MILLIONS FOR MUMIA TO PHILLY COPS:
'We will march April 24'
By Greg
Butterfield
Just two weeks before the historic Millions for Mumia
demonstration set for April 24, organizers of the Philadelphia
protest learned of a plan by city and police officials to
suppress their right to march for justice.
The Millions for Mumia Mobilization forcefully denounced the
plot by Mayor Ed Rendell and the cops to obstruct the mass
gathering, which is demanding no execution and a new trial for
African American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
They said the march will go forward as planned.
On April 9 Capt. William B. Fisher of the Philadelphia
police Civil Affairs division told Pam Africa, leader of
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, that the city will allow only a "ceremonial parade"
of 500 people along the chosen march route.
The rally at City Hall, set to begin at 12 noon, is still
officially permitted.
The march is scheduled to leave from City Hall in
mid-afternoon and go past 13th and Locust streets. That's where
Mumia Abu-Jamal stopped his cab on the night of Dec. 9, 1981,
when he saw police beating his brother. In the altercation that
followed, Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was shot and seriously wounded, then brutalized
by cops on the way to the hospital.
Eyewitnesses saw another man shoot Faulkner and flee the
scene. But police charged Abu-Jamal with murder. He was
convicted and sentenced to death.
"This racist city administration is forcing hundreds of
thousands of people to come here to save the life of an
innocent man," Pam Africa said. "We are not coming on vacation.
They have forced us to take this stand."
She pointed out that thousands of Abu-Jamal's supporters
have marched to the site without a permit many times.
On April 13, Millions for Mumia was informed that cops will
also block off a major area of the city the night before the
demonstration--April 23--turning the busy Market Street and
Penn Square areas into a virtual ghost town.
Anyone found distributing leaflets for the demonstration, or
wearing a pro-Abu-Jamal T-shirt or button, could be subject to
arrest, cops said.
The reason? A "memorial dinner" sponsored by Justice for
Daniel Faulkner Inc.--a front group for the Philadelphia
Fraternal Order of Police. This so-called police "union"
publicly advocates executing Abu-Jamal. It has a long history
of threatening his supporters.
Demonstration organizers call it "a police siege."
"This is a racist outrage," said Monica Moorehead, a
national coordinator of Millions for Mumia.
"The city can block off high-traffic areas on a busy Friday
night to accommodate a police dinner of 500 people. But they
say the hundreds of thousands who come the next day from all
over the world will not be permitted to march."
The mass march against racism April 24 presents a serious
image problem for Mayor Rendell, a right-wing Democrat who was
a model for Rudolph Giuliani and his racist, union-busting
administration in New York.
That weekend Philadelphia also hosts the Penn Relays--a
sporting event that draws amateur athletes from all over the
United States, and with them lots of camera crews. "They are
trying to hide the demonstration from the people of
Philadelphia, hide it from the people of the world, and hide it
from the media," Moorehead told an organizers' meeting in New
York April 13.
"We have the right to march anywhere we want to," she told
the cheering crowd. "We will march on April 24th."
"Our voices will be heard," said Pam Africa. "I am confident
that people will come in even greater numbers as word of this
outrage spreads."
The Millions for Mumia Mobilization called on people to
"protest and raise hell" over the march ban and the plan to
censor Abu-Jamal supporters the night before. Readers are urged
to call in to talk shows and other media.
People should also flood city officials' fax lines with
letters of protest. Fax letters to Mayor Ed Rendell at (215)
686-2180; the City Managing Director at (215) 686-3494; and
Police Civil Affairs Capt. William B. Fisher at (215)
685-3687.
For more information, call the Millions for Mumia
Mobilization office in New York at (212) 633-6646 or in
Philadelphia at (215) 476-8812. Updates are available on the
Internet at www.peoplescampaign.org and www.mumia.org.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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