Thursday, June 28, 2007

Protest Ramona


(Update 7/3/07)

Apparently, the "Harrisburg Friends" are not very happy over the attention they are getting over the fact of Ramona Africa coming to their place of worship.

Mind you, they have no problem with her or MOVE, but with the people that don't like murderers and their apologists. So, at least we know what side of the fence the Harrisburg Quakers are on.

When I spoke with Mr. Morse this afternoon, he assured me that the event was going on despite the "controversy". When I assured him that I would continue to point out what he and his co-religionists were up to he told me I was "threatening" him. That was not a threat, it was a promise and I would encourage everyone to redouble their efforts in letting the Harrisburg Quakers know just how morally adrift they are for allowing Ramona to come to their location and talk up her cop-killing comrades.

Ramona Africa is bringing her toxic cultism to Harrisburg PA on July 14th at 3pm.



Ironically, she is doing so at a "Quaker Meeting House", invited by a member of the congregation in order to spread the word about the nearly year away parole hearing for the eight surviving murderers of Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp. In addition to being convicted for the murder of Ramp, the surviving eight un-repentant killers are also imprisoned for the attempted killing of several other police officers and fire-fighters.





Since being imprisoned, these cult members have spent their time recruiting new adherents to their violent sect and setting off the occasional prison riot and have been known to assault guards.



Ramona herself, served time for her role in the MOVE inspired events of May 13th, 1985 that resulted in the deaths of 11 people and the destruction of an entire neighborhood.



Alarmed that Ramona is to be honored by given a pulpit is a house of worship ostensibly dedicated to peace, I fired off a "comment" to the Quakers and received this polite, yet dismissive response.



"Thanks for your comment. I will pass it on to others in the meeting. I knew someone from Move was going to speak at an event that has been put together by a person in our meeting on his own. He is an active attender to our meeting who is well known to us so there was no particular scrutiny of a program. It is not a meeting sponsored event. Richard Morse, Ph.D. Clinical Collaborations Manager Calypso® Medical Technologies, Inc. 201 Westview Dr., Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 office 717.795.8191; mobile 717.439.8605 fax 717.795.9006 rmorse@calypsomedical.com"



It is bad enough that MOVE can fool people across the Atlantic, but it is far worse that they can still do so in the very same state where they have been consistently violent for the last quarter of a century.



I invite the readers of this to contact the Quaker House and Richard Morse concerning MOVE, a and destructive cult that has murdered police officers, rapes it’s own children, and whose other crimes have been exhaustively documented.



This is a group that has earned scorn worse than that of even the Westboro Baptist Church. For while Reverend Phelps and his band of degenerates preach the word of hate, MOVE has acted upon such hate and now seek to enlist the aid of others in their "struggle" to free their comrades from the cages from which they belong.



Take a few seconds of your time and let your voice be heard. If not you, than who?



Contact the Harrisburg "Friends House"



Harrisburg Friends Meeting
1100 N. Sixth Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102 (717) 232-7282


http://harrisburgfriends.org/meeting/index.php

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

"Free The MOVE Children"

(Pic Of Child Bride Pixie Africa)
"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."
-Frederick Douglas
"What To The Slave Is The Fourth of July"

I will give credit where it is due.

Had it not been for my reading of Mumia I wouldn’t have taken seriously the eloquence and beauty of abolitionist Frederick Douglas. Douglas, a former slave, wrote the above speech nearly a decade before the American Civil War, long before it became fashionable to advocate the abolition of chattel slavery.

For in saying what he did, Douglas exhibited a degree of intellectual and physical courage that transcends time and speaks to the heart of hearts.

The words of Douglas, their excoriation of the institution of slavery, and the corresponding prevailing attitude of acceptance amongst white America, was a part of a long overdue wake-up call that would become one of the many prefaces to the end of that most wicked of human conditions, that of human bondage.

The sad irony of course, with regards to Mumia and Frederick Douglas is the fact that Jamal has made himself a spokesperson and apologist for an Organization that employees some of the very same mechanisms of control that slave-masters did for some 400 years. These machinations of manipulation and absolutist mind-control that don’t even exclude sexual exploitation are not relics of a cruel and brutish past, but are alive and well in modern day Philadelphia.

Now, at this point, if you are getting the impression that I am yet again writing on behalf of the children of MOVE, you are right. If ever, I was to be considered to be redundant, than I stand willfully guilty of it with regards to this issue.

More than any other, the murder of Officer Faulkner, Officer Ramp, even the death of John Gilbride, it is this issue that is, for lack of a better word, ignored.

While, the MOVE supporters have occasionally attempted some very squalid and un-convincing defenses of the treatment of children in the cult, those who are aware of the group’s vile abuse of children are largely mum on the issue.

But it is not just individuals who sit idly by and remain silent as this barbarity continues, it is the very institutions that are purportedly tasked with ensuring that these and all children are free from abuse and are guaranteed a basic education.

I personally contacted the District Attorney’s Office with regards to the practice of child-rape within MOVE, not to speak of the fact that the children of the cult are deprived of an education. And after a rather meaningless bit of back and forth I was informed that there was nothing that the DA’s office could do and that the issue was being referred to the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. I was told that due to the seriousness of this situation that I would certainly be contacted. Needless to say, it has been months and no phone call or email from DHS.

As best I can tell, it is business as usual down at the MOVE plantation.

It is worth pointing out that one of the primary critiques of the city government during the 1985 confrontation was the fact that the city followed a policy of appeasement with regards to MOVE’s criminality on Osage Avenue, an act of willful negligence that I argue served to not only allow for MOVE to do whatever they wanted, but also encouraged the group’s lawless behavior. I would further argue that this policy of purposeful appeasement of MOVE is one that exists to this day and could serve as yet another component of another bloody confrontation.

Another aspect of the MOVE commission report that is worthy of discussion has to do with the very real fact that a "MOVE" crisis could not have ever gotten any traction had it been in a predominantly white neighborhood. It is a finding that as a former MOVE devotee I must agree with.

Yet another group that has been negligent with regards to the treatment of children in the MOVE sect is the media on all fronts. I should say that I have been interviewed by reporters and done radio shows and I unfailingly bring up the issue of the MOVE children. And for whatever reason, people are more interested in the fact that children in the cult now have birthday parties than they are the fact that these very same kids cannot spell the word birthday.

