Free Mumia / Drop the Charges Against Assata / Avenge Fred Hampton

Your host is not just a blog editor, but also an avid blog consumer as well. One of my regular stops is Altercation although to be fair, for a blog that claims to uphold the liberal point of view, it is remarkably free of content that is directed toward the most reliable liberal block of voters in the country: African Americans.

Since last week, however, a side comment by a respondent to Altercation (a post that reviewed the latest Bruce Springsteen appearance in NJ) that almost offhandedly tossed a comment in support of freeing one of the most well-known political prisoners in the US - has generated a firestorm of liberal cop lovers; yet another sign of the wide gulf between those wary partners: Black liberals and white liberals. I eventually tired of their inane comments in support of the dead pig (that is just my homage to Assata Shakur - you should know her too) and so I posted a reply. In case it does not make the editorial bent of Altercation, here is the post in full:

Wow, your readers are as full of vitriol for Mumia as the proprietors of Geno's. So let me see if I have this right: we all agree that Geno's has it wrong when it comes to "freedom fries", but for some reason, we (the readers of Altercation) are mostly convinced that a former member of the Black Panthers received a fair and honest jury trial by his all-white peers of Philly and that he really deserves to be on death row - did I get that right?

What exactly do we base this certitude upon? The surety of the Hoover FBI when it came to identifying those dangerous threats to the US like MLK and Malcolm X? (Oh, wait. King was not a communist and Malcolm was attacked by terrorists while he was still in the womb - surely we all agree that white supremacy is every bit a terrorist threat to this nation as National Socialism was to Europe). "But Derrick!” you proclaim, "You are conflating so many different issues in that one sentence, you are not being fair! The issue is Mumia!"

Okay, fine. I will pretend that the fact that the Black Panthers were murdered - citizens of our nation were murdered - by the authorities for having the nerve to defend themselves from the same brutality that killed Emmett Till is not connected, as long as you pretend that the fact that a Federal District Court Judge overturned the death penalty actually means something. While I might wonder if a sitting federal judge made some Solomonic decision to split the baby in half and remove the death penalty but still keep a "cop killer" behind bars, I can see how those who still believe all of that "serve and protect" propaganda might take more convincing.

Anyone who is interested in justice should find the confession linkedd to above) to the murder of Daniel Faulkner by another individual at least of interest. The evidence against Mumia is sketchy at best (shouted confessions to nurses at hospitals?) and if someone else says they were at the scene and they shot the cop - should not the courts at least look at that?

Of course, I know, that would be outside of the procedure. And hey, he has already spent years in prison and would probably have trouble readjusting to life on the outside, why not just continue to waste his life in prison even though someone else says they did the shooting of the cop?

Still, we do have those d*^% words from the declaration of independence that say that all life is created equal and is endowed by its Creator to life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness. I think the slave owner who wrote those words without a trace of irony was in Philadelphia at the time, but still - that is not a legal document with respect this nation, more of a visionary statement that we sometimes attempt to achieve. Sort of like a goal that we would like to reach, but if a few Negroes need rot in prison along the path - or get gunned down in their beds - well, that is just the price we must pay.

God bless the USA.

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