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Assata Shakur, who for decades was on the FBI’s list of “most wanted terrorists,” died Thursday in her safe haven in Havana due to health issues and “advanced age,” according to a statement from Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And the Left is heartbroken at the passing of one of their inspirational icons in the noble struggle against capitalist white supremacy.
If you are unfamiliar with the backstory of “Assata Shakur” (real name JoAnne Deborah Chesimard), it is worth quoting at length from her detailed profile at Discover the Networks, the Horowitz Freedom Center’s indispensable resource for understanding the Left and its interconnections:
Chesimard changed her name to Assata Shakur in 1971, later explaining, in her 1987 autobiography: “The name JoAnne began to irk my nerves…. I didn’t feel like no JoAnne, or no Negro, or no amerikan. I felt like an African woman. My mind, heart, and soul had gone back to Africa but my name was still stranded in Europe somewhere.”
In 1971 Shakur joined the Republic of New Afrika, a radical organization that called for the creation of an independent black republic in the “subjugated lands” of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.[1]
Around this same time, Shakur, a proud and committed Marxist, moved to Oakland, California, where she joined the local branch of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Soon thereafter, she returned to New York and became a leading member of BPP’s Harlem chapter.
Also in the early 1970s Shakur joined a BPP offshoot known as the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a violent group that was tied to the murders of more than ten police officers nationwide between 1970-73. As Jordan Schachtel writes in Conservative Review, BLA was “a splinter group comprised of the most radical members of the Black Panthers,” and Shakur herself “was the leader of a notorious New York City BLA cell that hunted down police officers for brutal assassinations.” According to former Assistant FBI Director John Miller, Shakur was “the soul of the Black Liberation Army.”
Because of her involvement with BPP and BLA, Shakur became a target of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) and thus went into hiding in the early ’70s. While underground, she was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List because of her involvement in three bank robberies, the kidnapping and murder of two drug dealers, and the attempted murder of two policemen.
At about 12:45 a.m. on the morning of May 2, 1973, the fugitive Shakur was being driven to a new hideout in Philadelphia by BPP Information Minister Zayd Malik Shakur (Assata’s brother-in-law) and BLA member Sundiata Acoli, when their car was pulled over by state trooper Jaibes Harper for a tail-light violation on the New Jersey Turnpike. Fellow trooper Werner Foerster provided backup for Harper. While the lawmen conducted routine questioning of the vehicle’s occupants, Shakur (who was in the front passenger’s seat) and her companions suddenly fired upon them with semi-automatic pistols. As Foerster grappled with the driver, Shakur shot the trooper twice before her gun apparently jammed. With Foerster on the ground wounded and helpless, Shakur grabbed the trooper’s own firearm and blasted two fatal shots into his head, execution-style. (Zayd Malik Shakur was also killed in the melee.)
Assata Shakur fled the scene but was apprehended by police a short time later, about five miles away. Over the ensuing four years, she was indicted ten times, resulting in seven criminal trials for offenses that included two bank robberies, one kidnapping, two attempted murders, and the Turnpike shootout. Of these trials, three resulted in acquittals, one in a hung jury, one in a change of venue, one in a mistrial, and one—the Turnpike incident—in a conviction. In that latter case, Shakur was found guilty of first-degree murder and seven additional felonies, resulting in a prison sentence of life plus 33 years.
Shakur escaped from prison on November 2, 1979—probably with the help of Cuban or Cuban-trained terrorists posing as visitors. As New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Mike Rinaldi explained in 2013: “Armed domestic terrorists gained entry into the facility, neutralized the guards, broke her free, and turned her over to a nearby getaway team.” The escape was masterminded by Shakur’s brother, BLA member Jeral Wayne Williams (a.k.a. Mutulu Shakur).
After her prison breakout, Assata Shakur lived underground in the U.S. until 1984, at which time some accomplices smuggled her to Mexico. From there, her allies used a network of Cuban intelligence officers who collaborated with American radical groups calling themselves “The Collective,” to transport Shakur to Fidel Castro‘s Cuba, which granted political asylum to the fugitive in order to embarrass the Reagan administration. As Cuban-American author Humberto Fontova wrote in a May 2013 article titled “Hunted Leftist Terrorist Laughs at FBI from Cuba”: “To this day from her safe haven in Cuba [Shakur] has been given a pulpit (by Castro) to preach and profess, stirring supporters and groups to mobilize against the United States by any means necessary. She has been used by the Castro regime to greet foreign delegations visiting Cuba.”
In May 2013 the FBI announced a $1 million reward for “information leading to the apprehension” of Shakur, whom the Bureau designated as a “Most Wanted Terrorist.” The New Jersey State Police also wanted to gain custody of Shakur and added another $1 million to the pot. In response to these initiatives, Shakur in 2013 launched a propaganda offensive claiming that she was innocent of the many charges which had been levied against her, and that her trial had been nothing more than a legal lynching perpetrated by an all-white jury.