I should also point out that the "alternative" media has been no better on this matter, in fact I would argue that they have been more negligent. I have had email correspondence with members of the Philadelphia Independent Media Center about these issues and to my knowledge none of the "brave" reporters from the IMC can muster the courage to go down the street to see just what is going on with these young, black, children in the name of "revolution". This further makes the point for me that it is far easier to rail against the "system" from afar, than it is to call out those around you in the name of short-term political expediency.


Meanwhile, the abuses continues and the kids whose last name is Africa are the ones who pay the price of people’s indifference.

The African-American media outlets has mostly given MOVE a complete pass when it comes to their children. "Journalist", Linn Washington in particular, seems capable of only touting the MOVE party line as he regales the current crop of MOVE apologists with his regurgitation the cult’s stories of martyrdom that are so transparently one-sided that one has to seriously question his dedication to his profession.

The black-owned Philadelphia Tribune, of which for a time MOVE had a column in the 1970's, has apparently not had time within their thirty years or so of coverage to do much in the way of investigation into the treatment of MOVE children. Instead they go for the predictable, formulaic, tales of MOVE "oppression" by the authorities, while ignoring the "oppression" that goes on right in front of their face.

Black radio stations are no better in this regard. I remember going to the now former WHAT 1340 AM, with Ramona Africa as she did two shows in a row, on one of the anniversary’s of May 13th 1985, as the hosts lobbed soft-ball questions that likely left anyone listening with the impression that Mrs. Africa was one in a long line of persecuted freedom-fighters in the lineage of women like Sorjuner Truth. And while I was only in personal attendance for this particular appearance, I did listen when I could to the station and found that the soft-ball format with regards to MOVE was the norm.

As best as I can tell, the same invertebrate formula is being employed at the sole remaining African-American radio-station with a talk-radio oriented format. I recall, back in May, when Jamal’s appeal was being heard before the Third Circuit one of the morning hosts on WURD commenting that if he were in some kind of struggle that he would want "Pam Africa on his side".

On has to wonder whether or not MOVE’s former neighbors on Osage Avenue, or the family of John Gilbride, Daniel Faulkner, or James Ramp would concur with that sentiment.

It is that kind of moral blindness and historical ignorance that is enabling MOVE to go on with the abuse of children.

But, more than those peripherally involved with MOVE, it is those close to the group that are the worst in this situation. One can expect members and leaders of an authoritarian cult to behave accordingly, but those who are not in the "inner circle" and who remain silent in the face of this abuse are the most repugnant.

I, myself, was once in this latter category, and I still feel a sense of residual guilt as I recall the vile secrets of MOVE that I kept to myself, or even worse, made excuses for.

While I am not in the habit of presuming what historical figures might think of a modern situation, but it is probably not a tremendous leap of faith to think that the black freedom-fighters like Frederick Douglas might have a problem with what MOVE does with it’s mostly African-American children. After all, we all know that many people gave their lives so that black people could have the freedom to read and write, not to speak of the right to vote and speak freely. To have a cult in modern day America not only take these freedoms for granted, but actively work to deprive the children in their midst the most basic of human rights is a tragedy, and one that all people, regardless of their political proclivities, should unequivocally denounce.


Friday, June 22, 2007

Truth About MOVE: Banned In the UK

(ed. note, this article has been banned and suppressed by the UK Indy Media as has other material posted against MOVE. Because of that, it will be posted here where people are free to comment)


"The success of one imposter gave encouragement to another, and the quieting
salvo of doing some good by keeping up a pious fraud, protected them from
remorse"

-Tom Paine, The Age of Reason

Ramona Africa has come to Britain for a week of steady work revising history and spreading the convoluted gospel of her deceased "master" John Africa, the deranged founder of MOVE.

As someone who lived with Ramona and worked alongside the group for nearly a decade I know a thing or two about MOVE and more importantly the routine that they have honed to perfection after years of speaking to sympathetic and largely mis-informed audiences. For Ramona, the theme is always one of victimization, with the absence of any sense that the cult to which she is beholden to, bears any responsibility.

Responsibility for a quarter century of death, blood, lies, destruction, and in this current instance, vulgar manipulation of history in order to raise money and sympathy for herself and her cult.

The victims of MOVE are non-entities in her well rehearsed and purportedly "revolutionary" speeches. What audiences will be given by Ramona is a steady diet of nothing but platitudes that are disguised to hide the fact that she is a slavish member of a cult-of-personality that abuses children, animals, and exploits the "progressive community" for it’s own selfish gain.

For what it is that people know MOVE for? The MOVE 9? The "political prisoners" who were "framed" for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer back in 1978. Ramona will tell you that the dead cop was killed with one bullet from one gun and that it was physically "impossible" for MOVE members to have killed Officer James Ramp.

There are some things about that day that she will not likely be willing to address.
It is a fact that the "MOVE 9" were convicted and sentenced to 30-100 year jail sentences in 1981 for the murder of police officer James Ramp and for the attempted murder of seven other police officers and firefighters during a MOVE instigated 1978 shoot-out in Powelton Village in West Philadelphia. It was a "confrontation" initiated by John Africa who stock piled the house with children and weapons and who, through his cult members who were taught to see him as a living God, did all they could to ensure a bloody outcome. And it was one they got. The police who had arrived to serve legitimate warrants were told that they had better make sure their life insurance was "paid up".

The evidence against MOVE was overwhelming and they knew it. So they decided to try and make a mockery of the proceedings.

Prosecutors, citing eyewitness testimony and videos, contended during the trial that MOVE members fired first at officers who had surrounded the MOVE house and were attempting to tear down the barricades that MOVE had erected . The defense presented a smaller number of rebuttal witnesses, including a handful of journalists, who said the first shots seemed to come from outside the compound, although the witnesses disagreed about precisely where.
Probably the most damaging prosecution testimony came from a police ballistics expert, civilian Anthony L. Paul, who said that tests showed that a semiautomatic, clip-loading rifle found inside the MOVE house was the weapon used to shoot Ramp and two other officers. That weapon a .223 Ruger had been observed in the possession of at least one MOVE member in the basement that day.

