"As world of this nomination spreads through the law enforcement community, reactions range from anger to incredulity. Under this nominee's leadership, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People volunteered their services to represent Wesley Cook, better known to the world as Mumia Abu-Jamal --- our country's most notorious cop-killer. There is no disputing that Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered by this thug. His just sentence - death - was undone by your nominee and others like him who turned the justice system on its head with unfounded and unproven allegations of racism."
As Canterbury is presumably well aware, Abu-Jamal remains in prison under a life sentence and his death sentence was undone by the Supreme Court under John Roberts (who has also done pro bono work for a man who killed eight people). But logic requires the FOP to falsify the facts in order justify their seemingly race-based and untenable argument: "We are aware of the tried and true shield behind which activists of Adegbile's ilk are wont to hide - that everyone is entitled to a defense; but surely you would agree that a defense should not be based on falsely disparaging and savaging the good name and reputation of a lifeless police officer."
This claim, unsupported by evidence and rooted in irrelevance (even if true in any respect), is essentially an attack on the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment -- not an effort to eliminate completely the right of a defendant to have legal representation, but an effort to give others the power to decide which defendants shall have constitutional protection, and which shall not.
The Sixth Amendment does not allow for such intervention by hostile parties like an enraged and frustrated police union. The amendment says, in pertinent part:
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right" to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." In its own brief statement of Goals, the FOP states: "We believe that Law is the safeguard to freedom, and it is our duty to defend it." The effect of the FOP's letter to the president is to carve out arbitrary exceptions to its stated "belief" and "duty" whenever constitutional law serves a defendant that the FOP just wants to kill. The FOP stands ready to defend the law only to the extent that the law does its bidding.
The FOP's attack wasn't intended to have integrity, logic, or supporting evidence. Its primary purpose was political, to block a non-white defender of civil rights whose record suggested he would be effective in the civil rights job at Justice. The shortest, quickest route to blocking Agedbile would be to panic enough Democrats to prevent the Senate from even voting on his nomination. Democrats, with a 54-46 vote advantage in a party line vote, could lose four members and still shut down the Republican filibuster against Agedbile (with Vice President Biden present to break a tie). The challenge for Republicans was to terrorize more than four Democrats into cutting and running. What better way to panic politicians than to scream, irrelevantly, "cop-killer" and imply that a vote for a qualified attorney was the same as supporting a hated black man? To Democrats' shame, the deceitful race-baiting worked.
Quick to pick up on the FOP's "thumb-in-the-eye" letter was the FOP in Philadelphia where the killing took place in 1981. Philadelphia in 1981 had been close to open race war for years, with Police Chief/Mayor Frank Rizzo often making matters worse with pre-emptive raids, a vicious cycle that culminated in the Police bombing of the MOVE house, killing eleven, including five children.
That's context missed by the FOP tunnel vision: "It's [Adegbile's nomination] an absolute slap in the face to every police officer, especially those who gave their lives in the line of duty. There's outrage, there's resentment there's disapproval- you name it and our cops are feeling it," said the Philadelphia FOP president, adding that he'd be lobbying his senators on the nomination, meaning Democrat Bob Casey, since Republican Pat Toomey was already in the bag (and among the vigilantes).
A few weeks later, Bob Casey abjectly caved to the pressure in a sadly craven political statement, issued on a Friday (February 28):
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