Women’s March defends Assata Shakur as ‘civil rights leader’ after backlash

The Women’s March has unleashed a tweetstorm in defense of fugitive Assata Shakur, describing the convicted cop killer as a “civil rights leader” who deserves credit for her work against sexism and racism.

Faced with a backlash after posting a tweet Sunday celebrating Shakur’s 70th birthday, the left-wing advocacy group posted 20 tweets in succession late Monday blasting the “far right” and explaining why “we consider her [Shakur] a feminist figure.”

Shakur was found guilty in the 1977 murder of Officer Werner Foerester in New Jersey, but the Women’s March described itself as a “nonviolent movement. We have never and will never use violence to achieve our goals.”

“#AssataShakur’s resistance tactics were different than ours. That does not mean that we do not respect her anti-sexism work,” said the Women’s March in a tweet.

The birthday tweet drew a deluge of criticism on Twitter, including a message from Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, who called it “[u]nbelievable that anyone would idolize a cop killer.”

Unbelievable that anyone would idolize a cop killer. Chesimard belongs in jail, & #Cuba should return her to the US so she can face justice. pic.twitter.com/yzcGTuIE7i

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 18, 2017

Shakur, formerly Joanne Chesimard, was sentence to life in prison but escaped in 1979 and fled to Cuba. The FBI has placed her on its most-wanted list as a “domestic terrorist” who belonged to an “extremist group,” the Black Revolutionary Army.

That wasn’t how the Women’s March described her.

“#AssataShakur is a civil rights leader who used her leadership position to challenge sexism within the Black Liberation Movement,” tweeted the Women’s March.

She “took a militant approach. We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work,” said another tweet.

#AssataShakur took a militant approach. We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work. (7/20)

— Women’s March (@womensmarch) July 17, 2017

Launched after the November election, the Women’s March attracted a crowd of a half-million at a protest in D.C. the day after the Trump inauguration in January.

The event drew a wide spectrum of anti-Trump and Democratic voters, but the group has since aligned itself with the left-wing resistance movement.

Last weekend, the Women’s March led an 18.6-mile trek from the National Rifle Association in Fairfax, Virginia, to the Justice Department in D.C. to protest the gun-rights organization.