How Can CCNY Name a Facility After a Convicted Cop Killer and Prison Escapee on the FBI Most Wanted List?

Question

"Only The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York may designate or name College and University facilities," Goldstein wrote to City College President Gregory H. Williams.

The Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community Center on the third floor of CCNY's North Academic Center was named in 1989 for Shakur, convicted in the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, and Morales, a former member of FALN, which is a Puerto Rican liberation group that claimed responsibility for a rash of bombings in New York in the mid-1970s.

The center is shared by the Student Liberation Action Movement and Students for Educational Rights — groups with approximately 45 members total, said Mary Lou Edmondson, spokeswoman for the college.

The United Federation of Students, Union de Jovenes Dominicanos, The Messenger, The Pre-University Program, CCNY Coalition Against the War and CUNY for All! are also listed as sharing the space, according to a sign on the door emblazoned with a painted fist.

"We would like to close by saying that the American people have a right and a duty to find out the facts about this situation for themselves before they judge it," the student statement said. "And Assata, we love you."

In 2005, the FBI named Shakur, whose real name is Joanne Deborah Chesimard, to its list of most wanted domestic terrorists, placing a $1 million bounty on her head.

In 1977, Shakur was convicted of Foerster's murder during a routine traffic stop. Shakur had been a member of the Black Liberation Army and was wanted in connection with several felonies, including bank robbery, the FBI said.

She skipped out on the life sentence, escaping from prison in Clinton, N.J., on Nov. 2, 1979. She's now believed to be living in Cuba.

A City College student wrote a letter to the Daily News about the naming of the community center, prompting the paper to report Monday that police groups have been angered the school allowed the room to be named for a convicted cop killer.

"We use tax dollars to support an institution that indemnifies a cold-blooded terrorist?" Dave Jones, president of the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association, told the Daily News.

"She's a cowardly, cold-blooded convicted murderer who's part of a murdering sect," he told the newspaper. "She's no different from those people who flew those planes into those towers and destroyed all those innocent lives."

On her Web site, http://www.assatashakur.org/, Shakur says she is innocent.

"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," she said.

Shakur, who is the godmother of slain hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur, has been heralded as a hero among the hip-hop community and political activist groups and reviled as a villain by police organizations.

Morales is also exiled in Cuba.

Students questioned on the City College campus by FOXNews.com Tuesday hadn't heard about the flap.

"If you look at it at face value and think about what she did, it might seem wrong, but I think you really have to, like, look beyond the whole thing with the cops to really understand, like, where she's coming from," said Orlando Ayala, a 24-year-old senior.

Sophomore Carlos Badilla, 20, of the Bronx, wanted to know why the center was named after Shakur.

"If it had nothing to do with killing the cop, it's alright," he said. "You have to think why she did it, cause cops are known to mess with some people, you know. If she had a reason to do it then I have no problem with it."

But senior Diana Perez, 27, disagreed.

"I don't see why they would name it after a woman like that," she said. "I don't know their reasons behind it, but I don't think it's a good idea."

Answer 1

It is wrong! It is shameful! It goes against the grain of decency which should, and used to, govern our code of educating our youth to be good people and responsible citizens. It shows that CCNY is severly and wofully lacking in their responsibilities to their students and to the taxpayers.
This situation is indicative of the ultra liberal trend that seems to be so prevalent among college professors and administrators in America today. They are advocating left wing, socialistic and terrorist ideologies. This must not be allowed to happen in our universities. We must consistently fight against these evils which are obviously meant to subvert and brainwash the minds of our future generations and our future leaders. If they succeed, it will be the end of Democracy as we know it in this country. The very people who are destroying our country from within in the name of "Free Speech" and are justifying their violence in the name of Racial discrimination , are preparing the way for a dictatorship like Cuba or a socialist Communist government like the former Soviet Union. On the other hand we have other factions threatening to take over our country like the Mexican government and Alchaida.It is just too scary to think about.

The Assata Shakur situation is only part of the whole plan and the colleges are where the ripest young mind are to contaminate with all of this hate and rebellion ideology. Sounds Marxist to me! We are in big trouble if we don't wake up and smell the coffee.

PS. How many know that Hillary Clinton was a professor of Marxism at the University of California at Berkley in the 70's?
Frightening, isn't it?

Answer 2

The information given is insufficient to give a precise answer. The sentence would depend upon several factors: 1. What state - and what does that state's law say about mandatory sentencing? 2. What was the charge on which the defendant was convicted? 3. What, if any, prior record does the defendant have? 4. What, if any, extenuating circumstances existed. 5. What does any pre-sentence report say? 6. The judge may or may not have some flexibility - so it could also depend upon the judge's assessment of the case.

Answer 3

Wow... Here I wonder if we liken Assata Shakur to Robert Burns, a fugitive who shed light on the conditions of Georgia's chain gangs in his time. Although Mr. Burns was not convicted of murder, there were conditions or a series of events that led him (a war hero at the time) to commit his crime.

Shakur's autobiography did not make waves large enough to attract major movies makers, but the conditions that she lived under during her time here... Well... In 1999, New Jersey State Troopers were reported to still practice racial profiling.

Then again, Mr. Burns was 'pardoned' first by New Jersey, then years later by Ga. And I don't know if he has any buildings named after him.

It's improbable that Ms. Shakur will be pardoned by a nation who's forefathers fled from persecution they thought were unjust. So I don't think she'll get a fair shake in this.

Nope, I think this'll be another trail of piss running down Uncle Sam's red, white, and blue covered leg.

Answer 4

You have set up a great defense. Any institution can name themselves anything they want, no matter how ill advised. One of the best things about this country is this freedom. You, on the other hand have another freedom, one just as powerful. If this institution is funded by public monies, you - as a taxpayer- have a right to object ( again your reasoning is sound). You have the right to inform people who are funding this about this insult to the slain officer. Methophorically it would be like naming a campus after Lee Harvey Oswald or James Earl Ray.

Answer 5

Political correctness. Or as a DWM (Dead White Male, Ben Franklin to be exact) said: "Passion rules, and she never governs wisely." If there is no question of guilt, then she should remain exiled, and those who really support her can join her. No pardon or good works since will ever give those men back the lives they were wrongly deprived of, they fell in the act of protecting our society, and our society should not dishonor them so. But overall, human beings can be surprisingly stupid because they forget too easily.

Answer 6

I think employers would think twice if they were flipping through a resume of a graduate from that institution. No doubt about it. But I guess it sends a strong message to the community in which they are supposed to be hired.

Unfortunately it's a message that will be viewed negatively by employers in that community.

Answer 7

What an idiotic thing to do.
If I were a member of their alumni association, I would cease all support.
That is absolutely shameful.

Answer 8

Like, well, um, look man, how do weez guys no wat da trudth is. Besides, ya no does cops can be pretty mean to cop killers man.

What a crock of dung! I left New York decades ago, and I've never regretted it once.