newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Union officials representing New Jersey State Police expressed outrage after learning of an invitation extended to entertainer, Common, from the White House for a celebration of American poetry and prose at the White House Wednesday evening.

State Troopers Fraternal Association union president David Jones said that in addition to the "deadly and dangerous" message our youth are receiving from his lyrics, the fact that he pays homage to an accused cop killer in one of his songs is wrong.

The White House poetry event that Common, whose real name is Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, Jr., is set to attend comes during the same week when officers across the nation meet at the National Law Enforcement Memorial to honor their fallen comrades, NBC News reported.

The song in question is "A Song for Assata," featured on Common's March 2000 album, "Like Water for Chocolate." The critically acclaimed album earned the singer his first gold record.

The song's lyrics suggest that Assata Shakur, the step-aunt of late rapper Tupac Shakur, was wrongfully convicted of the 1973 shooting on the New Jersey Turnpike, which left New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and Black Liberation Army member Zayd Malik Shakur dead.

During a 2005 interview with music website AllHipHop.com, Common explained his support of Shakur saying after he met the fugitive during a Black August trip to Cuba four years earlier he learned she was innocent. Common added that he “connected” to Shakur because of her passion and humanity and called her a “beautiful human being.”

The Black August hip-hop project began in 1998 at the request of political exiles Nahanda Abiodun and Assata Shakur, both in Cuba, as an event to raise awareness and financial support for political prisoners and their work, Lumumba Bandele told NewsOne.com.

The second goal of the project is to connect hip-hop communities internationally so artists travel to hip hop communities in Cuba, South Africa, Tanzania, and Brazil for cultural exchange, establishing networks that would enable their human rights movement to flourish all communities. According to Bandele, the project raised over $75,000 for political prisoner work in the U.S.

Lyrics sung by Common imply Shakur, formerly Joanne Chesimard, was abused while in prison and speak about her daring 1979 escape from New Jersey’s Clinton Correctional Facility (now the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility) in Union Township. Shakur fled to Cuba after the prison escape where she has lived in political asylum. The lyrics are:

In the Spirit of the Black Panthers.

In the Spirit of Assata Shakur.

We make this movement towards freedom

Police questioned but shot before she answered

One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his

Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her

Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done

Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun

She untangled the chains and escaped the pain

How she broke out of prison I could never explain

And even to this day they try to get to her

but she's free with political asylum in Cuba.

More than 30 years after the murder of fellow Trooper Foerster, 34, a husband, father and Vietnam veteran from Old Bridge, the anger felt by the slain trooper’s colleagues has not dissipated. Several speak openly about their feelings and desire to see Shakur brought to justice.

Retired State Police troop commander, Sal Maggio, said he hopes she will be captured someday, but attempts to have her extradited back to the U.S. from Cuba remain unsuccessful. On the 32nd anniversary of the Turnpike shootings, the FBI declared Shakur a "domestic terrorist", and announced the bounty for capture at $1 million, the largest amount placed on a fugitive in the history of New Jersey.

Shakur, who New Jersey State Police superintendent Rick Fuentes referred to as "120 pounds of money," remains at the top of the State police most-wanted list, with a $100,000 reward for her capture. Her co-conspirator, Clark Squire, now known as Sundiata Acoli, is serving a life sentence for his part in the murder at the Otisville Federal Penitentiary in New York. New Jersey State Police spearheaded a frenetic letter-writing campaign that led to the State Parole Board denying the 67-year-old former NASA Engineer's release in 1993 and 2010.

Squire, according to a 2010 New York Daily News article, accepted responsibility and expressed regret for the death of Trooper Foerster during his parole hearing, although he continued to deny that he shot him, AfroCuba.com reported.

Jones and Maggio told NBC News they do not believe the Obama’s are aware of Common's song about Shakur. Maggio added that he liked the President and First Lady and thinks Obama has been doing a "pretty good job lately."

While the 39-year-old entertainer has never been considered a thug or contentious rapper, media outlets, along with Sarah Palin have denounced the First Lady's invite after the Daily Caller published the libretto that allegedly criticizes former President George W. Bush, CBS News reported. Lawmen seem to take Common’s open support of Shakur and Michelle Obama’s invite as a slap in the face.

New Jersey State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) called on Obama to apologize to the State Police for inviting Common.

“President Obama must apologize to the New Jersey State Police for inviting a rap singer who praises the assassin of a New Jersey State Trooper to the White House,” Bucco said. “The president should realize, especially after May 1, the sacrifices of our brave men and women in uniform who protect us all, both at home and abroad. I am especially outraged that the rapper finds the controversy over his lyrics amusing. The murder of a trooper is not a laughing matter.”

From his tweets and retweets of various news articles, including one report by FOX News, which called him a "vile rapper," Common seems to find the hoopla over his appearance at the White House amusing. He tweeted, "So apparently Sarah Palin and Fox News doesn't like me." In one reply on his Twitter page, Common sarcastically tweeted, “It's not funny JP. I'm dangerous!”

Fans of the rapper found Fox News' "vile" comment hypocritical after MediaMatters.Org pointed out that a Fox News reporter praised the rappers lyrics last year saying Common's music was "very positive." Other celebrities scheduled to appear at the White House poetry event include Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, Aimee Mann and Jill Scott.