Free Werc Abdur-Rahman! Africans have the right to bear arms!
The Issue
On Sunday, August 8, 2026, our comrade and Philadelphia mayoral candidate, Wali “Werc” Abdur-Rahman, was arrested in Jackson County, West Virginia, and charged with the misdemeanor offense of “Persons Prohibited from Possessing a Firearm.” He was arrested as a result of what we believe was an illegal search conducted by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
Werc is a truck driver by occupation and was stopped by police on Interstate 77 while driving his 26-foot box truck, carrying freight from Daytona Beach, Florida, to Norwalk, Ohio.
Reportedly, the police stopped Werc because the roof of his truck was damaged. During the stop, officers demanded to see his license, insurance, registration, as well as the delivery’s bill of lading.
However, there was no justification to search him. According to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, police generally cannot search someone during a traffic stop without probable cause or another legally valid basis for the search.
Driving with a damaged roof is not, by itself, probable cause for a search.
During the search, officers found a pistol on Werc and promptly arrested him before impounding his truck and transporting him to the Jackson County Jail. There, he was arraigned and formally informed of his charge and bail amount, which was set at $7,500. He was then transported to the South Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility, where he is currently being held.
On Wednesday, August 11, Werc was transported back to Jackson County court for an additional hearing. It was there that he met with his public defender, who informed him that the district attorney had offered Werc a plea deal of 30 days in jail if he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of illegal possession of a firearm.
If he turned down the deal, Werc was told, the prosecutor would likely upgrade the charge to a felony due to a predicate felony conviction for aggravated assault on a Philadelphia police officer in 2009.
Werc turned down the plea offer because he was aware that evidence obtained by police through an illegal search and seizure may be excluded from trial. Therefore, his decision to reject the plea deal was part of a strategy to file a motion to suppress the evidence—namely, Werc’s gun.
Subsequently, Werc instructed his lawyer to request a suppression hearing. The date of that hearing has not yet been set.
In the United States, where Africans make up approximately 13% of the country’s population but are disproportionately represented in the prison population, we believe it is necessary to examine the role that racial profiling and political repression may play in cases such as this one.
Therefore, we are certain that the police politically targeted Werc for a search not because of his damaged roof, but because his truck was covered with political messaging. The sign on the back of his truck states:
"werc4mayor.org — No Paycheck for the Police — Sign the Petition."
This is the sign that the cops saw on the back of werc's truck when they pulled him over. the political nature of the illegal search is evident!
In support of this point, the following question must be raised to the arresting officer: “How many white people whom you stopped for a traffic violation did you search throughout your career?”
We are certain that the colonial police force in this country has always had an obsession with denying Africans our supposedly constitutional right to bear arms, hence the illegal search and seizure of Werc’s weapon.
Most importantly, we know that the U.S. colonial police force, along with the white capitalist ruling class and their sellout neo-colonial dogs, are among the most vicious opponents of the Werc 4 Mayor campaign currently being waged in Philadelphia. These reactionary forces understand that our victory in the 2027 mayoral election represents an immediate threat to their ability to continue extracting billions of dollars from taxpayers across the country in the form of police department budgets, the bulk of which goes toward police salaries and paychecks.
In Philadelphia, the annual police department budget exceeds $900 million. Of that amount, $877 million goes toward salaries for police department staff and personnel—a workforce of no more than 5,000 people.
In contrast, the city workers of Philadelphia receive only $550 million for their salary budget—a sum that must be divided among a workforce of more than 35,000 workers. The economic situation faced by city workers in Philadelphia is so deplorable that sanitation workers had to go on strike for two weeks last year just to secure the small pay raise that brought their salary budget to $550 million.
The Werc 4 Mayor 2027 campaign is absolutely committed to rewriting the city budget in a way that eliminates police salaries and reallocates that money toward what we have determined to be the real security concerns of the people: food, housing, transportation, child care, laundromats, and other essential goods and services necessary to sustain life.
This is the greater context in which we must understand Brother Werc Rahman’s arrest, and it is the context in which we all must understand the need to unite with the struggle to free Werc from all charges brought by the colonial state.
We urge all comrades and supporters of the fight for Black liberation and self-determination for all oppressed peoples to sign the petition on our website, to join and help build the International African Workers Council, and to call the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office demanding the immediate dismissal of the charge against Comrade Wali “Werc” Abdur-Rahman.
The contact information is as follows:
Prosecuting Attorney: D. Kyle Moore
Phone: (304) 373-2270
Fax: (304) 372-3094
Email: kyle.moore@jacksoncountywv.com
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 800
Ripley, WV 25271
Note to the reader: Since this article was written, Comrade Werc has been released from jail on bail, and the district attorney has, in fact, escalated the charge to a felony punishable by more than one year in prison. The motion-to-suppress hearing has been scheduled for October 8, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., before Magistrate Laura Pursley at the Jackson County Magistrate Court, located at:
100 Main St.
P.O. Box 368
Ripley, WV 25271
We encourage everyone to call Magistrate Pursley at (304) 373-2313.
