Uhuru Movement denounces Philadelphia police assault and charges against organizers

During this process, InPDUM members were holding signs protesting Mayor Nutter’s current budget that spends more than $1 billion a year for police and prisons, which attack the black community. Subsequent to the police attack, InPDUM International Organizer Diop Olugbala (aka Wali Rahman) and InPDUM member Shabaka Mnombatha (aka Franklin Moses)—now known as the Philly City Hall 2—were brutally arrested and now have a list of charges, including aggravated assault on police!

As the meeting started, some of the many InPDUM supporters present were holding up signs saying "Unite Philadelphia through Economic and Social Justice,” "Jail Killer Police,” "Stop the War on the Black Community,” and other demands upholding the rights of the impoverished black community.

The City Council meeting began with a resolution to recognize the unbeaten Frankford Chargers youth football team. The Chargers themselves were wearing black armbands in memory of their teammate, 14-year-old Sharif Lee Jones, who was murdered by Philadelphia police on August 24, 2008.

As the team left the chambers, civil affairs police gathered behind the InPDUM organizers and demanded they immediately sit down and stop protesting. A Civil Affairs officer put Diop Olugbala into a chokehold. When Diop and the entire audience protested this attack, the police threw Diop and Shabaka down and arrested them. During the violent attack, the police threw at least two elderly people to the ground, and another member of InPDUM, an elderly African woman, was taken to the hospital having suffered a fractured hip in the attack.

This type of violent attack through its police force is the way the City of Philadelphia responds when the poor and oppressed speak out in our own interests despite the fact that such a response contradicts the same constitutional law they are sworn to uphold. It is not unlike when the City dropped a bomb on the African community in West Philadelphia to silence the MOVE organization killing at least five children and six adults because the City didn’t like what MOVE talked about.

This kind of response was meted out to Mumia Abu Jamal who has been on deathrow for nearly 30 years after being set up because of his involvement in the Black Power Movement of the Sixties and because as a journalist he exposed the city’s attacks on the African community. When Nutter sent the police to attack us, he continued the City of Philadelphia’s tradition of violating our first amendment right of free speech.

The entire balcony where we held up our signs was full of other community activists representing various sectors of the population, and all united in opposition to Nutter’s anti-democratic budget. When InPDUM stood up everyone stood up, and many held up signs as well. However, only InPDUM organizers were attacked. This is very telling, and speaks to a basic assumption Nutter has that when the African working class experiences political isolation, no one will come to our legal or political defense. It also speaks volumes to the real significance of the African working class as a social force in this city. Clearly City Hall is determined to silence us, even at the expense of defying the very constitutional and democratic virtues it claims to embody.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement calls for people to join the Campaign to Free the Philly City Hall 2 and stop Philadelphia’s billion-dollar war against the African community and to unite with the following demands:

1. All charges against Diop Olugbala (aka Wali Rahman) and Shabaka Mnombatha (aka Franklin Moses) be dropped immediately.
2. Impeach Mayor Nutter
3. Fire the police thugs who attacked Shabaka and Diop
4. Reparations to all the people injured by the police thugs at City Hall on March 19th.

For more information, contact InPDUM at info [at] inpdum.org or 215-849-3431.

Watch video of the police attack here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmnZs349Euk