yesterday we rallied in support of jalil muntaqim’s parole. jalil is a black panther who’s been incarcerated for 44 years as part of the covert FBI program known as cointelpro. this illegal program was exposed in 1971 thru a raid on an FBI office in media, PA, and the church commission hearings in the US Senate in 1975.
jalil’s 9th parole hearing is coming up in mid june and so we gathered together to support him. there were about 50 people at the rally. many of us have met jalil at attica and know first hand what an asset he would be to our community.
rochester police found out about the protest by monitoring facebook. they cordoned off the street where we were supposed to gather and rerouted traffic so that no cars would be able to drive by and see our message. it created huge delays and involved heavy highway traffic. they positioned police cars along a quadrant and surrounded us completely. a police officer videotaped us unabashedly for the 1-1 1/2 hours that we were there, with another officer standing guard behind him. their canine unit had been called in, so we decided to leave together as a group for more safety.
this is the creepiest experience i’ve ever had as being part of a peaceful group of people simply supporting a political prisoner’s parole. it’s obvious to me that things are changing. we are becoming an increasingly terrifying, tightly monitored, oppressive police state. we cannot afford more of the same. pls think about that when u vote.
