Local cops, lawmakers oppose civil-rights pick
Two state lawmakers and two Philly law-enforcers joined ranks this morning to protest the nomination of attorney Debo Adegbile to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, because Adegbile once supervised the defense of cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.
Two state lawmakers and two Philly law-enforcers joined ranks this morning to protest the nomination of attorney Debo Adegbile to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, because Adegbile once supervised the defense of cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal.
"I don't believe he's an appropriate choice for this role," said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa, said at a morning news conference at the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5's headquarters in the Far Northeast.
Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Bucks, agreed: "When the President nominated Debo Adegbile to head up a very important role in the Justice Department, to head up all civil rights, he made a mistake. I think he more than made a mistake. He turned a tin ear to law enforcement, didn't even check that the FOP here in the city of Philadelphia has been fighting this fight for more than 30-plus, almost 33 years."
FOP President John McNesby and Philly's First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann chimed in with similar objections.
Their opposition stems from Adegbile's work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, whose lawyers have argued against Abu Jamal's death sentence for the Dec. 9, 1981, roadside gun slaying of Officer Daniel Faulkner, 25.