Murphy protests
Rue Mumia

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy has written a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, asking him to take action against a town that has named a street after convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Sarkozy was in the United States last week to address a joint session of Congress, a rarity for a foreign dignitary. He backed the U.S. position on dealings with Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran and even thanked the nation for icons like Elvis Presley and John Wayne.
Murphy (D-8th dist.) mailed a letter to the new French president, reminding him of the Abu-Jamal saga. Abu-Jamal is on death row for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner on a Center City street in 1981. He and his supporters are seeking a new trial.
Last year, after the Paris suburb of St. Denis named a street in honor of the killer, then-Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick introduced a resolution denouncing the decision. The measure passed by a vote of 368-31, with all of the "no" votes and the eight "present" votes coming from Democrats.
Murphy, the son of a retired Philadelphia police officer, met in March with Jean-David Levitte, former French ambassador to the United States, to ask that the street name be changed.
"Every day that Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal remains on the map is one more day that the hole created in the heart of my community by Danny Faulkner’s murder cannot heal," Murphy wrote in his letter.
"Daniel Faulkner is a hero to many, and we treasure his memory. Naming a street after a man who murdered him in cold blood is an affront to the very values that both America and France hold dear." ••