One of the favorite weapons of the cops calling for the execution of radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is THE BIG LIE. They hope that if they tell a lie loud enough and long enough, people will believe it.
Their favorite lie about Mumia is that he bragged about shooting Officer Danny Faulkner at the hospital. Here is the full text of THE BIG LIE, delivered in its fullest and most embellished form by State Representative Denny O'Brian:
When Officer Faulkner was lying on the gurney with the doctors trying to save his life, picture if you will the defendant coming in and approaching Officer Faulkner's partner, and I ask you all to use your imagination for the two words I am not going to use because I respect this institution, but the first begins and "m" and the second begins with an "f". And let me just read to the members of this House what this guy said when he was brought to that hospital. He said, "I just shot the m___ f___er and I hope the m___ f___er dies."While the doctors and the nurses in the emergency room were trying to find a room so that they could treat the defendant, they had to take him by the very gurney that Officer Faulkner was lying on, and he repeated that statement again not one foot from that gurney: "I shot the m___ f___er and I hope the m___ f___er dies."
This phoney story has been repeated endlessly, and is designed to replace all questions of real evidence with an emotional appeal. Yet the stubborn fact remains that no such statement was ever made by Mumia!
Mumia Abu-Jamal was shot by police bullet and almost died that night. As an injured Black man at the scene, he was assumed to be the perpetrator and was beaten by arriving police officers, thrown into a pady wagon, and driven around for awhile in the expectation that he would bleed to death. The bullet had entered his body from above and had passed down through a lung and into his abdomen. When he awoke from sugery, he was handcuffed to his bed. A smiling cop was standing on his urine bag, forcing urine back into his body in an attempt to burst his bladder.
Had Mumia actually made the statements alleged, in front of all the witnesses alleged, it would have been major news the next day. But neither the police nor all the doctors and nurses made any such claim. In fact, the official written report of Officer Gary Wakshul who was with Mumia continuously stated clearly "the negro male made no statement."
Further, it is preposterous that an experienced police and court reporter like Mumia would have made any statement without the presence of an attorney, even had he been physically able.
So where did the fantastic tale come from? Several months after his victimization by the cops, Mumia filed police brutality charges. It was only at this point that cops suddenly claimed that both Faulkner's partner Officer Bell and hospital security guard Priscilla Durham (who knew Faulkner personally) claimed Mumia had made the statements. So we are supposed to believe that two friends of Faulkner heard the defendant "confess" to murdering him, but made no written report of this and kept it a secret for three months!
Prosecutors brought up this phoney testimony at Mumia's trial, where it was contradicted by Dr. Anthony V. Colletta from the Emergency Room. Then when Mumia tried to subpoena Officer Gary Wakshul who had written in the official report that Mumia had made no statement, the Judge anounced (without consulting anyone) that Oficer Wakshul was out of town "on vacation." Mumia's motion to postpone the trial for a few days until this officer returned was denied.
The entire claim that Mumia had made these preposterous statements was a fake from the start, and could not stand up in court.
Sources: Pennsylvania Legislative Journal and the trial transcript.
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