The People’s Organization for Progress hosted its 23rd consecutive Justice Monday Rally on the Fourth of July to demand federal investigations into four active police shooting cases in New Jersey and honor political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Peter Rodino Federal Building in Newark.
The four cases are the police shooting deaths of Abdul Kamal in Irvington, the police shooting death of Kashad Ashford in Lyndhurst, the police shooting death of Jerame Reid in Bridgeton and the police shooting of 14-year-old Radazz Hearns in Trenton. Hearns survived his violent ordeal.
The rally took on another significance because it also marks the 34th anniversary of the conviction and death sentence of Abu-Jamal for the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.
Abu-Jamal has been enduring a medical crisis over the past year, and prison officials are reportedly refusing to acknowledge and treat his illness, hepatitis C.
P.O.P. is a long-time supporter of Abu-Jamal. Lawrence Hamm, the founding chairman, has also visited him in the aftermath of the banning of the documentary “Mumia Long Distance Revolutionary” in Newark.