Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Fugitives

The Miami Herald notes that Cuba has returned two fugitives to the United States and said it will not provide safe haven to any more fugitives. Raul Castro offers to negotiate differences – might that mean that Cuba could be persuaded to return American fugitives? – but Washington isn’t interested in exploring what the offer means, isn’t interested in expanding contacts of any kind, and is not interested in negotiating anything until Cuba is a democracy. If cop-killer Joanne Chesimard was worried before, she probably rests easier now. Wouldn’t it be nice if the U.S. government were doing something to make her uneasy?

1 comment:

leftside said...

Umm, the US is doing quite a bit to make Mrs. Shakur (Chessimard) uneasy. They issued a $1 million bounty on her head in 2005. A few days ago the NYTimes reported that the Lt. in charge of the case for 17 years said the following:

“If some independent, freethinking Cuban could arrange for her to take a boat ride to international waters, we would not be averse to it.”

I would be careful in calling Shakur a "cop-killer" as well. Let's remember she was never convicted of killing anyone. She was convicted for a weapons charge and being a supposed accomplice. In fact Shakur was shot in the back by the police herself. Doctors tesified she had to have had her hands up to sustain the wound she did. They also noted it would have been impossible to fire a gun after sustaining the arm injury she did. She was essentilly paralyzed. No gun powder residue was found on her hands and no fingerprints on any weapon. the jury was all white and 5 members had family links to state troopers. The trooper, Harper, admitted lying under oath to the central facts of her involvement.