Mumia and the Mayor's race (The Next Mayor)

Whatever your opinion of Mumia Abu-Jamal, every Philadelphian knows: He will not go away. Ever. He haunts this town's news.

Why should the race for mayor be any different?

Catherine Lucey reports in today's Daily News that the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police has taken a strong stand against mayoral candidate and Congressman Chaka Fattah, because Fattah has publicly said that Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial.

“I would go as far as to say we will work against his campaign," FOP president Bobby Eddis said.

The FOP has 14,000 members. Eddis also said he would write other unions "explaining the significance" of the issue.

Fattah, to his credit, stuck to his stand.

“I fully respect and understand the position of the FOP,” he said in the story. “As a congressman or as a future mayor, I will continue to work hand in hand with the FOP." He added, "Sometimes standing up for constitutional rights is unpopular. But I swore an oath to uphold constitutional rights and it’s my duty to do that even when it’s unpopular.”

Catherine also interviewed the other Would-Be Mayors on the subject. None of them have drawn the same ire, but they've all got their opinions. Except Brady, who couldn't be reached for comment.

Comments (6)

Dave

One thing to keep in mind is that, from what I hear, some of the radical political organizations that Fattah appears to have ties to (his parents run the House of Umoja youth anti-violence program in
West Philadelphia, which has been reported to have ties to Dr. Maulana Karenga) are opposed to the imprisonment of African Americans under any circumstances.

While I'm not suggesting that I think Chaka Fattah subscribes to that ideology, it's possible that he has been in some way influenced by it, whether directly or indirectly.

Posted by Dave | December 1, 2006 9:42 AM

citizenthomas

This is interesting. Tigre Hill who directed "The Shame Of A City" is now working on a film about Mumia Abu Jamal with Gerald Posner who wrote the book "Case Closed" which argued(very persuasively) that Lee Harvery Oswald acted alone killing JFK. As he exposed the fraud of Philly and it's politicians in "The Shame Of A City" I hope he will do the same with the Mumia supporters in his new film.

Posted by citizenthomas | December 1, 2006 1:25 PM

Rick

The easiest way to rally racism in the City of Philadelphia is to mention Mumia Abu-Jamal. This is the same city that embraced the corruption of Frank Rizzo. This is the same city that FOP was synonymous with “Fascist Officials on Patrol” for many years. Why is it in 2006, we must continue to try to invoke fear, ignorance and racism in order to divide when given the current state of affairs of the city, country and world we should be attempting to galvanize ourselves in this Democratic process and embracing the privilege that goes along with it.

Not being a supporter of Mumia Abu-Jamal, I still feel that if the case against him is solid, just retry him and get it over with. It is that simple. Facts do not lie and if the absence of them bothers a group of individuals because of their personal biases, then they should stew in their opinion in social settings. Stand by your police department’s work and belief that justice has been done or your belief that the facts will extricate an innocent man. Either way, the most direct way of dealing with the ongoing situation is have another trial or accept it as a point of disagreement that will never be settled.

In essence just agree to disagree about how you feel about the case.

In a city can erect statues to fictional characters and individuals that stripped innocent men naked on the street and allowed police corruption to spread unopposed. If we are to constantly revisit the past, then let us open the vault and hold everyone accountable.

If we are to move forward, then let us, as a city embrace that fact that we have the right to disagree and move forward with issues of relevance not opinion and conjecture.

Posted by Rick | December 1, 2006 4:54 PM

Rick, I too hope that next year's elections are about who's the best candidate for the job, rather than race.

Posted by Dave | December 1, 2006 5:36 PM

The article in today's Inquirer is interesting. It contains a short recount of what's known to have happened Dec 9, 1981, as well as the fact that the case is currently being appealed through the court system.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16149513.htm

Posted by Dave | December 3, 2006 3:15 PM

seand

Although Mumia's original trial was hardly a benchmark for justice - a lot of that had to do with Mumia's irrational behaviour in the courtroom, insisting on hiring John Africa to be his lawyer, etc. - i.e. Mumia's bad choices. Luckily constitutionally we have a lengthy and through appeals process - which Mumia has taken full advantage of - and continues to do so.

Let's be clear - by saying that he is taking an unpopular stance in support of constitutional rights - Fattah is implying that Mumia hs been denied the same cosntitutional appeals process available to other people convicted of a crime. That's simply not true. Its largely Mumia's fault that he turned his first trial into a zoo and he's not the only person convicted of acrime to that.

In this instance Fattah is introducing a vague allegation of some vast racial conspiracy to deny Mumia his right to an appeal. That's fiction calculated to play on racial perceptions plain and simple. It matches perfectly with Fattah insisting 20-some convictions into the corruption probe that it was all about going after Street because of his skin color. At this point both postions are both patently false and obviously racially divisive.

Posted by seand | December 4, 2006 10:52 AM

Comments (6)

Post a comment