Demand Immediate Parole for Edward Goodman Africa Am 4974 Call (717) 787-5699 Oct 5 - 9

Justin Lumumba, of the Justice for the Move 9 Committee  (https://www.facebook.com/Justice-For-The-Move-9-1554141098166210/timeline/)  has issued a call for a week of telephone calls to the Pennsylvania Parole Board to demand the immediate approval of parole for Eddie Africa, one of the Move 9 who was swept up and arrested when the Philadelphia Police bombed a city block, killing 11 people including 5 babies and burning numerous homes on August 8, 1978.

More about this history behind this atrocity – massacre – by then Mayor Goode and the Philadelphia police department can be found at this link: http://onamove.com/move-9

 

Eddie Africa’s parole hearing is scheduled for October 2015.  The following link has more about the parole process and the call for letters:  http://onamove.com/support-parole-for-eddie-africa/

The Move 9 Committee is very concerned about the unfairness of the hearing given the conflict of interest of at least 2 of the parole board members:

Leslie Grey is a former cop with very strong ties to law enforcement in Pennsylvania as it states on her bio on the website of the Pennsylvania board of probation and parole . This is a complete conflict of interest because the case of the Move 9 revolves around the alleged murder of a cop . This was the same women that presided over the parole hearing of Mike Africa a year ago and was responsible for him receiving a five year hit.

Another conflict revolves around Michael l Green.  He was appointed to the Pennsylvania parole board by then Pennsylvania governor Edwin G Renedell . This is a complete conflict of interest due to the fact that Ed Rendell was the Philadelphia district attorney during the trial of the Move 9.  It was his office that prosecuted Eddie Africa and the rest of the Move 9.

Therefore it is of utmost importance for the Parole Board to be inundated with calls demanding immediate parole for Eddie Africa.  Be polite but firm and leave a brief message as to why Edward Goodman Africa should be paroled.

Please try to stick to the language and issues offered by the sample letter from the Move 9 site sample letter – reproduced below.  

Calls need to be placed to (717) 787-5699 during the week of Oct 5 – 9.

Decarcerate the Garden State calls upon its membership to make as many calls as possible on behalf of this parole demand.   Please RSVP on the event Facebook site (if you use Facebook) and leave a comment once you make a call about how the call went:

https://www.facebook.com/events/511984462294122/

For more information, contact Onamovellja@gmail.com

 

Sample Letter
:
Board of Probation and Parole
Attn: Inmate Inquiry
1001 South Front Street, Suite 5300
Harrisburg, PA 17104

September  3, 2015

Regarding October 2015 Parole Hearing for: Edward Goodman #AM-4974
Dear Honorable Members of the Parole Board:

As a concerned citizen interested in helping Mr. Goodman successfully transition into life outside prison, I am writing to ask that you please grant him parole.  He has served now  37 years of a 30-100 year sentence, even though the average sentence for his charges is 10-15 years.  He is still in prison years after his minimum sentence despite having no major disciplinary problems in the last three decades.  The notice provided to Mr. Goodman for his last parole denial lists the reasons for the denial as: “Your minimization/denial of the nature and circumstances of the offense(s) committed,” “Your refusal to accept responsibility for the offense(s) committed” and “The negative recommendation made by the prosecuting attorney.”

I understand the severe nature of the crime of which Mr. Goodman was convicted, however, I am concerned that Mr. Goodman maintaining his innocence is seen as an attempt to minimize or deny the nature and circumstances of the offense(s) or refuse to take responsibility, even while there is evidence that corroborates that the shot was fired from a location where it is well known he was nowhere near.  This phenomenon is referred to as “the innocent prisoner’s dilemma” implying that it is unfair and unethical to require someone who may have been wrongly convicted to provide false admission of guilt or remorse.  Please take this dilemma into consideration.

I also understand that Mr. Goodman has not been recommended for parole by the institution where he is held despite having a clear disciplinary record for many years.  In fact, the only time he received a disciplinary infraction in the last fifteen years was for not cutting his hair.  He has completed all of the institutional programs he was asked to complete and has volunteered for others. Please take into consideration his good conduct as well as him having housing and employment secured upon his release.  These factors, along with strong family and community support, make it very unlikely that Mr. Goodman will recidivate and I firmly believe that he is an excellent candidate for parole.  I will personally help him acclimate in any way I can upon his release.

Mr. Goodman has now spent most of his life in prison, and the recidivism rate for people released at his age is very low. Please grant parole and allow him to be a part of, and contribute to, society as free citizen, a loving father and grandfather.

