Prima donna nella black list dei ricercati Fbi.
Gli anni '70 bussano alla porta degli Usa
Nella lista dei dieci terroristi più ricercati è stata inserita Joanne D. Chesimard, più nota come Assata Shakur, esponente prima delle Black Panther e poi del Black Liberation Army. La decisione a 40 anni dall'omicidio del poliziotto per cui deve scontare un ergastolo
dall'inviato MASSIMO VINCENZI
(ansa)
La decisione di inserirla nella "black list" arriva quarant'anni dopo l'omicidio del poliziotto per cui deve scontare un ergastolo. La mattina del 2 maggio del 1973 alle 12 e 45 la Pontiac su cui Assata
Assata Shakur, nata nel popolare quartiere del Queens, inizia la sua militanza politica negli Anni Sessanta. Il primo arresto nel 1966, poi l'adesione alle Pantere Nere che lascia poco dopo delusa dalla "loro scarsa consapevolezza dei problemi dei fratelli neri". Si trova meglio nel Black Liberation Army ed è qui che comincia la sua escalation violenta, almeno secondo l'Fbi, che la ritiene responsabile di numerose rapine in banca, rapimenti, aggressioni ad auto della polizia, omicidi e ferimenti. "E' la vera ispiratrice della cellula di New York, una sorta di chioccia", scrivono gli agenti federali nei verbali. Poi arrivano la sparatoria fatale, l'arresto e la fuga.
E poi i libri, i film e le canzoni che raccontano la sua vita, come A song for Assata del rapper Common che ritma "your power and pride is beautiful" su una base hip hop che sarebbe piaciuta al nipote Tupac.
Ma non si fa commuovere Rosa, la vedova dell'agente Werner Foester, che da quarant'anni aspetta giustizia: "Lei ha la sua libertà, io non ho più mio marito". Ed è così che, come in una notte mai finita, il sangue degli anni Settanta torna a colpire la porta dell'America.
in inglese in via di traduzione
Assata Shakur Becomes the First Woman Added to FBI’s Most Wanted List
Posted on May 3, 2013 by reed
Shakur was convicted of Foerster’s murder and sentenced to a life in prison. In 1979, with the help of allies, she was able to escape from confinement and flee to Cuba where she still lives and calls herself a “20th century escaped slave.”
Wanted for approximately 34 years, Shakur, born Joanne Chesimard in New York City, has now become the first woman and the second domestic terrorist to have ever made the FBI’s most wanted list. The bounty for her capture and return to the U.S. has now jumped from $1 million to $2 million.
Shakur still has a massive share of supporters in the U.S. and abroad, as many rightly doubt the impartiality of the U.S. justice system towards Black activists, especially in the 1970s. Indeed, many of the facts in the state’s case against her are considered shaky and unfounded at best, and the “he said/she said” nature of the trial does not lend itself to an unquestionable conviction.
Even taking her conviction at face value, the FBI’s continued pursuit of her for nearly four decades — and her labeling as a domestic terrorist — seems overboard. Could it possibly be because the U.S. is in such denial of its own evident racist past that the government has to believe that she’s guilty for the sake of pride?
From Salon:
James Braxton Peterson, Director of Africana Studies at Lehigh University, has argued that the continued interest in Shakur’s capture reflects an evasion on the part of the U.S. government to truly come to terms with its racist recent past. “It is unlikely that our government will ever be able to come to terms with its own role in the violent racial conflicts of its immediate past, and thus unlikely that Assata will ever be able to live freely in her country of origin – these United States,” he wrote. The point being that if Black Panthers continue to be framed as dangerous, violent terrorists, the government’s role in the race war that birthed the panthers can be neatly tucked into history’s unread footnotes.The article, written by Natasha Lennard, also points out how sensitive the U.S. government remains to this day about Black Panther and BLA propaganda. According to Mother Jones, possessing Black Panther literature or imagery — including images of Shakur — in prison can get inmates sent to solitary confinement as authorities claim that the items encourage and indicate gang activity.
Regardless, Assata Shakur remains an icon in and outside of the jailhouse. Songs and books have been written about her, her own autobiography Assata has a large readership and journalists continue to flock to Cuba for the chance to interview her. Public outcry leans heavily on her side so she’s an unwise target for the FBI to continually call attention to. Captured or free, she’ll remain an icon.
Assata Shakur first woman named on FBI most wanted list [Salon] Why the Assata Shakur case still strikes a chord [The Grio] Former Black Panther Assata Shakur Added to FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List [Democracy Now]
An Open Letter From Assata
Posted on May 3, 2013 by reed
My
name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because
of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee
from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US
government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex-political
prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984.
I have been a political activist
most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in
its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been
one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black
liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to
end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the
Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by
the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded
the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it
“greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and vowed to
destroy it and its leaders and activists.
