The state is pressing for a murder indictment against Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. The one-time Black Panther Party leader, then known as H. Rap Brown, is charged with killing a Fulton County sheriff's deputy and wounding another officer on March 16.

Al-Amin is currently being held in solitary confinement in a Montgomery, Alabama, jail cell and is fighting extradition to Georgia. He faces federal fugitive charges after being captured in Lowndes County, Alabama, on March 20.

Once found there, as many as 150 Georgia and Alabama police, FBI SWAT teams, and other federal cops surrounded a shack where Al-Amin was hiding. Overhead was an Alabama National Guard helicopter with Forward-Looking Infrared Radar.

In the aftermath of the March 16 shooting of the two police officers, the Atlanta West End community was the target of a massive police manhunt. The 100-officer force was quadrupled March 17 when police deputy Richard Kinchen died.

The front-page banner headline of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution March 18 read, "Officers vow to find former Black Panther." Residents say the Black working-class community has been the target of cop harassment for several years. Some are asking why the two police deputies waited until dark to serve Al-Amin with an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court when he lives, works, and is active in a Muslim mosque in the West End.

The March 21 funeral of Kinchen became a mobilization of uniformed police officers. At each of the 12 county lines, along the 180 miles to Tifton, Georgia, where Kinchen was buried, a different set of cop cars with lights flashing accompanied the hearse to the next county line.

"Can he possibly get a fair trial? Does he even have a chance with all of this going on?" asked a meat packer at the Hormel plant gate the day of the funeral. "As for the rest of us, we better mind our p's and q's."

Al-Amin is being presumed guilty and tried daily in the local press. His case is discussed in workplaces throughout the city, where many workers doubt that he will get a fair trial. The police and local politicians have made progress in their propaganda campaign, reflected in the fact that some argue that if Al-Amin killed a "peace officer," he should get what's coming to him.

The case is also provoking discussion at Georgia State University and other area campuses. Tarwiyah Thomas, a senior, said, "Al-Amin is being exploited by the media. They claim he has two wives. What does that have to do with anything, other than most people would view it as a negative, if it were true. They bring up the Black Panthers, which is another way for them to portray him as a negative."

Supporters of Al-Amin are demanding that he be presumed innocent until proven guilty. They also point out that Al-Amin was set up in 1995 on aggravated assault charges. The man who claimed he was shot by Al-Amin later recanted and said he was pressured by authorities to finger Al-Amin.

Arlene Rubinstein is a member of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.  
 
 
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