“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground... want rain without thunder and lightning... Power concedes nothing without a demand! ...never did, never will... The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress!”
— Frederick Douglass
Eloquent author, ex-slave
August 4, 1857
Bibliography •
Related pages •
Related sites
Mumia
Abu-Jamal is a professional journalist who has been imprisoned on Death Row for 20 years — for something he never did.
Mumia was driving a cab on the night of December 9, 1981, when he saw a cop beating up his brother. Mumia stopped and got out to try and protect his brother, and the cop shot him. As Mumia lay bleeding on the street, somebody else shot the cop. This happened in a Philadelphia neighborhood where the racist, criminal cops routinely beat up and murdered Black men — with total impunity. Whoever shot that cop had very likely been violently abused by criminal cops before. Maybe even that same cop.
Witnesses have testified that another man at the scene shot the cop. In addition, a man named Arnold Beverly, a self-confessed hit man for the mob has admitted on videotape that he shot the cop. Circumstantial evidence also provides a very reasonable doubt that Mumia did it: the cop was killed by a slug from a .45, but Mumia’s gun was a .38.
But none of that matters to the racist American plutocracy. They never have been interested in justice and they never will be. They can’t catch whoever actually did it, so they’re only too happy to punish an innocent scapegoat in his place — particularly because that scapegoat is a leading critic of the American plutocracy. It’s exactly the same situation in the case of
Leonard Peltier.
With Mumia too, they figured this was a golden opportunity to silence a well-known and effective critic of their brutal system. Well, they figured wrong.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was already a highly-esteemed journalist. And now, by their gross injustice, the evil authorities have succeeded only in making him world famous.
“Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires... But what history really shows is that today’s empire is tomorrow’s ashes, that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression.
“The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.”
— Mumia Abu-Jamal
Background to the case
Before his arrest Mumia was a Philadelphia radio reporter, a member of the persecuted MOVE organization and President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Very highly respected for his in-depth reporting and courageous honesty, he was well-known for exposing the police brutality of the notoriously racist Philadelphia Police Department. Because of that he was hated by thugs like Mayor Frank Rizzo (an ex-police chief) and the city’s corrupt political establishment.
In fact the entire, rotten, evil establishment in America hates Mumia — because they hate the truth. The only things they love are money and power. The only law they respect is “the law of the jungle”.
The real criminals are managing their latest schemes of legal robbery and ecocide from their corporate boardrooms.
The real criminals are executing their latest campaigns of mass-murder and torture from their offices in the Pentagon, the CIA, Congress, the State Department and the White House.
The real criminals are strutting around in uniforms on America’s streets and in America’s prisons,
beating people, raping people, torturing people and murdering people with impunity.
Too many pigs and prison guards are nothing but gangsters, nothing but goons and hitmen. Pigs are merely the sadistic “muscle” of the United States Corporate Mafia Government.
And too many people have been letting these uniformed criminals get away with it.
But growing numbers of people in America are beginning to realize that we are living in a nation ruled by a truly evil, sick and predatory plutocracy. Growing numbers of decent people are beginning to recognize and value those courageous few who dare to devote their lives to speaking out against this evil system. But what happens if he or she is so rare and effective that large numbers of people really listen? That person’s days are numbered. That is why Martin Luther King was murdered. That is why Malcolm X was murdered. And that is why Mumia Abu-Jamal is in prison awaiting death — either from old age or disease, or by legalized murder at the hands of the criminal authorities.
They never had a case against him and they never will. The only thing the criminal authorities have is their guns — pointed to our heads.
“[Mumia’s] 1982 trial was marked by repeated and flagrant examples of prosecutorial misconduct aimed at punishing him for his political views. A witness who had been coerced later recanted her testimony, and another whom the prosecution had refused to call came forward to tell his version, which pointed to another shooter. The medical examiner’s report indicated that Mumia’s gun could not have fired the bullet that killed the officer.
