On behalf of over 33,000 survivors of America's fallen law enforcement officers, Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) presents this petition to strongly oppose the renaming of a building on the University of California, Berkeley campus after a convicted cop killer and former member of the Black Liberation Army. Assata Shakur, who was the first woman named to the FBI’s Most-Wanted Terrorist List, is nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer.

Shakur (Joanne Chesimard) has been reported by members of the campus' Black Student Union as "an icon of resistance within oppressed communities who represents black resilience in the face of state-sanctioned violence.” (www.allenbwest.com) The Black Student Union on this campus is choosing to rewrite history, but the fact remains that Shakur is nothing more than a cop killer.

The Black Liberation Army was a violent, radical group that attempted to fight for independence from the United States government in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The BLA was responsible for the murders of more than 10 police officers around the country. They were also responsible for violent attacks around the country that left many police officers wounded.(www.odmp.org)

The three subjects were members of the Black Liberation Army. The two surviving subjects were convicted of Trooper Foerster's murder, but Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 and cowardly fled to Cuba, where she lives having never been held accountable for her actions. An accomplice who helped Shakur escape was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 1982. He was arrested in 1986 for his involvement in the 1981 murders of two Nyack, New York, police officers.

Although four decades have passed, we promise to never forget our fallen officers. On May 2, 1973, New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster was shot and killed with his own service weapon after backing up another trooper who had stopped a vehicle containing two men and Shakur on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Trooper Foerster, age 34, had served with the New Jersey State Police Department for almost three years. Because of Shakur's indifference to human life, Trooper Foerster's wife was forced to raise their two children without a father.

As survivors of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty, we strongly encourage the University of California, Berkeley to not give into the ridiculous demands of the Black Student Union to rename Barrows Hall after a violent cop killer.