Mumia Abu-Jamal Essay, Research Paper

Edward Vassallo

Monologue

2/25/01

I don’t know if you heard but last week Ramona Africa spoke at Penn State University. She discussed the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a so-called political prisoner. If you’re from Philadelphia you’re probably familiar with these individuals. Africa was a member of the MOVE organization in Philadelphia, which is against all forms of government, and technology. Abu-Jamal was a radio journalist, a member of the Black Panther Party and of MOVE. He is a convicted cop killer and currently sits on death row.

Thomas Paine wrote, “It is an affront to treat falsehood with complacence.” Yet this man has conned people into believing he was framed by the Philadelphia Police Department. Celebrities Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine lend they’re support to Abu-Jamal. Colleges, such as Kent State, gave this murderer the honor of giving a commencement address to the graduating class.

In case you were interested in the facts, which many of his supports are not, here they are. In 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal shot Officer Daniel Faulkner in the back and again between the eyes, during a routine traffic stop. How do I know this? Five eyewitnesses testified to it. His legally registered gun was found on the scene with five spent shells. The bullet retrieved from the slain officer’s brain was traced to Abu-Jamal’s gun. Numerous people including anti-death penalty activists sympathetic to his case heard him say, “I shot the mother *censored*er and I hope the mother *censored*er dies.”

Do you believe he was framed? If you do I’ll tell to another. How about this? In 1997, Pamela Jenkins claimed that witness Cynthia White recanted her entire testimony and outlined a plot to frame Abu-Jamal. Miraculously, this conversation took place four years after Cynthia White died.

To support him you must buy into a conspiracy theory involving hundreds of people from the Philadelphia Police Department, to the city and state legislature. Would you take the side of a convicted killer over men and women who risk their lives day after day to ensure our safety? These people protect us from the scum of the earth and to shoot one of them down is disgusting to me. Abu-Jamal does not deserve his legal rights. According to the members of Justice For Daniel Faulkner, “Officer Danny Faulkner was murdered by Mumia Abu-Jamal, who shouldn’t be in an 8×10 foot cell. He should be 6 feet closer to hell.” So if you believe in an eye for an eye then you agree Mumia must die.