Ed Krayewski on Assata Shakur, Thawing U.S.-Cuba Relations, and the Meaning of 'Anti-Cop'

The thawing of U.S.-Cuban relations after 40-plus years of isolation opens the door to the extradition of convicted cop killer Assata Shakur back to the United States to complete her life sentence. Shakur, an alleged leader of the radical Black Liberation Army, was convicted in 1977 of a 1973 shooting of a state trooper in New Jersey, escaped from prison in 1979, and fled to Cuba where she was granted political asylum in 1984. The move to treat Shakur as a domestic terrorist fits into the wider project adopted by the Obama administration of expanding the definition of domestic terrorism to encompass mere criminal conduct, writes Ed Krayewski, and ought to dispel any notion that President Obama's limited embrace of some police reforms, or the wider movement for police reform, is in any way "anti-cop."