Warriors For Justice

12/12/12 10:36

Written by Stephen Vittoria
(37,000 feet – Newark to Los Angeles)

Where to start?

I guess this long nightmare must start in the early morning hours of 9 December 1981. Lives were changed forever: Patrolman Daniel Faulkner, his young wife Maureen, their families, and then of course the subject of my new documentary, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and his family. Any semblance of innocence for all of these terrestrial children was abruptly jettisoned out into the cosmos, launched from a cold and harsh Philadelphia night. The victims of this tragedy were pitted against each other long before any of them were even born – unwitting players in an ugly American passion play.

There is no doubt in my mind, my heart, and my soul that Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man. The case was, as Bob Dylan called Hurricane Carter’s case, “a pig circus.” Read J. Patrick O’Connor’s book “The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal” and experience the work of a true investigative journalist. The person who killed Daniel Faulkner got away with murder. He (or she) walks free to this day or could also be six feet under. We may never know. Most people have no idea that Mumia was also shot that night, ripped to within an inch of his life. In fact, with a bullet lodged in his chest cavity and bloody, Mumia was beaten by Philadelphia cops on his way to the hospital – a ride that took forty-five minutes to go three blocks.

After recovering from his gunshot wounds and surgery, Mumia wrote an essay entitled "A Christmas Cage." In it, he describes the beatings he suffered at the hands of the Philadelphia police on the night of his arrest.

“Nowhere have I read how police found me, lying in a pool of my blood, unable to breathe, and then proceeded to punch, kick, and stomp me – not question me. I remember being rammed into a pole or a fireplug with police at both arms. I remember kicks to my head, my face, my chest… but I have read no press accounts, and have heard tell of no witnesses… Where are the witnesses to a police captain or inspector entering the wagon and beating me with a police radio, all the while addressing me as a "Black motherfucker?" Where are the witnesses…?”

This tragedy – like most tragedies – has many lives. Hatred, fear, and the human inability to rise above the ugly complexities of a society and culture in decline (think “entropy”) are the fuel canisters that keep this tragedy burning.

First and foremost in this tragedy we find racism – and no group of people have ever embraced and utilized racism better than the people of the United States. For centuries, Americans – from slave master Thomas Jefferson to the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan – have raised racism to their own art form. Their actions have wrecked havoc on people of color… not only in this stolen land but also across the planet. Don’t take my word for it. Just ask History a few questions. And the racism that drips from Philadelphia history – past and present – is a unique and remarkable strain that continues to eat away at the souls of men… and women… and children in the so-called City of Brotherly Love. It is a strain that keeps innocent people chained to the hell and farce otherwise known as “correctional institutions.” In fact, in 2012, the very real horror of mass incarceration – especially incarcerating poor people, who are disproportionally black and brown – is a horror of immense proportions, one that has evolved and taken over from the so-called ashes of slavery and Jim Crow. It is this same strain of racism that targeted Mumia Abu-Jamal as a 14-year old revolutionary fighting for justice as a young Panther, and it is this strain of racism that ultimately railroaded him into prison for a crime he did not commit.

Former Philadelphia Black Panther Party captain, the late Reggie Schell, says it best in Long Distance Revolutionary: “When they saw who they had, this was number one. ‘Wow, look what we done ran into. We got a Panther and we're going to kill this Panther. We're going to kill this nigger here, right here.’” Truer words have never been spoken, especially when you factor in the words of the trial judge in Mumia’s case – the Dishonorable Albert F. Sabo, who boasted in chambers: “I’m going to help them fry the nigger.” This statement by Sabo is indicative of the venom and rancor and acrimony that runs through the story of 9 December 1981 like a river of tears.

And where does the blame for this horror story lie?

Right at the feet of the Philadelphia political power structure that built their careers on the pain, suffering, and torture of Mumia Abu-Jamal. This group of Machiavellian snakes slithered out from under the foundational bedrock of American racism and went to work using the age-old tools of hatred and fear. This modern day lynch mob, by-products of a white supremacist culture and backed up by centuries of racist fear mongering, let slip the dogs of war, easily manipulating the victims, the press, as well as the court of public opinion – all of whom are co-conspirators in this miscarriage of justice. They lied. They fabricated. And worst of all, they won. They beat the truth, they beat mercy, and they beat forgiveness – the three things they waste their time supposedly searching for in their vacuous houses of worship.

I tell you all of that to tell you this.

Because there’s a group of dedicated, committed, and steadfast warriors who have been fighting for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s freedom for all these years… all these years he was “chained” in the hole on death row, his own Middle Passage… all these years that he has fought the corrupt machine that is attempting to eat him alive, this pack of opportunistic cannibals that have stolen his life, his children’s lives… all these years that he has existed in hell. Like I said, there’s a lot of tragedy to go around – on both sides of 9 December 1981.

But oh these warriors… they are unswerving in their drive to free this innocent man. I’m reminded of what Gabriel Bryant (a student from Temple who is interviewed in the film) called this somewhat amorphous group of freedom fighters during his interview – “warriors for justice.” Indeed.

So on Saturday night, the eve of the “anniversary” of 9 December 1981, there was a remarkable screening of “Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal” at Temple University in Philadelphia. The Department of African American Studies and Dr. Tony Montiero invited us to screen the film for some 600 students, activists, community leaders, as well as the general public. It was the last special screening before the film opens in theaters on February 1, 2013.

The giant theater was packed. There was electricity in the room. You could cut the anticipation with a knife. And we played the film… and this large group of tenacious “warriors for justice” embraced every moment of Mumia’s extraordinary life – from his days fighting the good fight on the streets of Frank Rizzo’s Fiefdom to his days fighting the same good fight from solitary confinement, always the “voice of the voiceless.”

The screening was intense and interactive. The film offered the audience the definitive and untold narrative of Mumia’s life… and the audience offered him back their love. Plain and simple, that was the deal… and I was honored to have a part in that exchange. Like Che said and I paraphrase, "At the risk of sounding ridiculous, a revolutionary is guided by feelings of love and for love of the people.” That’s what was going on at Temple on Saturday night. It was a moment in time when these brave warriors for justice were able to celebrate what they’ve always known: that the man they fight so hard for is so goddamn worth it. And then after the screening, we had a Q&A and the love connection in that room remained palpable. It’s what makes making films like this worth every ounce of effort.

For years, this group of unyielding warriors has fought for truth and justice, and for years they have been pummeled by a corrupt and monstrous machine… but they are not beat. No way. Far from it. They will not rest until this ugly and cancerous strain of racism that inflicts this country and their city is lifted and Mumia Abu-Jamal is a free man.