Carl Dix on the Persecution
of Jamil Abdullah Al-AminRevolutionary Worker #1049, April 9, 2000
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is in the clutches of the state, facing extradition from Alabama to Georgia. The authorities say he killed a cop and attempted to kill another cop. This isn't the first time the police have pursued this brother. In the late 1960s, police departments in different parts of the U.S. were lining up to take a crack at framing him up for the crimes of calling out Amerika for being the violent oppressor that it was (and still is) and calling on the people to rise up in righteous resistance to this oppression.
When Black people, enraged by brutal oppression, rose up and spread the flames of rebellion from one end of the U.S. to the other, H. Rap Brown stood firmly with the people. While the oppressors tried to suppress this rage, with help from handkerchief head water carriers, Rap said, "Burn, Baby, Burn!" Earlier, Rap had organized Black people in the South to resist Jim Crow segregation and violent suppression by the KKK and red-necked sheriffs. This brother has a long-respected history of standing with the people against the attacks of the oppressors. This gives the authorities a lot of reasons to want to go after him and punish him. The people have as many reasons to want to uphold him and stand with him.
We don't know exactly what went down in the confrontation in Atlanta that led to one cop being killed and another wounded. The authorities have their propaganda machine working overtime to slander Jamil as a long-time criminal and to try and convict him in the media before the facts come out. They want to use their legal system to murder him. We already know that their story has holes in it. Right after the confrontation, they said the shooter had been wounded and even talked about following his blood trail. Now that Jamil is in custody, and we can see that he wasn't wounded, they're backing off that claim because it doesn't fit reality. What other lies are they running in their attempt to get Jamil?
What stand we take on this case is critical. Jamil is locked down in their dungeon. He has already said he's innocent, but he isn't in a position to counter all the lies they're running and get his side of the story out. It's crucial that we not buy into the story they're running and fall for their game of trial by capitalist propaganda machine. Look at what's coming out into the light of day about the LAPD. How those pigs framed up and even murdered innocent people. Look at how the cops and the courts used lies to frame up Mumia and railroad him onto death row. Look at how Mayor Giuliani and his N.Y. Pig Dept. are lying about Patrick Dorismond, the Haitian brother recently murdered by the cops. And I could go on and on. After all these lies, why should we believe a damn thing this system has to say.
In little more than a year, we've seen Tyisha Miller, Amadou Diallo, Latanya Haggerty, Robert Russ, Gideon Busch, Malcolm Ferguson, Patrick Dorismond and many, many more unarmed victims gunned down by cops. None of the cops responsible for these murders are in jail. Most of them are still out there, patrolling our hoods, with a badge and a gun. After all these cases of people murdered for nothing, if Jamil defended himself against some cops who stepped to him with murderous intent, that doesn't bother me at all. As far as the capitalists who rule over us are concerned, they and their enforcers can murder countless numbers of people, but if anyone defends themselves against their murderous assaults, that person is labeled a horrible criminal. We need to reject that logic.
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