Prosecutors also said a "palm print" on a federal firearms purchase form demonstrated that the rifle, as well as two others, had been bought by MOVE member Phil Africa before the shoot-out with police. In all, police seized 11 rifles and handguns from the compound and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Police and firefighters also testified that they saw all five male defendants with guns shortly before the shooting.

MOVE has long contended that James Ramp was killed not by a member of MOVE, but was instead killed by "friendly fire." To support this contention they cite a very preliminary ballistics report that Ramp was shot in the "base of the neck, with the bullet traveling downward."

In reality, Ramp was felled by a bullet from MOVE after he had ran to aid another officer who had himself just been hit by gunfire from MOVE members firing from the basement It was proven quite conclusively in court that the bullets trajectory that killed Ramp could have only come from one location, the basement that MOVE members were shooting.

MOVE members made the claim that the destruction of the house immediately after the confrontation violated their right to a fair trial and was nothing but an attempt to destroy the evidence that would exonerate them.

The incident to propel MOVE to a national spotlight was the botched and deadly debacle of May 13th 1985 that resulted in the deaths of six children of MOVE members and five adult members of the cult. Towards the end of the day a "bomb" was dropped on the house where the MOVE members were barricaded and had been shooting from.

The "bombing" occurred when police attempted to arrest at least four MOVE members on a variety of charges, including riot, illegal possession of explosives, and terroristic threats.
The MOVE members named in the affidavits were Frank James Africa, Conrad Hampton Africa, Ramona Johnson Africa, and Theresa Brooks Africa, all of whom police said resided in the Osage Avenue house.

In addition, police said they wanted to arrest Frank James Africa, son of Louise James, the owner of the house, for parole violations.

The police said they had monitored MOVE's statements made over the group's loudspeakers in recent weeks and had heard MOVE members make a series of threats against Mayor Goode, the police, and the residents on Osage Avenue. MOVE members had also sent a threatening letter to Mayor Goode, in which they threatened to kill him and blow up the neighborhood.
MOVE had given authorities no choice but to attempt to arrest the law-breaking members of the sect, but MOVE was not going to surrender without a fight. Members of the cult had erected a rooftop bunker fortified with railroad ties and heavy timber, from which MOVE members could command the high ground in any confrontation with city police. In doing so, they had threatened to turn the quiet African-American neighborhood that they inhabited into a war zone.


Prior to the police assault on the MOVE house, authorities had repeatedly implored MOVE members to surrender or to at least allow the children to leave the house. MOVE not only refused this request, they issued more threats over their gasoline powered bullhorn and began shooting at the officers surrounding their headquarters. A number of officers were struck by the MOVE gunfire. However, unlike the previous confrontation in 1978, they were spared serious injury or death by bullet proof vests.

With gunfire raining down from MOVE’s fortified house that contained an unidentified number of children and two heavily fortified bunkers, complete with firing ports, police were left placed in a most unique and difficult situation.

One might wonder what led to the transformation of a working class neighborhood in West Philadelphia into a blood soaked landscape of urban warfare. The answer lies within the mind of MOVE’s co-founder John Africa.

MOVE’s "Coordinator," as his devotees called John Africa, led his followers on a path of psychological warfare and physical terror against their neighbors and followed a policy of increasingly provocative actions against city officials and institutions. The stated goal was to force the government to release the nine MOVE members who had been incarcerated for amongst other things, the murder of Police Officer James Ramp, in 1978.

In order to accomplish this impossible goal, MOVE initiated their campaign of torture against their African-American neighbors, telling them in effect, "we are going to put pressure on you, so you will put pressure on the city to let our people go."

In 1984, MOVE’s assault on their neighborhood began. According to one resident of Osage Avenue."They could go on for hours on that loudspeaker system of theirs," recalled Marguerite Walker, of 6217 Osage. "Sometimes they would start at 3 in the afternoon and they would stay on there until 1 o'clock at night. Different times they would come on.

But you know, with that kind of thing you are tense all the time. You are just always wondering when it is going to come on. "So you never relax."

But, for the residents of Osage Avenue, the bullhorn assault was only the beginning. There were also the barrels of raw meat that MOVE members fed their dogs and the smell of cat urine that hung in the air.

The foul stink of what residents believed to be human excrement and unwashed bodies filled the summer air, making children and adults physically sick.

An omnipresent stench rose up from the MOVE house, seeping through screen doors and forcing people inside. The MOVE people kept dozens of cats and dogs, but never cared much about controlling them. One day, Osage Avenue resident, Bennett Walker was working in the back of his house when he remembered "noticing this smell."

Other MOVE neighbors reportedly had to turn on their stoves to clear out armies of roaches before they could cook their families dinner at night.

As if the stink, and infestations, and bullhorn harangues were not enough of an assault on civility, MOVE would also singled out certain neighbors for particularly brutal treatment. There would also be ominous threats of violence on the part of MOVE members against children.

Maugerite Walker would tell reporters that: "On the loudspeaker, Conrad (Africa) used to shout that he was a rapist. He would get on there and say that he used to go into people's houses through their skylights and rape young virgins."

As the war on their own community waged on, MOVE brandished firearms terrifying children and convincing adults that MOVE had no intention of living peaceably.

Finally, fed up, and fearing for the safety of themselves and their families, MOVE’s embattled neighbors demanded that the city take action.

In order to save Osage Avenue, the city, in a terrible and reprehensible choice apparently made the decision to destroy it. A choice that has helped to give rise to MOVE as a cult of martyrdom.

Only two people survived the "confrontation", MOVE’s Minister of Communications. Ramona Africa and a child who went by the name of "Birdy."

"Birdy" was rescued from life in MOVE by his father, who was never a MOVE member. He has not returned to the cult and, quite understandably, has chosen to live a private life.
The resulting fallout from the city’s actions led to the mayor empaneling a special "MOVE Commission" that would have limited powers and no ability to hand down indictments. The commission’s findings savaged the city government’s handling of the crisis, but ultimately laid the blame for the catastrophe squarely at the feet of MOVE members and their actions.
Ramona spent seven years in prison for her role in the destruction. Their was nothing political about her imprisonment. MOVE members practically murdered their own children and than killed themselves. Ramona’s escape was not likely part of the plan of John Africa.

