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A coalition of left-wing racial justice groups that includes the Black Lives Matter national organization has launched an initiative calling for the abolition of the U.S. prison system and the release of all prisoners, including multiple convicted cop killers.
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 groups, including the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, issued a blog post Thursday commemorating Black August, a controversial prison-based holiday founded in the 1960s by the Black Guerrilla Family.
“This week, in partnership with our comrades at [Malcolm X Grassroots Movement], we’re highlighting five current Black political prisoners to raise awareness and support for these warriors,” the post states. “We’re calling on you to sign petitions, write letters, donate, and spread the word, as we advocate for the release of all prisoners and the abolition of the prison industrial complex.”
Free-Mumia protestors gather outside the Criminal Justice Center in Center City Philadelphia, PA, on August 30, 2013. (Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The list of prisoners includes Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers who was convicted of fatally shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981; Kamau Sadiki, a former Black Liberation Army member serving a life sentence for the 1971 killing of an Atlanta police officer; Mutulu Shakur, a former Black Liberation Army leader who helped carry out the 1981 Brinks robbery that killed two police officers in New York; and Ed Poindexter, a former Black Panther who was convicted alongside the late David Rice in the 1970 bombing death of an Omaha police officer.
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A protester waves a Black Lives Matter flag during the demonstration in Los Angeles on April 20, 2021. (Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The list also includes Imam Jamil Al Amin, aka H. Rap Brown, a Black Panther-turned-Muslim cleric who was convicted of murdering a Georgia sheriff’s deputy and wounding another in 2000.
On its website, the Movement for Black Lives says the group opposes the capitalist system in the United States and that they believe “prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a rally for immigration provisions to be included in the Build Back Better Act outside the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 7, 2021 in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The Movement for Black Lives has been touted by progressive Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
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“The fight to #DefundThePolice won’t only happen in the streets. It’s also going to take place in city halls. The Working Families Party and the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives are coming together to launch the WFP Justice Fund,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Facebook in July 2020.
