Monthly Archives: December 2020

Akiko Hoshino, Chair of the Hoshino Defense Committee (Japan), Letter to Governor Tom Wolf

Demand for Mumia-Abu Jamal’s release
December 29, 2020

Dear Governor Wolf,

I am Akiko Hoshino, Co-chair of Hoshino Defense Committee, and the wife
of the innocent prisoner Fumiaki Hoshino who died last year in prison
after 44 years detention. On November 14, 1971 he led a demonstration
against the Okinawa Reversion Agreement between the U.S and Japan and
was sentenced to indefinite term imprisonment for framed-up charge of
killing a policeman. There was no physical evidence at all; only forced
eyewitness testimonies of juvenile participants of the demonstration
were the incriminating evidence. The “most competent evidence” was
that a juvenile saw a man in beige jacket beating the policeman and he was
Hoshino. However, according to the physical evidence found out later,
Hoshino wore light blue jacket and gray trousers.

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OEA Statement on Colin Kaepernick’s Call for Mumia’s Freedom

The Oakland Education Association (OEA), representing nearly 2,800 educators in the Oakland Unified School District, applauds Colin Kaepernick’s statement calling for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. In a video statement, Kaepernick documented how nearly 40 years ago Abu-Jamal was framed for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer, framed by a police department notorious for its systematic racist brutality and for tampering with evidence to convict the innocent.

Kaepernick himself has been blackballed by the NFL for protesting police violence against the African American community since he first took a knee as an SF 49er. His courage in the forefront of anti-racist struggle inspired much of the NFL to take a knee, leading athletes to protest police violence and to boycott sporting events following the murder of George Floyd.

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