Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Keep "The MOVE 9" In Jail


"Anyone who kills a cop is okay in my book."
-post on a message board in response to "No To Parole For The MOVE 9 Petition"

Another year comes and goes as it approaches three decades since MOVE members shot down Police Officer James Ramp and wounded a dozen other police Officers and firefighters, the myth of the cult member’s innocence remains persistent and ever-present.

Type in "James Ramp" into the search engine of your computer and you will be treated to a lesson in the most vulgar examples of propaganda. Hundreds, if not thousands of websites across the world help to perpetuate the false-hoods and alternate reality that MOVE and their supporters have been polluting the world with for some three decades.

The MOVE "story" of the death of James Ramp is a story that I know all to well. Many articles are still floating around with my name attached to them that extol the virtues of the MOVE cult, and arguing that the imprisoned members of the group are nothing more than "freedom fighters". The MOVE version of the events of August 8th, 1978 may well be germane to any writings on the matter, but on this day, the anniversary of the murder of Officer Ramp, I believe it imprudent to repeat MOVE’s lies, even if it is in the interest of debunking them.

Not only do I know well the MOVE version of events, but I also know, or to be more exact, "knew" the incarcerated MOVE members rather well. To be sure, I considered them to be family.

I made dozens of trips to the various prisons throughout my years as a MOVE supporter to visit the so-called "MOVE 9". In fact, I spent my honeymoon visiting the MOVE members, and after my child was born, I asked Phil Africa to be her godfather.

In a secure location there are literally hundreds of letters from the MOVE members, including Merle Africa who died in prison nearly a decade ago. I took their collect calls from jail and assisted MOVE in smuggling contraband into the prison.

That was the life I lived for too many years. For so long I lived in denial. But truth has this dogged persistence that gradually began to tear away the myths and lies and propaganda that I had heard and in turn had spewed to others. Eventually, I could no longer bear the burden of conscience and tore myself away from the cult and the killers of James Ramp.

But to say that the burden has been lifted completely would be yet another lie. To write about this or talk about it is not easy. I shudder to think how MOVE’s actions affected the family of Officer Ramp, how my own attempts to revise history and re-write the life of James Ramp as a victimizer instead of a victim must be a consistent source of additional pain to those who loved him.

It is not an easy thing to do to put yourself out there and say that you were completely wrong about something. Especially the murder of another human being. To admit you were working on the side of terror instead of freedom.

This is not a plea for pity. I am un-deserving of it and am not asking for it.

What I am doing is apologizing.

I am apologizing to the victims of MOVE, both past and present. I am apologizing to the family members of the people I helped recruit into the cult. I am also apologizing to my own family for my emotional abandonment while I was immersed in the fools paradise that is known as the MOVE Organization. I could not be more sorry.

So I go forward and attempt to thoughtfully take on the myths that MOVE exists off of.
Sometimes I am successful and other times I do not do as well as I think I should.

I suffer under no illusions that I can about-face people’s way of thinking. I knew when I started this that there would be a segment of the populace who are to involved and invested into MOVE or a similar extremist ideology to hear what I have to say or write.

I knew that the threats against myself and those I love would be made. I also knew that instead of people engaging me in a rational discourse on the subject that I would be subjected to vicious and outrageous ad-hominem personal attacks.

In the past couple of years I have been told that I was everything from a Klan member to an "extreme right-winger", to a police infiltrator who was implanted into MOVE as a teenager to bring the group down. The latest story about me to be hurtled across cyber-space was some bizarre story about me being some raging dope fiend who had been busted by the cops and forced to churn out these blog posts as a way to avoid prison.

It is all absurd of course, but that doesn’t keep people from saying what they do.

After all, we are talking about a cult who believed that a man calling himself John Africa was God incarnate. A man who preached an interesting, but ultimately deadly combination of radical environmentalism and black-power politics that was delivered either through profanity laden harangues or nearly poetic prose on paper. A man who sought to destroy all that he could not understand and who raised from the ashes of the 60's a cult of personality and turned it into a cult of death.

A sect which has at it’s heart rank hypocrisy that abuses children and animals, and seeks to free and idolize murderers in the name of "God" and for the sake of power and greed. MOVE exists today as a means of perpetuating it’s leaders ego and self-enrichment.

Oftentimes, there isn’t much people can do in the face of an entity like MOVE, but to sit on the sidelines and hope that some kind of bureaucracy will step in and do it’s job and make justice happen.

Today is different though.

As I have written before, and as I will likely dozens of more times in the up-coming year, the murderers of James Ramp will be coming up for parole in 2008.

For their part, MOVE is rallying support for their cause through their world-wide network of activists in an effort to persuade the parole board to release the killers of James Ramp.

As a way to counter this audacious attempt to influence the board to release these cop-killers I have started an online petition that calls upon the parole board to deny the murderers of James Ramp parole. It is my hope that this sends a message on two fronts. The first being that society cannot tolerate un-repentant murderers of peace officers being let onto the streets. And secondly that the sacrifice of Officer James Ramp has not been forgotten.

