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Police Organization To Protest Sting's Pennsylvania Concert
An organization of active and retired police officers in Delaware County, Penn., plans to protest Sting 's Nov. 14 concert at the Tower Theatre outside of Philadelphia because of the pop musician's support for convicted Philadelphia police-murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 27, which boasts over 1,000 members, is following a national Fraternal Order of Police boycott against musicians and high-profile public figures who support a retrial for Abu-Jamal. The case of the ex-radio journalist and Black Panther, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 2 for killing officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, has become something of a cause célèbre for progressive activists, artists and musicians, who believe that racial and political prejudice skewed the outcome of Abu-Jamal's trial.
On Oct. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Abu-Jamal's request for a new trial, upholding the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's rejection of his state appeal. A federal judge granted a stay of execution on Oct. 26, and Abu-Jamal is pursuing an appeal in federal court.
According to an APBNews.com report, the 283,000-member national Fraternal Order of Police unanimously approved a boycott of Abu-Jamal supporters at its national convention last August and began drawing up a list of targets, including Sting, David Byrne , Michael Stipe , the Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine. The last two groups played an Abu-Jamal benefit concert in New Jersey last January, which Gov. Christie Whitman told citizens to avoid. Although hundreds of would-be concert-goers requested and received refunds for their tickets when they learned that proceeds would go toward Abu-Jamal's defense, the tickets were resold and the concert was a sell-out. The audience numbered 16,000, and no serious confrontations with police were reported.
Lodge 27 president Joseph Fitzgerald told The Associated Press that his group would call on members and other officers from southeastern Pennsylvania to join the protest, but plans for the action hadn't been finalized.
