Toxic lessons: the Chicago Teachers Union glorifies a cop killer

Editorial note: This essay is adapted from a post that appeared originally on March 28, 2023.

Seemed like a bad dream, she laid in a blood puddle
Blood bubbled in her chest, cold air brushed against open flesh
No room to rest, pain consumed each breath
Shot twice with her hands up
Police questioned but shot before she answered
One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his
Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her

—From a “A Song for Assante” by Common

These powerful lyrics and the melody that accompanies them are full of pathos. Together, this poignant tale of oppression brought me to tears as a liberal teen growing up in the ’90s. I sincerely thought I was hearing the story of a freedom fighter who fought the “evil empire” of America with sheer “power” and beauty. Teens can be pretty naive, and I was no exception.

It was not until years later, when I became a conservative adult, that I learned the truth. Assata Shakur, born Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the notorious Black Liberation Army (BLA), a domestic terrorist organization whose “sole purpose,” according to domestic terrorism expert Bryan Burrough, was “assassinating policemen.” She was convicted of the first-degree murder of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster after she and other BLA members attacked Foerster during a traffic stop in which trooper James Harper was also injured.

Celebrating cop killers and domestic terrorists

When I read the case details, years after the rap song made me think she was a hero, I was furious. I had been lied to, manipulated. No one told me that Foerster was survived by his wife and two children. I did not even know he was killed. The rapper Common omitted the part about Shakur being part of a domestic terrorist organization. I was not told that just before this murder, BLA “had ambushed two pairs of NYPD officers in a 48-hour spree, killing two; murdered another cop in Atlanta; and executed another pair of NYPD officers in 1972.”

The picture that was painted for me was one of a righteous fighter against oppression. It was not that much different from the email sent out to supporters by the nonprofit Movement for Black Lives (MBL), which celebrated Shakur as an “incredibly talented poet.” Again, the whole convicted murderer part is left out. Instead, MBL tells how “Assata was a child full of pride, joy, imagination.” It is a puff piece for a domestic terrorist. Readers are treated to a detailed explanation of the meaning of Shakur’s chosen name. Apparently, those are details Movement for Black Lives considers more important than the lives of the police officers Shakur and the BLA took.

Since Movement for Black Lives celebrates a domestic terrorist and convicted cop killer, it should be no surprise that their website contains a section promoting bailing out protestors, even violent ones, as we saw in the so-called Summer of Love 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. “Free ‘em all,” the website declares. “The Movement for Black Lives demands all charges be dropped against protestors.” Even the most violent “protesters”? Again, those are details that do not concern MBL. Just “free ’em all!”

The Chicago Teachers Union

Fast forward to today. Shakur recently died in Cuba, where she had lived as a fugitive since escaping prison in 1979. She spent decades shielded by the Castro regime, living comfortably while the Foerster family lived without a husband and father. For most Americans, her death is a reminder of justice denied. But incredibly, some on the Left took her passing as a moment to glorify her. The Chicago Teachers Union, one of the most radical public-sector unions in the country, posted a tribute celebrating Shakur. A teachers union that influences what goes into the classrooms of children decided that the proper response to the death of a convicted cop killer and domestic terrorist was to honor her “legacy.”

This is not just tasteless; it is dangerous. When an organization of teachers endorses the life of a terrorist, it is not “remembering history.” It is signaling to the next generation that political violence can be excused (or worse, celebrated) if it is carried out in the name of the “correct” ideology. The CTU’s tribute was not just a mistake. It was an endorsement of political violence. And this post came after we witnessed hundreds of thousands of liberals celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Inspiring the next generation

Go back to those lyrics I opened with. Note the focus. The “victim” here, we are told, is Assata. Her pain, her trauma, is what is focused on. Think of how the news media can sway public opinion by focusing on the victims of their chosen causes. An illegal immigrant rescued from dehydration in the desert—highlight that. Or a Native American smirked at by a MAGA hat-wearing teen—turn that into a week of news stories, and make sure to zoom in on that smirk. It is the same trick here, but in song form. If you only heard the song, you would not even know Foerster was murdered.

Focus on chosen “victims” and pretend the others do not exist.

This is how you romanticize a woman convicted of brutal, cold-blooded murder. And by doing this for years, even generations, you end up with the Black Lives Matter movement, the nonprofit Movement for Black Lives, and now even major teachers unions like the CTU holding her up as an icon. But if these are the heroes that the Left presents to the Black community and to our kids, what “virtues,” or lack thereof, are they trying to inspire in the next generation?

What we need instead is a song about Assata’s victim, state trooper Werner Foerster.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/glorifying-the-cop-killer-assanta-shakur/