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Ramona Fights for Life (1:49) Mumia Abu-Jamal

Goode Street (2:04) Mumia Abu-Jamal

My name is Omar ski Ali AKA Edward Sistrunk. On topic is "A Force For Change." There is a book out by Norman Carter Jr., a former Philadelphia police officer, entitled "The Long Blue Wall." It's a must-to-read. He was branded as a certified threat to the status quo. He recently written about the emotional scars he received from clashing with and trying to expose corrupt police, fellow cops, and supervisors during his years on the job from 1967 to 1992. The blue wall of silence- the blue wall of silence protected the crooked and punished the vocal. This was why cops just like crime organization for protecting their own by keeping their  mouth shit. He now lives near Atlanta where police community relations are strikingly similar what they were in the late sixties and early seventies. Police shooting civilians, police winding up in [inaudible] about corruption and brutality. The big differences, he says, is that social media amplified bad behavior. In his book, Mr. Norman Carter, Jr. recounts learning that mobs

I'm in Pennsylvania  state prison Phoenix. Here's the title of my essay: "Are we as a nation aware that domestic violence is the national character of a larger violence against humanity?" As I write this essay, there are threats of war against other nations from our president and other politicians believe are worthy of losing their lives because of disobeying their control over their war machine. I wonder, is this threatening indication that domestic violence and international violence is a philosophy? Today our country has taken the position that Korea and Iran may very well be attacked by United States military in order to destroy their military development of a nuclear weapon.  These small nations are no threat to America: a child when comparing the advancement of massive destructive weapons we have that no nation would imagine attacking America. Is that our thirst for domination and control out of control? I remember for decades we've been taught at school that Russia and other people around the world wer

THE POLITICS OF JUDGES[col. Writ. 10/5/18 (c) ’18 Mumia Abu-Jamal We are all trained and conditioned to see judges, clad in their dark and foreboding robes, as people who are superior to normal, average men and women. The robes lend an air of solemnity, wisdom and certitude, similar to the vestments of priests, nuns or monks. But in truth, they are not just like us -they are us, in every way that makes us human. They are angry, ambitious, biased and as base as are we all. But they, like us, are trained and conditioned to act above the fray. When Roger Brooks Taney wrote, in the infamous Dred Scot case, that ‘negroes have no rights that a white man is bound to respect’, he was wearing a black robe. When Buck v. Bell was decided, holding that it was legal to sterilize women who were described as ‘idiots’, all of the judges making the ruling wore black robes. When the Korematsu case was decided, approving the interment of Japanese-Americans, simply because they were Japanese, all who approved the ruling wore bla

The D.O.C goes cookoo (1:52) Mumia Abu Jamal

Corrections to "Man Power" (1:47) Mumia Abu-Jamal

"For Freedom: Kim Kardashian West Strikes  Again" by Kerry "Shakaboona" Marshall. Reality TV star Kim Kardashians West is surprising everyone by championing the cause of freedom for incarcerated Black women and men serving mandatory death by incarceration sentences, whom have become targets of a white supremacist U.S. domestic policy of mass incarceration and social control of Black and Latino American populations. Last week, Kim Kardashian West strikes again for prisoners' freedom by  appearing at the White House with her team of law professors and criminal justice reform advocates. To meet with top advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to discuss criminal justice reform and a presidential pardon for Chris Young, a Tennessee man serving a mandatory death by incarceration sentence in federal prison for drug trafficking. Kim Kardashian West seems to be outdoing herself, for in May 2018, he obtained a presidential pardon from Trump for Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old Memphis grandmother serving a mandatory death

