Free Mumia Demonstration Report-Backs: October, 1999

Amsterdam, Saturday, October 16

1) hello Mumia supporters,

today, saturday the 16^th of october we had a demo for mumia through the inner city of Amsterdam. About 200 people marched through the city demanding freedom for Mumia and for all political prisoners. We were supported by a drum band called ‘brotherhood’ which gained a lot of attention. We spread about 3000 flyers with Mumia info asking people to join us for a noise demonstration at the us consulate next thursday (21 - 10, 15.00 h) It was a powerfull demo. We will later send foto’s to mumia.org.

In struggle
Mumia support group Amsterdam.

Solidariteitsgroep Politieke Gevangenen (SPG Amsterdam)
postbus 3762 1001 AN Amsterdam The Netherlands
Tel/fax 0031-(0)20-4272054 E-mail spg@dds.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank

Augusta Maine: On this past Friday October 15th, around 50 people from around the state of Maine turned out for a protest rally at the Federal Building in Augusta, ME in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The protest was highly visible to the many passing motorist, many of whom honked and waved (and screeched tires) in support of the demonstration. Maine Mumia List Serve, maine_sup_net@hotmail.com

Boston, Massachusetts: Saturday, October 16, at noon...

From 50 to 100 individuals and members of a variety of political groups gathered at the "Park Street ‘T’ Station" [central subway interchange in downtown Boston at the "Boston Common" at the foot of the Massachusetts State House] on short notice to vigorously condemn and oppose the announcement of the signing of a new "death warrant" against framed revolutionary journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal by the racist right-wing Republican "death-mongering" Governor of Pennsylvania, T. Ridge.

Speakers shared information and experience, and exhorted listeners and passersby over a loud-speaker during a two hour period to rally to the defense of the falsely convicted Mr. Abu-Jamal.

Following the Rally, dozens marched to "The Community Church of Boston," an historic institution in Boston which was a leading center for opposition to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, where a meeting was scheduled later in the day to plan further action.

Plans are already underway to mobilize people to join buses to Philadelphia for a Rally for Mumia planned for December 11.

Be there! Jail criminals like Ridge!

Free Mumia.
Fire in the Skies if Mumia dies!
James M. Williamson (spoke at Rally)
Candidate for Cambridge City Council
http://members.theglobe.com/campaign99

Detroit, 14 Oct

Detroit Holds Demonstration In Response To PA Death Warrant Against Mumia

By Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Correspondent

DETROIT, 14 Oct. (PANW)--An emergency demonstration in response to the signing of a death warrant against Mumia Abu-Jamal took place today at the Federal District Court House in downtown Detroit.

Jamal, an award-winning journalist and former official in the Black Panther Party, was convicted in 1982 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal had called for emergency demonstrations in opposition to the signing of the death warrant by Gov. Tom Ridge the day after the order was signed.

At today’s demonstration, over 100 protestors gathered at the Federal Court House building located at the corner of Lafayette and Washington Blvd. After protesting for over an hour in front of the location, many of the marchers left the area and paraded through downtown Detroit chanting "stop the execution, free mumia now." By this time the crowd had grown enough to move into the streets and block traffic for a short period.

The marchers continued through the financial district and later moved into the "Greektown" entertainment district where they took over the streets chanting slogans and calling for the freedom of the death row inmate and critic of the prison-industrial-complex.

After leaving the Greektown area, the marchers continued to the riverfront and then returned to the Federal Court House Building. Police followed the demonstrators demanding that they get out the street. The crowd refused the police orders to move onto the sidewalk. No one was arrested and the march remained peaceful throughout.

A call was put out yesterday by the Detroit Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal after news spread about the death warrant that was signed by Gov. Ridge.

Organizers in Philadelphia have called for a mass demonstration on Saturday at the State Office Building in downtown beginning at 11:00am.

Mumia’s execution date has been set for December 2. Jamal’s defense team will file a writ of habeas corpus in Federal District Court on Friday, seeking a stay of execution and a hearing on the issues that have been raised in an appeal of the conviction of the revolutionary journalist.

Jamal, who has always maintained his innocence, is the author of two recent books. "Live From Death Row", which was published in 1995, gained international acclaim for the death row inmate. "Death Blosooms", which was published in 1997, included a series of essays and poems written by Jamal.

Local activists in Detroit plan to attend the national demonstration in

Philadelphia this weekend. *

For More Information on Mumia Abu-Jamal contact: www.mumia.org

Pan-African News Wire articles may be broadly forwarded for non-profit research and educational purposes. We do request that any repostings include a citation of the original source. Redistribution for profit is strictly prohibited without the expressed consent of the Pan-African News Wire.

Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER, 211 SCB BOX 47, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY,  DETROIT, MI 48202-- E MAIL: ac6123@wayne.edu

Frankfort  Thursday 14 October

From: merijn89 merijn89@pop.dds.nl

A member of the Mumia Support Group, Amsterdam attended the first 3 days of the Frankfurt bookfair & on Thursday 14 October (before the news of the death warrant had filtered through) had the opportunity to attend a press conference in connection with the International Parliament of Writers, of which Wole Soyinka is the current President. The Parliament supports persecuted writers. After the presentation came question time... She asked: Could you give your reaction to the supreme Court’s decision not to hear Mumia’s case and secondly, what will the International Parliament of Writers do to support Mumia, or are they scared off by the threat of the FOP to boycot Mumia’s supporters?’ ;) Wole Soyinka: I don’t think the Parliament owes anything to the police of Philadelphia or anywhere else for that matter. No. I can tell you straight away that a number of us have been involved in the case of Abu-Jamal and the fight to me is not over yet. It is a case which concerns us very deeply. The Parliament has been in touch. I individually, with Bishop Desmond Tutu appealed personally and very strongly to the Governor of Pennsylvania and asked him for an audience. We joined hands with the Bruderhof, which structurally, in an organized kind of way has involved itself in this particular case. I feel the same way - the plight - as I did with the plight of Ken Saro-Wiwa when it was clear that he was about to be railroaded to his death. And it is the duty of the Parliament of Writers to continue to agitate in every possible way. That is the only answer I can give to that.

A German tv station picked up on the subject and subsequently asked Mr Soyinka to make a statement about Mumia on camera. On leaving the bookfair half an hour later, we heard that the death warrant was signed.

The following day the media and German supporters of Mumia leaped into action setting up a petition to be signed by publishers and authors - including the Vice President of German P.E.N. and Nobel Prize-winner, Gunther Grass. A daily newspaper, Junge Welt, featuring Mumia on the front page, had a large number of extra copies printed and distributed to the German publishers at the fair.

The publishers agreed that this was just a first step. they will now approach the German Publishers and Booksellers Association to make a concerted effort to gather support for a new trial.

Milwaukee, Sat, 15 Oct 1999

Sisters and Brothers,

50 people turned out for an Emergency Response Demonstration yesterday in downtown Milwaukee to protest the signing of a death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Sponsored by Wisconsin for Mumia/Milwaukee, the Black, Latino and white demonstrators picketed the Reuss Federal Building, chanted and leafleted passersby. There was short but decent coverage on TV and in the daily paper this morning.

Two points: Wednesday, the day of the signing, was the one-year anniversary of the beating death of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepherd, an atrocity Mumia had written forcefully about. Maybe this is more of the state’s sick "humor", as in passing the Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 on Mumia’s birthday, setting Mumia’s 1995 execution date for Marcus Garvey’s birthday, etc. Also, issuing the warrant Wednesday afternoon meant it came just hours after the deadline of most weekly papers, meaning virtually all the local "alternative" papers and especially the Black press were not able to report it. Who says the state isn’t worried about a reaction from the people?

Finally: A Job is a Right Campaign in Milwaukee, part of Wisconsin for Mumia, has a 20-page pamphlet called "Voice of the Voiceless: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal".

About a dozen local coalitions around the country have ordered bulk copies. The text was used as the basis for the 30,000-run tabloid used in New York to promote the April 24 Millions for Mumia demo in Philly. Updated this past July, it includes the phone/fax/email numbers of government officials to call, Mumia web sites, and soldiarity statements from Leonard Peltier, the Zapatistas and the ANC. 50 cents each, or .35 each for orders of 10 or more, plus postage. To order, email AJRC at ajrc@execpc.com.   Phil Wilayto

FREE MUMIA! FREE OURSELVES!

Oslo

Stop the lynching of Mumia!

The Supportgroup of Mumia Abu-Jamal in Oslo, situated at the autonomous youth house Blitz, arranged a quite spontanous demonstration outside the US Embassy in Oslo in protest against Thomas Ridge’s signing of Mumia’s Death penalty. It was quite many people taking part in the hastely mobilized protest, and as usely we didn’t want to ask the police for permition to protest against how the police-system in US is treating Mumia. Strangely enough, it took the police about 20 minutes to find out about the demo after we had started, so we had a good time and were not disturbed by violent men in uniform. We tried to hand over a written protest to the embassador, but the embassy didn’t want to open their door! So we sent the protest by post in sted...

