CINCINNATI FIRES

Col. Writ. 4/17/01

Copyright '01

Mumia Abu-Jamal

"The government is only as lasting as your understanding of administration. The Army is nothing without people, the Air Force is grounded without your endorsement, the ships of the Navy could never have sailed if your leaders didn't have you sail 'em, and the brutal depravity of police would be non-existent if you didn't wear the uniform." -- John Africa, On the Move, (1975)

Black youthful rage explodes in Cincinnati, Ohio, and several nights of fire, rebellion and pain reminds us that the much-maligned and heralded '60s, were really not so very long ago. For like the riots that rocked the nation in the 1960s, the precipitating event was an act of brutality and violence by police against black folks. Police violence against blacks has sparked rampages of rebellion from coast to coast, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in destroyed property, and hundreds of lost lives. Over 30 years have passed, and in the intervening years we have seen the emergence of the black political class, and the entrenchment of the black poor in inner cities, projects, and ghettoes more desolate, more isolated and more hopeless than the 1960s. We have seen the explosion of the Prison Industrial Complex, at rates that would've been unthinkable in the 1970s, with upwards of 2,000,000 men, women, and juveniles in American jails. The U.S., with only 5% of the world's population, has 25% of the world's prison population! And for black young men and women, the horror of prison has become a perverse rite of passage, marking one's transition from youth to adulthood. So, while things have gotten better for some African-Americans since the 1960s, things have gotten demonstrably worse for millions of other, poorer blacks. Public schools, never quite outstanding in the first place, have gone into decline. City services have declined. Industries have fled cities for the South and the suburbs, leaving cities with less employment, and with remaining jobs paying for less money, while costs have gone up. Cincinnati, sparked by the police shootings of a black man, could have happened anywhere in America. The social ingredients are all there, in every major city in America. In every major city is economic and social despair, mixed with a militaristic police force that targets black life and liberty. In every such city are black politicians who function in the role of keeping the restless natives in check; keep them suffering in silence. Cincinnati represented the eruption of youth who see their position in grim, hopeless situations. Cincinnati is a harbinger of things to come. Cincinnati is the fire next time.

Mumia Abu-Jamal,

Copyright '01

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