Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

After the roaring summer of 2014, of angry youth protests that shook over 200 cities on the issue of cop violence and official impunity in the use of state violence, it’s worth our while to look this situation in its face.

The cops do what cops do because a machinery of protection and whitewashing exists around them. From politicians to politician-controlled grand juries which do the whitewash and cover-up work.

We all know (or think we do) the case of Fred Hampton, the eloquent, brilliant young leader of the Black Panthers in Chicago. Shot in bed (in the head!), after having been drugged by his own man, a rat for the feds.

Did you know a Chicago Grand Jury labeled his murder “justifiable homicide”?

In other words, killing a sleeping man, is cool?

I may’ve known it when I was a teenager; I may have forgotten this horrific fact.

But reading a few days ago, Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party, by Curtis J. Auston, reminded me: “justifiable homicide”.

“Justifiable Homicide.”

Think of that when you think of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner…or yourself.

Think of what grand juries meant then — and today.