Many new people came who want to take part in the fight for saving Mumia’s life, so even if we are shoked by the signing of the death penalty, we are strengthened in the organizing of solidarity with Mumia.

Blitz
kurt svensson ksvensson@motkraft.net

Paris, Friday, 15 October 1999

10,000 NEW FOOT-SOLDIERS TO FREE MUMIA:

October 15 Rally in Paris Expands the Fight to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal

NOTE: The following greetings were sent by Brother Jahahara Armstrong to the October 15 rally in Paris organized to promote support for the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights (OWC), which will be held in San Francisco on Feb. 11-14 of the year 2000.

Brother Jahahara Armstrong is the Western Region representative of N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America). He is also a member of the Black Radical Congress in the San Francisco Bay Area and an organizer for Project for Labor Renewal.

The Paris indoor rally, which drew close to 10,000 unionists and activists into an over-crowded Palais des Sports [Sports Palace], was chaired by Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC/AFL-CIO) and co-chair of the Labor Party in the United States. Velasquez is also a member of the Organizing Committee of the OWC. Speakers from trade unions and political parties from all continents addressed the crowd.

One of the focal points of the Paris rally was the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Tetevi Norbert Gbikpi-Benissan, president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Togo (UNSIT) and convener of the International Tribunal on Africa, reported on the recent six-city tour of the United States which he and Lybon Tiyani Mabasa, president of the Socialist Party of Azania (South Africa), conducted with the goal of building support for the Africa Tribunal.

Gbikpi-Benissan spoke of the multiple discussions in which he had participated with activists and leaders of the African American freedom struggle regarding the need to deepen and widen the fight to free Mumia. He also reported on the decision of Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Ridge to sign a death warrant for Mumia on December 2.

Brothers Gbikpi-Benissan and Mabasa proposed to the rally and its keynote speakers that they extend a campaign they had initiated one week earlier around an Open Letter to Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, demanding that they intervene and conduct an immediate investigation into the violation of Mumia’s civil rights at the hands of the Philadelphia police and court systems. Such a campaign, Gbikpi-Benissan insisted, would aid the fight to stop the execution and win a fair trial.

The Paris rally, with its participants from 30 countries, enthusiastically approved a massive signature-gathering campaign in support of this Open Letter. The campaign would include mass protest actions at U.S. embassies and consulates the world over, as well as high-level, broad-based delegations to the U.S. embassies. They also proposed that the International Liaison Committee for a Workers’ International, which has a presence in 92 countries, put all its energy behind this campaign.

Another decision proposed by the rally organizers—and approved by acclamation—was to send a delegation from the rally to Washington, D.C. within the coming weeks to present these demands—and the tens of thousands of petitions—to Janet Reno and a representative of the Clinton administration. Heeding Brother Jahahara Armstrong’s suggestion, the decision was taken to coordinate this delegation with the leaders of the Mumia defense campaign in Philadelphia.

For more information about this Open Letter campaign, or about the International Tribunal on Africa, please contact the ILC at P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140, Tel. (415) 626-1175; Fax: (415) 626-1217; email  ilc@energy-net.org   Alan Benjamin. See response by N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), Western Region Representative, Member of Black Radical Congress, Organizer for Project for Labor Renewal, (15 October 99) in San Francisco Report-Back

Philadelphia, 16 Oct

Emergency Demonstration For Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Held In Philadelphia

By Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA, 16 Oct. (PANW)--In Philadelphia Saturday the weather was warm and the sun was shinning—however, such an unseasonably beautiful day could not conceal or blur the sense of urgency that gripped the area around the state office building located at Broad street and Spring Gardens.

Beginning around 9:30am people began to arrive at the city’s headquarters for the affairs of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in response to a call put out by the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal to protest the signing of a death warrant against Jamal on October 13 in the state capital in Harrisburg. Gov. Tom Ridge signed his second death warrant against Jamal, a revolutionary journalist and former official in the Black Panther Party, after the US Supreme Court denied a hearing on what the defense says are gross constitutional violations involved the case. The Supreme Court handed down its decision along with hundreds of other rulings on Oct. 4.

Ridge had previously signed a death warrant against Jamal on June 1, 1995, setting an execution date for August 17 of that year. Later on August 7, a stay of execution was granted pending an appeal to the state supreme court of Pennsylvania.

During the course of the period between June and August of 1995, scores of demonstrations took place around the US and the world demanding a new trial and the release of Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981.

A Post-Conviction Relief Appeal was denied by the Pennsylvania supreme court in October of 1998. This coupled with the recent denial of a writ of certiorari by the federal supreme court provided the incentive for Gov. Ridge to order Jamal death by lethal injection on December 2.

