Ask the families of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and John Crawford III if they feel like officers Timothy Loehmann, Daniel Pantaleo, and Sean Williams terrorized their family when they shot, killed, or choked their unarmed loved one to death. Ask them if it feels like state-sponsored terrorism when police officers come out and publicly blame each of the victims for their own deaths or have a grand jury call the deaths justifiable homicide.
For that matter, ask nearly any African American you know if his or her blood pressure doesn't rise in the presence of police no matter how law abiding he or she is. Ask a black mother about the sheer sense of dread she frequently experiences when her teenage son is out and about outside of her presence.
Police murders and assaults and wrongful arrests have terrorized black families and black communities in a very real way—yet we all know that not only is it unrealistic that an American police officer to ever be thought of as a terrorist in the eyes of our government, but it's a rare thing for even the most offensive officers to ever serve even a day in jail.
Yet, this woman, Assata Shakur, is the first woman, and only the second American, to ever be put on the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists? This is preposterous on so many levels and really requires a full breakdown.
See below the fold for the facts.
Assata Shakur didn't kill anyone.
In 1973, after Assata and two of her friends were pulled over by police, a shootout ensued which left one officer and one of her friends dead. The surviving officer, Trooper Harper, initially said he saw Assata with ammunition and a gun and that he shot her because he saw those things, but eventually buckled under cross-examination and admitted he made it all up.
Trooper Harper's official reports state that after he stopped the Pontiac, he ordered Acoli to the back of the vehicle for Trooper Foerster—who had arrived on the scene—to examine his driver's license. The reports then state that after Acoli complied, and as Harper was looking inside the vehicle to examine the registration, Trooper Foerster yelled and held up an ammunition magazine as Shakur simultaneously reached into her red pocketbook, pulled out a nine-millimeter weapon and fired at him. Trooper Harper's reports then state that he ran to the rear of his car and shot at Shakur who had exited the vehicle and was firing from a crouched position next to the vehicle.
Under cross-examination at both Acoli and Shakur's trials, Trooper Harper admitted to having lied in these reports and in his Grand Jury testimony about Trooper Foerster yelling and showing him an ammunition magazine, about seeing Shakur holding a pocketbook or a gun inside the vehicle, and about Shakur shooting at him from the car. Trooper Harper retracted his previous statements and said that he had never seen Shakur with a gun and that she did not shoot him.
In spite of this testimony, Pennsylvania law, which allows an accomplice to murder to be tried and convicted even if they didn't commit the crime itself, allowed a jury to convict Assata on two counts of murder—one for her friend and one for the officer. She didn't kill anyone; the entire event, while tragic, wasn't premeditated; and she was actually shot multiple times in the crossfire. Echoing the shooting death of Mike Brown, a doctor testified on her behalf that Assata was absolutely shot with her hands up.
In 1979, Assata Shakur escaped prison and has been in exile for 35 years since. To label Assata Shakur as a terrorist, on an FBI list next to radical extremists who plot to kill thousands of Americans just doesn't make any sense.
Who has she terrorized? Who is Assata Shakur currently plotting to terrorize? Who lives in fear at the idea that Assata Shakur, now 67 years old, is alive on an island somewhere? Even in her own case the argument wasn't that she killed an officer, but just that she was there when an officer was killed. What was she supposed to do? Disappear?
The surviving officer admitted to a series of fundamental lies about her role in the entire ordeal. Her surviving friend, Sundiata Acoli, was convicted for the shooting and has served 41 years in prison for it. Assata has maintained her innocence since 1973.
Now, as renewed calls by the government come to have Assata return to America to serve out her prison sentence, it exposes just how exaggerated the case against her was in the 1970s and how outrageous it is to label her a terrorist now that she's officially a senior citizen.
There are several reasons, however, why interest in Assata has been renewed. Assata Shakur is in political exile in Cuba and has been for several decades. Protected by the Cuban government, Assata has lived in Cuba in relative safety since escaping an American prison over thirty years ago. As the United States and Cuba set out to improve their diplomatic relations, many are now asking what this may mean for Assata and whether or not Cuba will continue to shield her from extradition to the United States.
A very popular and powerful quote from Assata Shakur is often shared and chanted by protestors from Ferguson (and now all over the country). It has become a mantra for the movement. It states:
It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Assata Shakur and many of her Black Panther counterparts were deliberately targeted
by the COINTELPRO programs of the FBI. A renewed interest in COINTELPRO has taken place over the past several months as protestors increasingly feel as if they are being monitored and discredited by government agencies.