Cop Killer Assata Shakur Eulogized
Plus, Columbia stacks committee conducting Middle East program review with anti-Israel faculty members
Assata Shakur killed a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 and landed on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list when she broke out of prison and fled to Cuba, where she died on Saturday. Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army, the Marxist militant group that existed to “kill cops” and “seize control of their communities.”
The New York Times used the occasion of Charlie Kirk’s death to remind readers of his most niggling mistakes—hey, remember that time he endorsed the use of hydroxychloroquine?—because to get a glow up in the paper of record, you have to kill some cops.
Below, our guide to the media coverage of Shakur’s death:
“Ms. Shakur’s version was that she never held a gun on that 1973 morning and that her arms were in the air when shot. … Nonetheless, prosecutors insisted that, when shot, she was in a crouch and firing at Trooper Harper. In the end, an all-white jury of seven women and five men believed them.” — New York Times
“Over the decades, Ms. Shakur ascended to a near-mythical status among admirers as well as detractors. Opponents denounced her as a cop killer. Supporters saw her as a leader in the movement for Black empowerment. She described herself as ‘a 20th century escaped slave.’” — Washington Post
“The FBI put Shakur on its list of ‘most wanted terrorists,’ but, in her telling — and in the minds of her supporters — she was pursued for crimes she didn’t commit or that were justified.” — Associated Press
“Born and raised in New York City, Shakur became interested in politics, communism, activism, and Black liberation as a college student. After graduating in the late Sixties, she moved out to Oakland and joined the Black Panther Party, later returning to NYC to open a chapter in Harlem, where she oversaw programs like Free Breakfast for Children.” — Rolling Stone
Shakur harkens back to another era of left-wing violence, the 1970s, so it makes sense that, with left-wing extremism on the rise again, political groups like Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America and the Chicago Teachers Union issued statements honoring Shakur as a “freedom fighter.”
READ MORE: A Definitive Guide to Media Coverage of Cop Killer Assata Shakur’s Death
The Trump administration’s deal with Columbia University requires the school to review its Middle East programs, the locus of campus anti-Semitism. Columbia formed an advisory committee to guide that review and packed it with “faculty members who have justified Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and defended notorious anti-Semites,” our Jessica Schwalb reports.
Two committee members, humanities dean Bruno Bosteels and colonialism professor Timothy Mitchell, said Oct. 7 was a demonstration of “occupied people exercising a right to resist.” A third, international and public affairs dean emerita Lisa Anderson, invited former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to campus. Political science professor Karuna Mantena teaches a course on “the complicity of Western political thought and modern practices of imperialism, slavery, and global inequality.”
Those faculty members make up a majority of the seven-member panel. A Columbia spokesman told us it’s “inaccurate to suggest that any subset of committee members determine the views of the committee.” We look forward to their recommendations.
Pennsylvania’s state and local governments are flush with cash thanks to a string of lucrative settlements with opioid producers and distributors. Bucks County—widely considered a political bellwether—is set to receive $70 million from that pot. The money is supposed to fund addiction “Prevention, Treatment and Recovery” services, but some of it has gone toward more controversial programs.
Democratic congressional candidate Bob Harvie chairs the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, which approved a $13,500-grant to the Rainbow Room, an “LGBTQ-youth” center affiliated with a local Planned Parenthood chapter. It offers seminars for kids as young as 14, including one titled “SEX ED NIGHT / MASTURBATION” and another called “translating transition,” which teaches “the basics of transgender identities, social transition, medical transition, and more!” The grant funded transportation for high school students to attend such functions.
In other news:
Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg dropped charges against a local woman who sucker-punched a pro-life activist because his office made “the unacceptable error of missing the discovery deadline.” Innocent mistake!
Benjamin Netanyahu will head to the White House tomorrow to discuss Donald Trump’s new peace proposal, which, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal, includes the release of all remaining Israeli hostages and the dismantlement of Hamas’s “offensive weapons.” The Palestinian Authority can participate in the council that would then be tasked with governing Gaza—but only after reforms to “eliminate extremism.” Color us skeptical.
Northwestern University in Qatar is out with its 2025 security report, and it includes the following warning: “Homosexual activity is a criminal offense in Qatar. According to the US State Department, conviction may result in lashing, a prison sentence, and/or deportation.”
Eric Adams is OUT in the race for New York City mayor, he announced in a Sunday video from Gracie Mansion. The move means socialist Zohran Mamdani will, at least for now, square off against Republican Curtis Sliwa and former governor Andrew Cuomo.
Our full lineup is below.
The Columbia deal was a bad deal. Trump administration should have kept fighting for a better deal.
The democrats gave us crime. It's their duty to support it for political reasons. The opposite of a republic.