With Obama’s peace talks with Cuba, the New Jersey Police vow to have Assata Shakur serve the rest of her life behind bars for the 1973 killing of N.J. State Trooper Werner Foerster, but is that really justice?

Assata Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, now a 67-year-old fugitive granted political asylum by Fidel Castro after the killing of a cop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973, may be extradited to the U.S. to finish serving her prison term. President Obama’s announcement to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba has Newark, New Jersey FBI on high alert, and they already doubled the reward/bounty to $2 million in 2013. Assata is the first woman to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.

“As long as there is an active warrant for Chesimard, the FBI will continue to pursue justice, regardless of how long it takes, and are hopeful any changes in relations between the United States and Cuba, will assist us with her apprehension and return.”
-Special Agent Aaron Ford

If one would agree that Ms. Chesimard was ever given a fair trial by a jury of her peers during post slavery America, in the Civil Rights/ Black Liberation Struggle era of the 1950′s through the 1980′s; are they admittedly saying they agree with the way African Americans were treated by the Department of Justice of that time? In other words, is it contradictory to say that the same United States Department of Justice system of this present time is the same justice system that imprisoned the political prisoners and prisoners of war, such as Assata, and is it the same system run by the same policies and principles of the racist Civil Rights era?

The great grandparents of the youth of this generation of eighties babies and what some may call the “X Generation”, have done things in America’s past that aren’t the norm in these present times. It will never be understood by a generation that lives under a Constitution which includes the 13th-15th Amendments where by law African Americans are now considered second class citizens. There are no longer signs over restroom doors that say “Whites Only”, so shouldn’t a case that was conducted during that era be re-examined once again before a jury of peers? Is it because nobody wants to admit that there may have been a FBI covert operation against African American leaders of the 60′s and 70′s? We can ask questions all day long but enough about the problems; where are the solutions? There needs to be a patch on the justice system of America that can cover the wounds of slavery and the Black Liberation Struggle that have yet to heal.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur, a current political prisoner best known as being the stepfather of rapper Tupac Shakur and his conviction on racketeering charges following the 1979 prison escape of Assata, presented the Congressional/General Assembly Resolution on Conducting ‘Official’ Hearings on Political Prisoners/P.O.W.s Being Held Imprisoned on U.S Territory to the United Nations. It starts by stating:

WHEREAS, There is a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the U.S to resolve the history of slavery, oppression, racism, segregation and lynching and the issues of political prisoners of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation Struggle who fought against those gross human rights abuses.

We need a resolution. As long as America continues to ignore racism heavily existed at a time in our history, even though we have come so far as a nation to resolve the issues of past, those who fought so we can be at this point will continue to be unjustly incarcerated. If one just listens to Assata Shakur read her open letter she wrote to the Pope during his visit to Cuba, its hard not to sympathize with the way she was abused and treated by New Jersey law enforcement. Though we have recently dealt with the issue of police brutality toward young black men in cases such as Mike Brown and Eric Garner, one can only imagine what black people as a whole in past had to face.

There is no magic solution that will stop all racism over night, but small steps like addressing the issue of P.P.’s and P.O.W.’s still being unjustly detained on U.S soil can bring about reconciliation with the truth. In the case of Assata Shakur, who will dare be the judge? #HandsOffAssata

-Infinite Wiz (@InfiniteWiz)