Assata Shakur
Source: CCI
by Black Planet Staff Writer
11/15/2004
“… Believe that this world is redeemable, changeable; that we can eradicate poverty, that we can eradicate alienation, that we can eradicate this tremendous consumerism, this disease that we have to buy everything that exists, everything that the television says we have to have.”
~ Assata Shakur
The Black Panther Party’s success in achieving mass community participation and mobilization as well as its influence in the development of other liberation groups such as the American Indian Movement (AIM), The Young Lords Party and the Brown Berets, made the militant activist group the number one target of the FBI's COINTELPRO program. J. Edgar Hoover publicly proclaimed the Black Panther Party "the greatest threat
to the internal security of the country," vowing to destroy the group.
On May 2, 1973, former Black Panther activist Assata Shakur was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer, even though medical testimony showed that when Shakur was shot, her hands were in the air, inhibiting her from possibly shooting anyone. What’s more, there was no forensic evidence to tie her to the gun used in the police killing.
In 1998, then Governor of the State of New Jersey, Christine Whitman lobbied on behalf of the extradition of Assata Shakur from Cuba to the US, placing a $50,000 bounty on Ms. Shakur’s head, as if she were a runaway slave. In an open letter , Ms. Shakur recounts the events in her life, the trial, and real reason New Jersey is trying to extradite her.
For more on Assata Shakur:
• Assata Shakur addresses Pastors for Peace Caravan Instituto Cubano de Amistad a los Pueblos (ICAP) interview by Paul Davidson
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/assata_int... • From Exile with Love interview by Nisa Islam Muhammad
http://www.finalcall.com/international/ass... • U.S., keep your hands off Assata! (Part 1) interview by Marpessa Kupendua
http://www.sfbayview.com/070203/assata0702... • U.S., keep your hands off Assata! (Part 2) interview by Marpessa Kupendua
http://www.sfbayview.com/070903/handsoff07... • Prisoner in Paradise interview by Evelyn C. White
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_... • "Eyes of the Rainbow" documentary by Gloria Rolando on the life of Assata Shakur
http://www.afrocubaweb.com/rainbow.htm •
http://www.assatashakur.org • Immoral Bounty for Assata by Atty. Michael Ratner
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/1...
Posted By: SIE aka george simons
Tuesday, July 19th 2005 at 1:40PM
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