NYC Council's Cop-Killing Cheerleader

(NYC City Councilman Charles Barron)

Recently, the choice to support Mumia Abu-Jamal has come back to haunt a number of politicians, as their lack of judgement has reaped a harvest of civic rage.

A fury of righteous indignation has jeopardized the Philadelphia mayoral campaign of Chakah Fattah. Fattah, has in the past made a number of pro-Jamal statements that have alienated him from Philadelphia’s law enforcement community.

A potentially fatal political twist given the citiy’s spiraling violent crime rate. A city that has grown weary of racialist rhetoric that does nothing to alter the plight of the cities poor who are overwhelmingly the victims of the plague of violence.

In New Jersey, there is also fallout for another politician, U.S. Congressman Donald Payne. Payne, was one of the 31 Congressmen to not sign the recent bill excoriating France for naming a street for Jamal. After Newark choose to honor Mr. Payne at the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, the Fraternal Order Of Police fired off a protest letter that criticized the idea of honoring a man who they viewed as a supporter of a cop-killer.

The parades’s organizers have refused to recuse their celebration of Congressman Payne, the publicity however, cannot be good for Mr. Payne’s reputation.

One politician who seemingly has paid no political price for his support of Jamal, and one who in fact seems to enjoy the spotlight it brings to him is NYC City Councilman Charles Barron.

Barron, it seems to not only support Jamal as a cop-killer, but the idea of murdering police officers in general.

It seems that he hasn’t heard of a cop killer that he won’t stump for, and he has made comments of his own that seem to advocate not only violence against law enforcement, but also "white people" in general.

From a 2002 rally for reparations for slavery Barron said that "I want to go up to the closest white person and say, ‘You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing’ and then slap him, just for my mental health

He has appeared at rallies and signed his name for numerous petitions on behalf of Jamal. Barron, like Jamal, is a former member of the Black Panther Party. In fact, perhaps nostalgic for a bygone era, Barron claims that he "still is a Black Panther".

In addition to his outspoken support for Jamal he has sponsored legislation in NYC’s City Council calling for the release of "political prisoners" which translated often means radical leftists convicted of crimes of violence, often against peace officers.

Barron also has also recently appeared at rallies for the recently indicted eight former Black Panther members who...surprise, surprise, are being charged with waging a veritable war against law enforcement officers in the 1970's in both New York and California that ended in the death of police officer in San Francisco during an attack on a police station.

Barron is also unapologetic about his support for Assata Shakur. Another ex-panther who was convicted and sentenced to 26 to 33 years in prison for her role in the death’s of two New Jersey State Troopers in May of 1973. In 1979, Shakur was sprung from prison by her comrades who took a corrections officer hostage during their crime spree that culminated with Shakur ending up in Cuba in 1986 where Castro allowed her political asylum. From the relative safety of Cuba, Shakur has flaunted her escape and has been an outspoken advocate of other cop-killers like Jamal and those of his ilk.

One has to wonder how effective Councilman Barron can be for his constituents as he is a literal cheerleader for the murder of law enforcement officers and an inciter of racial tensions.
Moreover, the question begs to be asked, just how such a retrograde and cynical politician, who clearly is out of touch with reality can stay under the radar screen? Other civil servants who espouse such a clearly atavistic and reactionary ideology are ritually and routinely dragged through the proverbial mud, and justifiably so, but Barron seems to be getting away with it.
This is something that people can change.

Recently a movement to name a street in NYC after Jamal was exposed and over 30,000 people have signed a petition against this move to reward Jamal’s murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Charles Barron should be made to pay a steep political price for his support of murder and unrepentant killers, such as Jamal. Let your voices be heard and for those of you in NYC who have the misfortune of being in Barron’s district, vote this scum out of office and replace him with someone who is not beholden to a violent ideology and self-aggrandizement.

You can view Mr. Barron in his element at the following site