A WARRIOR in the front line of protecting our lives died so others could celebrate his death.
While those words sound a little Shakespearian, I have to confess I stole them from a cop.
Rick Costello, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, was talking about a piece of vermin called Mumia Abu-Jamal.
“It disgusts me. A cop is the last identifiable minority that it is OK to kill,” said Officer Costello of Philadelphia.
He is looking to an outrage that happened on December 9, 1981, when Danny Faulkner, 25, was shot down like a dog on 13th Street in the city of Brotherly Love.
Mumia, who went earlier by a name of Wesley Cook, fired a bullet from two feet away into Faulkner’s back.
That alone would not have closed the curtain on a life of laughter and loyalty.
But then Mumia emptied his gun into Danny’s face from close range – making certain there would be a cop’s funeral.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has not only become the best known killer in the nation – he has become the best known microbe in the world.
He has no less than 30 Web sites dedicated to setting him free, he has written two books and actually has a radio show, “Live From Death Row.”
He has a lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, who travels the world – at whose expense, we should look into – proclaiming Mumia’s innocence.
It is bad enough that it has become a cult. But on Jan. 28 there is going to be a concert at Continental Arena in the Meadowlands to benefit Mumia’s defense fund, friends and family.
Rage Against The Machine, The Beastie Boys and Bad Religion will be performing.
I don’t know enough about rock to sit in judgment of their skills.
Yes, this is a democracy and their constitutional right to freedom of speech should be guaranteed.
Danny Faulkner didn’t get that.
I hope those bands, whatever sound they want to be heard, also listened to the testimony of four eyewitnesses who saw Mumia ending the laughter of a young decent man.
I hope they heard how he tried to kill another cop. I hope how they heard how ballistics showed it was this bastard’s gun that ended a beautiful life.
I hope they heard three witnesses say they clearly heard Mumia say:”I shot the mother—-. I hope the mother—- dies.”
I spoke to officer Faulkner’s widow, Maureen, who was 24 when this monstrosity destroyed her 13-month marriage.
She is far from Philadelphia because she has fears.
“This man, his movement haunts me,” she told me.
“I put on the radio, and I hear his voice. I go to a book store and see his books. I drive down a street and I see posters of ‘Free Mumia.’
“Truthfully and somebody will find it out, he has become a money machine for a lot of hustlers, but mainly for the anti-death penalty people.
“This rock concert stains his memory. It stains the memory of every cop killed in the line of duty. I will fight and fight,” said the widow, who has her own Web site.
“If ever he is freed, I won’t only have let Danny down but every cop in this country.”
In a bizarre moment, this former Black Panther who preached the politics of murder was convicted by a jury he personally chose after he fired court-appointed lawyers.
“The Hollywood establishment has rallied to his cause,” Costello told me.
“They weren’t at the trial. They have not read thousands of words of court testimony, but Ed Asner and Whoopi Goldberg and others are blindly saying ‘Free Mumia.'”
To think you would get objective or even collective intelligence out of those highly resistible human beings is to expect Ed McMahon to knock on your front door with a $10 million check.
Then there’s that benefit concert.
Frank Toscano, of New York’s Patrolman’s Benevolent Association said: “This is something really bad.”
Said widow Maureen:”I know it won’t do any good, but I am going to ask Governor Christie Whitman to at least say something.”
“The concert must go on. But you don’t have to go there.”
Said Costello:”There should be no demonstrations by cops. That would only give them an excuse. But I hope if there is a 911 call to that concert, all the cops going to the scene would observe the traffic light laws.”
If time heals all wounds, then heels wound all times. Mumia has had three appeals rejected.
But I don’t think there would be any lack of volunteers to squeeze the needle to end his filthy life…and that includes me.