As most of you no doubt know by now, we had a hearing in court today, July 8th, on the murder complaints that we filed against officials involved in the May 1985 bombing and murder of innocent MOVE family members. The issue is very simple and very clear. Officials deliberately dropped a C4 bomb on our home and the bomb ignited a fire which officials deliberately refused to put out. When we attempted to get out of the blazing inferno, cops deliberately shot at us to try to prevent any of us from surviving. As a result of this, eleven innocent MOVE men, women, children and numerous animals were literally burned alive and found to have bullet fragments in their bodies from police gunfire. Not one single official in these past twenty-five years was ever charged with murdering our family. I’m the only one to be charged with anything and imprisoned. We, the MOVE family, filed private criminal murder complaints against officials responsible for the murder of our family. The district attorney’s office refused our complaints so we appealed to common pleas court. Judge Frank Palumbo refused our complaints, adhearing to assistant district attorney William James’ arguments that it’s been twenty-five years and “it wouldn’t be in the interest of the commonwealth” to persue these charges. This is not surprising but it is unacceptable and we are appealing Palumbo’s decision. There is no statute of limitations on murder in Pennsylvania and how can it not be in the interest of the commonwealth, the people, to prosecute obvious murderers? The MOVE 9 have been in prison for thirty-two years for the false accusation of killing a cop even though officials destroyed the scene of the crime within hours of arresting my family and even though the trial judge stated after convicting and sentencing my family to thirty to one-hundred years that he didn’t have the faintest idea who killed that cop and the trajectory of the fatal bullet proves that MOVE didn’t kill him. The murder of my family was witnessed around the world. There is no question about who murdered innocent MOVE family members yet the didtrict attorney’s office refuses to prosecute these official murderers. The didtrict attorney’s office fights everyday to prosecute people, even when they have little to no evidence against the person. In this case, however, the district attorney’s office is fighting tooth and nail to keep from prosecuting these official murderers. Why? They are telling people very clearly that cops and officials can murder people, burn people alive, including babies, and not be held accountable but if anybody is even suspected of killing a cop or official they’ll be hunted down and punished to the harshest extent possible. People need to take this seriously and people should be outraged about it. How many times does this system have to tell people that our lives are worth nothing, that only the lives of rich folks, cops and officials mean anything or are worth anything? Officials accuse MOVE of being violent, confrontational and having no respect for their legal system. MOVE have never been violent but we do believe in the instinctive right of self defense which has nothing at all to do with being violent. We will always confront anybody that attacks us or tries to hurt us or any family member and I defy anybody to prove that to be wrong, and why would anybody have respect for a system that has always shown itself to be racist, unjust and vicious. People wonder why we of MOVE take the strong position we do against this rotten system, why we come after it the way we do, well the position of district attorney Seth Williams and judge Frank Palumbo tells you why. MOVE is always gonna fight injustice, we ain’t never gonna stop, and if our enemy labels our fight criminal or illegal, so what. What would you expect from your enemy?
For more info or to get involved, contact MOVE at 215 387-4107/ onamovellja@aol.com
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Who is JOHN AFRICA?
http://www.onamove.com/johnafrica/
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ONA Move! Long live John Africa's Revolution!
Statement by Mumia Abu-Jamal, son of Abu-Jamal, read at Unity Nation's African Holocaust Conference, 15 October 1995
ONA MOVE! LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA'S REVOLUTION!
Many of you will, no doubt, gasp and be alarmed when you hear that the writer of these words is on death row; But, why be alarmed? Why be surprised? In America, are we not all on death row?
Think of Malice Green, of Detroit; Brother McDuffie of Miami; of men, women and children known and unknown - nameless to all except those who loved them - Eternal Black Victims of the Great White Executioners - Since 1619 till this very day, when the relentless war on Black Life continues unabated.
Think of the martyred ones; those 28 men who soldiered for the Black Panther Party, like Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, George Luther Jackson, and Jonathan Jackson; think of the MOVE martyrs of May 13, 1985, bombed into oblivion by this very government - were they not on death row?
And that is our problem, isn't it?
At this march, let us now use this massive strength to organize, to rebuild, to breathe new life into our people's movements to free ourselves from our deadly daily reality.
If we merely come together to beat our feet, shout our lungs out, and shake our fists at an empty sky, we have failed.
All the Universe pulsates with purpose - will we be out-of-sync with the natural rhythms of the Universe itself?
What is our purpose?
Let us organize our strength for our collective freedom! Let us organize our collective power to shout out, not in supplication, but in militant affirmation of our God-given worth! ON THE MOVE!
Let us organize - for in Unity there is strength!
Use this opportunity to build strong, deep and lasting organizational expressions of our truest selves - ones which speak our truths unafraid to the world, ones that do righteous battle for our interests, ones that support the simple yet profound principle that a truly free and independent people do what needs to be done to preserve their existence and protect their tomorrows - no matter what.
Be militant! Be committed! Let freedom become your faith! Let Revolution become your religion! ON THE MOVE!
It is one of America's firmest goals to keep the grandsons of slaves helpless and virtually powerless. If you can't help yourselves, you can't help others. Power ain't a job, nor a title - it's the ability to make things happen - period.
Let us organize our collective will, let us build! Our grandmothers and grandfathers built this nation with the blood, sweat and tears of their stolen toil; Let us build - Organize!
ONA MOVE!
LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!
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MUMIA SPEAKS ON MILLION MAN MARCH!
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 18:39:21 GMT
Sender: Activists Mailing List
From: Marpessa Kupendua
Subject: FREE MUMIA! - MUMIA SPEAKS ON MILLION MAN MARCH!
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/031.html
Germany
Freiheit für Mumia Abu-Jamal: Rundbrief Juli 2010 http://www.thevoiceforum.org/node/1679