While MOVE is known for it’s bloodletting, it is also known as a group whose commitment is to the preservation of life. The trail of death and destruction ought to be an antidote to that toxic myth, but for those who are only given MOVE’s version of events, it is easy to see why people fall victim to this fallacy.

Take MOVE’s treatment of the animals in it’s care for an example of it’s "reverence" for life.
MOVE members are not vegetarians having long since abandoned the "raw food" diet advocated by John Africa, use animal products including leather, and seem to regard the animals who have the misfortune in their care as props in their facade of benevolence.

For MOVE, the notion of compassionate consumerism does not exist, because John Africa said it doesn’t exist (hence the authoritarian cult title the group has earned). They unabashedly are patrons of the industry that tortures and slaughters animals, namely companies that employ the use of factory farms like Perdue, Tyson, and, basically, every meat industry out there from pork, beef, poultry, and seafood. They literally buy hundreds of pounds of meat every month, possibly week, to feed to their pets or to consume themselves.

This subject is important to clarify because it shows a callous idea that, although they do not admit taking part in the wholesale slaughter of these animals in tormenting conditions, they readily sustain these corporations with their sponsorship. One of their youth members, in explaining why they shop at certain stores and buy products from specific companies that have been cited as being either destructive in their behaviors towards the environment, child labor exploitations, sweatshops, and/or animal cruelty, stated that all industry is bad; so there is no difference in whom you buy things from. An answer that is indicative of MOVE’s cultish arrogance.

The most problematic matter in regards to the health and well being of the dogs and cats is the diet that these animals are fed. MOVE gives animals in their care and stray animals in their neighborhood a "raw food" diet that consists of raw beef, pork, lamb, poultry, horsemeat, and bones. They do have a tendency to temporarily ban certain meats from time to time, but not because of the properties of the meats themselves, rather because of mad cow disease threats and such. Their concerns do not seem to stem from the quandaries posed by use of growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides in the production of these meats. They do not ban the use of these products for those grounds.

Obesity is typical around MOVE houses for animals. These weight problems have lead to horrendous leg, hip, and joint pain to the point that these dogs could no longer walk without problems, eventually leading to their inability to even get up without being literally carried. The result of being burdened with excessive pounds is that all of the dogs that have these weight issues wind up suffering from arthritis.

The weight problems are directly linked to the poor diet that is fed to these animals. After a lengthy discussion with a veterinarian about the raw food diet fed to the animals, it was explained that the myth that dogs do not need vegetables and grains is factually wrong. When a dog eats an animal such as a rabbit, it also eats the intestines, which contain the diet that the prey had eaten. It is said that this portion of the diet is essential to keep the balance of vitamins and minerals that are required to keep all the bones, muscles, and joints working properly. To feed a dog or a cat just raw meat would be as detrimental as a person eating tons of nuts and nothing else.

MOVE, as a religious sect, does not believe in the use of modern medicines as a rule (except if you are fortunate enough to be one of the group’s leaders). Their general habit is to wait until a problem has stretched its limits beyond anything they can control before they will use medical interventions.

This is especially the case when it comes to their animals. There is little or no preventative care for their pets. They do not vaccinate their cats and dogs. They do not adhere to spay and neutering of animals (stating that it is cruel to take away their ability to procreate). They do not have regular health check ups or give preventative medications for common and sometimes deadly illnesses such as heartworm.

MOVE’s mind-set in how to deal with cats differs from that of dogs. They see dogs as being hopelessly domesticated at this point, not being able to utilize their instinctual sense of survival. They believe cats, however, to still have these skills and so have adopted a system of dealing with them. When MOVE gets overrun with cats they just go and drop them off in the woods somewhere. They do this without regard to the ecosystem or to the cats themselves. Out of sight out of mind. Dogs, also occasionally meet with this fate. "Respect" for life indeed.

Which brings us to the next set of MOVE’s victims. The children who have the misfortune to be born or brought into this death cult.

They came to MOVE not out of any conscious decision, but because they were born there, or because they were brought there by their parents in their earliest years. John Africa referred to them as the "Seeds of Wisdom" as they were to be raised as pure examples of his anti-establishment teachings.

To the MOVE Organization, these are not children. Instead, they are tiny soldiers in John Africa’s revolutionary war on society. They have played a major role in every major and minor "confrontation" that MOVE has had with authorities, and in 1985 five of them would lose their lives. The "role" played by these children is either that of human shield or expendable widgets in the cult’s martyr machine.

While MOVE, itself, has changed over the years, the role of children within the group remains largely the same as it has always been. Education for the average MOVE child is almost non-existent. For pre-teen girls within the group, childhood ends at around 11 or 12 years old, and motherhood begins.

According to Ramona Africa herself:

" Women in MOVE do marry and have babies at what this american society might now consider to be a young age but we follow the coordination of Mother Nature who coordinates it such that she determines when a woman is ready for marriage and babies, which is when a woman has her monthly period, then she is ready to have babies and be married. It's just that simple."

If there was ever more a self-incriminating statement of child abuse I have not seen it.
Another former MOVE member who has spoken out about the plight of children within the MOVE sect would be a woman named Valerie Brown.

Brown had been one of the groups earliest members and had even been placed in charge of a "MOVE Chapter" in Richmond, Virginia. In 1981 she had grown tired of the rats, the "meetings", and isolation of cult life and bundled up her two young daughters and left MOVE to begin a new life. Not long after the MOVE confrontation on Osage Avenue, she stepped forward to speak out about the cult that she had been a part of for so long.

Behind the holistic rhetoric of MOVE’s teachings, there was an ominous reality that lurked beneath the surface of MOVE's utopian enterprise.

Brown would claim that John Africa had indicated to police in 1976, that if the authorities tried to storm the Powelton Village house, MOVE would kill all the children inside.
"I believe he would have done it," Brown said. "I don't know that everybody would have done it at his command."

In March of that year, there was a scuffle between police and MOVE members in Powelton Village. Later that day, Phil and Jeanine Africa contended that a policeman had shoved Janine, who was carrying her 3-week-old child, Janine said she fell to the ground on top of the infant, that a policeman then stepped on her and that the child died as a result.
MOVE accused the police of murder and re-count this tragedy as part of their propaganda to this day .

