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Grapevine: Berkeley student group seeks to honor cop-killer
By ,
Published May 10, 2017
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine…
Naming Names
A student group at one of the country's most traditionally liberal colleges -- is demanding a campus building be re-named-- in honor of a former Black Panther-- convicted of killing a police officer.
Assata Shakur was the first woman named to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted terrorist list.
She murdered a New Jersey state trooper in 1973-- escaped from prison -- and has been in Cuba ever since.
The Black Student Union at the University of California at Berkeley -- calls her an ‘icon of resistance within oppressed communities.’
It says that warrants-- a building being named in her honor.
The group has submitted a list of demands to school officials-- which includes an African American student resource center -- and the hiring of nine new employees-- including black psychologists with racial discrimination experience -- and mentors and advisers to recruit African American students.
Just three percent of students at Berkeley are black-- and many say they feel isolated.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports-- the school's chancellor says measures are being taken to address the problem -- including hiring advisers and staff for programs to help black students.
Pledge of a Grievance
Students at a New York high school were outraged yesterday-- when the morning announcements over the school's public address system-- included the Pledge of Allegiance-- in Arabic.
The principal signed off on it-- to celebrate National Foreign Language Week.
Many students felt it was inappropriate.
District residents who lost family members in Afghanistan -- also complained -- as did some Jewish people in that area.
Later in the day-- the principal apologized.
The pledge will be read only in English-- from now on.
Identity Crisis
And finally-- an unfortunate case of mistaken identity for a used-to-be-famous singer led to some backtracking by the Associated Press this week.
It followed AP reports on the arrest of Robert Durst-- the real estate heir charged with first degree murder.
The news service-- it appears-- got its Dursts confused.
It issued this correction:
“The Associated Press reported erroneously that Robert Durst is a member of a band. He is a real estate heir. Fred Durst is a member of the band Limp Bizkit.”
Adding insult to injury-- Twitter piled on.
“On the bright side -- Fred Durst's publicist's phone rang for the first time in 10 plus years.”
And –
“How could the AP think Fred Durst committed those murders? There's no way Fred Durst will ever be relevant again.”
Ouch. Tough crowd.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/grapevine-berkeley-student-group-seeks-to-honor-cop-killer