National Jericho Movement

The National Jericho Movement condemns and denounces the government’s designation of our Sister Assata Shakur as a terrorist, and we demand that the $2 million bounty on her be rescinded. We also celebrate and applaud the anti-imperialist stance that Cuba has taken in providing her with a home during her exile from the United States! Moreover, we recognize the fact that an attack on Assata Shakur is an attack on people of African descent around the world! We recognize the fact that Assata Shakur like many other political prisoners and prisoners of war are victims of an illegal FBI counterintelligence operation known as COINTELPRO, NEWKILL and other acronyms which are used to wage low-level intense war and counterinsurgency war against the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Black Liberation Army (BLA), the American Indian Movement (AIM) and other political organizations and individuals who took a stance against capitalist-imperialist wars of aggression.

The United States government refuses to recognize those who struggled against racism and injustice and who are now imprisoned as political prisoners and prisoners of war, preferring to label them as common criminals, we in the Jericho Amnesty Movement do fully recognize them as political prisoners and prisoners of war and whose treatment is to be governed as specified under the laws of the Geneva Convention and of the United Nations, and international Non-government political organizations fully recognized by other sovereign nations. Show your support for Assata by joining others in a National Day of Vigilance and Action November 2, demanding that Assata be removed from the Governments Terrorist List (the list itself is a disgrace to international law by serving as a hit list) and the State of New Jersey’s bounty be rescinded.

–Abdul Jabbar Caliph Baltimore Jericho

Zimmerman Verdict, Classic White Supremacy

In addition to working with a coalition in support of Assata Shakur, Jericho joins the condemnation of the verdict in the Zimmerman Trial
The authorities who refused to make an arrest in the homicide of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, from his fatal shooting on February 26, 2012 although they knew the identity of the shooter—to the not guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, dramatize the principle the right-of-whiteness bias in American law. Like the Trayvon Martin case, the refusal of authorities (for decades) to bring to justice the killers of teenager Emmett Louis Till, slain August 28, 1955, in a brutal lynching, were only one of a number the parallels in these murders. Both Martin and Till were victims of crimes against the African American community in the United States and crimes against humanity. Both stand as metaphors for white supremacist profiling of black youth in order to accomplish the ultimate objective of racial domination achieved for much of the country’s history by terrorizing the black community with the threat of and samples of racial cleansing or genocide. (Buster, 2012; Alcindor, 2012).

Till and Martin were each killed during the course of a visit to a local store, and were unarmed during the entire encounter with their assailants’. Both were visitors to the cities where they were killed–away from their home towns, and each had broken with racial code—Till whistled at or spoke to a white woman and Martin defended himself against a white man. On another level, was the initial refusal of the justice apparatus in these cases, to apply official protocol to apprehend and charge the suspected killers. Perhaps as sinister as the slayings themselves was the reaction of the justice community. That both slayings were perpetrated by self-styled “vigilantes” who shrouded racist-violent and murderous inclinations under the pretense of wanting to protect others (a white woman and the entire white community which Zimmerman patrolled, respectively) is chillingly scripted—since these excuses for white violences are intended to ignite white fears of black insurrection and black crime. In both cases, the hesitancy of authorities to bring to justice the killers of these two young black people harkens back to slave laws and black codes which made it highly improbable that whites would be arrested, charged, or convicted of killing blacks (such acts were not regarded as crimes against persons but rather as property destruction). America has, historically speaking, turned a blind eye to acts of violence by whites against citizens of color. And studies of bias in sentencing in capital cases prove that the tendency of the legal system today is still to punish most harshly blacks committing crimes against whites. White racial violence continues to occur up to the present, and today serves the same function to galvanize white solidarity, to strengthen white supremacist legal precedent, and to terrorize African Americans without repercussions for the perpetrators. This system of terror exists as a reservoir of white power whenever the structure of white privilege is challenged. (Major, 1971) Now that African Americans are considered expendable to the wider U.S. economy—except as consumers—mass incarceration and genocide of black people seems the American final solution. The Not Guilty verdict in the trial of Martin’s killer, Zimmerman is intended to reassure whites that their priviliges remain in force and underscores that African Americans “Have no rights that a white man is bound to respect” (Sup. Court Justice Taney, 1896).

In addition to demanding Obama, and Holder call for a civil suit against Zimmerman, Jericho’s position is that Zimmerman should have been tried for 1st degree murder. But, the State here was working with the defense, from the very beginning. The picking of the jury signaled it was a show trial, to appease the masses. To appear as though justice was being waged when in fact a façade was being acted out on the world stage. Several facts point this out, one the picking of the jury, five white women, the segment of the U.S. population who have been targeted with intense fear propaganda about black men. ; two, allowing the defense to put on a character witness, a young white woman, mother of an infant, who testified that Zimmerman came to her rescue as she clutched her baby while some unknown person tried to break into her house. While never did the prosecutor bring out the fact that George, had been arrested for assault and battery of a police officer? That having been called to the premises where a party was occurring, identifying himself police, Zimmerman replied, “I don’t care who you are”. He was arrested found guilty and had to attend anger management classes. But just like that night at the party, he didn’t care what anyone said, he was doing what he wanted to do. He was told “not to get out of the car” Everything hinges on the fact that Zimmerman got out of the car after the dispatcher told him not to get out of the vehicle. What he did after that was with “intent” his intent to kill young Martin, (premeditation can occur moments before the act). The bottom line is that Trayvon was being chased for 4 minutes, running for his life, and finally standing his ground in self-defense. Although he was in pursuit of the un-armed youth, Zimmerman argued that he was standing his ground. That this irrational explanation of why he attacked and killed the youth was accepted by the jury is inexcusable. Zimmerman’s racism and/or paranoia of black people were exhibited previously, when he called the police complaining of “young black punks” on the premises 17/18 times. Stereotypes Zimmerman holds of black people are what led him to physically attack and gun down Martin, whom he did not know. The not guilty verdict issued by the jury in the Zimmerman trial affirms the right of white men to kill any black person who resists their will to stop, detain, assault, or murder them. This is slave law in full force and those who support the ruling in the Zimmerman trial are upholding the core white supremacist tradition, as coded in the legal system. Jericho condemns the verdict and demands Zimmerman be charged with murder, if not also for contributing to a pattern of attempted genocide against African Americans, and for violating Trayvon Martin’s Human and Civil Rights.

Jericho Members Tekla Ali Johnson and Kazi Toure contributed to this report.

In addition to supporting the call for “Hands off Assata” and justice in the Trayvon Martin Case and Zimmerman trial, Jericho Initiatives include: a Jericho prison medical initiative, support of the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike, general Education, condemnation of mass incarceration of African Americans and Muslims, and closing Gitmo. Please support your local Jericho Chapter and encourage your family and friends to join Jericho. If you are a Jericho Member, or a comrade inside, you can submit your writing and commentary to our ktoure@verizon.net our column editor at Jericho…..Kazi can also be reached @ 857-204-0072. (please keep all entries to 500 words). thejerichomovement.com.