visit the Kasama Project here:
http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/mumia-abu-jamal-enemy-of-the-state/