Interview, Page 1 of 5
An Open Letter From
Assata
Assata: Exile since 1979
On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Shakur (fsn) JoAnne
Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot
twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent
six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before
escaping out of the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional
Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba.
Assata: In her own words
My name is Assata (she who struggles) Olugbala (for the people) Shakur (the
thankful one), 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.
Political Prisoner to
Exiled
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 Forester
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 Forester
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.
New Jersey Police &
the Pope
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 publics 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.
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