 |
| Assata Shakur |
Assata Shakur, CounterPunch
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 Foerster.
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 distorted 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 true
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.
