It is deplorable that any amount of money will be spent on state
police patrol for this farce in the name of free speech. Cancel this
abomination; give the money to a community food bank or the
Policemen's Benevolent Association. We are in big trouble when someone
like Abu-Jamal has the right to a benefit concert but we as a state
cannot legally stop it. The inevitable violence that will result from
this concert is too frightening even to think about. That's good
enough reason to cancel the show.
If they are holding a benefit concert for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted
cop killer, what's next? A bake sale for Charles Manson? Too bad
Jeffrey Dahmer is gone; my car could use a wash.
I would agree that it's hard not to sympathize with the feelings of
the police. However, although it may be hard for them to do, they have
to realize that their position is to protect and to serve.
Once you allow the police the option of whom to protect, then they're
no longer police; they're private security being vended out to the
highest bidder. The best way to handle something like this when
feelings are so high is say nothing. As soon as things get printed,
you're going to attract people who might come to this event to
accidentally on purpose bump into a policeman and create an incident
so that people will say, "We told you this was going to happen."
Governor Whitman, the FOP and the State Police fail to understand the real
issue regarding Mumia Abu Jamal.� The Rage Against the Machine concert
will benefit his legal defense, to which all Americans are entitled.
Individuals accused of certain crimes, such as killing a police officer or
child, are often viewed as having less rights, as monsters.� Instead of
being treated as innocent until proven guilty, there is a lynch-mob
mentality - "Let's string 'em up!"� Our laws and Constitution were written
to protect just such individuals and ensure they receive an impartial
trial and judgment.� Police officers and Governors alike are sworn to
enforce and uphold these laws.� Unfortunately in this case they can't see
the forest for the trees.
Many politicians often criticize today's youth as apathetic.� Yet when a
group like Rage Against the Machine tries to motivate young people to
become involved in political and social issues they are condemned by those
same politicians.� Perhaps the benefit should be changed to something they
support, like paying for an investigation of the President's sex life.
Police and a concert
The benefit boils down to a free-speech issue
Sunday, January 24, 1999
THE CONCERT planned for Thursday in the Meadowlands, a benefit to
raise money for Mumia Abu-Jamal, is expected to go on as planned. And
state police will patrol the area, even though Abu-Jamal has been
convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer and is currently on
Death Row in Pennsylvania.
It's understandable that the state police would be upset about the
concert and about having to patrol it. But as state Attorney General
Peter Verniero said last week, there is no legal way to stop the show.
Governor Whitman has urged concertgoers to boycott the sold-out
performance at the Continental Airlines Arena, and anyone who did not
know that the concert was a benefit for Abu-Jamal and does not want to
support it should get his money back.
However, it is also true, as Mr. Verniero said, that this is a
free-speech issue, and "we cherish freedom of speech in this country."
Abu-Jamal, whose case has received worldwide attention, claims he did
not receive a fair trial when he was convicted in 1982 of the shooting
death of Officer Daniel Faulkner, who had stopped Abu-Jamal's brother
for a traffic violation.
Lawyers for Abu-Jamal say that prosecutors withheld evidence and that
previous defense lawyers were ineffective. Abu-Jamal has also
maintained it was unfair that the judge who presided over his original
trial also presided over his request for a new trial. The judge
rejected the request, and the case is now being appealed in the
federal courts.
Clearly, feelings run extremely high on both sides.
But ticket buyers are going to the concert for a variety of reasons.
Some just want to hear the music. Others are going because they feel
mistakes may have been made in Abu-Jamal's case, and others support
his cause entirely.
But it's hard not to sympathize with the feeling of police who believe
that the attendance at the concert amounts to nothing more than tacit
support for a man convicted of the murder of a police officer.