Colin Kaepernick to Publish Essay Penned by Convicted Cop-Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal

Colin Kaepernick
Getty Images/Carmen Mandato

Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick is preparing to publish a book of essays that includes an entry by convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The book, “Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing and Prisons,” is soon to be released by Kaepernick’s publishing house, Kaepernick Publishing.

“After months of hard work, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be publishing our first title, ABOLITION FOR THE PEOPLE: THE MOVEMENT FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT POLICING & PRISONS, on 10/12/21. This anthology is edited by @Kaepernick7 & features the contributions of over 30 writers,” Kaepernick Publishing announced on Twitter. The book represents a “collective journey toward building a better world — a world without and beyond policing and prisons,” the Twitter announcement reads.

Abu-Jamal’s essay was originally published on Kaepernick’s website in October of last year.

When his company posted the Abu-Jamal essay, Kaepernick wrote that the convicted killer was a victim of “carceral repression” and insisted that, “On death row, Mumia became a writer of great literary power.”

Last year, Kaepernick called for the release of the convicted cop killer.

Abu-Jamal, who is serving a life sentence at State Correctional Institution Mahanoy in Frackville, Pennsylvania, became a focus of the former NFL player last year.

“Mumia has been in prison longer than I’ve been alive,” Kaepernick said in November. “Since 1981, Mumia has maintained his innocence. His story has not changed.

“Mumia was shot, brutalized, arrested, and chained to a hospital bed,” Kaepernick added.

Kaepernick then used the Black Lives Matter movement as a blanket to comfort the convicted cop-killer.

“We’re in the midst of a movement that says Black Lives Matter, and if that’s truly the case, then it means that Mumia’s life and legacy must matter,” Kaepernick said. “And the causes that he sacrificed his life and freedom for must matter as well.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s brother, William Cook, was pulled over in a routine traffic stop in 1981 by officer Faulkner. Abu-Jamal, a member of the militant Black Panthers at the time, was on the scene that day and drew a gun. He shot the officer in the back. Then, as the officer lay bleeding on the ground, Abu-Jamal brutally shot the wounded officer in the face. Afterward, Abu-Jamal reportedly told police that he shot officer Faulkner and hoped the officer would die. Abu-Jamal was convicted of the murder based, in part, on the eye-witness accounts of four people.

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