by Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be sate." - Frederick Douglass (April 1886)
August 8th, 1978 is a date that resonates in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The very mention of the date, "August 8th", evokes smoke, blood, fire and rage in loyal breasts, and as if in answer, "MOVE 1" comes to mind, the first MOVE confrontation.
In Philadelphia, the first MOVE confrontation isn't over, because as a result of the conflict, nine MOVE men and women are still in state prisons, doing a total of 900 years.
They are imprisoned today - for refusing to renounce their faith in the revolutionary teachings of John Africa.
Consider the following:
On August 8th, 1978, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Joseph O'Neill told a mid-day press conference that the cop that was killed on that day was shot in his back during a shoot-out.
Within an hour of the news conference, an employee of the Police Department passed out a press release to city reporters from the Office of the Commissioner, making a startling "correction" (corruption?) stating the cop wasn't shot in his back, but in his front, and the rear wound was from an internal "ricochet."
Was this done because it dawned on cops that a bullet in the back meant (if their claim of MOVE shooting was right) that either the cop had his back to the MOVE house in the middle of a shoot-out (a nutty idea) or, that cops shot one of their own?
Nine men and women were sentenced jointly for killing one cop, despite the fact that, in the words of the trial judge, Edwin MaImed, uttered just days after pronouncing the sentence, he hadn't "the faintest idea" who did the deed. "They were tried as a family, and sentenced as a family," the judge boasted He made these statements to this writer on a Philadelphia radio talk show
Although nine adults were convicted and sentenced for one murder, at least twelve adults were in the house during the MOVE shoot-in. Two were released and never charged nor convicted after renouncing their allegiance to MOVE. A third, Consuewelila Africa, was tried separately, and spent fifteen and a half years in prison.
How can a judge admit, after trial, that he hadn't "the faintest idea" if any of them committed the crime, days after sentencing nine people to an aggregate of 900 years?
Further, how can this same judge sentence the MOVE women, who faced no weapons charges, to identical sentences as the men?
Those nine: Delbert Africa, Merle Africa, Debbie Africa, Mike Africa, Phil Africa, Janine Africa, Janet Africa1 Chuck Africa and Eddie Africa - have been encaged in state hellholes for over eighteen years now.
The crime? Certainly not murder, for if the trial judge admits he didn't know who did, how can you say otherwise? They were guilty only of adhering to a teaching of resistance: of John Africa.
18 years! And innocent.
The battle to free MOVE political and spiritual prisoners is heating up. If you want to join that battle, contact: MOVE, PO Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143, phone (215) 387-9955. Let's join together to Free MOVE Now!
Column Written 7/17/96
Copyright 1996 Mumia Abu-Jamal
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