"To Free or Not to Free: Alveda King: 90, Black celebrities: 0" by Kerry "Shakaboona" Marshall. When Reverend Alveda King, the Atlanta pastor and niece of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. met with President Trump at the White House in August, she brought and submitted a list of more than 90 names of federal incarcerated persons that she was advocating to be set free by presidential pardon. King's pardon list was compiled with the help of her goddaughter Angela Stanton, an Atlanta-based author and reality show actress who served time herself in federal prison for being involved in a car theft ring. Reverend Alveda King and Angela Stanton are prime examples of practicing what you preach. They are proactively seeking to use the presidential pardon to free some captive Black men and women from federal prisons now who will otherwise die in federal prison from death by incarceration sentences later, while also seeking to overhaul the criminal justice system completely. Hallelujah. Now contrast Reverend Alve

Charles Karim Diggs. I'm a Pennsylvania prisoner at Phoenix, a new prison. And the name of my, uh, title is "Domestic Violence, Harassment, and Denial." Domestic violence has taken front stage because the president and the Republican senators realized that the Judge Kavanaugh will vote every substantial issue for corporations. How does the Constitution relate to domestic violence and the Supreme Court nominee? One major reason for the Constitution is to establish a nation of good government based on choice. The American constitution is an experiment. A significant conflict existed, and that debate was about property and the desire to have one union. Those men who owned property and who were wealthy created the Constitution to meet their interests. What was certain is the citizens out of necessity must yield some of their natural rights in order to give government the request- requisite powers. The choice was whether we would have one national government or each state have its own separate confederate and give

The name of my topic is "The Business- The Business of Prisons." Picture a multi-billion dollar industry with corporate ties ranging from Boeing, Macy's, Nintendo Starbuck, and Victoria'a Secret. Picture an industry [inaudible] with sizeable strings to pull in Washington. Picture an industry where CEOs receive 5.7 million in executive compensation. If you're envisioning an investment bank or Wall Street, think again. "Orange is the new black" is more on the right track. Private prisons are a cash cow. Private companies rake in billions of dollars in revenue each year due to United States inmate population. In fact, this tread is so widespread that it has its own term: the prison-industrial complex. Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization working to dismantle the prison-industrial complex, defines the complex quite eloquent: the prison-industrial complex is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use civilians, policy, and imprisonment as solutions to

MAN POWER[col. Writ. 9/23/18 (c)’18 Mumia Abu-Jamal] It has been over a generation since the US Senate hearings on the sexual harassment charges of a law professor, Anita Hill, against then-judge, now Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas.A lot has changed since then.Or has it?The French have a saying —“Plus ca change…”or, "The more things change, the more they stay the same” The charges now poised against a sitting judge, and possible justice, Brett Kavanaugh, by a psychology professor, Dr, Christine B. Ford, of sexual assault over 30 years ago, shows us that things have changed very little.For power remains a mostly male prerogative, and women, unless they act as man-like as possible, are, mote often than not, treated like children: seen and not heard. For at the nexus between law and power, lies the courts, one of the last, mighty bastions of male power. The remarkable ‘Me Too’ movement may have enormous power in the realm of culture (think Hollywood), but Law remains a largely (white) male preserve. Stil

"Even the Koch Institute has a presidential pardon list of thousands of prisoners," by Kerry Shakaboona Marshall. The conservative Koch Institute, owned conservative billionaire Charles Koch of Koch Industries, has organized a loose coalition of activist groups, criminal justice reform advocates, and lawyers to assemble a pardons list of thousands of federal prisoners they believe are worthy of their freedom. Who would have ever thought, of all people, the conservative Koch brothers would be trying to get thousands of Black, Brown and Caucasian prisoners freed through presidential pardons while attempting to overhaul the criminal justice system. Hell must've frozen over, one would think, because ain't no way the Koch brothers are taking over a so-called liberal issue. Ah, but they are! Where all the black celebrity athletes, actors, rappers, leaders, and politicians that- that were so vocal about ending mass incarceration, stopping police murder of Black people, and Black lives matter. Why aren't they assembl

"Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Juvenile Lifer Initiative excels under Robert Hammond," by Kerry Shakaboona Marshall. One of the most successful projects by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in the past decade has to be the Juvenile Lifers Initiative established by Department of Corrections Secretary John Wessel and managed by Robert Hammond, Staff Assistant to the Deputy Secretary. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Juvenile Lifers Initiative was established in response to Miller v. Alabama, a United States Supreme Court case ruling that mandatory life without parole sentences for child offenders convicted of homicide to be unlawful. At that time, the Juvenile Lifers Initiative sought to provide parole-mandated rehabilitation programming and family reunification day to juvenile lifer prisoners. The United States Supreme court then ruled in the case of Montgomery vs. Louisiana that the Miller holding is to be retroactively applied to all juvenile lifers in the country. At which time t

Prison Health in an Unhealthy Place (2:33) Mumia Abu-Jamal

This is Kevin Rashid Johnson. Strikes supporters set up occupied camp outside Florida prisons. Allies, comrades, and supporters of striking prisoners across the U.S. have set up an occupied camp outside of prison work camp in Gainesville, Florida. The camp has been ruling strong since the strikes began on August 21st. And has received unanimously positive support and responses from prisoners inside the prison and passers by alike. The occupiers not only has been engaging directly with the prisoners who can see the camp, but have accepted music requests from them communicated with large signs, which they blasted inside using large speakers. Passers by have shouted and honked their support for the camp. Many have stopped to engage the campers and even take to the mic to speak across the loud speakers to the campers and prisoners in support. One ex-prisoner stopped and spoke to the prisoners, encouraging them to continue the strike for months. Even the police who've been charged with keeping an eye on the encamp

The Fall of Empire[col. Writ. 9/7/18 (c)’18 Mumia Abu-Jamal] Imagine living in almost any country in the world, except the United States. Imagine looking at news accounts reporting on the Ul.S presidency for the last 2 years.Imagine what millions of people think of the current president, and through him, the American people.Try to imagine how they could see both as anything other than mad.America looks and sounds like a nation in the throes of madness.Loud, abrasive, offensive, addicted to name-calling and an air of meanness, how could they seem otherwise?Threatening war one day, loving and praising dictators the next, how can the U.S, Empire seem anything other than schizophrenic?It looks like a circus act; like a clown juggling atom bombs.The praises of neo-Nazis  the siren’s call to fear, the calls for a wall, are all emblems of the fall of Empire. For an empire that cannot reasonably run itself can hardly run or control other states.And even when Donald T leaves his imperial throne, the US will long bear

My name is Charles Karim Diggs. I'm at Graterford prison in Pennsylvania. And the name of my, uh, essay is "America Addicted to Trauma, Cncompromising Violence, and Abuse." In 1968, and before a pattern of police killings of African-American people, in the South and in all parts of the nation created a collective justified resistance. CSPAN today, 9/4/18, had a celebration of 1968. Kathleen Cleaver, the wife of Eldridge Cleaver, leader of the Black Panther movement, was a guest on the show and another law professor from Texas University. And they were answering some of the questions the callers came in. The heart of the show was the overview of what the 1968 movement and how Dr. King and others played their part in the struggle for injustice and equality in this country. The 50-year review shows the nation remained sick with an intrinsic passion for oppression and violence against people of color and poor people. The civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, and other college movements, as well as the war mo

 Okay, the obsession with struggling year after year, asking for justice and equality, has caused many African-Americans and others away from the voting polls. They see no use. They hear the same talk, same issues. There is a moral conscious that is not operating for some Americans. They are the persons who keep speaking about the original intent of the Constitution. At that time in history, women nor were slaves considered "We, the people." They are the first three words in the preamble of 1787. The moral principles against slavery was comprised. It appears in 218, and, in the past, many beliefs in freedom, justice, fairness are comprised at the expense of severe poverty, unjust criminal punishment, unfair applications of laws and sentencing and legislative oppression. The Constitution had to be amended several times because it did not have any concerns for most of the population. The Constitution does not encompass our needs. Africans were enslaved by law. Africans were [inaudible] by law, disenfranchised a

Locking Down (2:27) Mumia Abu-Jamal