Mumia Abu-Jamal honored by Paris city council

Insight on the News, Jan 7, 2002

The next time you're thinking about taking advantage of the cheap air fares to Paris, you might want to consider spending the money someplace where they don't bestow honors on those who kill U.S. law-enforcement personnel. The Paris City Council recently named convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal an honorary citizen in the belief that he is a political prisoner who was railroaded to death row by a racist criminal-justice system.

The move was prompted by a court decision blocking one of Abu-Jamal's paths to a possible new trial, according to an Associated Press report. The leader of the Communist Party faction of the city council, Jean Vuillermoz, said the council reacted in response to that "alarming news." In a further show of concern, a French delegation consisting of politicians and a union president paid a call to the prison in the United States where the celebrity murderer is being held. According to a group seeking Abu-Jamal's release, the delegation was met with verbal abuse by the killer's keepers; its video equipment was seized and its film destroyed.

Abu-Jamal, formerly known as Wesley Cook, was caught at the scene of the murder of officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 and in possession of the murder weapon, a .38-caliber pistol registered to him. The 16 judges who reviewed the case on appeal have all agreed that Abu-Jamal got a fair jury trial.

As for other arguments regarding the guilt or innocence of the convicted killer and honorary Parisian, one can check out www.officer.com/faulkner/boycott.htm, a Website that refutes many pro-Mumia arguments but also generously provides links to pages defending him.