Topic category:  Other/General

by Jim Kouri, CPP

Several police organizations are up in arms over a taxpayer funded college honoring a cop-killer and domestic terrorist.

"The cowardly school administration at the City College of New York have allowed a student community room to be named in honor of a domestic terrorist and cop-killer," said officials from the National Association of Chiefs of Police in a statement.

"You can bet your life they'd never allow the center to be called The Jesus Christ Community Center."

The New York City college students who share the community room named for the escaped cop killer Assata Shakur proclaimed their love for the fugitive murderer. Members of seven campus groups also commended the school administration for allowing them to work in the name of a domestic "terrorist" now believed to be hiding in Cuba.

"And we consider her a hero and role model for standing up for our people and putting her life on the line."

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

President Bill Clinton pardoned FALN members when his wife Hillary began her senatorial campaign in 2000 and she wanted the Hispanic vote.

"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."

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 has been heralded as a hero among the hip-hop community -- Tupac Shakur was her Godchild -- and political activist groups and reviled as a villain by police organizations. To cops she's nothing but a lowlife cop-killer.

The school issued a statement to the Daily News:

"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," school spokeswoman Mary Lou Edmondson told the Daily News. The school has no plans to rename the room.

But police officials say this is the standard tripe given whenever universities are caught doing the outrageous.

"I hardly believe they would name a center the Adolf Hitler community room and defend it as a place to discuss and argue ideas. Ms. Edmondson is an apologist for cop-killers and terrorists," wrote the 14,000-member NACOP in response.

For those wishing to express their outrage contact Ms. Edmondson at: 212.650.7808 or edmondson@ccny.cuny.edu

Jim Kouri
Chief of Police Magazine (Contributing Editor)

Biography - Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for a number of organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional.