This e-mail captured my attention and I thought others would be
interested.
Paul Zarembka
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 00:18:35 EST
From: Susan1218 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Open Letter from Assata Shakur
Open Letter from Assata Shakur
My name is Assata Shakur, 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.
In 1978, my case was one of many cases bought before the United Nations
Organization in a petition filed by the National Conference of Black Lawyers,
the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the United
Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, exposing the existence of
political prisoners in the United States, their political persecution, and the
cruel and inhuman treatment they receive in US prisons. According to the
report:
The FBI and the New York Police Department in particular, charged and accused
Assata Shakur of participating in attacks on law enforcement personnel and
widely circulated such charges and accusations among police agencies and
units. The FBI and the NYPD further charged her as being a leader of the Black
Liberation Army which the government and its respective agencies described as
an organization engaged in the shooting of police officers. This description
of the Black Liberation Army and the accusation of Assata Shakur's
relationship to it was widely circulated by government agents among police
agencies and units. As a result of these activities by the government, Ms.
Shakur became a hunted person; posters in police precincts and banks described
her as being involved in serious criminal activities; she was highlighted on
the FBI's most wanted list; and to police at all levels she became a 'shoot-
to-kill' target."
I was falsely accused in six different "criminal cases" and in all six of
these cases I was eventually acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact
that I was acquitted or that the charges were dismissed, did not mean that I
received justice in the courts, that was certainly not the case. It only meant
that the "evidence" presented against me was so flimsy and false that my
innocence became evident. This political persecution was part and parcel of
the government's policy of eliminating political opponents by charging them
with crimes and arresting them with no regard to the factual basis of such
charges.
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 Foerster 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 Foerster 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.
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
public's 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. (See
attached Letter to the Pope).
In January of 1998, during the pope's visit to Cuba, I agreed to do an
interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza around my letter to the Pope, about
my experiences in New Jersey court system, and about the changes I saw in the
United States and it's treatment of Black people in the last 25 years. I
agreed to do this interview because I saw this secret letter to the Pope as a
vicious, vulgar, publicity maneuver on the part of the New Jersey State
Police, and as a cynical attempt to manipulate Pope John Paul II. I have lived
in Cuba for many years, and was completely out of touch with the
sensationalist, dishonest, nature of the establishment media today. It is
worse today than it was 30 years ago. After years of being victimized by the
"establishment" media it was naive of me to hope that I might finally get the
opportunity to tell "my side of the story." Instead of an interview with me,
what took place was a "staged media event" in three parts, full of
distortions, inaccuracies and outright lies. NBC purposely misrepresented the
facts. Not only did NBC spend thousands of dollars promoting this "exclusive
interview series" on NBC, they also spent a great deal of money advertising
this "exclusive interview" on black radio stations and also placed notices in
local newspapers.
DISTORTIONS AND LIES IN THE NBC SERIES
In an NBC interview Gov. Whitman was quoted as saying that "this has
nothing to do with race, this had everything to do with crime." Either Gov.
Whitman is completely unfamiliar with the facts in my case, or her sensitivity
to racism and to the plight of black people and other people of color in the
United States is at a sub-zero level. In 1973 the trial in Middlesex County
had to be stopped because of the overwhelming racism expressed in the jury
room. The court was finally forced to rule that the entire jury panel had been
contaminated by racist comments like "If she's black, she's guilty." In an
obvious effort to prevent us from being tried by "a jury of our peers the New
Jersey courts ordered that a jury be selected from Morris County, New Jersey
where only 2.2 percent of the population was black and 97.5 percent of
potential jurors were white. In a study done in Morris County, one of the
wealthiest counties in the country, 92 percent of the registered voters said
that they were familiar with the case through the news media, and 72 percent
believed we were guilty based on pretrial publicity. During the jury selection
process in Morris County, white supremacists from the National Social White
People's Party, wearing Swastikas, demonstrated carrying signs reading
"SUPPORT WHITE POLICE." The trial was later moved back to Middlesex County
where 70 percent thought I was guilty based on pretrial publicity I was tried
by an all-white jury, where the presumption of innocence was not the criteria
for jury selection. Potential jurors were merely asked if they could "put
their prejudices aside, and "render a fair verdict." The basic reality in the
United States is that being black is a crime and black people are always
"suspects" and an accusation is usually a conviction. Most white people still
think that being a "black militant" or a "black revolutionary" is tantamount
to being guilty of some kind of crime. The current situation in New Jersey's
prisons, underlines the racism that dominates the politics of the state of New
Jersey, in particular and in the U.S. as a whole. Although the population of
New Jersey is approximately 78 percent white, more than 75 percent of New
Jersey's prison population is made up of blacks and Latinos. 80 percent of the
women in Jersey prisons are people of color. That may not seem like racism to
Gov. Whitman, but it reeks of of racism to us.
