COPS "PROTECT" FREE SPEECH

By Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A.

Column Written 6/5/00
Copyright 2000 Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A.

"... You'll say people can speak freely until the speech begins to threaten your idea  of so-called freedom, then folks ain't  free to speak, they're kicked, punched, clubbed, stomped, handcuffed, shot, jailed by the cops, and jailed again by you judges when the trial takes place..."   -- John Africa, The Judges Letter

 On May 13th, 2000, in cities around the world and across America, activists, students, and anarchists gathered on the 15th anniversary of the nefarious massacre of men, women and children of the MOVE Organization in Philadelphia, and marched in support of the MOVE political prisoners, this writer, and also against state terrorism.

In Philadelphia, hundreds of people gathered at a protest in front of the Police Administration Building, and marched thereafter to City Hall. This action was the first for a newly-organized group called Mothers Organized Against Police Terror (MOAPT), a group composed of parents and loved ones of young people killed by cops.  In Chicago, several hundred people gathered, and one of them, Elise, wrote the following account of what transpired:

"This past Saturday May 13th I participated in a rally and march in Chicago on your behalf.  It was a cold windy day but about 400 people came to the rally!  Unfortunately, the march through Chicago became very unpleasant because of the Chicago police.  The police were out in force. I have been to several marches on your behalf and have never seen as many police and they have never been menacing before -- but they certainly were this past Saturday!  They were definitely trying to be intimidating.  There were several mounted police wearing riot helmets who were riding very closely to the marchers and they seemed eager to create an incident -- and they did.  At one point there was a melee during which several protesters were arrested and several were roughed up and beaten with fists.  What is really shocking is that a couple of those arrested were minor females who said they had been sexually harassed by police officers!

I am still very shaken by what I saw and what I heard later about the treatment of the girls in custody.  And this on the same weekend that the Chicago police shot two people!  Is this because  of all the recent publicity about police brutality in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere??.. Best wishes, Elise"

What Elise is describing happening in America's heartland would be clearly recognized if it were occurring in El Salvador, in Chile, or Peru.  That's simply because these places are seen as so-called Third World nations, and as such, places where such behavior, if not seen as strictly "acceptable", is at least quietly tolerated.  What Elise seems to be saying is that such things are not supposed to be happening here!

For millions of young whites like Elise, such events are disorienting precisely because the myth that "it doesn't happen here" is so deep-seated.  In truth, it happens every day -- perhaps hundreds of times a day, in Black, Puerto-Rican, Mexican, and predominantly poor neighborhoods all across the nation.

For them, Seattle was new only because the beaten, the kicked, the assaulted, shot, threatened and harassed were white kids of a certain class.

Elise reminds us that millions of people may live in the same nation, yet they live in vastly different worlds.  For millions of people, living in so-called "free" America, their lives, their movement, and their liberties are circumscribed by a periphery of police terror.

Elise, and hundreds of her contemporaries, got a brief and chilling glimpse of an American reality.