What They Are Saying: Pennsylvania Police Groups Oppose Adeel Mangi for the Third Circuit for Ties to Philly Cop Killer, Organizations represent more than 40,000 Pennsylvania police officers
WASHINGTON – The Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police, Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, and the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association oppose Adeel Abdullah Mangi’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Together these organizations represent more than 40,000 police officers across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The PA police groups cite the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner by Mumia Abu-Jamal in their letter. Mr. Mangi serves as an advisory board member of the Alliance of Families for Justice—a group that praised Officer Faulkner’s killer as an “elder freedom fighter.” Officer Faulkner was shot and killed at an intersection less than a mile from where the Third Circuit hears cases in Philadelphia.
Mr. Mangi’s nomination is also opposed by Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), fourteen other law enforcement groups, several Jewish organizations, every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and ten Republican Members of Congress representing constituents in the Third Circuit.
Fraternal Order of Police Pennsylvania State Lodge, PA State Troopers Association and Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5:
“It’s an affront to all Pennsylvania law enforcement officers, active and retired, that Mr. Mangi would serve on an organization that describes a person who murdered a police officer as a ‘freedom fighter’…
“As police officers, we hold a sacred oath of service and willingness to lay down our lives for our fellow citizens. On a cold evening, Dec. 9, 1981, Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner made that sacrifice when he was shot execution style after making a traffic stop. . . . This shooter, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, was Mumia Abu Jamal.
“On May 7, 2021, the Alliance of Families for Justice co-sponsored an event, “Bring Them Home! Release our Elder Freedom Fighters.” One of the people they celebrated that day as a freedom fighter was Abu Jamal. We’re telling you this story because Mr. Mangi is an Advisory Board member of the Alliance.
“Mr. Mangi’s affiliation would set a dangerous precedent that supporters of cop killings can rise to a bench that is one step from the United States Supreme Court. On behalf of our active and retired law enforcement members, we respectfully ask that you stand up for law enforcement – and justice. Please oppose Mr. Mangi’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.”
Background on organizations Mangi is tied to:
Mangi currently serves as an Advisory Board Member of Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ). Kathy Boudin, one of AFJ’s founding board members, pleaded guilty to felony murder for her role in a Brinks armored truck robbery that resulted in the death of two police officers in 1981. She served 23 years in prison. Boudin served as a decoy in the crime, luring two police officers to lower their weapons before they were ambushed, shot, and killed by co-conspirators. The heinous crime was politically motivated—Boudin and her Weather Underground Organization committed the robbery to secure funds for their militant-marxist political activities. To honor her legacy, AFJ sponsors a paid year-long “Kathy Boudin fellowship.”
Additionally, Mangi served on the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights Advisory Board and donated and or facilitated nearly $20,000 in funding toward the Center. This organization sponsored an event on the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, featuring speakers who are tied to terrorism. One speaker at this event was convicted for providing support to a terrorist organization, another called for Intifada in the U.S., and a third speaker organized events with a terrorist who hijacked planes. The Center also promotes explicit anti-police rhetoric. For example, the Center proclaims that “Racialized criminal justice is as American as apple pie” and that, to “conceal racist motives, the government often constructs a grand narrative of a ‘War on’ crime, drugs, or terror proclaiming to protect the security, safety, and stability of (white) American society.”
The Rutgers Center regularly platforms those who whitewash terrorism and promote vile anti-Semitic material. The Center’s radical activities prompted an investigation by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which remains ongoing.
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