13 May 2013
from: the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Dear Friends of Mumia,
Supporters of the Oakland Teachers for Mumia, the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia, and the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, mobilized at the Oakland (Oracle) Arena last Sunday for NBA playoffs, May 12th. We mobilized to protest the actions of Shaquille „Shaq“ O’Neal in a last-minute canceling a showing of the new movie about Mumia Abu-Jamal at the theater that he co-owns in Newark, New Jersey.
NOTE: This was not a picket of the Warriors, the NBA, or the Arena. Picket lines mean don’t cross, and that’s not what this action was about. This was a protest of Shaquille O’Neal’s censoring of an important documentary film about Mumia.
The film, „Mumia – Long Distance Revolutionary,“ which chronicles the life of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as the viciously racist police regime obtaining in Philadelphia at the time of the crime for which he was sent to death row, has had sold out performances in New York, LA and Oakland, as well as showing well in 23 other cities. But it was cancelled in Newark as a „cold business decision,“ according to theater management.
O’Neal, who is a well-known police supporter, an honorary member of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and who has a former Newark police officer as his security chief, had met with his owner-partners of the theater just prior to the cancellation. Not only was the film cancelled, but the manager who had arranged the showing was fired as well!
We handed out a reprint of a Nation magazine blog by Dave Zirin, titled „Did Shaquille O’Neal Just Box Out Mumia?“ This article details at length Shaq’s likely involvement in the cancelation. See this piece at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174044/did-shaquille-oneal-just-box-out-mumia.
Ever since the police-orchestrated framing of Mumia—which began at the scene of the shooting of a police officer in Philadelphia’s inner city in December 1981—the Fraternal Order Of Police has been trying to kill Mumia. The Justice Department conspired in the frame-up of Mumia. Another man confessed to the 1981 killing, and fingered corrupt cops as the real instigators of this murder, but the courts refused to hear it. Cops all over the country fume to this day that the execution of Mumia has now been set aside, in favor of life without the possibility of parole.
Shaquille O’Neal now appears to be part of this nefarious, on-going campaign. The aim: to shut Mumia up forever. We say: No way!
At our demonstration on May 12th, our placards said, „Shame on Shaq – Show the movie!“ We called Shaq out as a „blue fly,“ which refers to those who like to buzz around cops like flies on s__t. We said, Mumia was framed! Mumia is innocent! Free Mumia Now!
See the report by the Labor Video Project now on U-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfwDWlLZE5s&feature=
and now…
SIGN THE SOLIDARITY STATEMENT WITH MUMIA!
Now it is your turn to join us in solidarity with innocent political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal! We have a SOLIDARITY STATEMENT, which you can sign right now!
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Please read the statement below. If you agree, please indicate your support in one of the following ways:
1. Download/print out the attached (pdf) statement, which has room for signatures on page 2. Sign it, get your friends and co-workers to sign, and mail the completed form back to us at the address on the bottom of page 2 (or at the bottom of this email).
Or…
2. Sign the statement yourself simply by replying to this email with a „yes, I support Mumia“ and your name.
NOTE: This is not a petition to the US government/Justice Department, which is complicit in the framing of Mumia! It is a statement of solidarity to be used publicly to support immediate freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal.
Here is the statement:
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Mumia is Innocent! Free Mumia Now!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man. For almost three decades he was held in solitary confinement under the threat of execution, until the courts finally ruled his death sentence was illegal. In December 2011, the Philadelphia DA Seth Williams, backed by the Fraternal Order of Police, and Edward Rendell, former Pennsylvania Governor, Philadelphia Mayor and the DA who prosecuted Mumia, conceded defeat in trying to legally lynch him for the shooting death of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Now, after a secret proceeding with no notice to Mumia, Mumia is sentenced to “slow death row,” life imprisonment without parole.
Life Imprisonment is an Outrage! Free Mumia Now!
Mumia’s trial was a political and racist frame-up. Mumia was targeted by the FBI and Philadelphia police as a spokesman for the Black Panther Party; hated by the police and the notorious police commissioner and then mayor Frank Rizzo for exposing the murderous treatment of the MOVE organization. Mumia is an award winning journalist and a supporter of the MOVE organization. He continues to be the outspoken, truth-telling “voice of the voiceless.” The state wants to silence and entomb for life this man who is known as a “long distance revolutionary.”
The notorious trial judge, Albert Sabo, was a self-proclaimed racist and openly biased against Mumia. Sabo proclaimed months before the trial, “I’m going to help fry the n—–.” All elements of due process—the right to a fair trial—were violated. Every part of the prosecution’s case—witness testimony, Mumia’s supposed confession and ballistics—is a lie.
Witnesses to Mumia’s innocence, Veronica Jones and William Singletary were coerced from telling the truth at Mumia’s trial. The state and federal courts have refused to consider the mountains of evidence showing that Mumia’s guilt was fabricated and Mumia’s innocence was suppressed. The evidence of Mumia’s innocence includes: the sworn statements of Mumia’s brother, William Cook, that a passenger in his car, Ken Freeman, participated in the shooting and ran away; that a drivers license belonging to someone other than Cook or Mumia was found in Faulkner’s hand; and the confession of Arnold Beverly that he—not Mumia–shot and killed police officer Faulkner. Photographs from the crime scene prove the police fabricated the ballistics and the entire case against Mumia. Mumia had nothing to do with the shooting. His sworn statement of innocence was not allowed into the court record.
Inspector Alfonzo Giordano, one of the highest-ranking Philadelphia police officers, was the architect of the frame-up. He was the sidekick of Frank Rizzo and raided the Black Panther Party offices in 1968 and was in charge of the year-long blockade and 1978 assault on MOVE in their Powelton Village house. Giordano was also a corrupt cop and a target of FBI/Department of Justice investigation into police racketeering at the time police officer Faulkner was killed. He falsified witness identification, ballistics and a confession. The Department of Justice and then DA Edward Rendell covered this up during Mumia’s trial to convict Mumia for a crime he did not commit.
Mumia should have never spent one day in jail. Mumia’s case exposes the race and class bias of the entire capitalist judicial system. The state demands his slow death in prison as retaliation to his defiant resistance to state repression and racial oppression. But Mumia has not been silenced. We stand with Mumia. Mumia’s freedom is part of our own struggle for justice and human liberation.
We demand: Free Mumia Now!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • (510) 763-2347