Comics

Land of Opportunity

by Ben Passmore

Comic opens with a dark Philadelphia skyline. Narration reads: “Around the fall of 2024 a brother named Cush’mir McBride, along with Nassar McFall and Kamar Thomspon, bombed several ATMs in north Philadelphia to get at the money inside.” Three illustrated panels show a Wawa, a Target, and a Wells Fargo. Below each reads, “They hit a Wawa…a Target…and a Wells Fargo. According to police they got about 400k all together.” The title explodes across the bottom: Land of Opportunity.

Posters hold signs reading “WALTER” and “GEORGE.” Narration says: “Cush’mir and his friends were hitting these ATMs while hundreds of other Philadelphians were in the streets clashing with the police over another public murder of a Black man.” Panels show: “Walter Wallace was gunned down by police while having some kind of mental health crisis.” “He’d been storming around his block with a knife…” “...and his family called the police to de-escalate the situation.” Beneath the scenes: “BOOM BOOM BOOM!” The skyline is now upside down, with narration reading: “The upheaval that followed tied the police up so much, they were slow to respond to other crimes…like ATM bombings. By the end of the night 90 people were arrested and 50 cops were injured.”

A character explains how ATM bombings would work. In the background, the three men are in the act of bombing the ATM. Word bubbles say: “Bombing an ATM is actually pretty simple. You don't even need a high explosive to damage the exterior shell of the machine to get at the money inside them.” “ATM bombers in Philly tend to use M-class (M-80 to M-1000) fireworks, which are legal to own in Pennsylvania. They're often called ‘quarter sticks’ because they resemble a stick of dynamite.” “But they don’t contain the highly explosive nitroglycerin that marks dynamite dynamite. They're just a small cardboard tube with 10 or more grams of flash powder, something you’d find in a flash grenade.” Images show people inserting fireworks into ATMs, which explode with a large “BOOM!” Final panel: “...and then use hammers, crowbars, or whatever to open the machine up the rest of the way.”

Narration explains the scale of ATM bombings in Philadelphia in 2020: “A lot of people were bombing ATMs in Philly in 2020. Over 50 machines were blown up during riots and protests against the police violence. There were more bombings of ATMs in the city than in the whole rest of the country that year.” Panels show a figure craking into and stealing money from an ATM. “After Cush’mir and a couple of other folks were arrested, tried, and convicted on charges related to bombing, police chief Danielle Outlaw claimed they were part of an ‘organized’ and ‘coordinated attack’ on the city’s businesses.” i. Midde panels: “There were definitely all kinds of spontaneous attacks on shopping malls and various shopping districts.” “Folks smashed windows and painted anit-police slogans on business, while others looted the insides.” “One man even stole a blonde wig and a forklift to pull a safe right out a Rittenhouse business in broad daylight! All of that said, they never proved there was an organization behind any of the looting. Seems like a lot of folks just saw a rare opportunity and took it.” ii. Bottom panels: “Attorney General of Philadelphia Josh Shapiro said, ‘We will not allow this movement to be co-opted by opportunists or people who cause violent distractions.’” Final panel shows a smug police figure beside an ATM as narration continues: “The word ‘opportunists’ stood out to me because I’ve been thinking about opportunity lately. We live in the Land of Opportunity, don’t we? Why doesn’t that feel true, at least not for everyone?”

Narration describes Cush’mir’s 2023 appearance in the conservative blog Gateway Pundit. The title of the blog post reads: “Here is His Harrowing Story.” Panels show flashbacks as narration continues: “In the article Cush’mir told a horrific story about his abuse in federal prison by guards.” “According to him he’d tried to slip some food to a prominent Jan. 6th prisoner, Ryan Samsel, and was brutally beaten by prison guards in retaliation.” Visual panels show a hand offering good, followed by an image of guards violently beating a prisoner on the floor. “Cush’mir said they beset him so bad he lost a tooth and was left with permanent injuries to his leg.” Additional panels show the scene of January 6th at the capitol, “Cush’mir wasn’t at the US Capitol on Jan 6th when Samsel collaborated with prominent Proud Boys to breath the grounds in order to overturn the presidential election. That’s not how they know each other.” “He said he knew Samuel from ‘the streets’ and shared his love for Trump, allegedly making him a target inside the prison, though it doesnt seem like they grew up or lived anywhere near each other.” Map graphic shows ‘DELCO’ and ‘YEADON’ linking the top men, with a distance of 8 and a half hours between them.

