The State Troopers Fraternal Organization of New Jersey aims to stop flights to Cuba until Assata Shakur is returned home. Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Party. Essentially, she became a part of the Black Power movement during the time Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.
Turns out, in 1973, Shakur was arrested during a traffic stop at a New Jersey Turnpike. After that, a shoot out left Shakur wounded and the driver of the vehicle Zayd Shakur, dead. A state trooper was also left dead because of the shooting, which ultimately, Assata was blamed for. In 1977, she was convicted of first degree murder but later fled to Cuba in 1979. Soon after that, she was granted asylum by Fidel Castro.
“We strongly oppose any request or approval of United Airlines or any other airline a permit to NJ Port Authority airports to fly back and forth to a country such as Cuba, that has openly slapped all Americans in the face with their policy of keeping U.S. fugitives away and safe from the reach of U.S. justice,” Christopher Burgos, the president of the organization, wrote in a Feb. 17 letter.
It’s suffice to say, however, that The White House has also been looking into the matters of fugitives in Cuba, discussing what will the government’s next move. But still, that all depends on the Cuban government, which in 2015 a representative of it, Gustavo Machin, said it was “off the table,” according to Yahoo News.
What do you think about Assata’s political status, and New Jersey’s stance on it? Sound-off below.