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Mumia Abu-Jamal, "All Things Censored"

Started February 18 � Finished February 20, 2002; 303 pages. Posted 21 February 2002

A while back (Jeez, a LONG while back, now that I think of it...) I went up to stay with my buddy Ben in San Francisco. Mostly I wanted to hang out with Ben, but there was also a protest rally being held for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Now, I knew all about Mumia; I had read his book (Live From Death Row), read the interviews with him, and even had a class that used his case as a part of the course study. Ben, however, didn�t know shit, about him or otherwise. (This was before all the records of spoken word came out on Alternative Tentacles.) I gave him a quick overview. After about twenty minutes of me babbling, he told me to shut up and said he�d figure out what was going on the next day.

When we finally decided to leave the rally we were both annoyed, but Ben was more agitated about it. �Okay, let�s say I�m some dumbass who�s walking down the street,� he said.

�You ARE a dumbass walking down the street,� I reminded him.

�Fuck you. Anyway, if I was walking by and I saw all these hippies chanting 'Free Mumia! Free Mumia!' why would I be inclined to stop? I mean, maybe I would if something looked interesting, but they aren�t talking about anything involved with the case. They just keep chanting like a bunch of monkeys.�

�Yeah,� I said. �Nearly all the speeches are like this: �Hey, like, Mumia�s a totally cool dude, like, man, and like cops are fucked, you know? Yeah! Let me hear you! COPS ARE FUCKED! All right! Now, back to, like, Mumia � Mumia�s in jail and he shouldn�t be. So like, let him out. Free Mumia!��

�Exactly. Now I walk up not knowing shit and I stop and I say, �Okay, why?� And these fucking hippies just stare at me. I mean, I was searching � searching! Searching for anything that talked about the aspects of the case that you were trying to tell me in a drunken stupor last night, and I couldn�t find anything!�

�That�s because this wasn�t an information rally, even though that�s what they were calling it. It was a big fucking circle jerk � a meeting point so hippies could try and sell homemade jewelry.�

�I hate hippies.�

�I really hate hippies.�

�Let�s go get some drinks.�

So, a quick summary of the media circus that is Mumia Abu-Jamal: he was a journalist and he was a member of the Black Panther Party when he was 14, a job that got the FBI to start a casebook on him. His reporting was grassroots, often dealing with people rarely given notice in the press.

His stories made the officials angry � so angry that one high-ranking government official told Abu-Jamal he hoped to see the day when �you will have to pay for your actions and behavior.� As his notoriety grew, the reporting jobs shrank. Abu-Jamal started driving a cab at nights to supplement his income. It was while driving this cab that he happened across a scene of a cop beating up Abu-Jamal�s younger brother. He jumped out of his cab.

What happened next is sketchy, but what is known is two men lay on the sidewalk with bullets in them when it was over. One was Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The other was Abu-Jamal. Faulkner died. Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for his murder.

But something funny happened. Former witnesses for the prosecution reversed their stories, saying they were coerced and threatened by the police. It was discovered that no ballistic tests were preformed on Jamal�s legally owned firearm, even to check if it was recently fired. Jamal was denied the constitutional right to defend himself in court, even after his court-appointed attorney fell asleep during the trial. Still, no new trials were allowed. Since 1982, Jamal has come as close as ten days to execution, stayed only because of public outcry.

Jamal, to his credit, has refused to discuss the event that took place that night in 1982 to anybody but his lawyer and the court system. He wants to be found innocent in the courts, not the court of public opinion. (He even writes in favor of the cops retried in the Rodney King case, saying their rights had been violated.)

He has, however, reported on life in prison from a unique perspective: his own. The stories in this book mostly deal with other people in the cells, but he will occasionally talk about a new aspect of his case, particularly since he is being denied privileges because he was �engaging in the act of journalism.�

His writing is powerful yet muted, except for rare moments when he talks about his spiritual organization. But in a collection of essays such as this, you can�t help but notice a certain amount of repetition in subject matter. Maybe it�s because he doesn�t get out much. (Rimshot!)

He�s also fond of repeating clich�s to accentuate his point, like the famous quote from the U.S. general in the Vietnam War. All I can say is, if Mumia Abu-Jamal keeps on saying �We had to destroy the village in order to save it,� then the terrorists have already won.


Rating: Worth used prices

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