A Petition for Mumia

Mumia Abu-Jamal

When I was 6 and 7 years old, my mom used to listen to NPR while she was dropping me off at school. There would always be a segment of a man speaking. I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but one thing that stuck with me was the ending "From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal". I've always researched Black history and when I got in my teens, I remembered that name. I looked it up, and read about the Panthers, and further into Mumia himself. I started listening to and reading his commentary on a regular basis 4 years ago. I also had the chance to look at some of his court transcripts and found that he initially had not been given adequate resources to defend himself. Abu-Jamal has been fighting for his life and freedom for decades. He recently won a battle to be taken off of Death Row. Since then, as opposed to being placed in the general population, Mumia has been placed in the Hole.

I think that Mumia's case and others like his should open up legislation as well as discussion about citizen's rights to defend themselves and others against police abuse (violent or not), under a clear cut set of circumstances. We know that some officers have in the past, and will in the future abuse their power and take advantage of any group they so decide to discriminate against. But their power to protect and serve does not mean that we should be placed as permanent victims of their brutality, railroading, abuse, as well as the condition of minority Political Prisoners, and the causes that lead one to become a political prisoner.

Support Mumia Abu-Jamal

Discipline and Punish

Discipline and Punish

On September 21, 2011 the entire United States witnessed the lynching of a Black man. The execution of Troy Davis should serve as a wake up call for whites and others to a couple of factors many Blacks and other minority groups have known for decades. One, racism in the form of white supremacy is still just as powerful as t has always been. As much as people would like to ignore it or deny it, this is a known fact. Two, the entire criminal justice system, from the police to the courts, to the prisons, is flawed and easily corruptible. It is geared toward imposing the will of the white ruling class on the lower classes. The Troy Davis case proved both of these points.

The situation reminded me of Michel Foucault’s (pronounced me-shell foo-co) book Discipline and Punish. In the book, Foucault explained the evolution of capital punishment and the development of the prison system. He explained that originally governments used public torture and executions as the primary form of punishment for crimes. The idea was that the condemned would serve as an example and deterrent to other criminals – even for the smallest of offenses. The media’s depiction of medieval executions is somewhat inaccurate. During such public executions, the public would be comprised of those who supported the execution and those who opposed it. After the execution, riots would erupt between the opposing groups. Those executed were often seen as martyrs. When groups become organized and gain dominance during riots, those riots become revolutions. The fact that these riots occurred proved that public executions weren't an effective method of dealing with crime or dissident activists.

A more effective method of dealing with criminals was needed as society evolved with new forms of government and industrial technology. This led to the development of chain gangs and labor camps. The labor camps and chain gangs put the inmates to work deemed useful by the government and other special interests, there was still always a change for rebellion and escape. The chain gangs punished prisoners by assigning them to jobs that reflected the nature of their crimes. The prisoners were said to pay their debt to society by physically working to improve the aspects of society that they had previously damaged. This method of punishment was supported by many reformers because it was more humane than public torture and executions.

Over time, governments developed the prison as the main method of punishment. Prisons became a way of using the same method of punishment for all crimes. By observing, training, and controlling every aspect of the prisoner’s life governments and prison authorities sought to impress a generic ideal of discipline to all f its convicts. Foucault explained that this method of punishment was meant to create people who would easily return  society to hold positions in institutions that required the same discipline such as schools (as students), (blue collar) jobs, and the military. The general function of all four of these institutions is to break a person down mentally and/or physically so that those in control of those institutions can build the subjected people up to be who/what the institutions were designed to make them. In capitalistic countries, the ruling class wanted (and still wants those convicts to serve as the manpower behind the institutions that keep the ruling class in its position at the top rung of the economic and political ladder. Needless to say, prison also has a secondary affect on one’s financial health. It affects not only the prisoner’s ability to generate income, but forces his family to fill the void of financial support that is left by the inmate’s absence. And without the financial ability to join the ruling class (primitive accumulation of capital), according to Marx, one has no other choice but to become a member of the working class (which includes both the middle and lower classes), or the lumpen (the criminal segment of the working class). This explains why many of the people who are released from prison often return.