Over the years, Shakur became a folk hero to radical leftists. They viewed her, as one fawning San Francisco Chronicle article put it, as “a victim and ally who gives voice to their pain.” Most notably, Shakur was the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement’s most revered icon. She was also the icon of Assata’s Daughters and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement.
Shakur’s 1987 book, Assata: An Autobiography, has been cited as an illustration of the principles that underlie Critical Legal Studies and Critical Race Theory. In 1993 Shakur published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Mumia Abu-Jamal and BLA co-founder Dhoruba bin Wahad.
As noted by Breitbart News, Chesimard maintained her innocence in her writings from Cuba over the years and, in a sort of precursor to the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” lie about the police shooting of thug Michael Brown, she even claimed she had her hands in the air when she was wounded during the gunfire.
In the days since her death, numerous prominent Left-wing organizations and personalities have predictably issued statements honoring her criminal legacy as a symbol of brave resistance against racial injustice and imperialism, blah blah blah.
Massachusetts Congresswoman and “Squad” radical Ayanna Pressley, for example, wrote on X,
Rest in power, Assata Shakur. Your unyielding fight for Black liberation and against white supremacy lit a fire in generations of organizers, including me. You taught us that freedom is not given—it’s seized. We carry your words: “It is our duty to win.” Forever grateful for your revolutionary spirit.
Pressley apparently couldn’t be bothered to post a message of sympathy honoring JoAnne Chesimard’s execution victim Werner Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son, leaving us to assume that Pressley believes murdering white cops is not only justifiable but inspirational.
The same goes for Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator and Bernie Sanders campaign advisor, who posted,
Assata Shakur was a beacon of truth in the face of oppression. From the Black Panther Party to her exile in Cuba, she embodied the fierce love required to dismantle systems of white supremacy. Her autobiography remains a blueprint for resistance. May she rest knowing her seeds of justice bloom in our movements today.
“Fierce love.” That’s a curious way to describe Chesimard putting two bullets into the 34-year-old Foerster’s head as he lay helpless on the ground.
The anti-war activist organization CodePink, which never saw an American enemy at home and abroad that they didn’t openly support, posted,
We honor the life of comrade Assata Shakur, a revolutionary who inspires and pushes all of us in the struggle for a better world. Assata Presente!
Tatyana Ali, the actress probably best-known for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, wrote on X,
On a plane, crying in my hoodie because I read that Assata Shakur has passed on. Her writing changed my trajectory and helped me turn my anger and pain into a deep spiritual loving. Keep our sister close to you Lord and rest her soul.
For black Leftist elites like Ali, who made sure to note her performative crying over Chesimard’s death, “deep spiritual loving” means never having to say you’re sorry when white cops are assassinated and the killer takes refuge in a Communist nation that embraces her as a heroine.
The Chicago Teachers Union, a progressive labor organization (but I repeat myself), wrote on X,
Today we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce writer, a revered elder of Black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in our struggle. Assata refused to be silenced. She taught us that “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
And if some white police officers get executed along the way to liberation, well, hey, you know what they say about breaking eggs to make an omelet.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots Inc. posted on Instagram,
May our Beloved Mama Assata’s soul rise in power. May she be well received into the real@ of the Ancestors. May her courage, wisdom, and deep, abiding love permeate through every dimension and guide us. May our work be righteous and brave as we fight in her honor and memory.
Left and Right have very different views on what constitutes courage, righteousness, and “deep, abiding love.” For the Left, those concepts mean ambushing white cops, shooting them in the face, and fleeing justice to live with your country’s enemy.
Also on X, The People’s Forum, a New York-based activist organization, wrote,
We honor Assata’s life and legacy as a tireless champion of the people and as a symbol of hope & resistance for millions around the world in urgent fight against racism, police brutality, U.S. imperialism, and white supremacy. Assata’s unwavering commitment to the liberation of her people continues to inspire generations.
This outpouring of veneration for a cold-blooded terrorist is disgusting, but what can you expect from today’s Democrat Party? The Left is and always has been, from the French Revolution forward to today, a political movement that rabidly embraces revolutionary violence, including murder and assassination. In the modern era you can add a vicious strain of anti-white racism to their lust for violence.
The Right holds a traditional understanding of what defines a hero: someone who puts his or her life on the line in defense of the innocent.
By contrast, the Left’s heroes kill the innocent in cowardly ambushes. They are cop-killers like JoAnne Chesimard; murderers of innocent civilians like Luigi Mangione, the coward who shot (sorry – allegedly shot) healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the back as he walked down a Manhattan avenue and who subsequently became a Democrat folk hero; unhinged radicals like Tyler Robinson, who allegedly shot to death peaceful conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he engaged in respectful conversation with students at Utah Valley University. Need I go on?
Thanks to her revolutionary comrades here and abroad, JoAnne Chesimard escaped earthly justice to live a life of comfort and flattery into old age – unlike her white victim, trooper and Vietnam veteran Werner Foerster, whose life she ruthlessly cut short. Perhaps his wife and son, who still live, can take some comfort knowing she cannot avoid facing ultimate justice in the hereafter.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior