by Mumia Abu-Jamal
"There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court." -- Clarence Darrow (1936)
Johnnie Gammage, given his middle-class background, education and star relatives (he was the cousin of a former Pittsburgh Steeler), was not the kind of guy who was supposed to end as he did, fighting for breath with two or three cops standing (or sitting) on his back, fighting for life, and losing.
He was stopped, as tens of thousands of black drivers are stopped daily, for the deadly, unofficial crime of DWB (Driving While Black), an acronym that reflects the deeply-held white cop belief that blacks driving cars are inherently suspicious, especially if the car is a late-model one.
None other than rapper/actor Will Smith (Men in Black, ID4,etc.) recently told viewers of the "Public Eye" TV show that he gets pulled over roughly every other week, and when he asks why, is told, "You're a nigger with a nice car. Shut the fuck up!" He explained, "It doesn't get much clearer than that. I've been punched and kicked and hit by police. I've had those interactions." (Jet, 12/22/97, 33) While Smith doesn't specify whether this happens in Philadelphia or Los Angeles (or both) it is interesting to note both cities have African-American police chiefs, proving that it really doesn't matter who's top dog. In the streets, DWB is a harsh and ugly reality, its the law of the outlaw, and for Gammage, a death warrant.
In Dec. 1997, a predominantly white jury deadlocked in the second trial of two white cops who were charged in the death of Gammage. The deadlock actually featured eleven white jurors voting for acquittal, with a single black juror voting to convict. Curiously, there was no media feast on the white jurors who chose to acquit, as there was on the black (predominantly) Simpson jury. There were no attacks on their intelligence, no assaults on their dignity. Indeed, it was the sole black juror who was scrutinized for daring to accept the state's mediocre prosecution of 2 killer cops. Presumably, when white jurors vote to acquit two of their own, despite evidence to the contrary, they are merely exercising their rights. Do black jurors have this right? To paraphrase the court in Dred Scott, they may have that right, but it is not a "right" that the white media, white politicians, or the policy of white supremacy "is bound to respect."
Supporters of the Gammage cause, composed of a remarkable multicultural coalition of groups, have waged a campaign that led to this retrial, but against the deep-seated belief in white supremacy, that white life, liberty and property is inherently, by virtue of its whiteness, more precious than any other non-white life, they were powerless.
Indeed, it was the notion that Gammage was a "good" black, educated, middle- class and a businessman, that undoubtedly attracted whites of a similar class to join in support. Yet, implicit within this notion, is the belief that if he were unemployed, uneducated, and working-class (God forbid he had a criminal record!), well 'he deserved it' end of story. Who can deny that we make such calculations daily, effortlessly, with the blink of an eye?
These supporters believed that their courts, faced with such a victim as Gammage, would wisely differentiate between the "good" black and "other ones." Ultimately, the white court system, which rests upon the protection of white life, liberty and property, would see him exactly as those cops in Brentwood saw him, and as 11 white jurors saw him: as just "a nigger with a nice car," and not worthy of wrecking the careers or losing the liberties of two white cops who, after all, were "only doing their jobs."
Column Written 12/20/1997
© 1997 Mumia Abu-Jamal
All Rights Reserved
Mumia Index | Mumia Events | R&R Main Page
Join Refuse
& Resist!
305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165
Phone: 212-713-5657
email: info@refuseandresist.org