The next Monday, the building that houses the CORE Collective and the Pensacola Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal were also served with similar building code violation notices. The address for the collectives was prominently posted on the front of the pamphlets we made and distributed for the Feb 28 demonstration. After talking it over we decided then that it was most likely not a coincidence at all and that we were being targeted for the Mumia protests of the previous week. There were no SWAT teams busting through the doors of our homes, or federal agents holding us at gunpoint, but it was no less an intimidation technique used to suppress dissent. Pensacola is a not really a big city.
Activists are often very visible and, thus, can easily be targeted after an action.
This was more than a coincidence. Six months ago, a police presence was felt strongly in all of our demonstrations during the Mumia Awareness Week in September. We had several police attend teach-ins, rallies, and even poetry readings that were in support of Mumia. The Fraternal Order of Police coincidently had their national conference an hour from Pensacola only weeks before the last demonstrations. At the conference, Mumia was a hot topic of discussion.