The name of Assata Shakur, a woman convicted in the 1973 murder of Trooper Werner Foerster of the New Jersey State Police, has been used by Black Lives Matter to illustrate what the group called Cuba’s “solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent” as the communist country faced rare anti-government protests this summer.
On June 14, BLM cited Shakur’s asylum in Cuba as an example of the communist country’s “solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent” while at the same time blaming the U.S. for Cuba’s current economic crisis, Fox News reported.
Naturally, they don’t believe their own rhetoric, or did we miss the story of BLM refugees flocking to Cuba?
Shakur’s criminal mystique has often been embraced by BLM advocates, making clear what they think of violence to usurp power in the U.S.
During June 2020 protests, a BLM mural depicting the image of Shakur was created across from the Palo Alto City Hall in Palo Alto, Calif. Recently, five police officers sued the city over the mural, claiming it contained “discriminatory” anti-police imagery, Law Officer reported.
Cece Carpio is the artist who painted the Shakur portion of the mural. She said last year it was necessary to include the fugitive in the creation since the nation’s “status quo” sees her as a threat to “racial capitalism and white supremacy.”
As Cuba endured its worst economic crisis in decades amid food shortages and a resurgence of coronavirus cases, many called upon the U.S. to take action.
But Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., in a statement on Twitter blamed the U.S. embargo for Cuba’s economic devastation while at the same time praising the Cuban regime for its effort to protect “Black revolutionaries like Assata Shakur.”
Black Lives Matter has released a statement on Cuba: pic.twitter.com/NgnT1o1oZE
— Sabrina Rodríguez (@sabrod123) July 15, 2021
Shakur, also known as JoAnne Chesimard, was convicted of being an accomplice in the 1973 slaying of Trooper Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son. Shakur later escaped prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she was granted asylum by former Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro.
She was a member of the Black Liberation Army, which the FBI describes as “the most violent militant organizations of the 1970s.”
Shakur, 73, remains free to this day, even though the FBI has a $1 million reward for information leading to her capture. Moreover, she is the first woman that the FBI has ever listed on its list of top terrorists.
Nevertheless, she remains an iconic figure for BLM activists who seek to undermine and replace American values as well as our form of government.
On May 2, 2019, the 46th anniversary of Foerster’s slaying, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal called Shakur “a domestic terrorist and nothing more.”
Today, we remember the sacrifice of @NJSP Trooper Werner Foerster, who was gunned down in the line of duty 46 years ago today by Joanne Chesimard and her accomplices. pic.twitter.com/8n7xBWhOQF
— AG Gurbir Grewal (@NewJerseyOAG) May 2, 2019
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has repeatedly praised Shakur, according to Fox.
“Assata Shakur we love you. Fight for you and because of you. On this day and everyday [sic],” Cullors wrote in a 2016 Facebook post.
In another post from 2015, Cullors wrote: “Over the past year we have seen the movement and people at large elevating Assata worldwide chanting the excerpt from her letter and proudly wearing Assata Taught Me sweatshirts. Today…we ask that people take a moment to uplift our sister Assata Shakur by posting on social media how Assata has inspired them and why she is important to the current Black Lives Matter movement.”
