Editing Assata Shakur (section)

==Escape==
In early 1979, "the Family", a group of BLA members, began to plan Shakur's escape from prison. They financed this by stealing $105,000 from a [[Bamberger's]] store in Paramus, New Jersey.<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book|last1=Burrough|first1=Bryan|title=Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence|date=2015|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9780698170070|pages=476–479|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QPUVBAAAQBAJ|language=en}}</ref> On November 2, 1979, Shakur escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey when three members of the Black Liberation Army visiting her drew concealed .45-caliber pistols and a stick of dynamite, seized two correction officers as hostages, commandeered a van and (with the assistance of members of the [[May 19 Communist Organization]]) made their escape.<ref name="NYT_1979-11-03">Hanley, Robert (November 3, 1979). "[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB061FFD3C5C12728DDDAA0894D9415B898BF1D3 Miss Chesimard Flees Jersey Prison, Helped By 3 Armed 'Visitors']." ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on October 19, 2007.</ref><ref>Tomlinson, 1994, p. 146.</ref> No one was injured during the prison break, including the officers held as hostages who were left in a parking lot.<ref name="churchill308"/> According to later court testimony, Shakur lived in Pittsburgh until August 1980, when she flew to the Bahamas.<ref name="Penguin"/> [[Mutulu Shakur]], [[Silvia Baraldini]], [[Sekou Odinga]], and [[Marilyn Buck]] were charged with assisting in her escape; Ronald Boyd Hill was also held on charges related to the escape.<ref>''The New York Times'' (November 29, 1979). "Bail Set at $2,500 In Chesimard Case". Section 2, p. 4, column 4.</ref><ref name="j425">Jones, 1998, p. 425.</ref> In part for his role in the event, Mutulu was named on July 23, 1982, as the 380th addition to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, where he remained for the next four years until his capture in 1986. State correction officials disclosed in November 1979 that they had not run identity checks on Shakur's visitors<ref>{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Robert |date=November 6, 1979 |title=No Checking Was Done On Chesimard 'Visitors'; Identification Required of Visitors Security Review Ordered |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/06/archives/no-checking-was-done-on-chesimard-visitors-identification-required.html |page=2}}</ref> and that the three men and one woman who assisted in her escape had presented false identification to enter the prison's visitor room,<ref>Hanley, Robert (November 4, 1979). "F.B.I. to Aid Search for Miss Chesimard; Jersey Authorities Tell Magistrate She Apparently Fled the State After Her Prison Escape Visitors Were Not Searched Drove Across a Field Visitation Policies Under Review Official Account of Escape", ''The New York Times'', p. 31, column 6.</ref> before which they were not searched.<ref name="kirsta"/> Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck were convicted in 1988 of several robberies as well as the prison escape.<ref>Lubasch, Arnold H. (May 12, 1988). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/12/nyregion/2-ex-fugitives-convicted-of-roles-in-fatal-armored-truck-robbery.html 2 Ex-Fugitives Convicted of Roles In Fatal Armored-Truck Robbery]." ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on May 26, 2008.</ref>

[[File:Assata Shakur FBI.jpg|thumb|Photo of fugitive Assata Shakur, distributed by the [[FBI]] in 1982.]]
At the time of the escape, Kunstler had just started to prepare her appeal.<ref name="k277"/> After her escape, Shakur lived as a fugitive for several years. The FBI circulated wanted posters throughout the New York–New Jersey area; her supporters hung "Assata Shakur is Welcome Here" posters in response.<ref name="cleaver2">{{citation|last=Cleaver |first=Kathleen |date=August 2005 |title=The Fugitive |work=[[Essence (magazine)|Essence]] |url=http://www.essence.com/essence/lifestyle/voices/0,16109,1081943,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060317212535/http://www.essence.com/essence/lifestyle/voices/0%2C16109%2C1081943%2C00.html |archive-date=March 17, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In New York, three days after her escape, more than 5,000 demonstrators organized by the National Black Human Rights Coalition carried signs with the same slogan. At the rally, a statement from Shakur was circulated condemning U.S. prison conditions and calling for an independent "New Afrikan" state.<ref name="j425"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cleaver |first1=Kathleen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tNQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |title=Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Black Panthers and Their Legacy |last2=Katsiaficas |first2=George |author-link2=George Katsiaficas |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135298326 |page=15 |language=en}}</ref>

For years after Shakur's escape, the movements, activities and phone calls of her friends and relatives—including her daughter walking to school in upper Manhattan—were monitored by investigators in an attempt to ascertain her whereabouts.<ref name="sterling">Sterling, Guy, and Forero, Juan (May 7, 1998), "On the lam, Chesimard is hardly on her own". ''The Star-Ledger'', p. 31.</ref> In July 1980, FBI director [[William H. Webster]] said that the search for Shakur had been frustrated by residents' refusal to cooperate, and a ''New York Times'' editorial opined that the department's commitment to "enforce the law with vigor—but also with sensitivity for civil rights and civil liberties" had been "clouded" by an "apparently crude sweep" through a Harlem building in search of Shakur.<ref name="NYT_1980-07-02">''The New York Times'' Editorial Board (July 2, 1980), "[https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F0061EFE385C11728DDDAB0894DF405B8084F1D3 A Cloud Over the New F.B.I.]." Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> In particular, one pre-dawn April 20, 1980, raid on 92 Morningside Avenue, during which FBI agents armed with shotguns and machine guns broke down doors and searched through the building for several hours while preventing residents from leaving, was seen by residents as having "racist overtones".<ref>Emery, Richard, and LaMarche, Gara (June 11, 1980). "Our tinderboxes for radical violence". ''The New York Times'', Section A, p. 30, column 4.</ref> In October 1980, New Jersey and New York City Police denied published reports that they had declined to raid a [[Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn]] building where Shakur was suspected to be hiding for fear of provoking a racial incident.<ref>''The New York Times'' (October 15, 1980), "The City; Chesimard Report Called Unfounded". Section B, p. 3, column 1.</ref> Since her escape, Shakur has been charged with unlawful flight to avoid imprisonment.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Thompson|first1=Krissah|title=Assata Shakur was convicted of murder. Is she a terrorist?|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/assata-shakur-was-convicted-of-murder-is-she-a-terrorist/2013/05/08/69acb602-b7e5-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 8, 2013}}</ref>