> Brian Siano wrote:
>
>> Good argument, but I'd add another factor which contributed to
>> Mumia's being railroaded: his involvement with MOVE.
>>
>> MOVE might be regarded as a radical movement only by the most
>> generous of standards. By and large, they were a fanatical "back to
>> nature" sect led by an unstable figure known as John Africa. At the
>> time, they'd managed to a) live under extremely squalid conditions in
>> several group homes, b) threaten local residents with shotguns, and
>> broadcast dogma through loudspeakers throughout the neighborhood, and
>> c) kill a police officer during a shootout. I know people who lived
>> in that area at the time: it wasn't much different than having a
>> Christian Identity separatist camp on their block, except that the CI
>> people'd probably be better about cleaning up after themselves.
>>
>> MOVE's certainly calmed down, but having had most of your movement
>> killed by the Philly cops tends to have that effect.
>
>
> Exactly. Mumia's involvement with MOVE is crucial for understanding
> why the government railroaded Mumia through the courts. Another big
> factor has to be that Mumia is an articulate and talented journalist.
> Those with power have always feared those who spoke truth to power.
Um... maybe I ought to make myself clearer. There's no way that anyone could regard MOVE as "speaking truth to power," whatever that phrase means. It might be tempting to compare MOVE to, say the Panthers, but a closer comparison'd be to the Branch Davidians or an armed white-separatist compound. MOVE was a dopey, simple-minded cult, led by a severe psychotic, whose actions against its neighbors practically _invited_ a severe police crackdown. At the time of his arrest, Mumia's involvement with MOVE had probably damaged his own judgment as much as it had damaged his journalism career.
> And like Leonard Peltier's case, you have to wonder if Mumia was also
> sacrificed in order to deflect attention from the City of
> Philadelphia's embrassing attack on MOVE.
There were two such attacks. One was in the late 1970s, which resulted in a violent shotout which left a lot of people dead, and the notorious bombing in the early 1980s. Mumia was in prison by the time the second one happened.