Stu Bykofsky

Mumia gets Abu & a hiss

By Stu Bykofsky
Daily News Columnist

FOR MAUREEN Faulkner, it's a nightmare that won't end, that she can't awake from.

Thanks to the testimony of eyewitnesses during the 1982 trial, she sees her husband lying helpless on his back as Mumia Abu-Jamal pumps bullets into him.

For protesters, yesterday was death penalty/Mumia day. The Mumidiots and their allies went on a tear, blocking traffic and throwing dumpsters around, having the net effect of alienating workers who were simply trying to get home after a day of honest work, which is a probably a foreign concept to many of the misguided whiners.

While they were screwing up rush hour, about 2 miles to the south, several hundred people gathered under cloudy skies and high humidity to protest the protesters. It was a rally organized by talk-show host/lawyer Michael Smerconish to honor the memory of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, whose widow and brothers spoke.

The original plan was to gather in front of Geno's Steaks at 9th and Passyunk, then move on to the so-called "free speech" area in FDR Park. As the time approached to board the yellow school buses for the ride to the park, Smerconish called an audible.

Citing the disturbances in Center City, he told the crowd they would remain where they were to avoid putting additional strain on police resources.

Smerconish spoke, as did four of Faulkner's brothers, but the piece de resistance, as always, was the blond, calm Maureen Faulkner, dressed in a white blouse under a white sweater and black slacks.

She thanked the people for turning out and told them she would never abandon her family's goal of getting closure. That closure could take only one form: the carrying out of the death sentence for Mumia.

In a private chat before the rally, Maureen told me "the overwhelming support" that she has always received from Philadelphians "has always touched my heart."

She would never stop speaking out for herself and the other victims of violent crime.

I spoke to one such person, standing in the crowd. A middle-aged African-American woman, she told me that in 1996, thugs broke into her home and murdered an 85-year-old man she was caring for.

"He was slaughtered in his sleep. I was in the other side of the house and if they knew, they would have killed me, too."

A South Philly resident, she gave her name only as Jean.

Signs in the crowd ranged from crude - hangman's nooses and electric chairs for Mumia - to poetic - "A Philly Boo for Abu" - to one that pleased me: "Hey, Mumidiots! Welcome to Philadelphia, The City That Protests You Back."

"Mumidiots," as you know, is my creation, which I am pleased to share with the world.

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