Opposition Remains Committed

Supporters of Jamal who gathered in Philadelphia on Saturday came from places as close as the north side of the city to as far away as Chicago, Detroit, Charlotte-North Carolina, New York, Boston, Germany and France.

A wide political spectrum of organizations and activists, many of whom were youth and women, soon filled the area around the state office building. When the rally began around noon, many people were ready to take to the streets to demand that the decision to execute Jamal on December 2 be halted by a federal court. Jamal’s defense team filed a writ of habeus corpus on Friday requesting a hearing in the federal district court on the issues involved in the appeal.

"They could have issued a stay of execution on yesterday," said Pam Africa, the legal defense coordinator for Mumia Abu-Jamal, "but they chose not to." Africa, who spoke of her indignation at the decision of the Governor on Wednesday, urged the burgeoning crowd of hundreds of people to move into the streets for a march to North Philadelphia in order to spread information on the case of Jamal.

"We have a purpose out here and that is to free Mumia", said Consuella Africa of MOVE. After a public address system was connected to a generator on a flat-bed truck, a long line of speakers began to loudly denounce the death warrant that was signed by Ridge on last Wednesday and demanded the immediate release of Jamal, who worked for years as a broadcast journalist in the city of Philadelphia.

C. Clark Kissinger of Refuse & Resist! gave a brief update on the legal issues currently facing the movement to win a new trial for Jamal. Clark also emphasized that the supporters of the journalist must work to extend the scope of the free Mumia campaign so that it can reach millions of people in an effort to stop his execution.

Kissinger quoted a recent letter from Jamal stating that: "We have to consider this battle we are into as a war analogy. Mumia says this really is a war. And our people have to know that and fight with that spirit."

The Refuse & Resist representative continued by saying that: "No one has ever won a major political case in this country by fighting in the courts alone. Ultimately it will be the people in the streets who win the battle for us."

The writ of habeaus corpus filed on Friday is over 100 pages long and is considered a weapon in the current campaign waged by Jamal’s supporters. Gov. Ridge has signed 176 death warrants since early 1995. Over 100 of these warrants were issued against African-Americans.

After the speakers addressed the growing crowds that blocked the intersection of Broad and Spring Garden, the crowd began to march down the street into the predominantly Black communities of North Philadelphia. Along the route on Broad, teams of people passed out hundreds of flyers to motorists, pedestrians, workers and shopkeepers. Dozens of motorists and truckers began to honk their horns in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal as the demonstration grew to approximately 2,000 people extending across a large section of the thoroughfare.

Various chants rocked the areas around the demonstration. People screamed "Free Mumia, the whole worlds watching," as well as "ain’t no power like the power of the people if the power of the people don’t stop."

March Through North Philly

In contrast to many of the other national demonstrations in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal, this demonstration went directly into the African-American community as opposed to downtown, where the City Hall and other symbols of the criminal justice system are headquartered. The general consensus was that the issue must be taken directly to those who have the most at stake in the case.

This procession also provided a clear view of the contradictions that exist in Philadelphia where most of the recent economic development projects have been centered in the downtown area, while homelessness, residential decay and commercial abandonment has become more pronounced in northern sections of the city along Broad, 15^th and Master streets.

Rows of vacant businesses, dilapidated housing and condemned apartment buildings represent a stark contrast to the efforts in the downtown area to remove blighted structures or to refurbish them. The present Democratic Mayor, Ed Rendell, who was a previous district attorney in the city who played an instrumental role in the incarceration of MOVE political prisoners in 1978 as well as the prosecution of Jamal in 1982, is stepping down from office, while a Black City Council representative John Street, is seeking to replace the present mayor.

Controversy marked the campaign of Street, who has failed to speak out against the recent signing of a death warrant against Jamal on Wednesday. Pam Africa, who led the crowd of Mumia supporters to the headquarters of the Street campaign on 15^th at Master in North Philadelphia, said that she and other people were disrespected and beaten by Street’s aides who did not want to allow them to speak directly with the candidate on Friday evening.

"His aides told us that he (Street) could not take a stand at this time, but would assist Mumia after he was elected to office," said Pam Africa. However, Africa recounted how the city’s first African-American mayor, Wilson Goode, had promised that he would work to relase the MOVE 9 political prisoners who were convicted in the death of Officer James Ramp in 1978, after hundreds of police had fired thousands of rounds of ammunition into a home owned by the organization.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was working as a journalist in Philadelphia at the time, filed reports which contended that the police officer killed outside the MOVE residence could not have been struck by shots fired from the home in Powelltown Village on August 8, 1978. However, when Wilson Goode came into office, he did not take action on the cases of the MOVE 9. Moreover, on June 13, 1985 he supported a police decision to drop a bomb on the MOVE residence on Osage avenue, which killed 11 MOVE members, including five children, in addition to destroying 62 other homes in the working class neigbored.