“In addition to the coercion of witnesses, fabrication of a confession, suppression of evidence and other misconduct, Abu-Jamal faced judge Albert Sabo, a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of Police. Sabo has sentenced 32 defendants to death, more than any other judge in the country. During the sentencing phase of the trial, Jamal’s former membership in the Black Panther Party was introduced, an act that was blatantly unconstitutional.”
1
When he was a teenager Mumia was a “minister of information” in the Black Panther Party, traveling around the country filing reports for the party’s news journals. That automatically put him on the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government’s hit list. For the kangaroo court trial in 1982 Mumia’s lawyers obtained his FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act. It was a whopping 800 pages.
Writes Mumia:
“How many people can brag — and I use that term with a little humor — about having an FBI file from the time they were fourteen?”
The file revealed two previous FBI attempts to frame him while he was a member of the Panthers: one for “murder” and the other for “robbery”. But the criminal Philadelphia pigs finally succeeded where the FBI failed.
During the kangaroo-court trial in 1982, stenographer Terri Maurer-Carter was present. In between proceedings she overheard Judge Sabo make a racial slur towards Mumia. When Carter tried to bring this racist insult to the attention of other judicial authorities she discovered that they were just as corrupt: she was dismissed from her job.
That too tells you what kind of “Criminal Justice System” we have in this country. A literally criminal “justice” system.
During the miserable excuse for a trial, Mumia Abu-Jamal was even denied his constitutional right to the legal counsel of his choice. His court-appointed lawyer Anthony Jackson conspired with the district attorney’s office to railroad Mumia to a conviction. This collusion has been documented in a recent legal brief. When Mumia tried to exercise his right to fire the crooked lawyer and legally represent himself, he was physically removed from his own trial.
The predictable conclusion to these kangaroo-court proceedings was that racist Judge Sabo sentenced Mumia Abu-Jamal to death. Albert “Hangin’ Judge” Sabo has sent more people to death row than any other judge in America.
In
August 1995 Mumia was granted a stay of execution because of new testimony from eyewitnesses that he was innocent. In 1996 there was a “post conviction relief act hearing” during which the courts nevertheless refused to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses William Singletary, Veronica Jones and Cynthia White. They all said that during the original trial they had been coerced by the Fraternal Order of Police to lie on the stand and finger Mumia for the cop’s death, and they recanted that coerced testimony.
In October 1998 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ignored all the evidence and testimony and refused to grant Mumia a new trial. Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Ridge vowed to sign a new death warrant for Mumia’s execution. Ridge is now the director of the new Federal Gestapo known as the
Office of Homeland Security.
But there will never be any security for anybody in the United States as long as murdering hypocrites are ruling it.
In December 2001 Judge William Yohn overturned the death-penalty sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal, ruling that the original sentencing phase of the trial was unfair. The racist pigs are dismayed by this little bit of semi-justice of course, even though Judge Yohn let the crooked murder conviction stand. This means Mumia could spend the rest of his life in hellish prison for a crime he didn’t commit, existing at the total mercy of violently racist guards. And there is always the possibility that he can be re-sentenced to death.
The ruling by Judge Yohn is widely seen as a ploy by the ruling elites to neutralize the steadily growing worldwide support for Mumia. Perhaps the criminal authorities are hoping that Mumia’s supporters will stop being enraged at the blatant injustice of framing and imprisoning a political dissident, as long as he isn’t on Death Row anymore.
That’s not going to happen. It is the criminal rulers of the U.S. government who belong in prison. There will never be any justice in this country until the United States Corporate Mafia Government is totally overthrown by the American people — and replaced with a democracy.
In addition to his books, Mumia’s writings have been published in The Nation and the Yale Law Review.
Note:
1. Helen Halyard,
“The social context of a police frame-up: Why we defend Mumia Abu-Jamal”,
17 May 1999, World Socialist Web Site
[Back]
See also:
Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?
http://www.geocities.com/redencyclopedia/mumia.htm
“The brutality of the Philadelphia police was so notorious that the U.S. Department
of Justice later filed an unprecedented suit against the force. ...[there have been] massive police scandals in Philadelphia, where dozens of people were released from jail because they had been convicted on the basis of evidence fabricated by the police.”