The NBC story implied that Governor Christie Whitman raised the reward
for
my capture based on my interview with NBC. The fact of the matter is that she
has been campaigning since she was elected into office to double the reward
for my capture. In 1994, she appointed Col. Carl Williams who immediately
vowed to make my capture a priority. In 1995, Gov. Whitman sought to "match a
$25,000 departmental appropriation sponsored by an "unidentified legislator."
I watched a tape of Gov. Whitman's "testimony" in her interview with NBC. She
gave a very dramatic, exaggerated version of what happened, but there is no
evidence whatsoever to support her claim that Trooper Foerster had "four
bullets in him at least, and then they got up and with his own gun, fired two
bullets into his head." She claimed that she was writing Janet Reno for
federal assistance in my capture, based on what she saw in the NBC interview.
If this is the kind of "information" that is being passed on to Janet Reno and
the Pope, it is clear that the facts have been totally distorted. Whitman also
claimed that my return to prison should be a condition for "normalizing
relations with Cuba". How did I get so important that my life can determine
the foreign relations between two governments? Anybody who knows anything
about New Jersey politics can be certain that her motives are purely
political. She, like Torrecelli and several other opportunistic politicians in
New Jersey came to power, as part- time lobbyists for the Batistia faction -
soliciting votes from right wing Cubans. They want to use my case as a barrier
for normalizing relations with Cuba, and as a pretext for maintaining the
immoral blockade against the Cuban people.
In what can only be called deliberate deception and slander NBC aired
a
photograph of a woman with a gun in her hand implying that the woman in the
photograph was me. I was not, in fact, the woman in the photograph. The
photograph was taken from a highly publicized case where I was accused of bank
robbery. Not only did I voluntarily insist on participating in a lineup,
during which witnesses selected another woman, but during the trial, several
witnesses, including the manager of the bank, testified that the woman in that
photograph was not me. I was acquitted of that bank robbery. NBC aired that
photograph on at least 5 different occasions, representing the woman in the
photograph as me. How is it possible, that the New Jersey State Police, who
claim to have a detective working full time on my case, Governor of New Jersey
Christine Whitman, who claimed she reviewed all the "evidence," or NBC, which
has an extensive research department, did not know that the photograph was
false? It was a vile, fraudulent attempt to make me look guilty. NBC
deliberately misrepresented the truth. Even after many people had called in,
and there was massive fax, and e-mail campaign protesting NBC's mutilation of
the facts, Ralph Penza and NBC continued to broadcast that photograph,
representing it as me. Not once have the New Jersey State Police, Governor
Christine Whitman, or NBC come forth and stated that I was not the woman in
the photograph, or that I had been acquitted of that charge.
Another major lie and distortion was that we had left trooper Werner
Foerster on the roadside to die. The truth is that there was a major cover-up
as to what happened on May 2, 1973. Trooper Harper, the same man who shot me
with my arms raised in the air, testified that he returned to the State Police
Headquarters which was less than 200 yards away, "To seek aid." However, tape
recordings and police reports made on May 2, 1973 prove that not only did
Trooper Harper give several conflicting statements about what happened on the
turnpike, but he never once mentioned the name of Werner Foerster, or the fact
that the incident took place right in front of the Trooper Headquarters. In an
effort to hide his tracks and cover his guilt he said nothing whatsoever about
Foerster to his superiors or to his fellow officers.
In a clear attempt to discredit me, Col. Carl Williams of the New
Jersey
State Police was allowed to give blow by blow distortions of my interview. In
my interview I stated that on the night of May 2, 1973 I was shot with my arms
in the air, then shot again in the back. Williams stated "that is absolutely
false. Our records show that she reached in her pocketbook, pulled out a nine
millimeter weapon and started firing." However, the claim that I reached into
my pocketbook and pulled out a gun, while inside the car was even contested by
trooper Harper. Although on three official reports, and when he testified
before the grand jury he stated that he saw me take a gun out of my
pocketbook, he finally admitted under cross-examination that he never saw me
with my hands in a pocketbook, never saw me with a weapon inside the car, and
that he did not see me shoot him.
The truth is that I was examined by 3 medical specialists:
(1) A Neurologist who testified that I was immediately
paralyzed
immediately after the being shot.