Street was either not at the location or refused to come out while the protestors gathered outside.

A large organized contingent of Saturday’s demonstration was composed of youth. A student from Oberlin College in Ohio, told the Pan-African News Wire that there was a strong Mumia support group on the campus. "Mumia supporters at the college sent 80 people to the recent "Millions for Mumia March" held on April 24. Another 21-year-old man said "Mumia has been in jail since 1981. I was born in 1978. In almost every single memory I have had during my entire life Mumia has been in prison."

More Actions Planned

Pam Africa stated that "we have been demonstrating every day since the death warrant was signed." She urged people to return to their neighborhoods, cities and campuses and to work to stop the execution of Jamal.

Jamal’s defense attorney Leonard Weinglass is presently seeking to obtain a stay of execution for his client in the federal district court in order to prevent the execution on December 2. Activists present at Saturday’s national emergency demonstration pledged to continue their efforts aimed at stopping the execution and winning the release of Jamal.

The campaign in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal also held an emergency demonstration in San Francisco on Saturday. Demonstrations were held as well in the aftermath of the signing of the death warrant by Gov. Ridge in Chicago, New York City, Detroit, Ann Arbor and other cities.

Pan-African News Wire articles may be broadly forwarded for non-profit research and educational purposes. We do request that any repostings include a citation of the original source. Redistribution for profit is strictly prohibited without the expressed consent of the Pan-African News Wire.

Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER, 211 SCB BOX 47, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY,  DETROIT, MI 48202-- E MAIL: ac6123@wayne.edu

Portland, Sat, 15 Oct 1999

My name is Walidah Imarisha and I am a member of the Free Mumia Coalition in Portland. We had a protest yesterday where the cops attacked, arrested six and hospitalized one. I have attached the article I wrote about the incident. We’re trying to get the word out locally to the papers, holding a press conference. We got video footage of it, so hopefully that will turn out and corroborate our side of the story, because the police are saying we attacked them, which is in no way the case. If you want any more information, please email me at 73741.500@compuserve.com. And if you have any suggestions on what to do now or in the future, they would be most greatly appreciated.

FREE MUMIA!
Walidah Imarisha
member, Portland Free Mumia Coalition

Peaceful protester’s arm broken by police
by Walidah Imarisha

Portland, ORE.—A peaceful demonstration Oct. 15 for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal ended today with six people arrested, one man in the hospital with a compound fracture of his arm. The demonstration, organized by the Portland Free Mumia Coalition, was in response to the signing of Mumia’s death warrant by Governor Tom Ridge Oct. 13. About 400 protesters gathered at the Federal Building, marching peaceably to the Pioneer Courthouse Square where they circled it and then returned to the Federal Building. It was a completely nonviolent march, with not even a hint of violence. Regardless, there were about 40 cops there, approximately 15 in riot gear, and five or six on horseback. They also had two "less-than-lethal" shotguns, which basically shoots beanbags full of shotgun pellets at the target. These have been known to kill, and last year, police opened fire with them on a protesting crowd, resulting in injuries, and the mayor Vera Katz saying it was an unnecessary use of force.

These demonstrators, in fact, were dispersing and returning to their respective homes, when one protester Chad Hapshe, who was carrying a flower, looked at one of the cops on horseback, and threw the flower to the ground, presumably in some sort of statement.

The cop rode over, and, according to Hapshe, told him to pick the flower. Hapshe asked why, stating, "It belongs there, I’m just returning it to where it belongs." The cop told him to pick it up or he would arrest him for littering. Hapshe agreed to pick it up, but the police arrested him anyway. A number of his friends saw the incident and came over to see what was happening. The police officers knew them by name, as they are long standing Portland organizers, and told one, Craig Rosebaugh, to leave, to not be a "martyr" or a "big guy," in the words of eye witnesses. Rosebaugh replied, "This is a public park, I don’t have to leave," whereas, the cops told him to move out, giving him five minutes, then they grabbed him, and dropped him to the ground, where he was inches away from being trampled by the horses, who were bucking around. The police ended up breaking Rosebaugh’s arm and scrapping his leg up. That didn’t stop him from handcuffing him and taking him away, while he yelled that he needed medical attention. Rosebaugh has a compound fracture and will have to have surgery. Police charged him with failure to disperse, a lesser misdemeanor.

