by DR. JARED A. BALL
Remember, it was reported that Lynne Stewart, for example, was likely given such a harsh sentence not because of her particular alleged “crime,” but because she was seen by the judge as insufficiently repentant.
I received an email the other day from a veteran political activist. It read, “Cynthia’s pops died today, Marilyn Buck was released, Lynne Stewart got 10 years and so did Sundiata Acoli. Herman Bell was denied parole again. What a roller coaster.” “Cynthia’s pop,” is James Edwards “Billy” McKinney, a former member of the Georgia State legislature and Atlanta policeman. McKinney, as Bruce Dixon has explained, was a cop in Atlanta “when Black police officers couldn’t arrest white people.” And, of course, he was the father of former Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney. Marilyn Buck, a white supporter of the Black Liberation Movement who was convicted for (among other things) having aided in the escape of Assata Shakur, was released after more than 25 years in prison. But people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 10 years for her defense of an accused “terrorist” which some say is a death sentence given her age and health. Black Panther and Black Liberation Movement veterans Sundiata Acoli and Herman Bell were both given 10 more years in prison and denied parole respectively. And this is that “roller coaster.” The tiniest of good news, the release of one political prisoner, is horribly balanced against the exchange for another and the further entrenchment of suffering for two more amidst the loss of a father, activist and frontline progressive.
Black Agenda Report for more