Most of the forensic methods used today are primarily for the purpose of finding a suspect guilty of a crime. Forensic evidence maintaining one’s innocence is mainly the other side of the coin. The criminal justice system operated the same in the early days of America and developed similarly leading to the current day. Discipline and Punish explained this process for the entire Western world. As a friend of mine put it, “Michael Foucault is the white man that every Black man needs to read.” (The same goes for Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto as well.) Despite the evolution in the methods of punishment, little was done to secure safety nets for those who were wrongly accused, let alone provide effective methods of repairing the damage done to such individuals. Such is the case for Troy Davis and many other political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier.

Troy Davis’ case was questionable to begin with, given that 7 of the 9 primary witnesses claimed that they only testified against him due to pressure (meaning intimidation or threats) from the police. One witness was told that he would be charged as an accessory to the murder if he refused to testify against Davis. It’s actually very common for them to use such methods to extract information from someone, whether that information is correct or not. I’ve seen it personally a few times before I was educated on what was going on. Obviously, neither the police nor the courts would ever take responsibility for such actions. Needless to say, many will try to use the fact that 7 of the 12 jurors were Black to rove that Troy’s case is not an issue of race. The thing many don’t realize, or choose to ignore is that anyone of any race can be used to support white supremacy directly or indirectly.

To those who understand the concept of being “safe” when it comes to race, it’s obvious why Obama decided not to say or do anything to help. He was most likely advised not to comment, whether he personally wanted help or not – and he took that advice if that was the case. Regardless, Obama has never spoken out in favor of Black men, not even during his campaign when Diop Olugbala posed the question “What about the Black Community”. Although he ironically was a member of a church that, according to the media, supported Black Nationalism to some degree, he seems to have distanced himself from those circles.

Hundreds of thousands of people called for Troy’s clemency. Celebrities (such as Big Boi of Outkast), regular citizens, a former FBI director, and even George W. Bush (of all people) opposed Troy’s execution. The flood of calls, emails, Tweets, and petitions finally won Tory a temporary delay of his execution minutes before he was to be executed. The PEOPLE did that. The Supreme Court took hours reviewing the case only to maintain Davis’ guilt. Maybe they saw something no one else saw or paid attention to. And if that is the case, then those who opposed Davis' execution should study the court transcripts the same as every other court has. Otherwise, the highest court in the land refused to admit that the justice system failed and killed an innocent man.

The Science of Police Abuse Part 1

A billboard along Hwy 290 in Texas. You already know what that flag really represents...

  

In light of the recent police shootings in San Francisco and London, I though I'd do a post on my most recent run in with the laws(police). For those who don't know what's going on: in late July, San Francisco police shot a 19 year old (Kenneth Harding, Jr.) who tried to run from them after he was confronted about not having a bus ticket. There are viral videos all over youtube with the aftermath. In London, members of the working class have been rioting all week due to the shooting of an unarmed man (Mark Duggan) while working. Bored police are a dangerous police, and they are trained to be suspicious and intimidating, they're naturally paranoid, and have the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the law.

   Yesterday a coworker and I were driving home from work. We were on the road around 2am, since we work the night shift. A car that was in front of us suddenly pulled over at a crossover on the highway. The car didn't turn, it just waited for us to pass it. It turned out to be a Texas State Trooper. He pulled out and started following us. He would pull up close behind me, then give me a little room. When I changed lanes, he pulled into my "blind spot" and then backed up. Then he pulled up next to us (looking in the car) then backed into my blind spot again. I'd seen it before, usually with officers working at night. I knew better than to drive straight home, so I drove to the closest gas station (5 miles down the road) where I knew there would be lights, cameras, and witnesses to whatever it was he ws planning to do. He followed us the whole way, driving in my blind spot.

