[Ppnews] ICFFMAJ update on Mumia Street naming

[Political Prisoner News]

                       ONA MOVE AND LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!!!


The International Concerned Family And Friends Of Mumia Abu Jamal 
finds it necessary to issue this statement in the interest of justice 
and fairness.  We cannot look to the news media to tell people the 
truth and we cannot look to racist hateful white politicians or 
weak-minded intimidated black politicians to stand up for fairness, 
for justice, uncompromisingly.  We, the people, must do it for 
ourselves so that's what The ICFFMAJ has been doing and will continue 
to do.  Recently, the news media has made a big issue of the 
government of Saint-Denis, in France, honoring Mumia Abu Jamal by 
naming a street after him.  The news media did not simply report on 
the event, they fueled an anti-Mumia furor by deliberately replaying 
the lies and slanted version of those hate-mongers known as the 
Fraternal Order Of Police (FOP).  Pam Africa, the coordinator of The 
ICFFMAJ, The Free Mumia Coalition Of New York and the Ossining NY. 
N.A.A.C.P. called a press conference on May 18th to present the 
position of those who support Mumia and to present the statement of 
the mayor of Saint-Denis, a statement that explains why they support 
Mumia, and why they named a street after him.  None of the news 
media, the very people who made this situation a news issue, attended 
the press conference, not one member of the media.  That one example 
tells people clearly who the news media is working for and completely 
dispels that myth of objective journalism and fair reporting.  If the 
media is interested in getting information, getting the facts, why 
wouldn't they want to get the explanation from the mayor of 
Saint-Denis himself, why wouldn't they want to hear from people who 
were actually at the street-naming ceremony, such as Pam Africa and 
others in attendance at the presence conference.  The fact is that 
the media is not interested in the truth or getting information, the 
media only says what the government wants it to say. That was made 
perfectly clear and underscored when the FOP along with 
Representatives Allison Schwartz and Michael Fitzpatrick called a 
press conference on May 22nd and all the media came out and reported 
everything these idiots had to say.    Michael Fitzpatrick announced 
that he had introduced legislation #407 demanding that the government 
of Saint-Denis change the name of the street they named after Mumia, 
and if they should refuse, then the national government of France 
should step in and change the name. With all of the serious issues 
facing the people of this country today (the war, gas prices, fuel 
oil prices, missing children, etc), people should be outraged that 
these fools are focusing their attention on telling people in France 
what they can and cannot name their streets, who they can and cannot 
honor, as if U.S. officials have any right to do such things, 
especially when they should be concentrating on the problems people 
have right here in the U.S.  It was also reported that there was a 
call for a boycott of French products (such as French wines, etc.) at 
this press conference.  Nobody is gonna pay attention to this weak, 
impotent nonsense.  People didn't go along with it when officials 
called for the same thing when France wouldn't endorse America's war 
against Iraq.  This is just another example of the arrogance and 
superiority of these American fools because if American officials 
decided to do something that some foreign government didn't like, 
American officials would tell the foreign government to mind their 
own business and they would proceed to do what they want to do, but 
now they want to dictate to French officials what they can and cannot 
do.  When the U.S. wanted to go to war against Iraq, the French 
government would not go along them and the U.S. ignored France (and 
other countries) and went to war anyway.  The U.S. didn't listen to 
France so how can U.S. officials justify getting irate when France 
won't listen to them.  U.S. officials try to create the impression 
that these are confused foreigners that don't know the facts, but 
that's a lie.  These people have investigated and studied the facts 
of Mumia's case: They know Mumia's case, thoroughly.  The FOP also 
tried to stir up an anti-Mumia sentiment by saying that the naming of 
the street after Mumia (a "convicted cop-killer") was done at the 
same time that they were mourning the death of another cop, Gary 
Skerski, and that it was a slap in the face.  This is a deliberate 
lie because the government of Saint-Denis made the decision to honor 
Mumia with this street-naming long before the recent death of Skerski 
and the street-naming ceremony was on April 29th, which is also 
before the death of this cop.  In fact, this decision was made while 
France was being considered for the upcoming Olympic games, it was 
done with full knowledge that it could cost them the Olympics, but 
they refused to play politics with Mumia's life and decided to honor 
Mumia anyway, to call attention to Mumia's case.  Furthermore, we 
want to point out that there was no mention of any "slap in the face" 
when there was a proposal by Janie Blackwell to name May 13th (the 
day the cops bombed and burned innocent people alive) as "kiss a cop" 
day.  That's a definite slap in the face of poor people, especially 
black people.  The point being made here is that Mumia is innocent 
and there are too many unresolved questions not to give any 
fair-minded person pause and doubts about Mumia being guilty.  The 
ICFFMAJ, The MOVE Organization, Mumia support groups and people 
around the world will not stand by in silent frustration and allow 
this government to murder yet another innocent man.

The International Concerned Family And Friends Of Mumia Abu Jamal
P.O. Box 19709  Phila., PA. 19143   215 
476-8812  <mailto:icffmaj at aol.com>icffmaj at aol.com  www.mumia.org


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