Asked about that incident, Brown said, "That's not the way the child died. It's not that there was any kind of homicide. The child died of natural causes that might not have occurred had MOVE believed in modern medicine, and they used it for political purposes against the police and for sympathetic audiences the world over.

Today, the lives of the children of MOVE have changed, but only in superficial ways. Although the are now allowed birthday parties, video games, movies, t.v., bicycles, more cooked food, etc...they still live under the complete control of MOVE’s leaders. For the most part, education does not exist for the children and they are largely functionally illiterate.

Girls in the Organization as young as twelve are married to older MOVE members and begin having children at that same time. These children do not receive pre-natal care and are expected to give birth to their babies at home without the aid of doctor or mid-wife. After delivering these new MOVE members, the young mothers must sever the umbilical cord with their teeth and than lick the afterbirth off the baby without the aid of water or other "systematic" methods.

These things with the children I saw with my own eyes. I saw mothers have to be rushed off to the hospital to have premature babies possibly due to lack of pre-natal care. I saw other children with their teeth rotting out of their mouths because their mothers did not know how to properly breast feed their children. Girls as young as 11 or 12 having children, girls who could barely write their own name. If this is revolution than I am a proud reactionary.

And finally, the issue that has consumed MOVE since the mid 1990's. The life and death of former MOVE member John Gilbride. He had been married to Alberta Africa and had a child with her via in-vitro fertilization, but like most of us who come around MOVE, he eventually wanted out.

For two years, Gilbride and his former wife, Alberta Wicker Africa Gilbride (MOVE’s current leader), waged an acrimonious battle for the child. In September of 2002 that fight ended with John gunned down just hours before he was to have his first un-supervised visitation with his son, a visit that Alberta and MOVE vowed would not ever happen. The cult of course denies any role in the murder and has spun a half-dozen contradictory conspiracy theories about John’s death, for a while even contending that he had faked his own death.

This was however, no typical custody fight. MOVE barricaded their home and promised a repeat of May 13th 1985 if the court sided with John in his effort to obtain custody of his son. But MOVE did not just act "defensively". They and their supporters, of which I was one of, declared a veritable war on John and his family members and his life was repeatedly threatened if he did not relent in his actions to see his only child.

On June 10, 1999, Gilbride filed for divorce in Superior Court in Camden, citing "extreme cruelty."

In his divorce complaints, Gilbride said that whenever he and his wife had a disagreement or argument, MOVE members would have "an intervention, wherein I was expected to sit in the middle of the room while each member and my wife would degrade me."

One such intervention in 1996 followed a disagreement over how he held their son and lasted for eight hours. "I was told that if I don't pull myself together, I was out of there, baby or not!" Gilbride said. "I was also told that any man could take my place."

And in January 1997, Gilbride said, he was told during another "intervention" that "my attitude towards my wife was going to cause a situation that would involve my death."
After vigorous litigation, John began to obtain the right to see his son.

He was supposed to begin his first weekend alone with the boy on Sept. 20, but when MOVE supporters gathered at the house and held a vulgar demonstration at the Cherry Hill municipal building, he was advised to stay away. Following the advice of authorities he left town for the weekend.

He went to Las Vegas instead, returning just days before the next opportunity to see his son. But he was shot dead before he could.

Over a year after his death, it came out in the media that John’s life was threatened by a now former MOVE member named Mario Africa just days before his murder. He was able to escape that potentially violent situation than, but could not escape the killer or killers who would end his life a short time later.

MOVE for their part has made contradictory and suspicious comments with regards to John’s murder.

Before John was savagely gunned down in his car after returning home from work, his ex-wife (current MOVE leader and opponent in John's battle for custody of his son) had this to say in a letter to the judge in charge of Philadelphia Family Court Judge Myrna Field during their custody dispute:

"John is a traitor to me, to his son, and to MOVE, and he is an enemy, not a friend."

Not long after John's savage assassination, MOVE member and spokesperson Ramona Africa was in damage control mode. In an interview with a Philadelphia City Paper reporter, she had this to say:

"We never hated John Gilbride. He was not our enemy."

What a difference a murder makes.

And in letters from prison, MOVE members were all but celebrating John’s demise. Take for example the following quotes from members of the "MOVE 9".

Debbie Africa had this to say about John's death in a letter from December of 2002, just a couple of months after the murder:

"The situation concerning our sister, Alberta and Zack is resolved. We want to thank any and all of you who helped in the situation with Alberta and Zack....Y'all are the greatest."
In April of that year, Chuck Africa went even further with his candor regarding John's demise:
"Well, anyways it all worked out (the custody case). The folks out there really didn't believe the city would attack. Later I saw the psychology behind what happened & how it was handled. The city just couldn't afford to be aggressive becuz of May 13th and people were too aware of what was going on then? Do you understand what I am saying? It was really unlikely that things would turn out like they did. But, I was so relieved that things worked out. I don't need no more of my family killed, hurt, or imprisoned, as well as my friends and supporters."

In conclusion, I would encourage people to go and hear Ramona speak, so long as you don’t go and fill her pockets. Please realize that there is more out there than the "official" MOVE party line and don’t just take my word for it. Do research on your own.
Consider why it is that there are those dedicating themselves to keeping you from reading my words and why every major group who concerns itself with the study of cults considers MOVE to be a violent and dangerous sect, one that deserves nothing but scrutiny.
As for me, I am no tool of the "establishment". I am an anti-racist activist and an opponent of the death-penalty. Unlike MOVE, I am a supporter of gay rights and a woman’s right to choose and a right to an education. Something that both male and female children of MOVE members and hard-core supporters of MOVE are deprived of.

I left MOVE because I saw them for what they were. A cynical and manipulative death cult who runs a victimization racket with blood drenching the hands of it’s leaders. Leaders who expect those underneath him to subordinate their interests to that of them and who expect complete obedience.

This is not a group of anarchists or a group that even gives a nod to any kind of democratic ideal. The cult is authoritarian and therefore is explicitly dictatorial. It’s ideals are not progressive, but retrograde and not born out of empirical examinations, but out of the warped mind of man who cobbled together a contradictory philosophy that purportedly put a premium on life, but instead left a trail of death and destruction.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

A Mumia Free July 4th


For years Jamal supporters have profaned the streets of Philadelphia on Independence Day.

