ALERT! MOVE 9 Parole Campaign/New Petition!

[Mamazen]

MOVE 9 Needs Letters & Calls Now!

Time Frame: 2 Months

Phil Africa says that the MOVE 9 can really use letters and calls to the PA
Parole Board this month and next [February & March]. Letters supporting their
release can make a big difference. The Board will be having a hearing in
April. After THIRTY years, our brothers and sisters are finally up for parole.
If not given probation this year, they may all be forced to serve another
SEVENTY. They have almost completed their minimum sentence [of the 30-100 year
sentence].

For supporters to brush up on the history of MOVE and the "MOVE 9," this
recent 45-minute talk by Ramona is great:

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/27830.php

Purpose of Action;
This April parole hearing is SO important. Letters and calls to the Parole
Board now can really help. Phil is asking that folks send copies of their
letters to him. He wants to take a pile of copies of our letters to the hearing
as a show of public support.


What you should do now- Plan of Action

Letters and phone calls to the Board are needed NOW. Let's bring 'em HOME.
30 years is too much already, 70 more is unthinkable!!

It is probably a good idea for folks to send letters to each of the nine
Board members. The chairperson was appointed by Ed "1985 Bomber" Rendell so
don't count on her getting your message to the whole Board. Their individual
names are on this web page:

http://www.pbpp.state.pa.us/pbppinfo...4178&pbppNav=|

Letters can all be sent to this address:

[name of Board member]
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100
Harrisburg, PA 17104-2517
tel: (717) 787-5699


Please send copies of the letters to Phil at:

William Phillips Africa #AM-4984
SCI-Dallas
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA 18612



Goal:
Let's bring them home where they belong in August 2008!

[nattyreb]

FANTASTIC!!

i truly hope y'all get busy and actually follow thru with this action alert! Send it to every e-mail list you subscribe to, whether it's topical to that list's purpose or not! Post it on message boards as well as other websites!

Briefly, in case you didn't know, 9 people were sentenced to 30-100 years each for the death of one cop from another cop's one bullet during a massive cop attack on their home (in which thousands of shots were fired at MOVE people)!

Mumia Abu-Jamal called into a radio station after they were first sentenced and asked their sentencing judge, Judge Malmed, over the air who killed that cop and he said that he didn't know who killed that cop, but that if they wanted "to live like a family, they would be sentenced as a family."

They've done 30 long years, during which time many of them had to endure the murder of their children during the 5/13/85 bombing of the MOVE family home, and during which they also suffered the death of one of the MOVE 9 captives (Merle Africa) during their outrageous imprisonment. They've suffered long periods of solitary confinement, went on hunger strikes, and had numerous calls for action all in the name of trying to achieve some semblance of justice.

Y'all it's really, REALLY time to bring these souljahs home, right? They've been imprisoned longer than many of you have been alive, so DO THE RIGHT THING and act now!

[georgia.muldrow]

MOVE 9 Needs Letters & Calls Now!

Time Frame: 2 Months

Phil Africa says that the MOVE 9 can really use letters and calls to the PA
Parole Board this month and next [February & March]. Letters supporting their
release can make a big difference. The Board will be having a hearing in
April. After THIRTY years, our brothers and sisters are finally up for parole.
If not given probation this year, they may all be forced to serve another
SEVENTY. They have almost completed their minimum sentence [of the 30-100 year
sentence].

For supporters to brush up on the history of MOVE and the "MOVE 9," this
recent 45-minute talk by Ramona is great:

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/27830.php

Purpose of Action;
This April parole hearing is SO important. Letters and calls to the Parole
Board now can really help. Phil is asking that folks send copies of their
letters to him. He wants to take a pile of copies of our letters to the hearing
as a show of public support.


What you should do now- Plan of Action

Letters and phone calls to the Board are needed NOW. Let's bring 'em HOME.
30 years is too much already, 70 more is unthinkable!!