(2) A Surgeon who testified that "It was absolutely
anatomically necessary
that both arms be in the air for Mrs. Chesimard to receive the wounds." The
same surgeon also testified that the claim by Trooper Harper that I had been
crouching in a firing position when I was shot was "totally anatomically
impossible."
(3) A Pathologist who testified that "There is no conceivable
way that it
[the bullet] could have traveled over to hit the clavicle if her arm was
down." he said "It was impossible to have that trajectory"
The prosecutors presented no medical testimony whatsoever to refute
the
above medical evidence.
No evidence whatsoever was ever presented that I had a 9-millimeter
weapon, in fact New Jersey State Police testified that the 9-millimeter weapon
belonged to Zayd Malik Shakur based on a holster fitting the weapon that they
was recovered from his body.
There were no fingerprints, or any other evidence whatsoever that
linked me
to any guns or ammunition.
The results of the Neutron Activation test to determine whether or not
I
had fired a weapon were negative.
Although Col. Williams refers to us as the "criminal element" neither
Zayd, or Sundiata Acoli or I were criminals, we were political activists. I
was a college student until the police kicked down my door in an effort to
force me to "cooperate" with them and Sundiata Acoli was a computer expert who
had worked for NASA, before he joined the Black Panther Party and was targeted
by COINTELPRO.
In an obvious maneuver to provoke sympathy for the police, the NBC
series
juxtaposed my interview with the weeping widow of Werner Foerster. While I can
sympathize with her grief, I believe that her appearance was deliberately
included to appeal to people's emotions, to blur the facts, to make me look
like a villain, and to create the kind of lynch mob mentality that has
historically been associated with white women portrayed as victims of black
people. In essence the supposed interview with me became a forum for the New
State Police, Foerster's widow, and the obviously hostile commentary of Ralph
Penza. The two initial programs together lasted 3.5 minutes - me - 59 seconds,
the widow 50 seconds, the state police 38 seconds, and Penza - 68 seconds. Not
once in the interview was I ever asked about Zayd, Sundiata or their families.
As the interview went on, it was painfully evident that Ralph Penza would
never see me as a human being. Although I tried to talk about racism and about
the victims of government and police repression, it was clear that he was
totally uninterested.
I have stated publicly on various occasions that I was ashamed of
participating in my trial in New Jersey trial because it was so racist, but I
did testify. Even though I was extremely limited by the judge, as to what I
could testfy about, I testified as clearly as I could about what happened that
night. After being almost fatally wounded I managed to climb in the back seat
of the car to get away from the shooting. Sundiata drove the car five miles
down the road carried me into a grassy area because he was afraid that the
police would see the car parked on the side of the road and just start
shooting into it again. Yes, it was five miles down the highway where I was
captured, dragged out of the car, stomped and then left on the ground.
Although I drifted in and out of consciousness I remember clearly that both
while I was lying on the ground, and while I was in the ambulance, I kept
hearing the State troopers ask "is she dead yet?" Because of my condition I
have no independent recollection of how long I was on the ground, or how long
it was before the ambulance was allowed to leave for the hospital, but in the
trial transcript trooper Harper stated that it was while he was being
questioned, some time after 2:00 am that a detective told him that I had just
been brought into the hospital. I was the only live "suspect" in custody, and
prior to that time Harper, had never told anyone that a woman had shot him.
As I watched Governor Whitman's interview the one thing that struck me was
her "outrage" at my joy about being a grandmother, and my "quite nice life" as
she put it here in Cuba. While I love the Cuban people and the solidarity they
have shown me, the pain of being torn away from everybody I love has been
intense. I have never had the opportunity to see or to hold my grandchild. If
Gov. Whitman thinks that my life has been so nice, that 50 years of dealing
with racism, poverty, persecution, brutality, prison, underground, exile and
blatant lies has been so nice, then I'd be more than happy to let her walk in
my shoes for a while so she can get a taste of how it feels. I am a proud
black woman, and I'm not about to get on the television and cry for Ralph
Penza or any other journalist, but the way I have suffered in my lifetime, and
the way my people have suffered, only god can bear witness to.
