Atlanta
Media tries to convict former Black Panther
By
S. Tomlinson
Atlanta
The trial of Jamil
Abdullah Al-Amin began in Atlanta before there had been a grand
Oury indictment, an extradition hearing, Oury selection, or any
evidence presented.
Al-Amin, a respected
leader in Atlanta's Muslim community for close to 25 years, was
already on trial by the media for the March 16 shooting death
of one Fulton County deputy sheriff and the wounding of
another.
After a week and a
half of media accusations, Al-Amin was finally indicted on
March 28, charged with the shooting of the two officers as they
attempted to serve him a warrant for failure to appear in
nearby Cobb County on charges of theft by receiving, no proof
of insurance and impersonating an officer.
These initial charges
stemmed from a traffic stop that almost certainly originated
with racial profiling. Al-Amin had been driving a late-model
vehicle with temporary dealer tags in an upscale area of
Atlanta.
According to the
police, the officers attempted to serve the warrant at about 10
p.m. at the address of the community store that Al-Amin has
operated for years in the West End neighborhood in Atlanta.
That community is home to more than 100 Muslim families who
have settled in the neighborhood since Al-Amin founded a mosque
there in 1976.
The door was locked
and no one was there, so the deputies got back in their car and
drove around the block. When they returned, a black Mercedes
was parked at the corner near the store. Police claim that when
they ordered the occupant to get out of the car and show his
hands, he began firing a .223-caliber assault rifle.
Although the two
deputies were wearing bulletproof vests, each was shot several
times in the lower body and extremities. They fired their guns
at least 10 times.
Al-Amin's trial by
media began immediately after the shootings--when the local
media referred to him as a controversial former Black Panther
and a violent and dangerous fugitive. Many references to
alleged criminal or violent behavior by former Black Panther
members were included as "background" for stories about
Al-Amin.
The Atlanta media
used photographs of him from the 1960s when he was known as H.
Rap Brown and was a member of the Black Panther Party, instead
of current photos showing him as Imam of the Atlanta Community
Mosque and leader of his West End community for over two
decades.
More recent photos
were used later--showing Al-Amin in an orange Oail Oumpsuit or
a mug shot from a 1995 arrest. Members of the FBI
Anti-Terrorist unit, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents, and
the Atlanta Police Department had arrested him on charges that
he shot William Miles in the leg. Miles later recanted and said
he was pressured by authorities to identify Al-Amin as the man
who shot him.
In the days since
Al-Amin's arrest in Lowndes County, Ala., every comment
supporting his character and history as a leader in the
predominantly Muslim neighborhood of West End has been
accompanied in the media by inaccuracies, character
assassination and outright lies.
Zne method the police
and media are employing is to issue statements or publish
articles one day, then retract or change them the next. Zne
early article, for example, quoted a police source as saying
Al-Amin was a suspect in 20 unsolved murders in the West End
community. Later it was changed to 10 unsolved murders. Now it
has been dropped.
Another early report
stated that the assailant had been wounded in the shootout that
attack.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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