It is probably a good idea for folks to send letters to each of the nine
Board members. The chairperson was appointed by Ed "1985 Bomber" Rendell so
don't count on her getting your message to the whole Board. Their individual
names are on this web page:

http://www.pbpp.state.pa.us/pbppinfo...4178&pbppNav=|

Letters can all be sent to this address:

[name of Board member]
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100
Harrisburg, PA 17104-2517
tel: (717) 787-5699


Please send copies of the letters to Phil at:

William Phillips Africa #AM-4984
SCI-Dallas
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA 18612



Goal:
Let's bring them home where they belong in August 2008!

PEACE TO ALL!
Tyhe link with the board members names weren't working, so i put each one of thier names up here so greater ease of addressing the letters!

JAH LOVE!

Catherine C. McVey,
Chairman

Charles Fox

Michael L. Green

Jeffrey R. Imboden

Matthew T. Mangino

Benjamin A. Martinez

Gerard N. Massaro

Judy Viglione

Lloyd A. White

[Mamazen]

PEACE TO ALL!
Tyhe link with the board members names weren't working, so i put each one of thier names up here so greater ease of addressing the letters!

JAH LOVE!

Catherine C. McVey,
Chairman

Charles Fox

Michael L. Green

Jeffrey R. Imboden

Matthew T. Mangino

Benjamin A. Martinez

Gerard N. Massaro

Judy Viglione

Lloyd A. White

Yeah it seem that they changes the link since I last checked yesterday...bastids.
Here is another one

http://www.pbpp.state.pa.us/pbpp/site/default.asp

[Mosi Ngozi]

All letters to the parole board have been mailed out.

[nattyreb]

Asante sana, Sis. Georgia,

i sent out a new mailing with the new link and the names you've provided, i urge everyone who sent out the bad link to do the same!

Jah Love, my Sista!

PEACE TO ALL!
Tyhe link with the board members names weren't working, so i put each one of thier names up here so greater ease of addressing the letters!

JAH LOVE!

Catherine C. McVey,
Chairman

Charles Fox

Michael L. Green

Jeffrey R. Imboden

Matthew T. Mangino

Benjamin A. Martinez

Gerard N. Massaro

Judy Viglione

Lloyd A. White

[Im The Truth]

My letter is in the mail.

[georgia.muldrow]

i called first to speak with catherine mcvey, and got an answering machine, so i called back again to get to charles fox,the operator got an adittude y'all....and told me that i'd be leaving a message 8 times if i called for any other of the board members, so it is really best to separately address the letters in the mail!

JAH LOVE!

[Mamazen]

http://www.onamove.com/move9/


WHO ARE THE MOVE 9?