Every July 4th, an ever shrinking gaggle of mis-guided and or cynical activists scream unintelligible profanities into bullhorns, hold up signs, and otherwise attempt to persuade people that their hero, Mumia, is a victim of some terrible injustice.

This year will be no different as the Mumia circus will take to 6th and Market Streets at 11am on the forth.

And, as usual the Jamal supporters are claiming to "...believe in freedom for all life."

Perhaps, if Mumia had displayed some kind of a belief in the sanctity of life than I wouldn’t be writing these words, the Faulkner family would not be made to be perpetual victims, and a murderer wouldn’t be put upon a pedestal, and given the deference of a living deity.
But, he did not. Instead, Jamal brutally ended the life a young police officer and has been reveling in the blood he shed ever since.

In one sense, there isn’t much one can do about Jamal’s seemingly endless stream of appeals that deny anyone involved any semblance of closure. To be sure, at this point, I think even the idea of "closure" in this case is but a mirage in a sordid legal landscape.

So what can be done?

I would argue at this point that the Jamal supporters should have free reign to sit out in the sweltering heat, screaming to their hearts content, for their jailed hero.

Those of us who know the facts of the case should take that day to tell Officer Faulkner’s story and the story of others who have sacrificed their lives so that the un-washed rabble can travel to Philadelphia and call for freedom for the cop-killer.

While the Jamal crowd has done it’s best to try and de-humanize Officer Faulkner and reduce him to a moveable prop in their ever-changing conspiracy theories, people concerned with justice would be remiss to ignore the life of the man who really should be at the heart of this matter.

For it is a hideous act of arrogance to choose July 4th to celebrate Jamal as he has contributed nothing to this country, or advanced the cause of freedom or justice. On the other hand, Officer Faulkner was killed while serving the public and had previously been in the military. All while Mumia was shilling for the anti-everything cult, MOVE.

While we likely know way more than we would ever want to know about Jamal through his work as a self-pitying journalist and persistent supporters, but who was the man he murdered?
Danny was one of seven children, from a Catholic family that hailed from Philadelphia. His father, who was a railroad worker, died of a sudden heart attack when Danny was only five years old. Danny was raised by a working mother and his older siblings. After school, he would walk to the home of Tom and Trish Faulkner. Tom was Danny's big brother. There, Danny would play with neighborhood kids and do his homework. He loved to run around the corner to a neighborhood clothier and pretend he worked there. He would dress up in a tie, then pick up a broom and sweep their walks.

Danny left high school prior to graduation and joined the U.S. Army. It wasn't that he didn't like school, but this was a kid who had matured beyond many of his classmates. He just needed to get his life started. While serving in the armed forces, Danny continued his studies, earning his high school diploma as well as an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice.

Upon fulfilling his military service, Danny went home to Philadelphia to began his law enforcement career. His first position was that of a corrections officer. In 1975, he was able to make the career move he hoped and worked for and became an officer of the Philadelphia Police Department.

Being the organized and focused young man he was, it wasn't long before he had purchased a home of his own in his old neighborhood in southwest Philly. Not long after, he began dating the young woman that would become his wife. Danny and Maureen dated about a year, were engaged for another six months and were married in the fall of 1979.

Maureen remembers Danny as easy going, while she was the one who always worried. He was the extrovert. Once a month, the couple would host a get-together of all their friends and the group would play cards in the Faulkner home until the wee hours of the morning. Danny was the neighborhood leader for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the organizer of the Annual Softball Marathon to benefit that charity. One of his childhood friends had suffered from the disease and Danny felt strongly about helping in the fight against it.

Danny loved the outdoors and when deer season opened in Pennsylvania, you would find him stalking the forests of the Pocono Mountains. Maureen, too, loved beauty and the freshness of the Poconos. The couple were saving their money with dreams of purchasing a vacation home there.

Danny loved being a police officer and planned to spend the rest of his working life advancing his career in law enforcement. He had enrolled in community college and was working toward his Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice Administration. He also had plans to go on to law school, hoping to ultimately become a prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office.

Danny Faulkner was a young man with clear goals and dreams. He truly represents an American Story and the best traditions of our nation. He was raised in a loving family and was building his own family with the same love and determination with which he had grown up. He took time to serve his country. He was bright and energetic -- caring and giving to his neighborhood, to his friends and to his profession. Mumia Abu-Jamal did not just kill a cop. He murdered a loving husband, a caring son, a brother to all around him and a friend to those he served. Mumia shot and killed a piece of America, a piece of America we would all like to see more of today.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Ramona Africa: Bullshit In Britain


Ramona Africa is off on a tour of England and I am not supposed to say anything about it.

Not surprisingly, a number of my posts on the UK Indy Media Center have been summarily, and of course without explanation, stricken from the site.
I don’t want to read too far into things, but it appears that the organizers of Mrs. Africa’s propaganda jaunt are not keen on people knowing anything about her or the cult of which she is a member of.

Only authorized information is allowed. Informed debate is squelched and the people who go to hear Ramona speak are none the better for it.

Luckily, unlike with the French, there isn’t so much a language barrier to overcome and the Brits are able to read my site and other places where information about MOVE is not authorized by the cult and it’s enablers.

Also, it seems that some of the readers of the UK IMC don’t have their bullshit detectors completely disabled and are able to pick up on the idea that perhaps MOVE is little more than an opportunistic cult.

One reader opined:

" MOVE's position on abortion, contraception, and homosexuality was not decided by women, it was decided by a man - JOHN AFRICA ('THE COORDINATOR'), MOVE's demi-God. It is not a question of MOVE members not choosing to practice contraception or abortion, or just happening to be heterosexual - they are vehemently opposed to a woman's right to choose abortion, to the use of contraception, and MOVE condemn homosexuality as an abomination (because the purpose of sex is procreation.) So the organisers of this tour are either being conned or they are trying to con the rest of us. Where would MOVE be without Mumia Abu-Jamal? Just a washed-up bunch of cranks with reactionary religious and political views. It is shameful that people choose to muddy the waters about Mumia by defending the indefensible position of MOVE."

signed-Not fooled by MOVE bullshit
I am encouraged.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Linn Washington: Biased About More Than Mumia

(It is not surprising that Linn Washington is more than just a Mumiaphile. That he deprives his students of their academic freedom with a steady diet of propaganda with nothing in the way of a counterbalance just shows his allegiance is to ideology and not truth.)