“A worldwide movement has grown in the last few years demanding a new trial. 35,000 people marched on April 24, [2001], California longshoremen staged a work stoppage, students did walk-outs. Those questioning Mumia’s conviction include the European Parliament, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Jesse Jackson and Amnesty International.”
From the
International Action Center:
December 9, 2001
As Over 1,000 Turn Out in Philadelphia for Mumia Abu-Jamal:
|
Philadelphia police-thugs attacking a protester at the Free Mumia rally, December 8, 2001. The pig with the gun first gratuitously held it to the head of the young man pictured. A crowd of worried people then gathered and demanded that the pigs let the man go, so the pig also threatened the people with his gun.
|
The International Action Center (IAC) condemns in the strongest terms the Philadelphia police’s unprovoked and brutal attack on today’s thousand-plus march in support of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
According to one eyewitness account, on behalf of a right-wing heckler of the rally, bicycle cops towards the back of the march rode into the middle of the crowd,
dismounted their bikes and, wielding guns and batons, started indiscriminately beating, pepper-spraying and arresting people. Guns were pointed at peoples’ heads;
others were thrown against cars.
The crowd was marching from the corner of 13th and Locust, where 20 years ago Abu-Jamal was arrested for a crime, the shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner, he says he did not commit. Today at that location protesters viewed the videotaped confession of Arnold Beverly, who has publicly admitted to killing Officer Faulkner for the mob.
As police drew their billy clubs and guns, protesters surrounded the cops to try to protect those being arrested and/or attacked and chanted, “Let them go! Let them go!”
and “Shame! Shame!” Police attacked some of these protesters.
Several IAC members were among those attacked, with some being maced and others receiving several blows from police batons. Further eyewitness reports include a woman being dragged for at least a block, choking and with her skin exposed. One person was taken off in an ambulance. In one incident, an African-American reporter photographing the events from on top a car was grabbed and pulled to the ground; the attack left a dent in the car.
After the attacks, the march proceeded to the final indoor rally at Philadelphia’s Ethical Society, where more spoke out in favor of Mumia’s demand for his release based primarily on Beverly’s confession. Protesters saw the attacks as further efforts on the part of the Philadelphia’s Fraternal Order of Police to prevent the truth about Mumia’s case from emerging. Those present also watched fresh video footage of the police attacks.
Currently a number of protesters who traveled to Philadelphia are staying there to provide legal and political support to those who have been wrongly incarcerated.
Call Philadelphia Mayor John Street at:
215-686-3000
or FAX him at 215-686-2170
to express your anger at Saturday’s attack of the peaceful Mumia rally by cops.
You can also call Philadelphia Police Chief John Timoney
at:
215-686-3149 or 215-686-3388.
For more reports go to
www.iacenter.org
Bibliography, Videos
The Prison Industrial Complex:
A video interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal on Death Row
Interview by Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes
28 minutes, VHS, People’s Video Network
From
Leftbooks.com:
Censored journalist, political activist and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed for his ideas, speaks about the current political scene in the United States. In an excellent interview Mumia discusses prison labor in the United States, youth, elections, economics and the state of the world.
See and hear the man called the Voice of the Voiceless in this uncensored interview.
All Things Censored
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Foreword by Alice Walker
Edited by Noelle Hanrahan
Seven Stories Press, 2000
includes CD, 79 minutes
From
Leftbooks.com:
All Things Censored is Mumia Abu-Jamal’s major new release with more than 75 writings, many freshly composed by Mumia with the cartridge of a ball point pen — in his death row cell.
Abu-Jamal writes on a host of topics, including the ironies that abound within the U.S. prison system, the consequences of those ironies for us all, and his own case. Mumia’s composure, humor, and connection to the living world around him represents an irrefutable victory over the “corrections” system that has for two decades sought to isolate and silence him.
The accompanying CD (previously released by Alternative Tentacles Records as All Things Censored) Includes readings by Mumia and other luminaries, writers and activists, including Assata Shakur, Martin Sheen, Alice Walker, Cornel West, John Edgar Wideman, Howard Zinn and others.
