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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------15 years after bombing of MOVE
Philadelphia protest hits police terror
By Joe Piette
Philadelphia
"Injustice reigns in this country," Ella Forbes told a crowd of hundreds assembled in Philadelphia May 13 to protest against police terror. Forbes was describing a climate of racism so pervasive in the (in)justice system that cops routinely get away with murder, and people of color are often found guilty of crimes they did not commit.
Today's demonstration was timed to commemorate the May 13, 1985, police-terrorist bombing of the West Philadelphia MOVE home that killed six adults and five children. May 13 was also the International Day of Support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a well-known victim of police terror.
The action, called by Mothers Organized Against Police Terror and International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, was also meant to support mothers who lost loved ones to police terror, the day before Mothers Day.
Ella Forbes, whose son Erin was killed by police last January, was joined by friends and relatives of other victims of police abuse in the loud and colorful march. It began at the Roundhouse Police Headquarters, where Reverend Benjamin Greene told the crowd to remember the 1985 police bombing of MOVE by "dropping a bomb on racism and injustice."
Moises DeJesus, Kenneth Griffin, Donta Dawson, Tommy Webb, Erin Forbes, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Marquis Edwards, each one of the MOVE 9, Jamel Nichols--these and other names of people victimized by Philadelphia police were carried on white poster board by marchers. As the crowd marched and chanted through the East Market Street shopping district, bystanders eagerly took leaflets, some even joining the protest.
At City Hall, relatives of police terror victims spoke, including Barbara Vance. Parole officers killed Vance's nephew, Kenneth Griffin, in 1997. George Webb described how a cop killed his brother Tommy in December 1998.
Ramona Africa and Pam Africa recounted the police attack against MOVE in 1978, for which nine MOVE members were convicted of the murder of Officer Ramp, who was most likely killed by police gunfire. Justice was again absent in 1985, when not one official was convicted of any crime for the bombing of the MOVE home and the destruction of a whole city block. In fact, the only adult survivor of that fire, Ramona Africa, was sent to jail for six years.
Dozens of red "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" flags were peppered through the audience. Several speakers urged the crowd to be present on Abu-Jamal's first day in federal court before Judge William Yohn.
A huge 65-foot quilt, made up of colorful squares of material emblazoned with freedom slogans for Abu-Jamal and sewn by a group of women organized by ICFFMAJ member Fatirah Aziz, was held up along the curb for passers-by to see.
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