Brainwashing at Temple

By Dan Murphy

When Professors Karen Turner and Linn Washington forced my Investigative Journalism class to watch most of the film "An Inconvenient Truth," it was clear that they had an agenda they wanted to shove down our throats. Afterwards, the professors said the purpose of watching the movie was to give us varying ideas for our final project, which had to be on different aspects of the environment, and despite telling us to keep an open mind about the issues Gore raises, they showed no film and presented no document that offered an opinion opposing Gore's claim.

We were used to leftwing material; much of our readings, class discussions, and assignments were leftwing political talking points rather than authentic journalism. The text, "Into the Buzzsaw," by Kristina Borjesson, contained a lot of short articles written by journalists who investigated stories that were turned down by their papers and news networks, apparently because their work was too questionable to run. Among the subjects of the articles was the accusation that World War II and the current Iraq war are being fought for oil; the assertion that George Bush won the 2000 election because "58,000" African-Americans were disenfranchised and felons weren't allowed to vote in Florida; a rant by a former Fox News employee about a memo that was passed around the newsroom daily with tips on conservative shows (as if CNN doesn't circulate a memo with liberal storylines).

Also included as part of our instructional materials were videos such as Greg Palast's "Bush Family Fortunes," which talks about the way the Bush family got its money. Palast, who wrote the above-mentioned article about Bush winning Florida in 2000, is a wanna-be investigative reporter who looks for conspiracy theories, palming them off as fact. In the video, he tries to tie Bush's polices as President to his family fortunes (hint: oil wealth).

After I saw and read his work, I understood why he has trouble getting it circulated in the U.S. Another video, titled "Control Room," put down the American media for not accurately reporting the events of the Iraq War. Even though we know that the mainstream media has lunged for negative images, the producers of this film accuse the U.S. media of making the war look too rosy. They paint Al-Jazeera as the fair and balanced news source in the Middle East, because it focuses on blood and gore of war. The head of Al-Jazeera is interviewed, and claims to report both sides. However, all the supporting film clips show are negative images of U.S. troops and unhappy Iraqis spewing hatred toward America.

Forgetting about their shoddy quality for a moment, neither of these videos did much to teach us about investigative journalists, unless that term has become a synonym for conspiracy theorizing. I'm reluctant to criticize my professors in print, but the entire class was a violation of Temple University's academic freedom regulations, and I am fed up with such unprofessional behavior in the classroom. But the one-sided, leftwing propaganda the teachers force fed us had one (for them) unintended consequence. I found myself constantly challenging their opinions – at first simply to myself, and then in class. I figured that even if most of the class didn't agree with me, at least I was presenting a different viewpoint, which is supposed to be what education is all about. I probably would have had more heated, extensive arguments with the professors, but I did not want to put my grade at risk. In the politically correct and leftwing classroom, that is always a dark possibility.

Sunday, June 17, 2007


It has been brought to my attention by readers that the main Mumia site is down and has been down for a while.

While I don’t think that this will be a permanent state of affairs, I must say that it is encouraging to know that this particular brand of toxicity is not currently defiling cyber-space.

And while I don’t know what has brought the temporary halt in the internet jihad for Jamal, I do know a couple of other things with great certainty.

For instance, this website has received nearly 17,000 hits and my other website, thousands more, since December of last year. In terms of the internet in general, these are hardly staggering numbers, but considering the main focus of my blog is an obscure Philadelphia cult, I must be satisfied with myself.

What I also know is that despite a barrage of activism, the effort to name a street on behalf of Mumia has all but floundered. The online petition for the Jamal street naming has received a paltry 774 signatures since it was established in September of last year. On the other hand, the petition that I started to counter the Jamal street naming has accumulated nearly 35,000 and has only been online since late January of this year. It is a petition that I hope to be able to have delivered to Jamal supporter, and NYC City Councilman, Charles Barron.

If you haven’t already, please do sign the petition. The link is:
http://www.gopetition.com/signatures.php?petid=10918

On the topic of "Free Mumia’ failures, is the non-event that was the revelation of the purported "explosive new evidence", that was said to demonstrate through photographs, the innocence of Mumia. Of course, this was not the case, and much to the dismay of the Jamal devotees, the "mainstream" media ignored this latest in a long line of silly stunts.

Back to the issue at hand. One should expect that the Mumia site should pop back up any day now. They will fix whatever issue there is, because the internet is too important a medium for them to neglect. Take for instance the fact that MOVE has had roughly four incarnations of it’s website over the years. The latest of which has been under construction since I left the group and is updated rather infrequently.

And although, it will show back up, we can be certain and I think recent evidence backs me up, that the Jamal cause is increasingly meaningless. Even the French have fallen off the Jamal wagon, with two French pro-Jamal websites going down permanently

The struggle continues, but at least when it comes to Mumia, it is a fight that hopefully coming to an end.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Free Genarlow


It is not often, or ever, that I advocate the release of someone in prison on my website.
For it can be easily said and argued that my judgement with regard to such things have been, well, not-so-good.
But, there are some things that happen to people that are flat out, and obviously wrong, and they are done at the hands of the judicial system, in our name.
There are some things that we just must speak out on.
Take for instance the predicament of Genarlow Wilson.
To get down to brass tax, he is in jail for getting a blow-job. He was seventeen years old and the girl he was with was fifteen. The sexual act was consensual.
And for that act, Genarlow may well see a mandatory 10 years in jail and another on probation.
I would urge you to read the above sentence again contemplate the arcane idea of a young man whose life will be wasted due to a teen age sex act. And than consider the fact that Genarlow was not a bad kid.
Prior to the aforementioned incident he had no criminal record, had a 3.2 GPA, and in a grotesque twist of irony, was actually arrested on the day he was to sit and take his SAT tests. Charged with Rape and Aggravated Child Molestation. The rape charge didn’t stick, but the latter charge did, and Wilson got hit with the mandatory sentence of ten years.
Since his imprisonment laws have been passed which have de-criminalized some consensual sexual acts of teenagers, but that doesn’t matter for Genarlow, because these laws were passed after his conviction.
Since early 2005, Genarlow has been in jail.
His classmates have gone on with college plans, started careers, lived their lives.
Genarlow waits and worries.
While there has been a kind of universal revulsion to his imprisonment, the bureaucrats and the judiciary are hiding behind legal barricades while claiming nervously that to release Genarlow would somehow enable a groundswell of child sexual predation.
Or so they say.
What is more likely the case is that they are afraid to have admitted to be the architects of an arcane law that ensnared a young man in his prime and has lay upon him the most terrible burden of "child predator". That may be the biggest crime of this whole scenario. It is time that Genarlow gets his life back.
What is Being Done to Release Genarlow Wilson?