The MOVE 9 are innocent men and women who have been in prison since August 8, 1978, following a massive police attack on us at our home in Powelton Village (Philadelphia). This was seven years before the government dropped a bomb on MOVE, killing 11 people, including 5 babies. The August 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE followed years of police brutality against MOVE and was a major military operation carried out by the Philadelphia police department under orders of then-mayor, Frank Rizzo, whose reputation for racism and brutality is well known; it followed him up thru the ranks of the police department to the police commissioner's office to the mayor's office. During this attack, heavy equipment was used to tear down the fence surrounding our home, and cops filled our home with enough tear gas to kill us and our babies, while SWAT teams covered every possible exit. We were all in the basement of our home, where we had 10 thousand pounds of water pressure per minute directed at us from 4 fire department water cannons (for a total of 40 thousand pounds of water pressure per minute). As the basement filled with nearly six feet of water we had to hold our babies and animals above the rising water so they wouldn't drown. Suddenly shots rang out (news reporters and others know the shots came from a house at 33rd and Baring St., not our home, because they actually saw the man shooting) and bullets immediately filled the air as police through-out the area opened fire on us. Officer James Ramp, who was standing above us on street-level and facing our home, was killed by a single bullet that struck him on a downward angle. This alone makes it impossible for MOVE to have killed Ramp, since we were below street level, in the basement. MOVE adults came out of the house carrying our children through clouds of tear gas, we were beat and arrested. Television cameras actually filmed the vicious beating of our brother Delbert Africa (3 of the 4 cops that beat Delbert went to trial on minor charges). Despite the photographic evidence, the trial judge (Stanley Kubacki) refused to let the jury render a verdict and himself acquitted the cops by directed order. Nine of us were charged with murder and related charges for the death of James Ramp. Within a few hours of our arrest, our home (which is supposed to be the "scene of the crime" and therefore evidence) was deliberately destroyed, demolished, by city officials when they were legally obligated to preserve all evidence, but we were held for trial anyway. We went to trial before Judge Edward Malmed who convicted all nine of us of third degree murder (while admitting that he didn't have "the faintest idea" who killed Ramp) and sentenced each of us to 30 - 100 years in prison. Judge Malmed also stated that MOVE people said we are a family so he sentenced us as a family; we were supposed to be on trial for murder, not for being a family. It is clear that the MOVE 9 are in prison for being committed MOVE members, not for any accusation of crime. Three other adults that were in the house on August 8th did not get the same treatment as those that this government knows are committed MOVE members. One had all charges dismissed against her in September of 1978 with the judge saying that there was no evidence that she was a committed MOVE member when the issue was supposed to be murder. The second one was held for trial but released on bail; she was acquitted. The third one was held for trial with no bail, convicted of conspiracy and given 10-23 years; she was paroled in 1994. It is obvious that everything depended on whether or not the courts thought it was dealing with a committed MOVE member, court decisions had nothing to do with the accusation of murder. It has been 25 years since the August 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE, 25 years of unjust of imprisonment, but despite the hardship of being separated from family-members, despite the grief over the murder of family-members (including babies), the MOVE 9 remain strong and loyal to our Belief, our Belief in Life, the Teaching of our Founder, JOHN AFRICA. We have an uncompromising commitment to our Belief, which is what makes us a strong unified family, despite all this government have done to break us up and ultimately exterminate us.

It will take a massive amount of public pressure to force this rotten corrupt government to release the MOVE 9 and all political prisoners----What can YOU do to add to the pressure?

WRITE THE MOVE 9 AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESSES

Debbie Sims Africa #006307; Janet Hollaway Africa #006308 Janine Phillips Africa #6309
451 Fullerton Ave.
Cambridge Springs, PA. 16403-1238

William Phillips Africa #AM 4984; Delbert Orr Africa #AM 4985
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA. 18612

Michael Davis Africa #AM 4973; Charles Sims Africa #AM 4975
P.O. Box 244
Graterford, PA. 19426-0246

Edward Goodman Africa #AM 4974
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA. 17932

CONTACT US THROUGH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
THE MOVE ORGANIZATION
P.O. Box 19709 Phila., PA. 19143
610 499-0979
onamovellja@aol.com

[MsLioness]

http://www.onamove.com/move9/


WHO ARE THE MOVE 9?

