Death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal made honorary citizen of Paris [FRANCE ALERT]

Yahoo Singapore ^ | October 5, 2003 | nwrep

[nwrep]

US death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal honorary citizen of Paris by the Mayor of Paris, above

Death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal made honorary citizen of Paris

Sunday October 5, 1:49 AM

The city of Paris made an honorary citizen of celebrated US death row inmate and black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, sentenced to die for the 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia policeman.

It is the first time Paris has bestowed the honor since Pablo Picasso was made honorary citizen in 1971, Socialist mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe told an audience of 200 people, taking the occasion to attack the "barbarity" of the death penalty.

Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther civil rights activist and journalist who has maintained his innocence, had his death sentence overturned in December of 2001 but that decision is currently on appeal.

In attacking the "barbarity called the death penalty," the mayor said "as long as there is a place on this planet where one can be killed in the name of the community, we haven't finished our work."

Raising his fist in a sign of solidarity, Delanoe then shouted "Mumia is a Parisian!" as the crowd of mostly-leftist activists cheered and applauded.

Black activist Angela Davis, a former member of the Black Panthers and the Communist Party, hailed the "profound sense of humanity" of Abu-Jamal, attacking American "unilateralism" and racist attacks against immigrants.

The movement to free Abu-Jamal "takes on a new sense in face of American unilateralism, the aggression against the Iraqi people and the racist attacks against immigrants which can only further gnaw away at the vestiges of democracy in the United States," Davis, a professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz, said.

Abu-Jamal, sentenced to death 21 years ago for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, has always insisted he was innocent, and scores of movements and organizations have sprung up around the world in his defense.

His opponents view him as an unrepentant murderer.

His case has provoked particularly vivid debate in France, which abolished the death penalty in 1981. French school children are required to study the case as part of their education.

[wizardoz]

OH GOODIE!! Now we get to execute a Frenchman!!

[Chad Fairbanks]

I couldn't agree with you more completely...

Bzzzzzzzztttttttttt!!!!!!!!

(Buckle up, Mumia - it's the law!)

[Think free or die]

I never followed the details of the case closely either, but last year a parent of our son's classmate had a book published in which he reviewed the case. This author is pretty much an aging hippie, who now does free-lance reporting. We see him pretty often, since our kids have some activities in common. If there were any way to paint Mumia as an innocent victim, this author would have found it.

In talking about his book, his thumbnail summary to me was that the trial had some serious irregularities, and that he thought Mumia was entitled to a new trial. He also said that based on his research and interviews, there's no way Mumia was innocent of the killing. The latter conclusion surprised me. I really didn't expect this very left-leaning writer to conclude that Mumia was a killer, but he did. Good enough for me!

[LayoutGuru2]

My thoughts exactly.
Anyone know where I can get a "Fry Mumia" bumper sticker?
Nevermind, I park in Portland, I would probably get 'keyed'.

[DarthMaulrulesok]

To my fellow FReepers:

I cannot of course speak for anyone but myself, but for me personally THIS is the straw that breaks this particular camel's back! Differences on foreign policy are how the game of nations is played and though I may not like it I can understand a French tendency to favor their own self interest first (even if I think, as I do, that they were utterly wrong to oppose operation Iraqi Freedom).

Giving aid and comfort to a cold-blooded killer of policemen is beyond the pale, and an indication that a significant element of French opinion considers criminals better than citizens. Very well. If the French no longer have a sense of shared values with us, let us face that fact squarely.

Perhaps it is time for at least a temporary parting of the ways. It is noteworthy that so far MONGOLIA is proving a more reliable ally than France, so perhaps we should start treating the French like the unfriendly neutral they apparently wish to be.

[sunryse]

Can't they denounce the death penalty without actually making a murderer a hero!?!?

[weegee]

I was of the understanding that Mumia's death sentence has already been commuted to life (he isn't on death row any more). This happened in December a year or 2 ago.

Anyone have the details? I won't bother to look.

[Frank_2001]

If only we could borrow one of their old guillotines for this piece of garbage!

[finnman69]

Let's bomb France now, right now. Move them to the front of the sh*t hole nations that deserve to be obliterated.

[aruanan]

Death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal made honorary citizen of Paris [FRANCE ALERT]

Fry Mumia? Well, that or turn him into French toast.

[Held_to_Ransom]

This is a great argument for getting rid of the death penalty. Without that, this guy would just be another number serving a life sentence with no parole and no publicity, and it would have cost ever so much less in so many ways.

[Flightdeck]

That reminds exactly of the story of that famous Julius and Ethel Rosenberg biographer. (forgive me, I forget his name) He went in to the project looking to write a book exonerating the couple, but all it took was shred of intellectual honesty to realize they were guilty as sin. Of course, the Verona files later proved (again) the Rosenberg's guilt, so that guy dodged a bullet.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Great idea for a new call;

French Fry Mumia

[at bay]

I would love to know where you learned it is still a capitol crime to murder a police officer in France. Seems the height of hypocrisy for them to protest the death penalty in this case, then. Remember, France is now over 25 per cent Muslim with Paris being the largest city for this religion. It appears they are just attepting to provoke us in any way possible. Mumia is guilty as sin and any thinking person readng the facts would know it. That he is allowed to adress college commencements is testimony to the control the left have in this country.

[Michael121]

Lets just send him to FRANCE where he could be one of more than 11,000 to die in a heat wave.

Let see we in the US want a cop killer put to death = 1 person who is GUILTY.

France lets 11,000 people die just because of the heat. Maybe it is a conspiracy, maybe it is France's version of SOILENT GREEN. hehehehe

[JZoback]

One of your favorite subjects

[JZoback]

has always insisted he was innocent

That's a bold face lie. At his trial he never entered a plea before the judge

[Fzob]

Yeah, I read this yesterday and was too sickened to respond.

But thanks for the ping.

[OldFriend]

The left has it's heroes, doesn't it?