Visit wilsonappeal.com for lots more information and what you can do to help get Genarlow home.

After the Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed Genarlow’s conviction, his legal team filed a Petition for Certiorari asking the Supreme Court of Georgia to consider the case.
Contact Attorney General Thurbert E. BakerPhone: 404-656-3300FAX: 404-657-8733E-mail: agbaker@law.ga.gov

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

The Cruellest Brutality


"Tell me straight out, I call on you-answer me: imagine that yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy in the finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must inevitably and unavoidably torture just one tiny creature, that same child who was beating her chest with her little fist, and raise your edifice on the foundation of her unrequited tears-would you agree to be the architect on such conditions? Tell me the truth."

-"The Brothers Karmazov,"Fyodor Dostoevsky,


To call what MOVE does to the children of the cult "child abuse" is perhaps, a disservice to these most innocent and powerless victims of the group.

The cheapening of these children’s lives begins not at birth, but prior to it.

People familiar with MOVE are also familiar with the fact that the cult forces it’s young female members to act as barely literate breeding machines. But what might not be so widely known is that these children having children also forego pre-natal and post-natal health care, instead they rely solely on the voodoo of John Africa to carry them through.

And while there are those on the peripheral of MOVE who would bristle at this idea, I only invite them to ask their MOVE idols if what I am saying is true, or better yet I dare them to do so. The answer just might be a surprise.

This gambling upon the wisdom of a madman who effectively killed himself and caused the death of the six children in his care back in 1985 should not be over looked. And neither should the race of these children. They are nearly exclusively black. Were this not the case, I would not be the only person to call attention to this brutality. That much I am sure of.

But, I would argue that race is not the primary core of the lack of outrage at this situation. The primary issue is one of a purported faith.

As long as MOVE members make the claim that their deeds are born out of belief, than many are hard pressed to question the validity of their claims. For in our society, it goes without saying that the default position of any organized madness is in the trenches of "belief".


Imagine for a moment that the crude theology of John Africa were erased from the equation. What would remain is a small group of primarily, but not exclusively, African-Americans forcing their children to be ignorant of all but the most basic of knowledge. These children, once they hit puberty are than forced to reproduce prodigiously. And the support structure of this entire assault on the life of young minds and bodies consists of primarily white people.

How long would such an outrage stand? I would argue, not long. And I would further argue that people would call it what it is, and that is modern day slavery.

But hide this whole vulgar enterprise behind some platitudes harkening submission to a higher power and all is good.

It is not "good" enough for me and should not be for anyone else.

And while I am with Freud in thinking that as long as there is darkness and death, that there will be those who attempt to mitigate these fears via metaphysical means, I also am given to the notion that not all "faiths" are created equally, that some have proven to be demonstrably dangerous and deadly to those within their orbits.

It is there where I believe a line ought to be drawn.

Should a parent force the veil of Islam upon their child? Or worse yet, the clitoral desecration of infants still practiced in some Islamic states?

Should children raised in fundamentalist Christian churches have their minds poisoned with the not-even-a-pseudo-science-known-as-"creationsim"?

My answer to all of the above is obviously no.

But even as abhorrent as all of the aforementioned physical and emotional impositions of superstitious barbarisms are, I don’t think they rise to the level of MOVE’s crimes against children.

Physical wounds can be healed and undone. Adherents of various religious texts can read them and therefore raise challenges, and are than empowered to make a conscious choice to either accept or reject the mythology forced upon them. They have some semblance of a choice.

Children of MOVE have no choice and barely have a chance.

They are viewed not as individual entities or even subjects of their parents, but are seen as property of the sects hopelessly corrupt leaders. I saw this myself as parents in MOVE were routinely undermined and the child’s rearing be steered by senior MOVE members who ostensibly knew better.

The written teachings of MOVE founder John Africa are not open for review by MOVE’s young devotees (who couldn’t read them anyways). They told what John Africa allegedly taught and are expected to take the word for it. It pretty much goes without saying that what John Africa taught always seems to coincide with the deeds and desires of MOVE’s leaders. It is Animal Farm with dread locks.

Reading and writing is frowned upon, but mind numbing TV shows and violent movies are fine for the children of the sect.


And what of attending some of the institutions of higher learning where MOVE’s propagandists have reaped a wealth of money?


Forget it.


MOVE members can speak there, but none will be allowed to even conceptualize the thought of going there to learn.

Which leads to my next point.

In order to keep a complete authoritarian situation in place, MOVE’s leaders must, by definition, be anti-intellectual, stifle abstract thoughts, crush intellectual dissent, and keep the children who eventually become adults as dependant as possible on the cult for all of their primary needs as a person. And that is precisely what is done.

The "marrying off" of barely pubescent girls is not so much an extension of some kind of sexual perversion, or at least not that I am aware of, but rather a mechanism of control that is as old as it is vile. Young girls who are birthing babies at twelve years old are not exactly prone to abandoning their entire support system, particularly when they have never had any access to any kind of independence, either physical, or mental.

What is perhaps most sad and disturbing about all of this is that these children are not inherently dim-witted. On the contrary, they are clearly bright and inquisitive and like all children, want to embrace the world around them, but are prevented from doing so.
And the far-left who has romanticized MOVE have also romanticized the children of MOVE. This was apparent in the coverage of the recent protests on behalf of Mumia last month. It was pointed out that a group of MOVE children "under the age of ten" were busy telling the crowd why they all were there, to "Free Mumia".

But what I want to know is who is working to free the children of MOVE?




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