Police Organization Never Planned To Protest Sting Concert, Says Its President

A Pennsylvania organization of active and retired police officers says that it never planned to organize a protest of a Nov. 14 Sting concert, but only a boycott. And as Sting reportedly distances himself from the case of convicted Philadelphia police-murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the group may not even do that.

Joseph Fitzgerald, president of the 1,000-member Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 27 in Delaware County, Penn., says that he never told the press that his group or other police officers in Delaware County planned to protest Sting's concert at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, outside Philadelphia.

He says his group only planned to encourage members and their families not to attend the concert, following a national Fraternal Order of Police boycott against musicians and high-profile public figures who support a retrial for Abu-Jamal. The 283,000-member group unanimously approved the boycott last August, drawing up a list of targets primarily from signatories from a 1995 paid New York Times advertisement supporting Abu-Jamal.

Fitzgerald said that earlier press accounts stating his organization hadn't finalized plans for a protest were incorrect. His meeting with Upper Darby police officers were about whether the officers would provide security at the concert, not whether there would be a joint protest. ''What I said got changed,'' he said. ''Officers in Upper Darby wanted to meet with my organization to discuss if they were going to do the off-duty detail. They also wanted to discuss if they should donate the money to the Daniel Faulkner fund.''

Faulkner, a Philadelphia police officer, was shot in 1981. Ex-radio journalist and Black Panther Abu-Jamal was found guilty of the crime in 1982, though his supporters claim his conviction was racially and politically motivated. Abu-Jamal is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 2, but he was granted a stay of execution on Oct. 26 and is pursuing a federal appeal.

While Sting was originally targeted by the national Fraternal Order because his name appeared in the New York Times ad, he distances himself from Abu-Jamal, according to an unreleased fax which Fitzgerald says he received from Sting's management. According to Fitzgerald, the fax states that Sting never signed the ad and is not an Abu-Jamal supporter, although he is a member of Amnesty International, an anti-death penalty group. Fitzgerald speculated that Sting's name could have wound up in the ad if someone borrowed names from the Amnesty International roster.

Fitzgerald said the police group may not follow through with their boycott, depending on what Sting tells the public. ''If Sting releases a statement, we might not even be boycotting,'' he said.

The decision of whether off-duty Upper Darby police officers will provide security at the Sting concert is a separate issue. ''To my knowledge, they haven't decided,'' said Fitzgerald.