The MOVE 9 are innocent men and women who have been in prison since August 8, 1978, following a massive police attack on us at our home in Powelton Village (Philadelphia). This was seven years before the government dropped a bomb on MOVE, killing 11 people, including 5 babies. The August 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE followed years of police brutality against MOVE and was a major military operation carried out by the Philadelphia police department under orders of then-mayor, Frank Rizzo, whose reputation for racism and brutality is well known; it followed him up thru the ranks of the police department to the police commissioner's office to the mayor's office. During this attack, heavy equipment was used to tear down the fence surrounding our home, and cops filled our home with enough tear gas to kill us and our babies, while SWAT teams covered every possible exit. We were all in the basement of our home, where we had 10 thousand pounds of water pressure per minute directed at us from 4 fire department water cannons (for a total of 40 thousand pounds of water pressure per minute). As the basement filled with nearly six feet of water we had to hold our babies and animals above the rising water so they wouldn't drown. Suddenly shots rang out (news reporters and others know the shots came from a house at 33rd and Baring St., not our home, because they actually saw the man shooting) and bullets immediately filled the air as police through-out the area opened fire on us. Officer James Ramp, who was standing above us on street-level and facing our home, was killed by a single bullet that struck him on a downward angle. This alone makes it impossible for MOVE to have killed Ramp, since we were below street level, in the basement. MOVE adults came out of the house carrying our children through clouds of tear gas, we were beat and arrested. Television cameras actually filmed the vicious beating of our brother Delbert Africa (3 of the 4 cops that beat Delbert went to trial on minor charges). Despite the photographic evidence, the trial judge (Stanley Kubacki) refused to let the jury render a verdict and himself acquitted the cops by directed order. Nine of us were charged with murder and related charges for the death of James Ramp. Within a few hours of our arrest, our home (which is supposed to be the "scene of the crime" and therefore evidence) was deliberately destroyed, demolished, by city officials when they were legally obligated to preserve all evidence, but we were held for trial anyway. We went to trial before Judge Edward Malmed who convicted all nine of us of third degree murder (while admitting that he didn't have "the faintest idea" who killed Ramp) and sentenced each of us to 30 - 100 years in prison. Judge Malmed also stated that MOVE people said we are a family so he sentenced us as a family; we were supposed to be on trial for murder, not for being a family. It is clear that the MOVE 9 are in prison for being committed MOVE members, not for any accusation of crime. Three other adults that were in the house on August 8th did not get the same treatment as those that this government knows are committed MOVE members. One had all charges dismissed against her in September of 1978 with the judge saying that there was no evidence that she was a committed MOVE member when the issue was supposed to be murder. The second one was held for trial but released on bail; she was acquitted. The third one was held for trial with no bail, convicted of conspiracy and given 10-23 years; she was paroled in 1994. It is obvious that everything depended on whether or not the courts thought it was dealing with a committed MOVE member, court decisions had nothing to do with the accusation of murder. It has been 25 years since the August 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE, 25 years of unjust of imprisonment, but despite the hardship of being separated from family-members, despite the grief over the murder of family-members (including babies), the MOVE 9 remain strong and loyal to our Belief, our Belief in Life, the Teaching of our Founder, JOHN AFRICA. We have an uncompromising commitment to our Belief, which is what makes us a strong unified family, despite all this government have done to break us up and ultimately exterminate us.

It will take a massive amount of public pressure to force this rotten corrupt government to release the MOVE 9 and all political prisoners----What can YOU do to add to the pressure?

WRITE THE MOVE 9 AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESSES

Debbie Sims Africa #006307; Janet Hollaway Africa #006308 Janine Phillips Africa #6309
451 Fullerton Ave.
Cambridge Springs, PA. 16403-1238

William Phillips Africa #AM 4984; Delbert Orr Africa #AM 4985
1000 Follies Rd.
Dallas, PA. 18612

Michael Davis Africa #AM 4973; Charles Sims Africa #AM 4975
P.O. Box 244
Graterford, PA. 19426-0246

Edward Goodman Africa #AM 4974
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA. 17932

CONTACT US THROUGH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
THE MOVE ORGANIZATION
P.O. Box 19709 Phila., PA. 19143
610 499-0979
onamovellja@aol.com

Thanks for the info, Sis Mamazen!!!!!!!!!!!

[nattyreb]

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news...e_hearing.html

MOVE members due for parole hearing

By Emilie Lounsberry

Inquirer Staff Writer

Seven MOVE members who have been behind bars since 1978 for their part in the shoot-out that killed Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp and injured seven others are up for parole soon - amid a swell of opposition from police and prosecutors.

The seven are scheduled for parole interviews in April, and it will then be up to the state Board of Probation and Parole to decide whether they would be able to walk out of prison. Five of nine votes would be required for parole to be granted.