To sign the petition go to:

8 Comments:

At 11:31 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

For those of you who don't recall why the MOVE 9 were
incarcerated: In August of 1978, the MOVE home in Phila.
was attacked by a small army of police armed to the teeth.
MOVE members were forced down into their basement where
they attempted to defend themselves against the onslaught
of police fire. One officer was killed by "friendly fire"
as evidenced by the trajectory of the bullet that killed
him (downward). Even the judge who presided over the
trial admitted that he didn't know who shot the officer.
Nevertheless, 9 MOVE people were arrested and given
30-100 years each. Merle Africa, one of the 9, died in
prison. The remaining 8 have refused to renounce MOVE
(which would no doubt lessen their sentence). They are
innocent of any criminal activity and should never have
been incarcerated in the first place. FREE THE MOVE 9!
KN

NO EXCUSES! NOW IS THE TIME TO PAROLE THE MOVE 9! NO
EXCUSES!

The MOVE 9 completes their minimum sentence of 30 years in
Aug. of 2008 and become eligible for parole. They will be
interviewed by the parole board in a few months. We intend
to do everything possible to insure that they are in fact
paroled, so this Aug. 11th we are doing a car caravan
through Philadelphia neighborhoods. We want to inform
people of the current status of The MOVE 9 and gather
support to pressure the parole board to release innocent
MOVE people. We want as many cars and people as possible.
If you want to participate but don't have a car, it's not
a problem. Some people will be walking and handing out
information to people. People can also alternate between
riding and distributing info, so there's something for
everybody to do, with or without a car. We will assemble
at 45th & Kingsessing Ave. at 12:00pm. Join us for a day
in the community and working for the release of The MOVE
9. This year's activity is more important than ever
because of the upcoming parole hearings. It is not simply
a commemoration of the Aug. 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE
but it is the launch of our campaign for the parole of
innocent MOVE people. Join us in the fight for freedom,
including yours! ONA MOVE---THE MOVE ORGANIZATION

 
At 1:18 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

"In August of 1978, the MOVE home in Phila.was attacked by a small army of police armed to the teeth."

The Move home was not "attacked". The police came because Move had violated a legal binding agreement that THEY in fact agreed to: to leave the premises by August 1st. The police were justifiably many and armed because Move had previously been caught with a stockpile of illegal guns and bombs and had threatened to murder police.


"MOVE members were forced down into their basement where they attempted to defend themselves against the onslaught of police fire."

Move wasn't forced into anything. They VOLUNTARILY retreated to the basement after threatening, taunting, and actually several times INVITING police to come in. Move was given several additional attempts to come out peacefully, but they CHOSE instead to use their children as shields and start a violent confrontation.


"One officer was killed by "friendly fire"

The officer was actually killed by a Move member and the gun that killed him was also indisputably linked to a Move member. The friendly fire story is a myth based on one tidbit of misinformation and has long ago been dismissed by anyone who has actually looked at the case. How did 10 other police officers and firefighters end up with multiple gunshot wounds? Friendly fire?


"They are innocent of any criminal activity"

Move equated with innocence can be seen as a joke. They did everything in their power to ensure an outcome such as that which transpired on August 8th, 1978 and have been intentionally outright lying to their supporters and the public ever since.

I do not agree with everything Tony and other critics of Move say about the Move 9. I think the outcome of the trial is questionable based on several facts. However Move is FAR from innocent and the aforementioned propaganda is frankly full of horse shit.

 
At 11:23 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is sad that Move has to use this site to try and reach people. They must not be able to reach people on their own web sites.

I know that they would not allow anyone to leave messages on their site against Move or Mumia. It shows that Tony believes in letting everyone say what is on their mind.

It is to bad that the person that is posting the Move 9 crap has to do it on all stories. I guess they are afraid to address the actually information that is being addressed. It just proves they are grasping at straws because they are coming apart at the seams. People are waking up to the lies that they tell and are not as willing to be let blindly.

Way to go Tony. You are showing who the stand up person is in all this. May God Bless You and keep you safe from these crazy people.

 
At 2:57 PM , Blogger Tony Allen said...

It looks like one of MOVE's loony-tune supporters has gone off the reservation and made the mistake of posting here.

The points raised are self-evidently nonsensical and need no refutation by me.

It is however, interesting that nobody can leave comments on any of the Mumia blogs or websites, but this site as well as the Faulkner site do.

It demonstrates the fear that the Mumia/MOVE people have of people seeing any kind of rational discourse about the situation and instead prefer to cast their enemies as bigoted boogeymen and government agents.

It is trully pathetic.

 
At 2:26 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Soooo...how did the great "drive by" do. Anyone know...oh..I forgot...the MOVERS will say it was a suck..sess

jon pisano

 
At 5:07 PM , Blogger Brenda said...

Tony,

I applaud your courage and willingness to refute MOVE's pathologically distorted view of history. Having grown up in Philadelphia, I know their propaganda for what it is--pure fantasy mixed with misguided self-proclaimed martyrdom. If anyone thinks otherwise I would encourage them to go live on the same street, I'm sure their current neighbors would be thrilled to unload their property. There is no doubt in my mind that the experience would prove quite enlightening for any erstwhile revolutionary.

 
At 5:14 PM , Blogger Tony Allen said...

Jon,

Good to hear from you. For either a laugh or a cry you can read the "report" of the MOVE protest at freemumia.com.

Brenda,

Thx for your kind words.

Although MOVE has worked hard to clean up their external appearences, what hasn't changed is the rotten reality that pervades the cult.

 
At 9:22 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fuck you Tony

 

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