The family of Mumia Abu-Jamal is demanding to see him after he had a “medical emergency” and is in intensive care.

They say the incident occurred at 1pm Monday at the State Correctional Institution in Mahanoy, Pennsylvania. He’s now at Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville.

Prison Radio – a website that broadcasts Mumia’s rantings from behind bars – reports SCI Mahanoy prison officials are “blocking” the family from visiting him.

“We’re concerned, about as concerned as it gets, about Mumia’s health,” Bret Grote, Mumia’s lawyer, tells the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He claims there were three prison guards outside the ICU room where the former death row inmate was being treated.

Abu-Jamal has achieved mythical status among leftist agitators in recent years.

Students at Vermont’s Goddard College chose the cop killer to be their commencement keynote speaker.

“Choosing Mumia as their commencement speaker, to me, shows how this newest group of Goddard graduates expresses their freedom to engage and think radically and critically in a world that often sets up barriers to do just that,” Goddard College Interim President Bob Kenny said last September.

California’s Oakland Unified School District had a lesson plan in which students compared Mumia to Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Critically examine a possible parallel between Martin Luther King, Jr., and someone else many believe is currently targeted by the U.S. government, Mumia Abu-Jamal,” the lesson plan read.

It continued:

“The media, prison system and law enforcement organizations have censored Mumia Abu Jamal.

“On one hand, there have been occasional stories in print and broadcast media about Mumia Abu-Jamal. On the other, despite the widespread support for Abu-Jamal that has made his case the most renown (sic) and controversial of death penalty cases in the world today, these stories are extremely rare and always refer to him as a ‘convicted cop-killer.’ And despite his prolific writings published in several books, none of his work can be found in mainstream media.

“Commentaries by him that were to be broadcast by National Public Radio were cancelled before they had a chance to be aired, under intense pressure from the right wing, including the Fraternal Order of Police.”

The lesson plan was authored by Craig Gordon, a middle school teacher at OUSD and a teachers union leader. Previously, Gordon organized an annual “teach-in” to tell students about the cop killer serving a life sentence.

Daniel Faulkner – the Philadelphia police officer executed by Abu-Jamal in 1981 – wasn’t available for comment.