Sincerely,

Press Conference and Rally for Justice for Radazz Hearns, Wednesday September 30, 8:30 AM #‎WhyTheyShootMe‬ ‪#‎RadazzHearns‬

Preliminary Announcement:

Wednesday September 30, 8:30 AM

Outside a “Community Policing Forum” co-hosted by the US Justice Department and the NJ Attorney General’s Office

At the Trenton War Memorial

1 Memorial Dr, Trenton, NJ 08608

http://www.nj.gov/state/memorial/dos_wm_directions.html

Sponsored the United Mercer Interfaith Organization (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force

14 year old Radazz Hearns was shot at at least 18 times, hit 7 times and severely wounded on August 7, by two yet to be named police  participants in a joint agency task force with at least one of the shooters being a member of NJ State Police.

The police incredibly and conveniently claim to have found a gun – 12 hours after the incident – under a government vehicle that was not even on the scene when the incident occurred and was brought to the scene to provide lighting to assist the “investigation” of the scene.

Radazz Hearns faces serious juvenile charges mostly surrounding the supposedly discovered weapon – as of yet there are no police claims that there is even any at all physical evidence linking the victimized child to the “found” weapon.

Adding insult to grave injury – unnamed police personnel have leaked private juvenile records of Radazz Hearns which have been widely reported, especially in the local paper The Trentonian.

On September 30, the task force calls upon all justice seeking people from Trenton, the surrounding area and beyond to come stand up and join in the press conference, picketing and leafleting starting at 8:30 am.

The demands of the Task Force are as follows:

Immediate dropping of all charges against Radazz Hearns

Prosecution of the responsible parties for the leaking to the press of legally protected juvenile records

Formation of an independent civilian police review board modeled on the one recently implemented by Newark, NJ

This event provides the potential to send a clear message directly to the US Justice Department and to the Attorney General that has pressed the charges on Radazz Hearns as they meet inside for a day long event with discussions on community relations for police.  

In addition to the press conference, participants plan to picket with signs that state their demands and hand out a fact sheet to those going into the policing conference and other passers by.  This is an ideal opportunity to unite various communities that are part of efforts for justice, the Black Lives Matter movement, the organizations working to Decarcerate the Garden State and all who want to send a clear message to the top levels of the criminal justice system that will be assembled inside the War Memorial Building.

Stay tuned for more details as they are announced and in the meantime, please circulate this notice widely.

For more information, contact: umioorganizer@gmail.com

Here is a skeptical report on the police version of the incident:
http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150920/experts-weigh-in-to-question-the-shooting-of-trenton-teen-radazz-hearns

Trentonian Assists Police Cover Up of Facts / Smear in Cop Shooting of Radazz Hearns Case

The following is from the Facebook wall of Rev. Lukata Mjumbe, a coordinator of the (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force.

It should be pretty clear that certain folk at the Trentonian Newspaper have no idea what words like "transparency," "impartiality" or "conflict of interest" even mean. The same reporter, Isaac Avilucea, who authored all the Trentonian stories with the illegal "leaks" of juvenile records, child mug shots, etc. is the same Trentonian reporter who was assigned to cover the story about the community response to the illegal leaks of the juvenile records of 14 year old Radazz Hearns who survived being shot 7 times by a Mercer County Sheriff & NJ State Police officer!

During the UMIO press conference last week, Avilucea repeatedly interrupted the speaker from the ACLU of NJ BEFORE the Q&A session in a wholly unprofessional attempt to defend his journalistic practices. The irony of Avilucea's ill-timed interjections were that the ACLU was actually defending the "legal" rights of reporters to report under the first amendment (even if the reporting is morally and ethically wrong) and was joining in the call to target police sources which illegally leaked the information.

But it gets worse --- this week, this same Trentonian reporter writes what is supposedly an objective story about how a probe of the illegal leaks (which led to the writing of his own shady stories) could hurt transparency and have a chilling effect on "their ability to serve as watchdogs." Wow. So now the leak receiving Trentonian news reporter has become the news to be reported on in the Trentonian newspaper by the same Trentonian news reporter that received the leaks published in the Trentonian newspaper in the first place. CONFLICT OF INTEREST, Isaac Avilucea ---- Google it.

http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150914/open-government-advocates-say-probe-in-trenton-shooting-leak-could-hurt-transparency

Does the Newark Police arrest and hospitalize homeless people? Help with our investigation

So us folks in Newark want to do some investigation on whether the Newark PD work with the Newark hospitals to arrest homeless people and essentially drug them up in hospitals for a few days before letting them go...I've heard this happens in NYC and have a feeling it happens in Newark as well.

