A-Infos "Cincinnati Fires" By Mumia Abu-Jamal

["Marpessa Kupendua" <nattyreb1@home.com>(by way of galupchi@pangea.org)]

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CINCINNATI FIRES

Col. Writ. 4/17/01 

Copyright '01 Mumia Abu-Jamal

  

"The government is only as lasting as

your understanding of administration.

The Army is nothing without people,

the Air Force is grounded without

your endorsement, the ships of the

Navy could never have sailed if

your leaders didn't have you sail

'em, and the brutal depravity of

police would be non-existent if

you didn't wear the uniform."

John Africa, On the
Move, (1975)

  

    Black youthful rage explodes in Cincinnati,

Ohio, and several nights of fire, rebellion

and pain reminds us that the much-maligned

and heralded '60s, were really not so very

long ago.

  

    For like the riots that rocked the nation in

the 1960s, the precipitating event was an act

of brutality and violence by police against

black folks.  Police violence against blacks

has sparked rampages of rebellion from

coast to coast, costing hundreds of millions

of dollars in destroyed property, and hundreds

of lost lives.

  

    Over 30 years have passed, and in the

intervening years we have seen the emergence

of the black political class, and the entrenchment

of the black poor in inner cities, projects, and

ghettoes more desolate, more isolated and

more hopeless than the 1960s.  We have seen

the explosion of the Prison Industrial Complex,

at rates that would've been unthinkable in the

1970s, with upwards of 2,000,000 men, women,

and juveniles in American jails.  The U.S., with

only 5% of the world's population, has <underline>25%</underline> of

the world's prison population!

  

    And for black young men and women, the

horror of prison has become a perverse rite of

passage, marking one's transition from youth

to adulthood.

  

    So, while things have gotten better for some

African-Americans since the 1960s, things have

gotten demonstrably worse for millions of other,

poorer blacks.  Public schools, never quite

outstanding in the first place, have gone into

decline.  City services have declined.  Industries

have fled cities for the South and the suburbs,

leaving cities with less employment, and with

remaining jobs paying for less money, while

costs have gone up.

  

    Cincinnati, sparked by the police shootings

of a black man, could have happened anywhere

in America.  The social ingredients are all there,

in every major city in America.

  

    In every major city is economic and social

despair, mixed with a militaristic police force

that targets black life and liberty.  In every

such city are black politicians who function in

the role of keeping the restless natives in

check; keem them suffering in silence.

  

    Cincinnati represented the eruption of youth

who see their position in grim, hopeless

situations.  Cincinnati is a harbinger of things

to come.  Cincinnati is the fire next time.

  

Mumia Abu-Jamal, Copyright '01

==================================>

  


PLEASE CONTACT:

International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ

P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143

Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180/

E-mail - <<mailto:icffmaj@aol.com>icffmaj@aol.com /www.mumia.org

AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!


Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:

 Mumia Abu-Jamal

 AM 8335

 SCI-Greene

 175 Progress Drive

 Waynesburg, PA  15370


!! PEOPLE GET READY !!


Afrikan Frontline Network ~~ <<http://www.afrikan.net>www.afrikan.net

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