Sep 18 2008
Free Imam Jamil
Long before Bin Laden and Ahmadinejad, the CIA and FBI had a terrorist watch list filled with names like Newton and Hampton. The civil rights movement of the late 50’s and early 60’s and the Black power movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s produced many so-called radicals and enemies of the state. Most of these people were simply political activists who were agitating for the freedom of oppressed people at home and abroad.
One such victim of COINTELPRO was a man known as H. Rap Brown. Later in life he would come to be known as Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, and the scope of his work is tremendous. He is an author, activist, community organizer, religious leader, and political prisoner. He is a man who has at times in his life been a spokesman for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Black Panthers, and the National Ummah. He is a convicted felon, once for robbery in the 70’s and recently for a shootout with police in which one officer died.
Many of Imam Jamil’s supporters have established web sites where you can find out the facts about this particular case. I won’t spend a lot of time recounting the specifics but a little research should yield any info you might need. I want to speak more to the climate that a political leader is born into that might make a circumstance such as this incident inevitable.
You see, Imam Jamil had dedicated his life to self-less action on the part of oppressed peoples. The West End Atlanta neighborhood where the shootout took place, was an area that was no stranger to shoot outs. In fact, just decades before, the homicide rate was skyrocketing due to drugs and the violence that so often follows. Imam Jamil chose this neighborhood because it was so plague and needed help so bad. He used his skills as an organizer and inspirational leader to clean the community up. He had even been given an honorary police badge for his role in revitalizing the community.
We’ve seen time after time that so-called messiah figures in the poor communities of America are targets of government reprisal. We’ve seen violence perpetuated by police officials against common citizens time and time again. And as Hip Hop fans, we’ve seen this aggression translate into other aspects of public life, like bouncers at clubs or venue agents not booking Hip Hop that is too “urban”. It affects the way we communicate with authority figures. It is the reason “Stop Snitchin” T-shirts and the code of silence are so strictly enforced in rap music. And this historical past of aggression and violence is the real reason that shooting took place that day. And if we don’t mend the relationship between the communities that are plagued by violence and those members of society who are paid to protect us from violence, it will continue to be a powder keg waiting for the smallest of misunderstandings to provide the spark that results in the loss of life for some and imprisonment for others, both tragedies that should be avoided in any circumstance.
