Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Vereb, a former police officer whose partner died in his arms, has had enough.
The invitation to convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal to deliver a commencement to Vermont’s Goddard College speech via video has launched a welcome legislative backlash. Vereb, a Montgomery County Republican (suburban Philadelphia) has stepped up to the task.
To recall, Mumia — aka Wesley Cook — was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Faulkner had stopped Mumia’s brother for a traffic violation. Mumia, at the wheel of a nearby cab, got out of his car, approached Faulkner and shot him dead. The crime had four witnesses, Mumia confessed, not mention that Mumia’s gun was on the scene, spent. Did I mention Mumia was a far-left Black Panther activist long before the shooting? Convicted, his death penalty sentence was converted to life imprisonment. From prison Mumia launched his left-wing views into the media, garnering publicity for his views on death row and more. A “Free Mumia” campaign emerged from the left fringes, and the cop killer was made into a leftist cause célèbre. The latest episode was the Goddard invitation, which Mumia fulfilled via video.
Goddard College interim President Bob Kenny enthused that. “Choosing Mumia as their commencement speaker, to me, shows how this newest group of Goddard graduates expresses their freedom to engage and think radically and critically in a world that often sets up barriers to do just that.” Apparently the ability to “think radically and critically” means setting up a barrier that prevents Faulkner’s widow Maureen, who has a decidedly different view of Mumia and his crime, from addressing the graduates. It is always interesting when progressive priorities clash — the college going out of its way to feature women on its website while refusing to invite the woman most affected by the Mumia case to give a different point of view. A dissenting woman? Not at Goddard. It’s herd thinking or none.
But I digress.
Today State Representative Mike Vereb, accompanied by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, is announcing the introduction of the Revictimization Relief Act. The proposed law “would allow the victim of a crime, or a district attorney or the Attorney General on the victim’s behalf, to bring a civil action to stop an offender’s misconduct which causes the victim or the victim’s family severe mental anguish. The courts would then have the power to issue an order stopping the revictimization.”
Bravo to both Representative Vereb and Governor Corbett.
Mumia is nothing more than a cop killer trying to camouflage his deliberate act of coldblooded murder with leftist politics. Here’s a question. As this is written, the Pennsylvania State Police are involved in a massive manhunt for another cop killer, the “survivalist” — and white — Eric Frein. Presuming Frein is taken alive and convicted of his crime — will Goddard invite him to speak?
Not if Representative Vereb gets his bill passed. The era of convicted cop killers becoming media celebrities will mercifully come to an end.