   When we pulled into the parking lot, the officer stood in front of our car waiting for us to get out. He asked where we were coming from, and we said we had just got off work. He asked where we worked; I told him and asked if I needed to call my supervisor. He said no and asked where we were headed; I said "in the store". So the officer opens the door for me and follows me around the store. When I go to check out, the officer goes back outside, gets his flashlight out and starts looking in my car. My coworker went outside to ask him what he was doing. After I finished checking out, I asked the cashier for some paper and a pen. I got the officer's name, badge number, and his license plate number. I'll file a written complaint soon.

   I started off with the story, now let's look at what was going on between the lines. The officer had no valid reason to pull me over, which is why all he could do was follow me then wait until I stopped to ask questions. The way the officer was driving when he first started following us was his way of making his presence known. he wanted to see if he could provoke me to act suspiciously (ie. ducking onto a backroad off the highway, speeding off to evade him, or throwing shit out the window) to give him an excuse to stop us. I acted like I wasn't paying him any attention and kept the same speed.

  When we got to the store, the officers initial approach was legal. He asked questions and I answered. Usually, I won't answer any of an officer's questions. I say "I'm going to remain silent" from the jump, even to the most trivial questions. Legally it puts me at a slight advantage, but out there on the street it can usually make things worse. I've learned from experience that you have to be able to tell when it's best to answer the (trivial) questions and when not to answer any questions at all. I/you should never answer any of an officer's questions or statements that imply criminal activity or probe for signs of guilt (It doesn't matter if you're doing something wrong or not). Now, once the officer let me go into the store, legally, that should have been the end of the encounter. Since I wasn't being detained I could've gone straight into the store from the start, but again, you have to pick the best strategy dealing with bored police officers. In the store, the officer pretended to shop, but always moved to keep me in full view. Stalling, I walked around picking up items, putting them back to get others, and getting stuff I knew I couldn't afford. When I got to the register, I had about 3 or 4 items. I used my bank card to pay first (which I knew didn't have any money on it), then paid for only 1 of the 4 items with change and left the rest.  After my coworker went to see what the officer was doing he said the officer was checking the door handles (to see if they were unlocked). After I got his information my coworker and I went back into the store to talk with the cashier and another local resident until the officer left before heading home. This was clearly racial profiling and harassment, but the situation played out a lot better than what could have been. I could be in the hospital, in jail, or dead.

   The officer crossed the line when he started looking in my car while I was at the register, especially trying to open the doors without my consent. Once he let me enter the store, that should've been the end of the altercation (I was free to go), but he decided to see if there was anything he could find as an excuse to harass us some more, and hopefully make an arrest. Though the police are sworn to protect and serve the citizens of the country, their functional purpose to date has been to serve and protect the interests of the ruling class. Other than that, many of them serve and protect not a goddamn thing. Of course there are plenty of individual exclusions to that statement, the general, practical, function of law enforcement on all levels says otherwise. I've got plenty of stories like this and I tell them to people all the time because there are a lot of people (especially foreigners and upper class, or conservative blacks) who just don't believe or are naive to the nature of police, the affect they have on our communities, or the fact that these conditions can be changed if more people get involved with finding solutions to issues of police abuse.

Part 2 coming soon.

Watching the Watchmen: Your Rights and the Police (Part 2)

This Is The Police: Put Down Your Camera

The link above is to an article describing an altercation in which a Black teenage girl recorded a police encounter while riding the bus (public transit). The officers took her phone, deleted the video, and detained her (kept her in the squad car, cuffed) for a while, then let her go.

I was in a similar situation this article a couple years ago ('09). My roommates had called me outside because one of our housemates (Jay) was being arrested suspected of drunk driving and evading the police. The police had said that they followed him from campus all the way back to our house. At the time he was going through some things, and was in a rut of depression and suffering from all the things that depression can bring.

I came outside with a pencil and paper, asking the officers for their information. The lady cop was cool, she just asked me to step back until they were done. I stepped from the edge of the carport, back to the front door (to give them distance). One of the other officers kept asking Jay direct questions like had he been drinking and why didn't he stop, etc. I kept yelling out to him that all he had to give them was his name and address, and to remain silent after that. Jay was wasted so he kept talking, but I kept yelling out the same thing. 