Col. Williams of the New Jersey State Police stated "we would do everything
we could go get her off the island of Cuba and if that includes kidnaping, we
would do it." I guess the theory is that if they could kidnap millions of
Africans from Africa 400 years ago, they should be able to kidnap one African
woman today. It is nothing but an attempt to bring about the re-incarnation of
the Fugitive Slave Act. All I represent is just another slave that they want
to bring back to the plantation. Well, I might be a slave, but I will go to my
grave a rebellious slave. I am and I feel like a maroon woman. I will never
voluntarily accept the condition of slavery, whether it's de-facto or ipso-
facto, official, or unofficial. In another recent interview, Williams talked
about asking the federal government to add to the $50,000 reward for my
capture. He also talked about seeking "outside money, or something like that,
a benefactor, whatever." Now who is he looking to "contribute" to that
"cause"? The Ku Klux Klan, the Neo Nazi Parties, the white militia
organizations? But the plot gets even thicker. He says that the money might
lure bounty hunters. "There are individuals out there, I guess they call
themselves 'soldiers of fortune' who might be interested in doing something,
in turning her over to us" Well, in the old days they used to call them slave-
catchers, trackers, or patter-rollers, now they are called mercenaries.
Neither the governor nor the state police say one word about "justice." They
have no moral authority to do so. The level of their moral and ethical
bankruptcy is evident in their eagerness to not only break the law and hire
hoodlums, all in the name of "law and order." But you know what gets to me,
what makes me truly indignant? With the schools in Paterson, N.J. falling
down, with areas of Newark looking like a disaster area, with the crack
epidemic, with the wide-spread poverty and unemployment in New Jersey, these
depraved, decadent, would-be slave-masters want federal funds to help put this
"nigger wench" back in her place. They call me the "most wanted woman" in
Amerika. I find that ironic. I've never felt very "wanted" before. When it
came to jobs, I was never the "most wanted," when it came to "economic
opportunities I was never the "most wanted, when it came to decent housing."
It seems like the only time Black people are on the "most wanted" list is when
they want to put us in prison.
But at this moment, I am not so concerned about myself. Everybody has to die
sometime, and all I want is to go with dignity. I am more concerned about the
growing poverty, the growing despair that is rife in Amerika. I am more
concerned about our younger generations, who represent our future. I am more
concerned that one-third of young black are either in prison or under the
jurisdiction of the "criminal in-justice system." I am more concerned about
the rise of the prison-industrial complex that is turning our people into
slaves again. I am more concerned about the repression, the police brutality,
violence, the rising wave of racism that makes up the political landscape of
the U.S. today. Our young people deserve a future, and I consider it the
mandate of my ancestors to be part of the struggle to insure that they have
one. They have the right to live free from political repression. The U.S. is
becoming more and more of a police state and that fact compels us to fight
against political repression. I urge you all, every single person who reads
this statement, to fight to free all political prisoners. As the concentration
camps in the U.S. turn into death camps, I urge you to fight to abolish the
death penalty. I make a special, urgent appeal to you to fight to save the
life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the only political prisoner who is currently on death
row.
It has been a long time since I have lived inside the United States. But
during my lifetime I have seen every prominent black leader, politician or
activist come under attack by the establishment media. When African -Americans
appear on news programs they are usually talking about sports, entertainment
or they are in handcuffs. When we have a protest they ridicule it, minimized
it, or cut the numbers of the people who attended in half. The news is big
business and it is owned operated by affluent white men. Unfortunately, they
shape the way that many people see the world, and even the way people see
themselves. Too often black journalists, and other journalists of color mimic
their white counterparts. They often gear their reports to reflect the
foreign policies and the domestic policies of the same people who are
oppressing their people. In the establishment media, the bombing and of murder
of thousands of innocent women and children in Libya or Iraq or Panama is seen
as "patriotic," while those who fight for freedom, no matter where they are,
are seen as "radicals," "extremists," or "terrorists."
Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have a
voice. Black people, poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech,
no real freedom of expression and very little freedom of the press. The black
press and the progressive media has historically played an essential role in
the struggle for social justice. We need to continue and to expand that
tradition. We need to create media outlets that help to educate our people and
our children, and not annihilate their minds. I am only one woman. I own no TV
stations, or Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that people need to be
educated as to what is going on, and to understand the connection between the
news media and the instruments of repression in Amerika. All I have is my
voice, my spirit and the will to tell the truth. But I sincerely ask, those of
you in the Black media, those of you in the progressive media, those of you
who believe in truth freedom, To publish this statement and to let people know
what is happening. We have no voice, so you must be the voice of the
voiceless.
Free all Political Prisoners,
I send you Love and Revolutionary Greetings
>From Cuba, One of the Largest, Most Resistant and
Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps)
That has ever existed on the Face of this Planet.
Assata Shakur
Havana, Cuba
