Philadelphia: City of brotherly thugs

From a May 8 audio column. Go to www.prisonradio.org to hear Mumia’s audio messages and www.millions4mumia.org to read updates on his case.

The scene is as common as sunlight: cops beating Black men in the streets.

This time, captured on videotape from a hovering helicopter, a malevolent swarm of cops pull occupants from a car, and then proceed to beat the paste out of the men, kicking, punching and slamming with a club. At least 15 cops are seen in the broadcast beat down; an average of five to one.

Within moments of its broadcast came the predictable defense: cops in Philly are “stressed.” One need not even await such defenses anymore; just put a tape on speed dial and repeat. If ever there was irony, the three car occupants were charged with aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy.

How much do you wanna bet that the cops, who were caught on film in the midst of aggravated assault—and as they committed the crime in common, criminal conspiracy—are never charged with these crimes—and probably will never be arrested?

How can I dare make such a claim? Well, I have plenty of practice.

Most folks flash back to the infamous Rodney King case, where cops in L.A. went into a whipping fit because King tried to outrun them. Were they too, stressed?

It also reminded me of the taped beating of Delbert Africa, a MOVE member who was beaten during the August 8, 1978, police raid on MOVE’s home.

These cops, too, were easily acquitted by explicit judicial decree. If tape doesn’t matter, what does?

In the case against three cops who rifle-butted, punched and kicked Delbert, the judge ignored the videotapes and cited both Delbert’s muscularity and the claim of a Black TV reporter, who claimed she saw him armed; this, despite the tape showing him shirtless, empty hands opened and naked from the waist up!

Prepare for the all but inevitable whitewash. Look at that tape again, and you will see something that you’ll see if you looked at a gang attack, for these are gangsters, pure and simple. Only it’s the blue gang.

Welcome to Philadelphia: the city of brotherly thugs.