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How can a school of higher learning allow this? I am shocked. Please read and discuss.
'Terrorist' lauded at CCNY
By MIKE JACCARINO and KAREN ANGEL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Joanne Chesimard 
City College center named for Assata Shakur, known as Joanne Chesimard when she was convicted. 
Werner Foerster These days, Joanne Chesimard is known as Assata Shakur, but she's had dozens of other aliases in a life on the run.
She now lives in Cuba, a guest of dictator Fidel Castro, and carries a $1 million price tag for her capture and return to prison in the U.S.
She's a convicted cop killer who left behind a lifetime of pain for the family of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
But in at least one corner of City College, Chesimard is a hero, honored and remembered.
Her latest alias enshrines theGuillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community Center at the City University of New York's flagship campus.
It's a punch to the gut that has furious police groups demanding the publicly funded institution strip away the Black Liberation Army militant's name.
"We use tax dollars to support an institution that indemnifies a cold-blooded terrorist?" asked Dave Jones, president of the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association.
"She's a cowardly, cold-blooded convicted murderer who's part of a murdering sect," he said. "She's no different from those people who flew those planes into those towers and destroyed all those innocent lives."
Shakur was sentenced to life for her role in the the 1973 murder of Foerster.
Foerster was shot twice at point-blank range with his own weapon when he pulled over a car carrying Chesimard and other activists on May 2, 1973, on the Jersey Turnpike.
His partner, James Harper, was wounded.
She was freed in a daring 1979 prison break and fled to Cuba. Last year, the feds put her on the terrorist watch list with a $1 million reward for her capture.
The Morales/Shakur Center got its name in 1989, a reward to radical students who took over City College's North Academic Center to protest a proposed tuition hike.
Guillermo Morales was a member of the FALN, a violent group advocating independence for Puerto Rico. He fled to Mexico after breaking out of Bellevue Hospital even after losing his fingers while making a bomb. He now also lives in Cuba.
Today, the center named for Morales and Shakur is shared by three groups - Students for Educational Rights, the Student Liberation Action Movement and Dominicans 2000. CCNY says it has no intention of renaming the center.
A spokeswoman also said the complaints from cops are the first the college has heard.
"This is not the college or the administration's idea of a good name for this room, but we believe the university is a place to discuss and argue ideas, some of which are not widely supported," said school spokeswoman Mary Lou Edmondson.
But police groups said Shakur was not about ideas - she was about killing.
"It's disgusting that an institute of higher learning whose main goal is to educate people would dedicate a room to a person whose main goal in life was to take lives, especially those of people who wear the uniform," said Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
Students who use the center today were a little fuzzy on who it's named for.
Freshmen Jeimy Gutierrez, 18, and Angela Morel, 17, members of the Student Liberation Action Movement, said they did not know Shakur is a wanted terrorist who killed a New Jersey trooper.
"I'm surprised," said Angela. "I didn't know. I'm going to do some research."
"I'm going to look into it," Gutierrez echoed.
But the center's older advisers know who she is.
Center Director Rodolfo Leyton argues that Shakur was framed.
"The legal system makes mistakes all the time," he said, insisting many black activists were jailed on trumped-up charges.
"She's seen as a hero to most of the people in her community - Harlem, the South Bronx, Brooklyn, wherever people of color are," Leyton said. The New Jersey State Police said Chesimard is no hero. "I would hope these college students do the appropriate research in terms of what transpired with regards to the murder of Werner Foerster," said Capt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. "I think if they did, they'd think twice about supporting her. Basically, she's a terrorist."
Originally published on December 11, 2006
'Terrorist' lauded at CCNY
By MIKE JACCARINO and KAREN ANGEL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Joanne Chesimard City College center named for Assata Shakur, known as Joanne Chesimard when she was convicted. Werner Foerster These days, Joanne Chesimard is known as Assata Shakur, but she's had dozens of other aliases in a life on the run. She now lives in Cuba, a guest of dictator Fidel Castro, and carries a $1 million price tag for her capture and return to prison in the U.S.
She's a convicted cop killer who left behind a lifetime of pain for the family of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
But in at least one corner of City College, Chesimard is a hero, honored and remembered.
Her latest alias enshrines theGuillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community Center at the City University of New York's flagship campus.
It's a punch to the gut that has furious police groups demanding the publicly funded institution strip away the Black Liberation Army militant's name.
"We use tax dollars to support an institution that indemnifies a cold-blooded terrorist?" asked Dave Jones, president of the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association.
"She's a cowardly, cold-blooded convicted murderer who's part of a murdering sect," he said. "She's no different from those people who flew those planes into those towers and destroyed all those innocent lives."
Shakur was sentenced to life for her role in the the 1973 murder of Foerster.
Foerster was shot twice at point-blank range with his own weapon when he pulled over a car carrying Chesimard and other activists on May 2, 1973, on the Jersey Turnpike.
His partner, James Harper, was wounded.
She was freed in a daring 1979 prison break and fled to Cuba. Last year, the feds put her on the terrorist watch list with a $1 million reward for her capture.
The Morales/Shakur Center got its name in 1989, a reward to radical students who took over City College's North Academic Center to protest a proposed tuition hike.
Guillermo Morales was a member of the FALN, a violent group advocating independence for Puerto Rico. He fled to Mexico after breaking out of Bellevue Hospital even after losing his fingers while making a bomb. He now also lives in Cuba.
Today, the center named for Morales and Shakur is shared by three groups - Students for Educational Rights, the Student Liberation Action Movement and Dominicans 2000. CCNY says it has no intention of renaming the center.
A spokeswoman also said the complaints from cops are the first the college has heard.
"This is not the college or the administration's idea of a good name for this room, but we believe the university is a place to discuss and argue ideas, some of which are not widely supported," said school spokeswoman Mary Lou Edmondson.
But police groups said Shakur was not about ideas - she was about killing.
"It's disgusting that an institute of higher learning whose main goal is to educate people would dedicate a room to a person whose main goal in life was to take lives, especially those of people who wear the uniform," said Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
Students who use the center today were a little fuzzy on who it's named for.
Freshmen Jeimy Gutierrez, 18, and Angela Morel, 17, members of the Student Liberation Action Movement, said they did not know Shakur is a wanted terrorist who killed a New Jersey trooper.
"I'm surprised," said Angela. "I didn't know. I'm going to do some research."
"I'm going to look into it," Gutierrez echoed.
But the center's older advisers know who she is.
Center Director Rodolfo Leyton argues that Shakur was framed.
"The legal system makes mistakes all the time," he said, insisting many black activists were jailed on trumped-up charges.
"She's seen as a hero to most of the people in her community - Harlem, the South Bronx, Brooklyn, wherever people of color are," Leyton said. The New Jersey State Police said Chesimard is no hero. "I would hope these college students do the appropriate research in terms of what transpired with regards to the murder of Werner Foerster," said Capt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. "I think if they did, they'd think twice about supporting her. Basically, she's a terrorist."
Originally published on December 11, 2006
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