If anyone has any connections in Newark to find out the truth please comment!

- Rutgers Newark Student, Yael Flam
flam.yael@gmail.com

Kashad Ashford Justice Support, Sept 16

The family of Kashad Ashford and the People's Organization For Progress will have a Justice for Kashad Ashford Rally Wednesday, September 16, 2015, 6:00pm at the Lyndhurst Police Department, 367 Valley Brook Avenue in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. We will meet 4:30pm on Wednesday, September 16th at Lincoln Park in Newark, NJ. We will have a car caravan that will take everyone to the Lyndhurst police station and back. The car caravan is leaving 5:00pm sharp from Lincoln Park. Don't be late!!! For more information call 973 801-0001.

(UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force Meeting Report

At a meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, NJ, which is on Calhoun aka Rev. Woodson Way, this past Wednesday, 9/2, of the United Mercer Interfaith Organization (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force, about 30 clergy members as well as leaders of justice loving organizations met to discuss the case of Radazz Hearns, the 14 year old youth, unarmed according to his attorney, who was shot 7 times in an incident involving 3 unnamed officers, two NJ State Police officers and one Mercer County Sheriff Department officer on August 14.

The police are claiming that a gun was supposedly found 12 hours later under a fire department vehicle that was brought to the scene after the incident to illuminate the area to assist in evidence gathering.  There have been no reports of any DNA or fingerprint evidence lifted from this gun supposedly “found” at the scene.

As is typical in cases when police gun down an unarmed victim and the victim survives, it is usually the victim that is charged with a crime.  This is often done in an effort to thwart any attempt to hold the police officers, the department and the government agencies involved accountable civilly in suits that if successful could cost multiple millions in compensatory and punitive damages to the involved officers and the government agencies.   It is not surprising that the 14 year old child who may have life lasting disabilities due to the 7 times he was shot is facing charges based upon the half a day late gun to which he has no apparent physical connection.

So as he coalesces and begins his lasting physical and emotional healing process, he now faces the prospect of a potentially lengthy prison term.  On top of that, as is also typical in similar cases, the media is feeding at the trough in reporting discrediting information, including from the child’s confidential juvenile records that the media reports were provided by "confidential police sources".  There is little or no apparent effort by the media to even find out the names of the responsible police officers let alone to provide any information about those officers’ histories and records.  Of course, the media is protecting the identity of the “confidential” police sources that have provided the juvenile records which itself is a possible violation of the law.  In an invitation letter to the meeting, Rev. Lukata Mjumbe, who chaired the meeting, referred to the coordinated media campaign as the “violation, demonization and character assassination of a juvenile . . . “ 

http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2015/09/organizing-meeting-for-justice-radazz.html

Against this back drop, under the behest of United Mercer Interfaith Organization (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force clergy and organizational leaders are organizing an effort to seek justice for Radazz Hearns, to end his character assassination by the media, especially The Trentonian, and to demand an independent investigation by the US Attorney’s Office. 

While the meeting was focused on providing support for Radazz Hearns and his family, and demanding independence, transparency and impartiality in the investigation of his shooting, there was stress also placed on the use of the multi-agency task force that participated in the assault, how they relate to local youth and the need to stay focused not just on the case of Radazz Hearns but on broader connected issues of demands for changes like the end of the grand jury when police kill and the need for independent community controlled civilian review boards.

The meeting was addressed by phone by Lawrence Hamm, Chair of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) who described an event occurring 4pm on Wednesday, September 9th at the Newark office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman at the Rodino Federal Building, 970 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey in coordination with other local and statewide organizations at a "Rally To Demand Justice." The purpose of the rally will be to call upon the US Attorney to take over several recent police shooting cases and to challenge the existing protocols for investigating police shootings in NJ.  Those in attendance at last night’s meeting agreed unanimously to add the case of Radazz Hearns to the other 3 cases being addressed at that event, all cases where Black NJ men have been gunned down.   Of the four cases, the 14 year old Radazz Hearns is the only one to have survived the shooting.  See details below.

The group is calling upon people in the Trenton area and throughout the state to attend the Newark event 4pm on September 9^th.

Additionally, the (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force has determined that it will organize a committee to press editors of area papers to end the character assassination of Radazz Hearns and to end its one sided coverage.  The group is also drafting a letter of unity around the issue.  