SIGN THE PETITION
CONTACT WERC @ 267-325-9177 OR SEND US AN EMAIL @ bccp.uhuru@gmail.com
19
The Issue
On Sunday, August 8, 2026, our comrade and Philadelphia mayoral candidate, Wali “Werc” Abdur-Rahman, was arrested in Jackson County, West Virginia, and charged with the misdemeanor offense of “Persons Prohibited from Possessing a Firearm.” He was arrested as a result of what we believe was an illegal search conducted by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
Werc is a truck driver by occupation and was stopped by police on Interstate 77 while driving his 26-foot box truck, carrying freight from Daytona Beach, Florida, to Norwalk, Ohio.
Reportedly, the police stopped Werc because the roof of his truck was damaged. During the stop, officers demanded to see his license, insurance, registration, as well as the delivery’s bill of lading.
However, there was no justification to search him. According to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, police generally cannot search someone during a traffic stop without probable cause or another legally valid basis for the search.
Driving with a damaged roof is not, by itself, probable cause for a search.
During the search, officers found a pistol on Werc and promptly arrested him before impounding his truck and transporting him to the Jackson County Jail. There, he was arraigned and formally informed of his charge and bail amount, which was set at $7,500. He was then transported to the South Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility, where he is currently being held.
On Wednesday, August 11, Werc was transported back to Jackson County court for an additional hearing. It was there that he met with his public defender, who informed him that the district attorney had offered Werc a plea deal of 30 days in jail if he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of illegal possession of a firearm.
If he turned down the deal, Werc was told, the prosecutor would likely upgrade the charge to a felony due to a predicate felony conviction for aggravated assault on a Philadelphia police officer in 2009.
Werc turned down the plea offer because he was aware that evidence obtained by police through an illegal search and seizure may be excluded from trial. Therefore, his decision to reject the plea deal was part of a strategy to file a motion to suppress the evidence—namely, Werc’s gun.
Subsequently, Werc instructed his lawyer to request a suppression hearing. The date of that hearing has not yet been set.
In the United States, where Africans make up approximately 13% of the country’s population but are disproportionately represented in the prison population, we believe it is necessary to examine the role that racial profiling and political repression may play in cases such as this one.
Therefore, we are certain that the police politically targeted Werc for a search not because of his damaged roof, but because his truck was covered with political messaging. The sign on the back of his truck states:
"werc4mayor.org — No Paycheck for the Police — Sign the Petition."
This is the sign that the cops saw on the back of werc's truck when they pulled him over. the political nature of the illegal search is evident!
In support of this point, the following question must be raised to the arresting officer: “How many white people whom you stopped for a traffic violation did you search throughout your career?”
We are certain that the colonial police force in this country has always had an obsession with denying Africans our supposedly constitutional right to bear arms, hence the illegal search and seizure of Werc’s weapon.
Most importantly, we know that the U.S. colonial police force, along with the white capitalist ruling class and their sellout neo-colonial dogs, are among the most vicious opponents of the Werc 4 Mayor campaign currently being waged in Philadelphia. These reactionary forces understand that our victory in the 2027 mayoral election represents an immediate threat to their ability to continue extracting billions of dollars from taxpayers across the country in the form of police department budgets, the bulk of which goes toward police salaries and paychecks.
In Philadelphia, the annual police department budget exceeds $900 million. Of that amount, $877 million goes toward salaries for police department staff and personnel—a workforce of no more than 5,000 people.
In contrast, the city workers of Philadelphia receive only $550 million for their salary budget—a sum that must be divided among a workforce of more than 35,000 workers. The economic situation faced by city workers in Philadelphia is so deplorable that sanitation workers had to go on strike for two weeks last year just to secure the small pay raise that brought their salary budget to $550 million.
The Werc 4 Mayor 2027 campaign is absolutely committed to rewriting the city budget in a way that eliminates police salaries and reallocates that money toward what we have determined to be the real security concerns of the people: food, housing, transportation, child care, laundromats, and other essential goods and services necessary to sustain life.
This is the greater context in which we must understand Brother Werc Rahman’s arrest, and it is the context in which we all must understand the need to unite with the struggle to free Werc from all charges brought by the colonial state.
We urge all comrades and supporters of the fight for Black liberation and self-determination for all oppressed peoples to sign the petition on our website, to join and help build the International African Workers Council, and to call the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office demanding the immediate dismissal of the charge against Comrade Wali “Werc” Abdur-Rahman.
The contact information is as follows:
Prosecuting Attorney: D. Kyle Moore
Phone: (304) 373-2270
Fax: (304) 372-3094
Email: kyle.moore@jacksoncountywv.com
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 800
Ripley, WV 25271
Note to the reader: Since this article was written, Comrade Werc has been released from jail on bail, and the district attorney has, in fact, escalated the charge to a felony punishable by more than one year in prison. The motion-to-suppress hearing has been scheduled for October 8, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., before Magistrate Laura Pursley at the Jackson County Magistrate Court, located at:
100 Main St.
P.O. Box 368
Ripley, WV 25271
We encourage everyone to call Magistrate Pursley at (304) 373-2313.
SIGN THE PETITION
CONTACT WERC @ 267-325-9177 OR SEND US AN EMAIL @ bccp.uhuru@gmail.com
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Petition created on September 15, 2026