Mumia Abu-Jamal, the infamous Black Panther who was convicted of killing a police officer in 1981, has a new platform to exercise his First Amendment rights – a commencement speech at Goddard College, which sits to the left of most liberal universities. The prisoner spoke by pre-recorded video at the Oct. 5 commencement ceremony to 20 graduates, offering the usual forgettable commencement ceremony lines like, “Think about the myriad of problems that beset this land and strive to make it better.” Abu-Jamal’s speech comes at a time when Condoleezza Rice did not speak at Rutgers University because students protested that she was even invited to speak. “[B]y inviting her in the first place, that great state university was granting her the status befitting one of our most esteemed citizens,” complained Virginia University professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, who supported silencing Rice. And this is why Abu-Jamal’s speech is improper. It portrays him as a person to be lauded and respected, as someone worth listening to, and at the same time dishonors the death of a police officer who died as Abu-Jamal pulled the trigger of a handgun five times. More…

h/t hotair