His girlfriend, Elaine Close, followed the cops taking Rosebaugh away, asking where they were taking him, telling them to let Rosebaugh go, that he needed help. She says she was trying to squeeze by a group of officers (she was walking on the curb side of the sidewalk), and as she did, she was purposefully pushed into the street by a police officer, narrowly missing being hit by a passing cab. There were a multitude of witnesses at the time, and cries of "What are you doing?" and "Don’t push her!" rang out. The cops then roughly grabbed Close and dragged her into the courthouse. Close says that police officers made innuendoes to shooting protesters to her, and that she herself was called a "liberal commie bitch." She says that the police were rough with everyone, which bears up to eye witness reports. "No one was resisting arrest, and they were being so brutal. I can’t move my arm, the cops hurt it when they were hauling me away." She is charged with interfering with a police officer and disorderly conduct.

None of the protesters engaged in any physicality with the police. Even after the police had broken Rosebaugh’s arm, and pushed Close into the street, the protesters stayed completely nonviolent.Then David Potter was told by cops to clear out, and when he raised the point that it was free property he was arrested as well. He was later charged with disorderly conduct and failure to obey the direction of a police officer. Potter says the officer read him the actual law, and that there was a segment in it that said he had to obey a "reasonable order" from the officer, and he contends that this order was completely unreasonable. The arrest of organizer and PSU faculty Roderick Franklin came next. Franklin went to investigate what was going on with Hapshe and Rosebaugh, and a cop asked him for his i.d. Franklin said he wouldn’t give him i.d., as that wasn’t necessary according to the law, but he gave him his name.

The cop ran it through the computer and came up with nothing, and again asked Franklin for his name, and again Franklin declined. He then arrested Franklin on a noise violation, because Franklin had been using a bull horn about 10 to 15 minutes earlier. They finally simply gave him a ticket for unlawful sound violation.

Then came the arrest of Jonathan Emil Felton, who was also charged with failure to obey a police officer. But in Felton’s case, he says the officer didn’t even give him an order. "I never heard them tell me to move. I was just playing my dijeridou [an Australian musical instrument] and they picked me up."Franklin says that when he was being held, he saw the police "running around, confused.

They didn’t know what to book us for. They were passing around code books, asking for sergeants and lieutenants to come and help them out." Franklin contends the police were figuring out the charges AFTER they had arrested the individuals. They came up with some pretty creative ones.

Chad Hapshe, who dropped the flower on the group that began this police assault, was charged with offensive littering. It’s ironic, because the horses the cops were riding dropped manure all over downtown Portland, but as of yet, none of them have been arrested for the charge of offensive littering.

Leslie Pickering, an activist with Liberation Collective, says that arresting people and putting ludicrous charges on them like these is common practice. "It’s a tactic. They want to arrest two or three people at the end of a big demo for nothing, people who aren’t organizers, who have nothing to do with it.

They use that to deter other people from joining and helping, because they get scared, because it’s anyone, not just the organizers."

Organizers on the outside say they were given the runaround when they tried to locate the arrestees.

People who called on the telephone were told they were not in the computer, then they were told that they had been processed and released when they hadn’t. Because of all the confusion, organizers didn’t know the full names of the incarcerated protesters, and so the Justice Center wouldn’t give out any information. Which seemed odd in and of itself, because the Justice Center staff contended they didn’t know Hapshe’s last name, but when asked to look up Rosebaugh’s status, they knew how to spell his last name right off, even though it is not pronounced as it is spelled, and even though he had been taken to Emmanuel Hospital fairly soon after his arrest (not soon enough, with a broken arm;

Both Close and Hapshe said they heard Rosebaugh screaming, but the cops just shut the door until the medics arrived about 20 minutes later).

Participants in the march contend that the police harrassed them even before they began any arrests, telling the protesters where to walk. According to demonstration organizer Jennifer Black, was what the police did at two junctures in the march: They told the protesters they could not walk the way they had intended to on their route, and they made them follow the same route from Pioneer Courthouse Square as to it. It’ a tactic used by the cops to create anger and dissension in the group, Black says, and to raise hostilities towards the police, to escalate the situation. The Justice Center also confiscated Hapshe’s personal items; wallet, belt shoelaces, as is standard procedure. However, they transferred those items to another center. When Hapshe was finally released, after four hours, at 11 p.m., the other center was already closed, so they released Hapshe with no money, no shoelaces, not even a belt to hold up his pants. The reaction of the media at the time was very telling. One news channel camera, rumored to be the Channel 8 news, would not film the police dragging Hapshe off. The camera man turned his camera away, and when the crowd pointed it out to him, he just shook his head. These acts are not unique to this protest; they have been reported by Portland protesters for some time now. The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is one that centers around police brutality as Mumia was an untiring exposer of police brutality and later a victim of it himself. Now, people protesting the injustices heaped upon Mumia are having to contend with their own injustices, and the backlash on the local level.

