Long Island Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito floated a House resolution this week to condemn cop killer Assata Shakur and those who have celebrated the convicted Black Liberation Army militant like “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
Shakur, whose real name is Joanne Chesimard, was connected to several execution-style slayings of NYPD officers in 1971 and 1972 and later convicted with two others for the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973.
Chesimard escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and is believed to have been granted political asylum in Cuba. She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
D’Esposito’s resolution noted Chesimard “was suspected to be in a van in 1981 that opened fire on a patrol car, killing 1 NYPD officer and wounding another” after her escape
The resolution also honors the lives of the police officers whose deaths are connected to Chesimard, including NYPD patrolman Joseph Piagentini, NYPD patrolman Waverly Jones, NYPD Patrolman Gregory Foster, NYPD patrolman Rocco Laurie and NYPD officer John Scarangella.
“Joanne Chesimard is a cowardly cop killer who hides in communist Cuba to avoid justice here at home, and yet there is a startling number of sympathizers in the United States who glorify this heinous criminal,” D’Esposito, a former NYPD detective, told The Post.
“My resolution makes it clear that Joanne Chesimard as well as those who revere her wicked deeds deserve the highest degree of condemnation, and I will not stop advocating for justice to be served and Chesimard to answer for her actions.”
Bowman, a former principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, once placed the fugitive on the Bronx middle school’s “Wall of Honor” — and has defended the move when asked about it by one of his Democratic primary challengers.
“Who are you to tell anyone on how they should engage in their own history and the people in their history?” Bowman told his opponent Marty Dolan at a Feb. 21 Yonkers Third Precinct Community Council meeting.
“My school included black and Latino students,” added Bowman, who is black. “We tried to teach as much of our black and Latino history as possible — the good, the bad and the ugly.”
“I will refuse to denounce,” he also said. “I’m answering the question the way I want to answer it. We, our kids in my school learned the history of a people off the walls — and many other people and so, that’s what we did. Period.”
The Post has reached out to Bowman’s office for comment about D’Esposito’s resolution.
“Joanne Chesimard is a convicted cop-killer on the run being harbored in Cuba — and celebrated by despicable politicians like Jamaal Bowman who spits in the face of every cop and the families of fallen heroes,” NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo told The Post.
“The DEA is grateful to Congressman D’Esposito for exposing those who celebrate Chesimard for the disgraces they are,” DiGiacomo said.
The FBI is currently offering a $1 million reward for any information leading to the arrest of Chesimard.
At the time of her arrest, she was also wanted for playing a role in a string of felonies in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx — the borough Bowman now represents along with Westchester County.
In 1998, Congress unanimously passed a resolution calling for her extradition.
