Five officers sue city over Assata Shakur Black Lives Matter mural
PALO ALTO >> Five Palo Alto police officers are suing the city claiming harassment and discrimination for being “forced” to walk past a street mural last summer depicting 1970s Black Liberation Army member and fugitive Assata Shakur.
The civil complaint against the city — filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Palo Alto police officers Eric Figueroa, Michael Foley, Christopher Moore, Robert Parham and Julie Tannock — claims the officers were “forced to physically pass and confront the mural every time they entered the Palo Alto Police department,” calling it “offensive, discriminatory and harassing iconography” that fostered a “hostile” and “retaliatory” work environment.
The nearly 245-foot-long, 17-foot-tall Black Lives Matter mural in question was commissioned by the city in June 2020 to commemorate the ongoing protests against the police killing of George Floyd. The mural, which was painted on the street in front of city Hall, features several images inside each letter of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” including a quote from Shakur within the letter “E” of the word Matter — “We must love each to support each other” — and a recreation of the cover of her autobiography.
Shakur was the first woman ever placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list after fatally shooting New Jersey State Police Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973, following a traffic stop involving her and two other members of the BLA, according to the FBI.
Police said Shakur shot the officers — killing Foerster and wounding the other — and got away. She was later caught, tried and convicted of first-degree murder, assault and battery of a police officer, along with other related felony counts and armed robbery. She escaped from prison in a breakout orchestrated by BLA members and fled to Cuba, where she received asylum.
The five officers were not the first people in law enforcement to
complain about the mural. A group called the National Police Association — a mysterious group, according to The Baltimore Sun, which found that although it was created in 2017, it has no discernible ties to law enforcement and doesn’t list staff or board of directors — demanded in July 2020 that the city remove the street mural and urged “supporters of law enforcement” to sign an online petition. The mural was washed off in August 2020.
The Mercury News could not reach the five officers named in the complaint, and their attorney Douglas Winter of the Los Angeles-based law firm McNicholas & McNicholas said the “complaint speaks for itself” when asked for comment. Palo Alto Mayor Tom DuBois said he did not want to comment on the complaint, and city attorney Molly Stump said the city has not been served with the lawsuit yet and cannot comment on it.
She did confirm that all five officers are current city employees, and she made clear that city policy and practice prohibit retaliation against any employee for making a complaint of discrimination or harassment, or for participating in the investigation or resolution of a complaint.
The complaint says the officers brought the allegations of harassment and discrimination to the attention of the city and the police department in two separate letters to the city. The officers argue that the city allows the “harassing and discriminatory iconography to exist in the workplace,” and that they also “sanctioned, approved, encouraged and paid for it.”
The officers claim that “failure to abate the harassing and discriminatory conduct in and of itself is a form of retaliation for raising such issues.”
“Plaintiffs’ careers have been materially and adversely affected and irreparably harmed and damaged by the conduct of the defendants,” the complaint says. “Plaintiffs have also suffered and continue to suffer losses in earnings and other employment benefits, as well as past and future non-economic injury.”
The five officers suing
the city are seeking physical, mental and emotional damages, including health care services, economic damages, attorney fees and court costs yet to be determined but “in excess of $25,000.”
Despite what the police say about Shakur, she, her family and her supporters maintain that the BLA was targeted by the U.S. government.
At the height of the Cold War, the BLA was among the chief targets of law enforcement,
the FBI and COINTELPRO, a program in the bureau that sought to surveil, infiltrate, discredit and disrupt political organizations and the civil rights and Black Power movements, according to a website dedicated to Shakur’s legacy.
In an open letter written in exile in Cuba from Shakur’s book “Assata: In Her Own Words,” Shakur said she was forced to escape because of “government persecution.”
“I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color,” Shakur said. “I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.”