Narration interrogates why Cush’mir may have been beaten up by prison guards. Panels show exaggerated angry guards holding batons and beating someone off-panel. “But whey would the prison guards beat Cush’mir for his political views?” “Despite describing himself as a ‘Law and Order’ president, Trump was actually pretty unpopular with federal prison workers by 2020.” Further narration: “This was due to Trump’s attack on federal workers, and his conspiracies around the death of disgusting rich guy Jeffrey Epstein that implied incompetence on the part of federal corrections officers.” “But Trump was mostly opposed by the union themselves, less so by individual guards. There was still decent support among federal prison guards.” “Mind you, guards abuse inmates all the time. But, I’m not sure how likely it would be they’d beat up Cush’mir over being pro-Trump.” Final panels show three pairs of boots: “Later Cush’mir would file a complaint against several prison guards for beating him and throwing him into solitary confinement, otherwise known as the SHU.” “Theres no mention of the guards attacking him for his political views that I could see. The guards themselves claim Cush’mir was put in the SHU for trying to bribe them. To be honest, I don’t think I believe either side on this one.”

Set against a white background with falling dollar bills and talking ATMs, the narrator reflects on the moralizing of Black opportunity post-2020. Speech bubbles read: “So you’re wondering…whats all this about? What lesson or message am I pulling from the ashes of 2020 and what can it portend for 2025? Anyone talking about Black crime this much in mixed company, i.e. around non-Black people, is usually using it with some kind of agenda in mind. Like I said, I’ve been thinking a lot about opportunity in this country and the uneven moralizing about who’s allowed to take advantage of them. Despite the impact the George Floyd protests were supposed to have on the country, nothing has changed. Well…thats not entirely true, for a brief moment some people got new opportunities. Money started flowing to the Black bourgeoisie, the upwardly mobile Blacks. We saw well-funded art, articles, professorships, podcasts, openings, or managerial positions that could represent the ‘Black experience’ for white people.”

The comic visually contrasts two groups: one in silhouette holding signs like “Book Deal,” “New Position,” “Podcast,” and “Low-Income Empowerment Nonprofit,” while the other shows a lone figure in a hoodie running. Narration reads: “There were many opportunists in 2020…but only the ones who had the least to gain from the status quo were criminalized. Someone like Cush’mir, an ATM bomber at a BLM protest, doesnt inhabit a Blackness that could be sold to the non-profit industrial complex or to guilty liberals. So maybe thats why he tried to sell it to the Right.” Below is a grayscale drawing of Gov. Josh Shapiro with a label: “Anti-Genocide Protest on Campus – Gov Josh Shapiro (D) Pennsylvania.” Speech bubble next to him reads: “If this were people pressed up for KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who are African-American in our communities.” Narration at the bottom reflects: “Presented with no options, no meaningful struggle, for real change in this country, can we blame people like Cush’mir for acting as cynically as everyone else?”

Another reflective page led by talking ATMs. The narrator challenges American mythology around opportunity. Speech bubbles say: “Who started the rumor that this was a land of opportunity anyway? Apparently the phase ‘Land of Opportuntiy’ was first used in print by H.L. Mencken in his 1922 article On Being American. You’d assume that this article was all about the bright possibilities of any person to get access to the American dream, given how the phrase is optimistically intoned by capitalism’s pundits. Let me read you a section. ‘Here in this Eden of clowns, with the highest rewards of clowning theoretically open to every boy boy…here in the very citadel of democracy we found and cherish a clown dynasty!’ The article is a damning monologue on how deluded this country’s rulers are, but someone still managed to pull some pro-captalism propaganda from it. Which sounds about right.”

A Wells Fargo building with two ATMs sits in grayscale. A crow perches on top. A dark snake slithers over one ATM. Thought bubbles and narration reflect a concluding tone. Speech bubbles say: “I don’t care about an ATM bombing. In fact, I like them. They are beautifully honest. I could tell you a long story about who owns these machines, what they stole and from who for what, and how country creates even more opportunities for legal theft. But can we just stop pretending there are any virtues inherent to this place? Let’s finally be honest with ourselves. Let’s be all the way real. Let’s finally make our own opportunity.”

Ben Passmore is the author and illustrator of the comics Your Black Friend and Other Strangers (2018) and the Eisner Award-winning Sports Is Hell (2020). His latest graphic novel, Black Arms to Hold You Up, will be released in 2025 by Pantheon.

FROM Volume 74, Numbers 1 & 2

Issue 74.1-2, Spring 2025

Land of Opportunity

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