Chicago Teachers Union Mourns Death of Convicted ’70s Cop-Killer and Revolutionary
Assata Shakur, also known as JoAnne Deborah Chesimard, was the head of the Black Liberation Army and was convicted in 1977 of first-degree murder for the killing of a New Jersey state trooper. She had a long history tied to armed robberies and violent acts, escaped custody, and fled to Cuba where she lived under asylum for decades. She died at 78, and that should have ended the debate about accountability — but it did not.
This story is not just about a fugitive who evaded justice; it is about how institutions that should focus on children and education reacted. The Chicago Teachers Union chose to publicly mourn a convicted cop-killer and revolutionary, and that choice tells you more about their priorities than any mission statement ever could. When a teachers union celebrates someone who fled justice for a murdered trooper, it raises a question: who, exactly, are they serving?
This young man never got to live that long:
The union’s message did not include the full context of the murder conviction, the victim, or the family left behind. Instead, the post was framed as remembrance and solidarity, a tone that many observers found tone-deaf and offensive to the memory of a law enforcement officer. That omission is the point: honoring an icon without acknowledging victims is a political act, not neutral remembrance.
Notice the brutal Community Note:
“Assata refused to be silenced,“ the tweet continued. No comment on whether the gun that killed an American law enforcement officer was silenced. What the CTU promoted was a narrow, radical narrative that elevates insurgency while ignoring human cost.
She taught us that “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
That is stirring rhetoric, and in a different context it might be part of a historical examination of radical movements. On a union page that represents teachers entrusted with children, it reads like recruitment or endorsement. The CTU’s choice to spotlight that message without hard context looks less like education and more like political theater.
Stunning Marxist, inflammatory race-war rhetoric for a union that, from its title, one would think cares about teaching, and you know, kids. The National Police Association to X:
The Chicago Teachers Union honors Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) without mentioning she was convicted of the murder of New Jersey State Police Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973. He was 34 years old and left behind a wife and 3-year-old son. Rest in Peace Trooper Foerster.
There it is bluntly: a murdered trooper, a grieving family, and a union that chose not to name the victim in its public mourning. That omission is not accidental; it broadcasts a set of values. For many parents and taxpayers, the math is simple: if educators’s groups spend more time honoring radicals than serving kids, we have a problem.
When did teachers unions swap curricula and school budgets for political campaigning and radical dogma? Once a reasonable question, it is now a pattern. From lockdown-era decisions about schools to the steady flow of political endorsements and funding, the largest educators’ groups have shown a consistent preference for activism over instruction.
We should expect unions to protect teachers’ rights and improve classrooms, not to play cultural warfare or lionize violent revolutionaries. The CTU’s post is a symptom of a deeper disease: institutional capture by ideologues who see schools as battlegrounds for broader social change. That shift costs children time, attention, and civic trust.
Look at the leadership signals. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the union “thinks your children are its children.” That phrasing only underscores the problem: when a labor organization claims custodial authority over kids, who is accountable for the kids’ academic and moral development? Parents should be the primary stewards, not political operatives.
Across the country, other union leaders have embraced loud political stances while sidelining classroom concerns. The steady drumbeat of endorsements, donations, and public campaigns suggests these groups are more invested in partisan power than in reading scores. For conservatives and many parents, that realignment is unacceptable because it displaces children from the center of education.
When unions celebrate violent figures like Assata, they alienate police, veterans, and a lot of taxpayers who expect institutions to uphold the rule of law. That alienation has consequences — fewer partnerships, less community trust, and more polarization inside schools. Schools should be places where civics, respect, and accountability are taught, not confused with celebration of criminal acts.
Critics will call this rhetoric harsh or accuse conservatives of culture-warring, but the core issue here is straightforward: whose values are shaping our kids’ classrooms? If teachers unions prioritize revolutionary figures over victims, then parents and policymakers have every right to push back. Democracy depends on institutions that place children and truth above partisan myth-making.
At a minimum, unions should be transparent and honest about the full history of controversies they choose to memorialize. If an organization insists on commemorating someone as polarizing as Assata Shakur, include context, acknowledge victims, and explain the educational value. Anything less looks like political signaling disguised as remembrance.
We should demand better from folks who hold so much sway over young minds. Teachers and their representatives are vital partners in raising the next generation, but that partnership requires fidelity to facts, respect for victims, and prioritizing students’ welfare over ideological posturing. Otherwise, they will continue to lose the trust of the families they claim to serve.
Bob Hoge—pronounced Hoge like rogue—is a RedState front page contributor and Editor and proud father of four. He is shown sporting his COVID beard, which his wife has since forced him to shave. Follow him on Twitter @Bob_Hoge_CA.
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h/t: Red State
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