The officer that was asking the questions got mad and approached me telling me to go back in the house. He said I was interfering with his investigation. I told him that I was standing a safe distance away, that I had a right to be where I was, and a right to observe and record what they were doing. He said if I didn't go back in the house I'd be getting in the back of the squad car with my homeboy. I wouldn't move so he started counting, and one of my other housemates finally told me to just go inside. 

We all went back in the house(and locked the door). I opened the window to the front room, and kept writing everything down and saying the same stuff I had been yelling outside, LOL. Finally the officer told Jay that he "should listen to your homeboy because he's probably a criminal justice major", and then he looked at me and said "but we're trained professionals so we know more about what we're doing than you". I just said "OK" and wrote all that down. They arrested him, and I recorded everything that the housemates had taken out of his car before the officers had the car towed away. Afterwards, I went back outside to meet with the lady cop who came back and gave me the names and badge numbers of the other officers who were present. The one that had told me to go back in the house was quick to get back in his car.

First thing in the morning I called one of my mentors who is a law professor and asked him the procedure for filing a formal police complaint. I explained the situation to him, and he told me to type everything up and that he would make a few calls (he is well known around the school and town). "Jay" got out of jail the same day, didn't have to pay bail, got his car back, and all charges against him had been dropped. That part had more to do with the pull that the mentor had with officials around town, but if I hadn't reacted the way I did my homeboy would most likely be rotting in TDC (Texas Department of "Corrections") right now.

Expanding on the ideas covered in Part 1, these are examples of what can happen when you assert your rights, and how the police may react due to the fact that most of them don't really know how to react. Most of them are not used to their activities being observed or dealing with a citizen that knows his/her rights and asserts them properly. Whether your situation ends up like the sister's in the article, or like the one I just described, if we don't actively observe the police and assert our rights, we will continue to be victimized. Learn your rights, study the law, and prepare for whatever the response will be whenever you are tested.

Watching the Watchmen: Your Rights and the Police (Part 1)

This is a letter that I wrote to the editor of my school newspaper last month. I don't know if the editor just didn't get it or if I should have sent it to the newspaper repeatedly until the letter was published in the paper, but it was never published regardless. SO... here it is.

Keeping us informed of our rights as citizens in general and during police encounters was one of the primary goals behind the formation of many groups during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, case in point: The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The BPP aimed to educate members of the Black community their legal rights as citizens and human beings, as well as how to assert and defend those rights. Although the BPP no longer exists, there are still groups and individuals who do wish to inform the Black community of their rights, and this work should continue.

On April 1st, SGA (Student Government Association) hosted an event titled "Your Rights and the Police" featuring members of the Prairie View police department, and various District Attorneys from Dallas County, many of which were PV alumni. The reason I attended is because the flier advertising the event stated that the panel would discuss our rights during police encounters in public, in our cars, and at home. I was disappointed to see that that did not happen.

The underlying message that I got from some of the panelists who spoke was that the police are being victimized by the media, we should not assert our rights and let the police do what they want during encounters. Others did speak to the fact that crooked officers exist, and gave advice on filing formal complaints and stressed the importance of keeping written or audio/video records of police encounters. Still, the problem that I have with a majority the information given during the event is that given the panel member's professions I believe they fully understand our rights and the benefits of asserting them, and chose not to fully inform us about them. As police officers and District Attorneys, their success is primarily driven by the public's ignorance of their rights and the law in general, especially in the Black community. This ignorance can be seen as a factor contributing to the high incarceration rate of Blacks in America.

