Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

It has happened again.

And again. And again. And again.

And again.

A cop arrives on a scene.

An order is barked (or oinked)

And, in a flash, a person is dead.

More than likely, a dark person. A Black person.

Immediately, the language of depersonalization, used by cops and the media, snaps into place.

‘Suspect’. Not person.

‘Suspect’. And the crime?

‘He did not comply’! ‘She didn’t obey when I told her to put out her cigarette!’

Death — for disobedience.

Comply – or die.

“Get on the ground!”

(‘cause you’re a suspect.)

Suspected of what? It doesn’t matter.

Anything will do.

You are not free to say “No.”

You are not free.

You are NOT.

Like two bit Nazis, cops make decisions like this every day. Day after day – after day.

The dead die. Families cry.

And nothing happens.

Because NOBODY died.

Another dark soul died in America – y’know, ‘the Land of the Freeeee’

Nobody. Just a ‘suspect’.

Just a nigger.