"I don't think they should ever get out," said Thomas Hesson, 69, a retired police officer who was shot in the chest in the Aug. 8, 1978, confrontation. His wounds, he added, nearly cost him his life and ruined his career.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office also has weighed in, urging the board to require the defendants to serve the maximum of their 30- to 100-year prison terms.

"They got 30 to 100 for a reason," Deputy District Attorney John Delaney said yesterday.

He said he wrote a letter to the board asking in the "strongest possible terms" that parole be denied.

The seven were among nine MOVE members convicted in a 19-week trial in 1980 that, at the time, was the longest and most expensive in Pennsylvania history. An eighth defendant will be eligible for parole next year and a ninth died in prison.

All nine were found guilty of third-degree murder in the shooting death of Ramp, and the attempted murders of the others shot and injured that day, when police tried to evict 12 adults and 11 children from their headquarters at 33d and Pearl Streets in Powelton Village.

Prosecutors contended there was no doubt the fatal shot came from inside the MOVE house because a ballistics match between a weapon found in the house and bullet fragments in Ramp's body proved that the rifle killed him.

As Common Pleas Judge Edwin S. Malmed sentenced them, the defendants shouted obscenities at him.

The seven with scheduled parole interviews in April are: Delbert Orr Africa, Edward Goodman Africa, William Phillips Africa, Michael Davis Africa, Janet Hollaway Africa, Jeanene Phillips Africa and Debbie Sims Africa. Charles Sims Africa probably will have an interview in November; his minimum date is in February 2009.

They are held in state prisons across Pennsylvania, including Graterford and Dallas.

The 1978 confrontation was a pivotal moment in the city's torturous history with the radical group and ultimately set the stage for another disastrous event - the May 1985 conflagration that killed 11 MOVE members, including five children, and destroyed 62 houses along Osage Avenue. The 11 were killed after police dropped an incendiary device on the MOVE compound and decided to let it burn.

If released, some of the defendants might have some money waiting for them.

In 1990, the city agreed to pay $2.5 million to end a lawsuit brought by parents of the five children who died in the May 13, 1985, siege - including Delbert Orr Africa and Janet Holloway Africa for the death of their daughter, Delisha, 12; and William Phillips Africa and Jeanene Phillips Africa for the death of their son, Philip Delmar, 12.

Offenders are usually interviewed for parole consideration three months before they reach their minimum sentence. Parole can be granted at any time between the minimum and the maximum sentence. Over the course of the last year, the board granted parole in 61 percent of the cases it considered.

MOVE - which started out as a back-to-nature organization but which is known more for generating support for people it believes have become political prisoners - is not an acronym, and all members use the surname Africa.

Members of the group have long railed against the conviction of the nine, saying that prosecutors were never able to prove who fired the fatal shot.

MOVE member Ramona Africa said yesterday that she hoped the parole board doesn't force them to serve their maximums.

"There's no reason at all for them not to be paroled," said Africa, who served her maximum prison sentence related to charges filed after the 1985 MOVE bombing.

"We have no confidence in this system," she said. "Of course they want to come home. They've been away from their family for 30 years. But we never expect anything right from this system."

Paul Hetznecker, the lawyer who represented the MOVE members for years, said he hoped they would be paroled.

"It would be outrageous not to be released after all these years," Hetznecker said, adding that there was a "lack of evidence presented during the trial," especially about the three female defendants, who he said were in the basement trying to protect children during the confrontation.

But the city's law enforcement community hopes all the defendants will remain behind bars.

Michael G. Lutz, vice president of Lodge 5 of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, wrote a letter to the board urging that parole be rejected.

In the letter, Lutz evoked the memory of Ramp and also cited the three other officers who were shot and injured.

"May the courage of these officers never become a faded memory of the past, nor may the courage of Police Officer James Ramp be forever sealed in the silence of death," he wrote in the letter, which is on the FOP Web site.

Hesson, the retired officer wounded in the encounter that killed Ramp, said that even so many years later, the events remain unforgettable. "It never leaves your mind," he said.