"The [Miranda] warning, which is intended to inform you of your rights regarding police questioning, does not have to be read to you if you are not placed under arrest. The reason for this is that if you are not arrested for committing a crime, you are not going to trial, so you don’t need to be warned that what you say can be used against you during trial." (http://mirandarights.org/prearrestquestioning.html)

Although it is true that being responsible and not breaking the law is the best way to protect oneself during police encounters, the fact still remains that criminals and law abiding citizens alike are protected by the Constitution. We are protected from self-incrimination by the 5th Amendment, and protected from unwarranted searches and seizures by the 4th Amendment. During a police stop, it is my right to decide whether or not I will answer the officer's questions, or to say "I am going to remain silent" or "I do not consent to searches, or dog sniffs" whether I am breaking the law or not. It is also my right and responsibility to thoroughly READ the warrant, if presented, before allowing the police to conduct a search or arrest. If I am not breaking the law, I am simply asserting my rights as a citizen. If it should happen that I am found to be breaking the law, the fact that I asserted my rights may grant me some protection in court.

The message that the panel had regarding those statements is that if you had nothing to hide you wouldn't need to use those statements, which makes someone who does use the statements appear suspicious. The fact behind that assumption is that many people do not know that they have the right to make those statements during police encounters. For those who do know they may not feel comfortable doing so, or may be intimidated by the police and fearful of the consequences if they do use them. I believe if more people learned their rights and asserted them that it would make the people who currently assert their rights appear less suspicious.

The Texas Penal Code even goes as far as to give citizens the right to defend themselves in the event that an officer uses excessive force while conducting a search or arrest (Texas Penal Code - Chapter 9 - Subchapter C, Subsection C) Given the amount of police abuse and misconduct that occurs throughout the US involving Black people, it would be beneficial for citizens to know these rights and provisions given by law to citizens and officers alike. But, knowing the most probable consequences, that course of action is not advised unless a life-or-death situation immediately calls for such actions. Instead, one should record the altercation if possible (with a voice recorder, video camera, or even having someone on the phone to listen during the encounter). Always make sure that you get the name (with correct spelling) and badge number of every officer present at the altercation. Put it in writing as soon as possible, contact witnesses, and file a formal complaint against the officers with the police department and the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU). You won't win anything arguing or fighting the police in the street, so record and document everything you can and use it against them in court.

Despite the methods of asserting and protecting one's rights, how would one know that they even had the right to defend themselves or someone else in that situation, alone not knowing that the concept of illegal searches, illegal arrests, and inadmissible evidence even exist without studying the law themselves or being informed by someone who has? I personally think every citizen, namely Black men and women, should own or find access to a copy of Black's Law Dictionary, know how to gain access to legal resources including the state and federal Constitution, and keep a copy of legal advice for handling police encounters with them in the car, at home, or somewhere close by.

The police and DA's have their responsibilities but we as citizens and members of the Black community also have the responsibility of protecting ourselves by learning, asserting, and defending our rights. We owe it to ourselves, the coming generations, and the members of the generations before us who fought for us to have those rights in the first place by learning what our rights are, how to exercise them properly, and using them to the best of our ability should our time come.

Prentice Sams

Resources For More Information

Texas State Constitution and Statutes
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/

Texas Penal Code - Chapter 9 - Subchapter C, Subsection C
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.9.htm#9.31

Exclusion from Criminal Liability - Personal Defense

(c)  The use of force to resist an arrest or search is justified:
    (1)  if, before the actor offers any resistance, the peace officer (or person acting at his direction) uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest or search; and
           (2)  when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the peace officer's (or other person's) use or attempted use of greater force than necessary.
 (d)  The use of deadly force is not justified under this subchapter except as provided in Sections 9.32, 9.33, and 9.34.


MirandaRights.org
http://mirandarights.org/
*This site also includes links to free legal advice

http://www.copwatch.org/
Focuses on resources for fighting police misconduct. Plus- strategies and techniques to combat police abuse, brutality, harassment, and corruption.

Flex Your Rights
http://www.flexyourrights.org/
* This site includes explanations of your rights and examples of how to exercise them.

WARNING: Although I deal with legal terms and ideas, I am not a lawyer, I've never been to law school, and none of the ideas expressed in the letter should be taken as professional legal advice.