Hitler killed himself. He never had a trial. There also isn't much doubt that he was in fact the leader of the Nazi regime, and that the regime did commit both war crimes and crimes against humanity. No parallel.
Charles Manson Linguistics Building
Little closer on this one. However, there is little doubt that Manson is criminally insane, and he received the closest thing to a fair trial one can get for such a high profile crime. His behavior, both during trial and afterwards, leaves little doubt as to his guilt, and there is little evidence that his conviction was as racially or politically motivated as Abu Jamal's.
John William King Bookstore on the way there. He dragged a black man from Jasper behind his pickup truck until he literally fell apart, but some could argue he was only 'serving his community'.
And here's where it becomes obvious you
didn't even get the point. Abu Jamal did not get a street named after him because he killed a cop, he got a street named after him because he was sentenced to death (since commuted to life, but PA is still trying to change that) without a fair trial. It has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence, or the nature of the crime he committed, but rather the nature of the treatment he received from the justice system. From the little I've read, Shakur falls in about the same category.
This last example, John William King, is a bit more interesting though. In theory he could be held up as an example of a failing of our prison system (the theory is that it was his experiences during his first prison sentence that motivated him to commit the crime he's not waiting to be put down for). You take a nonviolent offender, put him in a place where assault, murder, and gang rape are routine, and wonder that he comes out a sick individual.
It could be argued that it was our own prison system that created the John William King that was capable of such an act, after debasing, dehumanizing, and destroying the John William King that went in (though he didn't sound like a stellar individual to begin with...but still). At that point, I suppose the case could be made to memorialize him in a similar way...I'll give France a call, and see if they're interested.
EDIT: Oops...I see from your final line that you were referring specifically to the Morales/Shakur Community Center. Perhaps a little later I'll look into that a little more and see if my post needs any editing...but I have a feeling that my point won't change.
