THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH STARTS HERE
IT WILL BE 26 YEARS SUNDAY since the most famous murder of a police officer in Philadelphia history, and it's probably fair to say that the name Daniel Faulkner who was shot to death more than a quarter of a century ago, is more familiar to Philadelphians than the name of Officer Chuck Cassidy, she was shot and killed in the line of duty last month. It's doubtful that 10, 15 or 20 years from now that the the name of Cassidy's admitted killer, John Lewis, will be part of this city's institutional memory, but the same is not true of Mumia Abu Jamal, whose name hovers over Philadelphia like smog that won't go away.
On the same week that Maureen Faulkner's book Murdered By Mumia, written with radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, is to be released, the Sundance Film Festival announced that a British made documentary about Mumia called In Prison My Whole Life is one of 16 foreign-made documentaries among 620 submitted that will premier at the annual Iowa Caucuses of the movie industry in January. The buzzfest in Utah can make or break a movie the same way early primaries can make or break a presidential candidacy. The Sundance press release describes the documentary this way, "A curious young filmmaker attempts to understand the true story behind award-winning journalist Mumia Abu Jamals's death sentence, and comes to startling realizations about American history and it's justice system." Let me guess. . .young filmmaker Marc Evans will be startled to discover racisim. It's only a guess. I base this partly on the description of Mumia as "award-winning journalist" rather than "a former Black Panther" or a "convicted cop killer," and on the names of those interviewed in the documentary, including: Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Mos Def, Smoof and Snoop Dogg. I rest my case, sight unseen.
Again, the fascination with Mumia grows with distance. The French name streets after him as a symbol of injustice. The British have added a documentary to his legend. We in Philadelphia long ago came to a bitter, sad conclusion based on the facts of the case. I knew Mumia. I actually liked him. But Mumia shot and killed Danny Faulkner and the most compelling evidence to support that conclusion (other than the murder weapon found on the scene being registered to Mumia) is that Danny Faulkner shot Mumia before he died. It was, if you will, Daniel Faulkner's last arrest. Nothing that happened in court afterwards changes those facts. But after 26 years people are still blinded by the smoke.