All of the protesters have the same court date: Nov. 8. Call the Portland Free Mumia Coalition at 287-4217 for more information, or the Liberation Collective at 525-4975.

*****

Portland Police Riot After Peaceful Mumia Demonstration By Portland Free Mumia News Service. On 15 October, [1999] at the conclusion of a demonstration/march in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, city police, some mounted on horses, intimidated and assaulted departing demonstrators. Six were arrested. The protest, which began at the Federal Building (3rd/Madison), was to conclude across the street from the Federal Building, at Terry Schrunk Park. However, police in riot gear and shotguns surrounded the park, and declared that the demonstration was "an unlawful assembly." Demonstrators were ordered to leave the area. As people dispersed, the mounted police drove through groups of people, and arrested some who responded to the assaults. A toddler was nearly run over. One man, Craig Rosebraugh, sustained a broken arm when police threw him to the ground. And even though he yelled that his arm was injured, police wrench both arms behind his back and cuffed him. Also, his leg was crushed by a horse while he was down. Another person was rounded up by police for dropping a flower on the ground. More Pro-Mumia protests are planned. Gregbyetig@aol.com

San Francisco, Thursday, 14 October 99

Greetings of IMANI (FAITH) Dear Sisters and Brothers:

WE want to express our sincerest gratitude for your organizing and participating in today’s massive rally to save the life and free our beloved Brother Mumia Abu-Jamal, in Paris, France. As i’m sure you know already, on this past Wednesday Governor Thomas Ridge of Pennsylvania signed a death warrant to publicly execute Brother Mumia on 2 December 99. While our movement will seek out all legal options to overturn this state-sponsored assassination, WE know from centuries of experience that justice is most often denied for revolutionaries like Mumia, and the masses, in these "united capitalist prison states." Therefore, WE are determined to step-up, to rapidly increase in numbers and militancy, our mass political and economic pressure inside the U.S. to free Mumia, our wrongfully-held Indigenous Brother Leonard Peltier and HUNDREDS OF OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS who have been unjustly incarcerated for 10, 20, 30 and close to 40 years.

Just last night (Thursday, 14 October 99), WE held a major protest to free Mumia here in San Francisco, California. Our march, which shut-down several streets in this city’s main business district, included a diverse cross-section of labor, human rights, youth and peace groups and activists. More mass actions and disruptions of this rotten and oppressive system are being planned for the coming days and months, in cities across the U.S.

Your organizing today’s rally for Brother Mumia is a major concrete expression of internationalism and solidarity. The building of this rally in Paris has certainly made more people throughout Europe aware of Brother Mumia’s grave situation, and the real lack of justice in this so-called "cradel of democracy" known as the "United States of America." WE urge you to contact your own governmental leaders and heads of state and urge them to put pressure on U.S. President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno to grant Mumia clemency, or at the least a new and fair trial. (i have addresses, phone numbers and emails which i will send later in a seperate message.) Of course, WE know that you also have political prisoners encaged on your side of the Atlantic. Use this opportunity to demand their immediate freedom and amnesty, as well.

Allow me to also encourage you to send your messages of support to and for Mumia to the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia at: P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 (UNITED STATES) or mumia@webcom.com. Much-needed financial contributions to Mumia’s Legal Defense should be sent to: Black United Fund/Mumia Abu-Jamal, 2227 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19132-4502 (UNITED STATES).

ASANTE SANA (MANY THANKS) on behalf of the thousands of activists who stand for freedom, justice and reparations in the U.S., and worldwide WE’RE GONNA WIN!

FREE DA LAND! FREE MUMIA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! REPARATIONS AND SELF-DETERMINATION NOW FOR AFRIKAN PEOPLE! DOWN WITH GLOBAL CAPITALISM!

Yours in our international struggle,
Brother Jahahara

N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), Western Region Representative, Member of Black Radical Congress, Organizer for Project for Labor Renewal, (15 October 99)

Seattle - Saturday, Oct. 16

PGA Action at WTO Seattle - http://members.aol.com/mwmorrill/pga.htm

Dick Burton, Ph.D., a Seattle Mumia Defense Committee member

Toronto, Sat, 15 Oct 1999

1) On the MOVE!

We want the world to know that despite police intimidation, harrassment and brutality, close to 300 people rallied and marched in Toronto, Canada on Saturday October 16^th, demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal! People strongly denounced the signing of a new death warrant by blood-thirsty Governor Ridge and this whole kill-crazy system for its continuing efforts to murder and silence our brother. Our people were attacked here in Toronto by the local police aided by the same federal RCMP that dragged our brother Leonard Peltier away into his long night of despair more than two decades ago. Three of our people were arrested, since then all three have been released! We will not be intimidated by these brutal cops! We will continue to fight for our brother Mumia! And if we have to, we will turn this system on its head and throw this system on its ass for Mumia!

Free Mumia! Free the MOVE 9! Free Leonard Peltier!
Free Satpal Ram! Free All Political Prisoners!
Long Live John Africa! On The MOVE!
Sumita Bidaye for the Friends of MOVE in Toronto.

2) From: Rose Harrison rose-bob@mail.wizard.net

TORONTO—A militant demo of over 250 people rallied against the impending execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal in front of the US consulate in Toronto today (Saturday). After approximately an hour of picketing , speeches were made in defence of Mumia and against the racist system in Canada and the killings of people of colour by the Toronto police and the murder of Dudley George by the OPP in Ipperwash. To further the point about the complicity of the Canadian state and the police in racism the demo than proceeded to march to Toronto Police Headquarters. Police lined up on University Avenue to stop us from taking the street and after a standoff of several minutes cops begand to push the crowd and physically grab and hold people while telling them to move. Mayor Mel Lastman’s investment in "target policing" paid off when two demonstarators were targeted by police and bogusly arrested (one on his bike was jumped by several cops), beaten up and charged with assault police (which is what cops charge you with when they assault you). The demo proceeded to the copshop on College street where more militant speeches followed. This pissed off the cops further and one person, Jaggi Singh, was grabbed by cops for the "crime" of writing on the sidewalk with chalk. He’s apparantly been charged with trespassing. Jaggi is especially hated by the cops for his role in the anti-APEC demo in Vancouver and had been pointed out by cops earlier in the demo.

Anyone who saw these arrests is a witness. Please write down what you saw on paper while it’s still fresh in your mind and either phone the Friends of Mumia at 416-760-2152 and leave contact info or email me at alehrer@sprint.ca and I’ll forward your info  to the defence team for the three arrested people.

Friends of Mumia will be meeting this Thursday at 6:30 at Hart House to plan Toronto actions in defence of Mumia. Urgent action is needed to save Mumia’s life. It was mass action that won Mumia a stay of execution in 1995 and it will be a mass mobilization which must and will save him this time.

ONA MOVE!
Andy

Twin Cities, Sat, 15 Oct 1999

REPORT OF THE OCTOBER 16 JUSTICE FOR MUMIA DEMONSTRATION IN THE TWIN CITIES:

After our very successful emergency response demo on October 14, we held a follow-up action on October 16. As expected, our turnout was even larger and more diverse than our Thursday action, with an estimated 300 people present. Many youth were present including a contingent from SAACP and folks from several area high schools and colleges. There were also people who had traveled from as far away as La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin and from Northfield, Minnesota.

We started our spirited rally with native drumming by the AIM drum corps, including a song dedicated to Leonard Peltier and Mumia. We then had a short but effective roster of speakers and poets to get everyone in the mood for a march.

Once we took off on our march, things got interesting. We soon found ourselves surrounded by 23 squad cars from several precincts, 3 horse units, an attack dog unit, 2 booking vans, etc. The cops were armed to the teeth with night sticks, pepper spray, etc.

When we left the sidewalk and went into the street, the cops went nuts. They repeatedly rammed their cars and horses into our crowd to try to force us back onto the sidewalk. Taking the streets is a long-established tradition in the Twin Cities and as long as we leave one lane of traffic open, we have never run into a problem. But the cops weren’t having any of this. They wanted to make it impossible for us to flyer passing cars and they wanted to isolate and wall us off from the community and make the mostly African-American community fear supporting Mumia. It didn’t work, however, as people poured out of houses and shops to give us their support, with many joining the march on the spot.

We were successful in taking the street at key locations but we did sustain two arrests. One person was ticketed and released. The other was taken in and charged with "obstructing justice" when he put his hand up to block a horse that was biting the back of his neck. (In this state, horses are considered police officers.) For this "high crime" his head slammed into the trunk of a cop car before he was taken away. We are now preparing for his legal defense.

From here, we will hold a community-wide organizing meeting to prepare for the coming time period. We hope to put together a variety of activities and form working groups to make them a reality. TCCDMAJ <mgresist@minn.net