The meeting was attended primarily by area clergy as well as representatives of New Brunswick Black Lives Matter and the statewide Decarcerate the Garden State.  For more information, contact: Rev. Lukata Mjumbe <mjumbeumcinc@gmail.com>.  

From Larry Hamm’s Facebook wall:

 

 There will be a "Rally To Demand Justice For Abdul Kamal, Kashad Ashford, And Jerame Reid," Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 4:00PM, U.S. Attorney's Office, Rodino Federal Building, 970 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. Please wear your POP t-shirt to the protest if you have one but come anyway if you don't. For more information call 973 801-0001.The purpose of this demonstration is to demand that the officers that killed Kamal, Ashford, and Reid be held accountable for their deaths. And to demand that the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, start official investigations into their deaths and bring civil rights charges against those officers that killed them. Kamal was unarmed when he was shot ten times and killed by Irvington police. Ashford was shot nine times in the head when he was killed by NJ State Police. In a dashcam video that went viral Jerame Reid is seen getting out of a car without any weapon with his hands open and raised when he was shot to death by Bridgeton, NJ police. Radazz Hearns, a 14 year old boy, who according to a witness had no weapon, was shot 7 times in the back and legs by police in Trenton, NJ.  He survived the shooting. Kamal, Ashford, Reid and Hearns are all African Americans.

Please send letters to the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey urging him to immediately launch civil rights investigations into the deaths of Abdul Kamal, Kashad Ashford, and Jerame Reid. Send your letters to:

Hon. Paul J. Fishman
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey
U.S. Attorney's Office
970 Broad Street Suite 700
Newark, New Jersey 07102

Make a follow up call to his office to make sure your letter was received. The number is 973 645-2704. If you are unable to send a letter call his office and make your opinion known.

The Million People's March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice, and Economic Inequality (MPM) was held Saturday, July 25th in Newark, New Jersey. The work of the March continues. This protest, the letter writing campaign, and the phone calls are some of the next steps to be taken in the struggle for justice. Stop police brutality!!! Power to the people!!!

Organizing Meeting for Justice Radazz Hearns 9/2 Trenton

From: Lukata Mjumbe <mjumbeumcinc@gmail.com> [Add to Address Book]

To: Lukata Mjumbe <umioorganizer@gmail.com>

Subject: UMIO Radazz Hearns Task Force Leadership / Organization Strategy Meeting

Date: Sep 1, 2015 7:38 PM

As a leader of a faith organization, community organization or community constituency in Trenton and/or Mercer County, you are invited to a sit-down strategy meeting being organized by the United Mercer Interfaith Organization (UMIO) Radazz Hearns Task Force.

The meeting will be convened tomorrow, September 2nd at 6:30pm at Shiloh Baptist Church located at  340 Reverend S. Howard Woodson, Jr. Way in Trenton, NJ. The purpose of the meeting is to create the space for the broader community to strategically discuss the next steps in the continuing struggle for independence, transparency and impartiality in the investigation of the police shooting of 14 year old Radazz Hearns.

The meeting will include three parts:

1) A brief update on what has happened since the last Community Meeting held at Shiloh Baptist held on August 13th. The attorney for the family has been invited.

2) A facilitated discussion on the organization of a unified community response to the violation, demonization and character assassination of a juvenile as represented in the recent coverage in the Trentonian Newspaper in particular. Please review the links below:

http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150827/teen-shot-by-police-in-trenton-had-criminal-history

http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150828/attorney-generals-office-says-not-naming-officers-who-shot-radazz-hearns-over-security-concerns

http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150818/teen-shot-by-police-in-trenton-charged-with-aggravated-assault-and-weapons-offenses

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2015/08/teen_shot_by_police_stopped_twice_after_past_trent.html

  

3) A facilitated discussion to assess leadership interest in mobilizing for action on Wednesday, September 9th at the Newark office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman at the Rodino Federal Building, 970 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey in coordination with other local and statewide organizations at a "Rally To Demand Justice." The purpose of the rally will be to call upon the US Attorney to take over four recent police shooting cases and to challenge the existing protocols for investigating police shootings in NJ. We will focus on the coordination of a mobilization from Trenton and the surrounding communities. Leaders from several organizations from around the state will either be in attendance or will call-in.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to other local leaders that can speak on behalf of organizations and defined constituencies. Also, please reply back to me to confirm if you will attend. Thank you!

Reverend Lukata Mjumbe

UMIO Co-Chair