Baltimore IMC : http://www.baltimoreimc.org
Commentary :: Crime & Police
Michael Moore Joins Tom Ridge, etc. "Thinks" Mumia did it!
Moore seems to believe that Philly cops and officials would not frame a black man. He bases his statement on nothing. So far, no explanation has come from his desk. Moore seems to be less than we thought.
A startling and troubling statement appears in Michael Moore's latest book, "Dude, Where's My Country?" It is generating a serious bit of heat and outrage. Here's what he wrote: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mumia [the campaigning Pennsylvania journalist who was sentenced for the shooting of a police officer and has been on death row since 1982] probably killed that guy. There, I said it. That does not mean he should be denied a fair trial or that he should be put to death. But because we don't want to see him or anyone executed, the efforts to defend him may have overlooked the fact that he did indeed kill that cop. This takes nothing away from the eloquence of his writings or commentary, or the important place he now holds on the international political stage. But he probably did kill that guy." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Virtually every time someone "thinks" Mumia may have actually shot the officer, they have to discount a long litany of things...including no reliable witnesses, contradictory testimony galore, no gun powder evidence, no evidence of gun being fired, the long history of similar police frame ups, the unlikelihood of Mumia doing such a deed (as even prosecution admitted), the "loss" of bullet evidence, unbelievable police testimony (they "forgot" etc), the faked "confession", the Beverly confession, the motives for police to take out one of their own, the failure to maintain crime scene evidence, the endless "coincidences", tricks and lies that indicate official cover ups, the nature of openly biased courts...and so on. A million TV crime dramas have shown a gun being placed next to the one to be framed. Philly cops probably saw such entertainment. If there is only the circumstantial evidence relating to Mumia's proximity to the scene, there is FAR more than just circumstantial evidence of police and official misconduct. Moore doesn't seem to have put all this on his scales of judgement. Also...if police and prosecution had a cold case against Mumia, they would be standing on their heads to create a clean case...and those who messed up their case in the eyes of the entire world, say by failing to do BASIC crime scene investigations, by failing to show up in court, etc., would have been criticized. A non-biased judge would have been selected so there'd be no question. Beverly would be brought in instantly to testify to show, at least, that he was testifying falsely. Etc. That is...no cover-up is needed without something to cover up. The big thing to cover-up here is that police and top officials conspired and continue to conspire (yes, that word) to cause the death, by execution, of Mumia Abu-Jamal. To do such a thing, in California at least, is a Capital Offense. In Pennsylvania, it's almost Business as usual.
*************************
More on this by Dave Lindorff at Alexander Cockburn's "Counterpunch" site at:
www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10172003.html
"Mumia [the campaigning Pennsylvania journalist who was sentenced for the shooting of a police officer and has been on death row since 1982] probably killed that guy. There, I said it. That does not mean he should be denied a fair trial or that he should be put to death. But because we don't want to see him or anyone executed, the efforts to defend him may have overlooked the fact that he did indeed kill that cop. This takes nothing away from the eloquence of his writings or commentary, or the important place he now holds on the international political stage. But he probably did kill that guy." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Virtually every time someone "thinks" Mumia may have actually shot the officer, they have to discount a long litany of things...including no reliable witnesses, contradictory testimony galore, no gun powder evidence, no evidence of gun being fired, the long history of similar police frame ups, the unlikelihood of Mumia doing such a deed (as even prosecution admitted), the "loss" of bullet evidence, unbelievable police testimony (they "forgot" etc), the faked "confession", the Beverly confession, the motives for police to take out one of their own, the failure to maintain crime scene evidence, the endless "coincidences", tricks and lies that indicate official cover ups, the nature of openly biased courts...and so on. A million TV crime dramas have shown a gun being placed next to the one to be framed. Philly cops probably saw such entertainment. If there is only the circumstantial evidence relating to Mumia's proximity to the scene, there is FAR more than just circumstantial evidence of police and official misconduct. Moore doesn't seem to have put all this on his scales of judgement. Also...if police and prosecution had a cold case against Mumia, they would be standing on their heads to create a clean case...and those who messed up their case in the eyes of the entire world, say by failing to do BASIC crime scene investigations, by failing to show up in court, etc., would have been criticized. A non-biased judge would have been selected so there'd be no question. Beverly would be brought in instantly to testify to show, at least, that he was testifying falsely. Etc. That is...no cover-up is needed without something to cover up. The big thing to cover-up here is that police and top officials conspired and continue to conspire (yes, that word) to cause the death, by execution, of Mumia Abu-Jamal. To do such a thing, in California at least, is a Capital Offense. In Pennsylvania, it's almost Business as usual.
*************************
More on this by Dave Lindorff at Alexander Cockburn's "Counterpunch" site at:
www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10172003.html
Views
Information
Search
This site made manifest by dadaIMC software