The Mumia Circus Comes To Town

(My favorite Mumia supporter at work)

Yet another hearing is fast approaching in what appears to be another twist in the seemingly endless travels of Mumia’s case up and down the judiciary.



Oral arguments are scheduled on Thursday, May 17, 2007. Counsel will be allotted 30 minutes oral argument time for each side, pursuant to Rule 12(6) of the Rules of this Circuit. Court will convene at 9:30 a.m. in The Ceremonial Courtroom (1st Floor, U.S. Courthouse, 6th & Market Sts.)



There is no need for me to attempt to make some kind of legal update here, as author John Hayden has already done so recently on this blog, and did so with much more precision and clarity than could I ever attempt to.

So, instead of that, I will instead focus on the impending spectacle that will, like Jamal events in the past, further demonstrate just how creepy and superficial those who still support Mumia are.

A complete list of "stars" who will be attending the festivities has not yet been released by the Jamal fan club, but we do know that former Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney will be in attendance, as will actorvist Danny Glover.

I know I am impressed.



A disgraced wash-up, with an anti-Semite for a father teaming up with an aging actor desperate for attention. It almost sounds like filming for the next installment of "Lethal Weapon" could start at the steps a Philadelphia courthouse.

We should be so lucky.

One should also expect the usual band of racial hucksters, wannabe anarchists, and an army of aging Marxists decrying the "capitalist system" while they shamelessly peddle their newspapers, all of which invariably have the word "worker" somewhere in their title.

There will also be the Farrakhan devotees and the "Black Power" types who are rather impatiently waiting for the second coming of Huey Newton.

We should not forget either that Pam Africa and whatever MOVE cultists that she can recruit to come with her will also be in attendance. And we all know that the highlight of the day will be when the balding Mrs. Africa will stumble up on stage sporting her signature "I just left my crack-house for the first time in a week" look, and than proceed to scream the word "motherfucker" in as many ways and variations as humanly possible.

Oh, how I do not miss those days.

Thankfully, unlike in the 90's when thousands of people would descend on Philadelphia to scream for freedom for Mumia, there will likely only be a few hundred "dead-enders", the Jamal movement long ago reaching it’s point of diminishing returns. This fact along with the sturdy realization that much of Philadelphia has pretty much had it with the scam that is the Jamal movement, allows me to sleep easy at night.

That said, I would be remiss not to point out that the Faulkner family is being subjected to the opening of old wounds by people whose interest lay not in justice, but in the pursuance of a political ideology. This vulgar deification of the man that they know killed Officer Faulkner must represent atrocity on top of heartbreak.

It is rather shameful that Daniel Faulkner’s name will make appearances throughout this latest episode of absurdity only as a back-drop to the worship of Jamal. For Mumia loyalists Faulkner is more a prop than a human being. He is, depending upon who you talk to and when, either a decent cop who was about to lay down the hammer on a gang of corrupt Officers, or he was a racist, violent, maniac who got what was coming to him. It is as if he is just a name to be placed in whatever conspiracy theory is fashionable at the time. There seems to be no acceptance that this was a man who had dreams, hopes, aspirations, or value as a person.

It seems impossible for Mumia supporters to accept the fact that Faulkner was a human being who was doing a difficult job, in a difficult place, and who was murdered by a man who let his rage, or psychosis, or cult addiction, get the better of him. It is as if having Faulkner dead is not enough.



For Jamal supporters to be satisfied, he must be killed in various situations, under sorted circumstances again and again for the pleasure of Mr. Jamal and his revolving door of legal advisors.

I recall very clearly when I was with MOVE the mocking derision hurled at the Faulkner family in general, and Maureen Faulkner in particular. It was said often around MOVE that Danny Faulkner was a wife-beater and a whore-monger and that on the night Maureen was told of his death that she closed the blinds and celebrated.

As cruel and unabashedly tasteless is MOVE’s sense of entertainment, they have also cashed in on the whole "Free Mumia" phenomena with similar gusto. They will no doubt be attempting to squeeze any bit of cash that they can during this week’s hearings while pimping the idea that Jamal’s life is in so much danger, without mentioning that the only people executed in PA have been those who have abandoned their appeals.

Whatever one thinks of the death penalty, it is pretty obvious that Mumia is much more likely to die of a heart attack than he is to meet his end at the hands of an executioner.

To see some of his deluded supporters at work check out the following:

EMAJ EDUCATORS FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL 12 Years Educating and Organizing for Abu-Jamal and Justice Contacts: Professor Mark Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary, 845 893-5721, at mark.taylor@ptsem.edu; Prof. Johanna Fernandez (Carnegie Mellon), jfernan1@andrew.cmu.edu; Tameka L. Cage, (Bucknell Univ), tlc022@bucknell.edu . Institutions for identification purposes only.

EDUCATORS TO HOLD TEACH-IN ON MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
SCHOLARS OF HISTORY, LAW, JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION GATHER IN PHILLY

May 16 Teach-In on Eve of Key Arguments in Courthouse on May 17
Princeton, NJ. May 11, 2007. Key scholars from Pennsylvania and around the country will meet in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, May 16, to conduct a Teach-In on the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner, in a trial so controversial that public outcries for Abu-Jamal’s new trial, and even release, have become ever more frequent in human rights communities. Amnesty International wrote that "justice would be best served by a new trial."

One of the Teach-In organizers, Mark Taylor of Princeton, said, "It is important that the U.S. Third Circuit Court will be hearing, on May 17, three of Mumia’s claims about his denial of due process in the original trial." Another organizer of the Teach-In, Johanna Fernandez of Carnegie Mellon University, added, "In his case, the pillars that guarantee a fair trial were terribly broken: The presiding judge was openly racist, and Abu-Jamal was convicted without hard evidence."

Present at the Teach-In will be German literature professor, Michael Schiffman of the University of Heidelberg, who has published information on photos taken early at the crime scene, potentially exculpatory for Abu-Jamal, which were not used by police and prosecutors at the original trial. Also present will be Kathleen Cleaver (law professor, Emory University), Linn Washington (journalism, Temple University), Joy James (Africana Studies, Williams College), Tameka L. Cage (English, Bucknell University, and on EMAJ council) and Dave Lindorff (independent journalist).

**** DREXEL UNIVERSITY ** Matheson Hall, Rm. 109 (Patton Auditorium)*** 32nd & Market Streets. West Philadelphia, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.