Fools on Parade

There aren’t too many things to be said about the “Free Mumia” protest last week.

I could make a dozen or so jokes. One for each of the protesters who showed up.

I could write about how the “Free Mumia” movement has been scrapping the gutter of identity politics in a vain effort to gain more support.

I could muse about just how unwise it is to import a cabal of French Marxists to lecture Americans on the folly of our justice system.

I could reflect on how city officials snubbed this same rabble of factually challenged French citizens.

I could laugh about how Pam Africa has resorted to holding up pictures of pro- Jamal celebrities
instead of actually luring them out to her now, impotent protests.

It wasn’t too long ago that there literally were “Millions For Mumia”. Of course, those days have long since passed and even if they hadn’t, the fact that Jamal shot down Officer Faulkner is very much indisputable.

Now, by this point, I am not really in any kind of need to see the points that I have been making about the pro-Jamal cause. Those cows have already come home. But I do hope that my former comrades within the movement will finally begin to realize that any sense of righteousness or even common sense has long since withered and died within the confines of the “movement”. For just as Mumia rots away in a prison cell, so to does the cause to free him. And this is just as well.

But from my vantage point there is more tragedy than just the fact that there are still those who suffer under the misapprehension of Jamal’s “factual innocence”. There is also all of the money thrown down Pam Africa’s black hole. There is all of the moral currency and outrage dispensed on behalf of a faux cause. There are real issues and truly innocent people who are in jail who are looked over because they do not meet the requirements of activists....

One fact that does deserve a few moments of celebratory attention is the fact that, the latest batch of appeals on behalf of the MOVE 9 have been again turned down. According to “journalist” Hans Bennet:

“Ramona Africa, Minister of Information for the MOVE organization, updated the crowd on the case of the MOVE 9

She explained that their most recent appeal had just been turned down in March, and therefore the MOVE 9 prisoners have decided to abandon their extensive legal arguments for freedom because they feel that it is only a waste of time and energy to work within the system like that. Instead, they will now be referring to MOVE founder John Africa’s famous “Judge’s Letter” speech that he made during his own trial in the early 1980s.

Ramona also explained that in 2008, the MOVE 9 would be eligible for parole, since would have all completed 30 years of their 30-100 year sentence resulting from the 1978 police assault on their West Philadelphia home…”

The last paragraph is worthy of mention if only because it raises the specter of the possibility that eight murderers will be eligible for parole in only a couple of years. Based upon what I have heard, and from my own research, I think it safe to say that these MOVE members are not going anywhere soon, but I also know that just about anything is possible.

MOVE members have been released on parole before. Therefore, it is safe to say that if MOVE is mobilizing and pinning their hopes on possible parole, than I think it only fair that those who know the truth about Philadelphia’s least favorite cult also raise up to make their voices heard.