Joanne Chesimard it is claimed, executed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foester in cold blood in 1973 and was given asylum by Fidel Castro. Marquette is a Roman Catholic University. Joanne Chesimard is a Black Panther and Black Liberation Army organizer.

Marquette has a large wall-sized mural of Chesimard along with two quotes from her about education. Marquette has no mural to the murdered State Trooper. Chesimard was charged and tried for: murder; armed robbery; bank robbery; and kidnapping. Her name was Jo Anne Deborah Byron before she married. Chesimard escaped to Cuba and got asylum. President Obama has been petitioned to get her extradited. He appears blase’ about it, probably because he is aligned with Joanne aka Assata Shakur. Governor Chris Christie however pushed for her extradition.

Officer Foerster’s partner Trooper James Harper admitted under cross examination at trial that he lied in his original report stating Shakur opened fire on the slain officer. Medical evidence further indicated Shakur had her arms raised, supporting her story that she was trying to escape rather than shoot.

Marquette said it didn’t know about the mural and they will take it down.

Cuba said NO to the extradition! They said Assata Shakur has “legitimately” earned political asylum. Shakur is derived from the African and Moslem names Shaka Zulu and Shakir.

Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s foreign ministry head of North American affairs, told the Associated Press that the communist nation would not return “Shakur” despite public requests to do so from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and acting state Attorney General John Hoffman. Both Christie’s and Hoffman’s requests came after diplomatic relations between the countries opened last week for the first time in 54 years.

“We’ve explained to the U.S. government in the past that there are some people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately granted political asylum,” Vidal said. “There’s no extradition treaty in effect between Cuba and the U.S.”

What’s the right thing to do? Hopefully Marquette looked into the crimes of Assata Shakur before they took down the memorial mural. They should have done that before it was put up.

Views: 6