In 1978, my case was one of many cases
bought before the United Nations Organization in a petition filed by the
National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against
Racist and Political Repression, and the United Church of Christ
Commission for Racial Justice, exposing the existence of political
prisoners in the United States, their political persecution, and the
cruel and inhuman treatment they receive in US prisons. According to the
report:
‘The FBI and the New York Police Department in particular, charged and accused Assata Shakur of participating in attacks on law enforcement personnel and widely circulated such charges and accusations among police agencies and units. The FBI and the NYPD further charged her as being a leader of the Black Liberation Army which the government and its respective agencies described as an organization engaged in the shooting of police officers. This description of the Black Liberation Army and the accusation of Assata Shakur’s relationship to it was widely circulated by government agents among police agencies and units. As a result of these activities by the government, Ms. Shakur became a hunted person; posters in police precincts and banks described her as being involved in serious criminal activities; she was highlighted on the FBI’s most wanted list; and to police at all levels she became a ‘shoot-to-kill’ target.”
I was falsely accused in six different
“criminal cases” and in all six of these cases I was eventually
acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted
or that the charges were dismissed, did not mean that I received justice
in the courts, that was certainly not the case. It only meant that the
“evidence” presented against me was so flimsy and false that my
innocence became evident. This political persecution was part and parcel
of the government’s policy of eliminating political opponents by
charging them with crimes and arresting them with no regard to the
factual basis of such charges.
On May 2, 1973 I, along with Zayd Malik
Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike,
supposedly for a “faulty tail light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car
to determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State
trooper Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to
question us. Because we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont
license plates, he claimed he became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun,
pointed it at us, and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front
of us, where he could see them. I complied and in a split second, there
was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement,
and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and then once
again from the back. Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, trooper Werner
Foerster was killed, and even though trooper Harper admitted that he
shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder
law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my
closest friend and comrade, and charged in the death of trooper
Forester. Never in my life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to
protect me, and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that
he had lost his life, trying to protect both me and Sundiata. Although
he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper Foerster was found
under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was captured later, was also
charged with both deaths. Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a
fair trial We were both convicted in the news media way before our
trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the
New Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis.
In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life
plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in
prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was
liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the
depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful
for my life.
The U.S. Senate’s 1976 Church Commission
report on intelligence operations inside the USA, revealed that “The FBI
has attempted covertly to influence the public’s perception of persons
and organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press,
either anonymously or through “friendly” news contacts.” This same
policy is evidently still very much in effect today.
On December 24, 1997, The New Jersey State
called a press conference to announce that New Jersey State Police had
written a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to intervene on their
behalf and to aid in having me extradited back to New Jersey prisons.
The New Jersey State Police refused to make their letter public. Knowing
that they had probably totally distort the facts, and attempted to get
the Pope to do the devils work in the name of religion, I decided to
write the Pope to inform him about the reality of’ “justice” for black
people in the State of New Jersey and in the United States. (See
attached Letter to the Pope).
In January of 1998, during the pope’s visit
to Cuba, I agreed to do an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza
around my letter to the Pope, about my experiences in New Jersey court
system, and about the changes I saw in the United States and it’s
treatment of Black people in the last 25 years. I agreed to do this
interview because I saw this secret letter to the Pope as a vicious,
vulgar, publicity maneuver on the part of the New Jersey State Police,
and as a cynical attempt to manipulate Pope John Paul II. I have lived
in Cuba for many years, and was completely out of touch with the
sensationalist, dishonest, nature of the establishment media today. It
is worse today than it was 30 years ago. After years of being victimized
by the “establishment” media it was naive of me to hope that I might
finally get the opportunity to tell “my side of the story.” Instead of
an interview with me, what took place was a “staged media event” in
three parts, full of distortions, inaccuracies and outright lies. NBC
purposely misrepresented the facts. Not only did NBC spend thousands of
dollars promoting this “exclusive interview series” on NBC, they also
spent a great deal of money advertising this “exclusive interview” on
black radio stations and also placed notices in local newspapers.
. . .
Like most poor and oppressed people in the
United States, I do not have a voice. Black people, poor people in the
U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression and
very little freedom of the press. The black press and the progressive
media has historically played an essential role in the struggle for
social justice. We need to continue and to expand that tradition. We
need to create media outlets that help to educate our people and our
children, and not annihilate their minds. I am only one woman. I own no
TV stations, or Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that people
need to be educated as to what is going on, and to understand the
connection between the news media and the instruments of repression in
Amerika. All I have is my voice, my spirit and the will to tell the
truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black media, those of
you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in truth freedom,
To publish this statement and to let people know what is happening. We
have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless.
Free all Political Prisoners, I send you
Love and Revolutionary Greetings From Cuba, One of the Largest, Most
Resistant and Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) That has ever
existed on the Face of this Planet.
Assata Shakur Havana, Cuba
Below is a clip of Assata Sakur’s Documentary “Eyes of the Rainbow: Assata Shakur Documentary”
“I am a Black revolutionary woman, and because of this i have been charged with and accused of every alleged crime in which a woman was believed to have participated. The alleged crimes in which only men were supposedly involved, i have been accused of planning. They have plastered pictures alleged to be me in post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, television, and newspapers. They have offered … rewards for my capture and they have issued orders to shoot on sight and shoot to kill.” — Assata Shakur
“People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.”
― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography
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