BLACK KOOKS AT KOOKY BERKELEY

The Black Student Union demands that a building at UC Berkeley be named after cop killer Assat Shakur

BarkGrowlBite | March 20, 2015

The University of California Berkeley is probably ranked No. 1 among the most far-left institutions of higher learning in the U.S. It also ranks very high among the kookiest places in America. And now the Black Student Union is trying to make Berkeley the kookiest place of all.

The Black student Union is demanding that Barrows Hall at UC Berkeley be renamed "Shakur Hall" after cop killer Assat Shakur, an escaped prison fugitive now on the FBI’s Most-Wanted Terrorist list.

Shakur, whose real name is Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Liberation Army which is credited with killing more than a dozen police officers in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1973 she killed New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster during a traffic stop. An altercation ensued during which she took Foerster’s gun and shot him twice in the head as he was lying on the ground. She escaped from a New Jersey state prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba where she was given political asylum. Shakur was placed on the FBI’s Most-Wanted Terrorist list in 2013 and there is now a$2 million reward for her capture.

Black Student Union spokesman Cori McGowens said, "We want the renaming for someone -- Assata Shakur -- who we feel like represents us as black students. Black students on campus have a feeling of isolation, marginalization. We're at a crisis on campus."

Why stop there? By their kooky reasoning, the Black Student Union should demand to rename the university after a cop killer. How does Mumia Abu-Jamal University sound? Hey, that sounds pretty good. Lionized by the left, Mumia Abu-Jamal shot a Philadelphia police officer in the back, then like Assat Shakur, also shot him as he was lying on the ground.

The building renaming demand is one of 10 demands put forth by the group. They are also demanding the hiring of two black psychologists who understand the "racially hostile campus."

The university will not rename Barrows Hall, but Chancellor Nick Dirks met with the black student group last week and apologized. He said, "Too many [black] students have told us about being excluded from study groups, ignored during class discussions, verbally harassed at parties and social events, and feeling, in a general sense, vulnerable, isolated and invisible. This is something we deplore."

I’m surprised that Berkeley did not agree to rename Barrows Hall since the Black Student Union says that Assat Shakur “represents us as black students.” Maybe UC Berkeley is trying to avoid being labeled the kookiest place in America.