See more photos from the first MOVE confrontation at http://go.philly.com/move
Contact staff writer Emilie Lounsberry at 215-854-4828 or elounsberry@phillynews.com.

[nattyreb]

Learn, learn, learn if ya don't already know, and re-fresh if ya already do:

Historical news footage + Bro. Mike Africa, Jr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm3AR...eature=related

More history w/Sis. Ramona Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KceYmm5nL_E

[nattyreb]

SAMPLE LETTER
==========

March 4, 2008


Regarding: 2008 Parole of Eight Prisoners:

Debbie Sims Africa #006307, Janet Holloway Africa #006308, Janine Phillips Africa #006309, Michael Davis Africa #AM-4973, Charles Sims Africa #AM-4975, William Phillips Africa #AM-4984, Delbert Orr Africa #AM-4985, and Edward Goodman Africa #AM-4974

Catherine C. McVey
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100
Harrisburg, PA 17104-2517

Dear Mrs. McVey,

Please parole Chuck, Debbie, Delbert, Eddie, Janet, Janine, Mike, and Phil Africa this year. They have not caused any major disciplinary problems during the past three decades. They have spent most of their lives in prison; please allow them to be a part, and contribute to, society as free citizens.

The incident which caused them to be incarcerated was a result of alleged non-criminal housing code violations. It escalated into violence. The sentencing judge stated publicly that he did not have the faintest idea who shot the one bullet that killed the one person that day, August 8, 1978. Merle Africa, who has died in prison, and these surviving eight have paid a terrible price for what happened on that day.

I am convinced that these individuals were, and are, committed to improving their lives and the world around them. They were living free of drugs and alcohol, eating healthy food and demonstrating for clean water and humane treatment of animals. These are not criminally minded people. Thirty years is more than enough for anything that they could have done. If anything, they were protecting their children and themselves from excessive force. Fire hoses, tear gas, and bullets not only blind and scare people, they can easily kill children. This is what they were experiencing as a result of their alleged housing code violations. They have certainly served enough time.

Please grant them all parole in 2008.

Respectfully,

( YOUR SIGNATURE )
Your Name
Your Address

[Akyeame Kwame]

will be in the mail tomorrow...

[nattyreb]

http://move9parole.blogspot.com/2008...etter-for.html

Call, Sign Petition, and Write a Letter for The MOVE 9!

SIGN THE PETITION / DOWNLOAD SAMPLE LETTER

Almost 30 years after their 1978 imprisonment, the eight remaining "MOVE 9" prisoners are now eligible for parole. April hearings are scheduled for Chuck, Debbie, Delbert, Eddie, Janet, Janine, Mike, and Phil Africa. In early April, they will be interviewed on an individual basis, and ultimately a majority 5/9 vote among the nine Parole Board Members will be needed for each prisoner's release on parole.

At this urgent time, MOVE is asking for support by writing letters, making telephone calls (717-787-5699), and signing the online petition that will be delivered to the Board later this month.

Along with Chairman Catherine C. McVey, the other eight Parole Board Members are Charles Fox, Michael L. Green, Jeffrey R. Imboden, Matthew T. Mangino, Benjamin A. Martinez, Gerard N. Massaro, Judy Viglione, Lloyd A. White.

It is best for individuals to personally send a letter to Chairman McVey, and if folks have the resources, to also send a copy to each of the other eight board members, at the same address.

[name of Board member]
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100
Harrisburg, PA 17104-2517
(717) 787-5699
WEBSITE

However, if individuals lack the resources, the letter can be sent to:

Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 30770
Philadelphia, PA, 19104

We will then send a copy of your letter to all Board Members and also each of the eight MOVE prisoners (so they can present the support letters to their interviewers).

These next few weeks are crucial. Please spread the word and help in any way you can!

For the latest news about the MOVE 9 Parole campaign, please visit:
move9parole.blogspot.com
onamove.com
Abu-Jamal-News.com