Live From Death Row
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Avon Books (Paperback), 1996; ISBN 0-380-72766-8
“They want me to die alone — silently.”
— Mumia Abu-Jamal
From
Leftbooks.com:
Once a prominent radio reporter, Mumia Abu-Jamal is now in Pennsylvania prison awaiting his state-sanctioned execution.
In 1982 he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner after a trial many have criticized as profoundly biased.
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW is a collection of his prison writings — an impassioned yet unflinching account of the brutalities and humiliations of prison life. It is also a scathing indictment of racism and political bias in the American judicial system that is certain to fuel the controversy surrounding the death penalty and freedom of speech.
“His voice is vital and strong. The power of his voice is rooted in his defiance of those determined to silence him. Magically, Mumia’s words are clarified, purified by the toxic strata of resistance through which they must penetrate to reach us. Like the blues. Like jazz.”
— John Edgar Wideman
“An important book [that] takes us into the bowels of hell. Abu-Jamal offers expert and well-reasoned commentary on the justice system. His writings are dangerous.”
— Village Voice
“A tough, true, timely book. You cannot read it and remain unmoved.”
— E.L. Doctorow
“A rare and courageous voice speaking from a place we fear to know: Mumia Abu-Jamal must be heard.”
— Alice Walker
Mumia:
A Case For Reasonable Doubt?
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Produced and Directed by John Edginton
Fox Lorber Windstar Co.
Video, VHS 74 minutes
From
Leftbooks.com:
Journalist, writer, death-row inmate and political prisoner — from behind the walls, Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks for the first time in “Mumia: A case for reasonable doubt?”
This excellent and professional video contains new footage not included in the original 1996 HBO special.
Mumia was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 9, 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia police officer. Mumia’s conviction has been protested by activists and celebrities because of irregularities in both the evidence and the conduct of his trial.
This video is an excellent tool for understanding the case and can be used to organize activities anywhere.
On A Move:
The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal
by Terry Bisson
http://www.mumiabook.com/
“Covering Mumia’s childhood in the North Philly projects, a turbulent youth in Oakland and New York, a promising career in radio journalism, and a fateful sidewalk altercation that changed everything, Bisson’s colorful sketches tell the story of one of the stormiest periods in American history, and of a young rebel who came of age in its crucible.”
War At Home:
Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It
by Brian Glick
published by South End Press
This book provides a history of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO operations which were used to murder, beat, intimidate, harass, confuse, fragment, destroy and silence political dissent by all leftist activists. These ILLEGAL FBI operations took place in the 1960s and ’70s against any Black, Puerto Rican, Indian or White person/group courageous enough to oppose U.S. government-military evil doing. The FBI is inherently a White-racist organization, however, and COINTELPRO operations were generally more violent and ruthless against the Black Panthers and other Black or Indian activists than they were against people of other races.
Today’s FBI persists in the murder and intimidation of Americans of all races, of course, but not under the same codename of “COINTELPRO”.
War at Home also gives practical tips on how to deal with today’s U.S. Corporate Mafia Government thugs. Basically the more unity and publicity the better. Like the criminal bullies they truly are, the FBI and the pigs hate and fear the public exposure of their crimes by a unified opposition. Their basic strategy is to divide and conquer.
The book includes a checklist of essential precautions, information on your legal rights and defenses against the psychological warfare which the American Gestapo (FBI) uses to harass people who have moral consciences and political consciousness.
More about
War At Home
The Beast Reawakens
by Martin A. Lee
See also the bibliography:
Enslavement and Oppression of the African-American Peoples
Related sites
Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.mumia2000.org/
Up-to-date news on the struggle to free Mumia. Includes organizing tools, such as pdf flyers to download for distribution, and links to buttons, t-shirts, and books.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
http://www.freemumia.com/
“The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC is an independent, citywide coalition of many different organizations and individuals who are united to:
- stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal,
- work for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal,
-
additionally, many of us have become convinced that Mumia has been framed and is innocent, thus our name, the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.”
INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY & FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (ICFFMAJ)
http://www.mumia.org/freedom.now/
Site Contents include:
Latest News; Legal Update; Mumia’s Articles; News Archives; Legal Archives; Web Links; Downloads; Submit News; Activity Board
International Action Center
http://www.iacenter.org/
Mumia Abu-Jamal On Death Row / Political Prisoners / Racism and Oppression
http://www.iacenter.org/imumia.htm
This page at the International Action Center has links to a great wealth of articles and the latest information about Mumia Abu-Jamal.
FACT SHEET ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
http://www.iacenter.org/majfact.htm
Affidavits Released at 5/4/01 MUMIA Press Conference
http://www.iacenter.org/maj_affidavits.htm
The social context of a police frame-up:
Why we defend Mumia Abu-Jamal
The World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/maj-m17.shtml
WSWS: News & Analysis: Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/na-jamal.shtml
Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?
http://www.geocities.com/redencyclopedia/mumia.htm
“The brutality of the Philadelphia police was so notorious that the U.S. Department
of Justice later filed an unprecedented suit against the force. ...[there have been] massive police scandals in Philadelphia, where dozens of people were released from jail because they had been convicted on the basis of evidence fabricated by the police.”
“A worldwide movement has grown in the last few years demanding a new trial. 35,000 people marched on April 24, [2001], California longshoremen staged a work stoppage, students did walk-outs. Those questioning Mumia’s conviction include the European Parliament, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Jesse Jackson and Amnesty International.”
The Martin Luther King You Don’t See On TV
http://www.uvm.edu/~wmiller/faironmlk.htm
"Beyond Vietnam"
A speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., given at the Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967
http://www.uvm.edu/~wmiller/mlkbeyondvietnam.htm
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/
Who Killed Martin Luther King?
http://www.douglasvalentine.com/articles.html#king
“On Dec. 8, a jury in Memphis, Tenn., deliberated for only three hours before deciding that the long-held official version of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was wrong.
“The jury’s verdict implicated a retired Memphis businessman and government agencies in a conspiracy to kill the civil rights giant.”
Related pages
Terrorism Begins at Home: Police Brutality in America
America’s Techno-Fascist Future
U.S. Government Surveillance
U.S. Government Domestic Oppression
Police-State Brutality and the Battle of Seattle
Taking Action Against American Terrorism
Solutions: American Revolution 2 and a Humane Future of International Socialist Democracy
Thomas Jefferson Calling: The Time for Revolution is NOW
by John Kaminski
Colonialism in Africa Today
WSWS : News & Analysis : Africa
http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/africa.shtml
The World Socialist Web Site provides the latest major news from Africa with a Marxist analysis. Very eye-opening — unlike anything you’ll ever read in the corporate-controlled mass-media. Find out what the United States Corporate Mafia Government (and it’s European partners in crime) are up to in Africa. Colonial exploitation isn’t finished at all — it just hides its fangs behind its IMF/World Bank mask.
Full-coverage sections include:
- South Africa
- Zimbabwe
- Angola
- Mozambique
- Sierra Leone
- Liberia
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Ghana
- Guinea-Bissau
- Nigeria
- Congo (DRC)
- Rwanda
- Uganda
- Kenya
- Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Sudan
- Egypt
- Niger
- Libya
- Clinton’s 1998 Tour of Africa
- HIV / AIDS Pandemic
- Colonialism in Africa
Clinton “feels the pain” of Africa — and prepares new imperialist crimes
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/mar1998/afr-m28.shtml
The significance of Leon Trotsky’s thought for Africa today
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/oct2000/talb-o28.shtml
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Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!
“If you want free speech you can go down to a street corner and shout.”
— Jim Olson
owner of Humboldt Internet
September 26, 2001
On September 14, 2001, three days after the WTC attack, the owner of the humboldt1.com ISP summarily deleted the original American Terrorism website. When informed that he was suppressing online free speech, he offered the helpful advice above.
http://www.humboldt1.com/~016910/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Launched: May, 2000 — Torpedoed: September 14, 2001 R.I.P.
To spare my vocal chords I offer this remaining mirror site: