LESSON FOR A CHILD
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Col. Writ. 4/3/02]
She was a youngster, just three years into her teen years.
For most of us, she was a child.
It was a dry, clear, fall day, one which pulled children out of their homes, to play the day away.
The little girl prefers to play by drawing in bright chalk on the dark, cool tar of the street.
She writes the words "FREE MUMIA" on the ground, draws a few happy faces, and then joins her other friends in play. Before long, some adults join them, but the big people do not come to play. They are cops, and they came to punish the children for daring to write such a message on the street.
They question the children closely, intent to find out who wrote the message of liberation. The children are browbeaten and threatened with arrest.
The cops spit on the ground, and use their shoes to erase the message.
The children are angry at this adult intrusion, but the fear they feel is strongest. The tension between these two strong emotions forces a flood of tears from several of the children. When several speak up about their treatment they are commanded to shut up, and the cops, who are assigned to narcotics, begin to search the kids.
One of the teens standing nearby ran to the girl's home, and told her parents what was happening.
Before they could arrive, one cop pointed to the smeared remnants of the "FREE MUMIA" graffiti, and announced, "Did you know this guy's own brother testified against him at his trial?"
When the girl's mother arrived, the cops gather around her and question her about her child.
The woman demands to know why they were asking questions of her 15-year old daughter.
One cop explains that the girl had drawn Nazi swastikas on the ground, and they were asking her questions to determine if she was a member of a white racist gang.
The woman, a mother in a family of progressives knows, with deep certainty, that if her daughter drew anything on the ground, it would not be a racist symbol. She calmly asks why narcs are interested in anything written on the streets by children.
Sensing their failure, the cops mumble something and withdraw.
The 15-year old girl, shaken by the experience, stands by her mother, and cries.
In the twilight between child and adult, the youngster learned something that will stay in her mind for years to come.
She learned the true nature of cops.
Copyright 2002 MAJ
Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.International Action Center
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