The great black writer James Baldwin once said, “They saw themselves as others had seen them. They had been formed by the images made of them by those who had had the deepest necessity to despise them.” In a sports field known for the flamboyant, and for sheer spectacle, the basketball star who wears jersey #3 stands out among his peers in a sport where tall and big men dominate, he is neither. Of modest height and slender girth, he plays as if he is the biggest, strongest and baddest man of the bunch. His name, of course, is Allen Iverson, captain and shooting guard of the Philadelphia 76ers, who recently sent the city into a tizzy when he spoke candidly about his fears while dwelling in the City of Brotherly Love.
In that recent interview he NBA star explained, “I want to be in Philadelphia, but I’m scared now to be in Philadelphia. I’ve heard about police officers toasting to Allen Iverson’s next felony conviction. It scares me, because I know if there’s any crooked cops out there, they can do anything. Allen Iverson can end up dead tomorrow if a crooked cop wants him dead. It’s as simple as that. It really scares me, man.”
The ‘now’ to which he referred was a recent arrest on unfounded spousal abuse charges, which the local and national media blew up all out of reason or proportion. Although these charges were later thrown out, local authorities provided the rapacious media with a ritual and obligatory perp walk, where the accused is paraded before the flashes and pops of TV and print media cameras. Iverson had to spend hours in the city’s grimy and repressive detention facilities.
Doubtless, the talented NBA star learned something about the nature of the police media system in Philadelphia. He learned that neither of them cared about him, no matter how many points he scored nor how many dollars he earned. He might be a millionaire, but to those in power in the city, to those who wield the powers of force and prosecution, he was just another nigger; just more human fuel for the machine to consume, and it scared him. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are produced by Noelle Hanrahan for Prison Radio.