So this is really happening. I’m here! I mean we’re here!Thx 2 all of u 4 helping make this happen. #GoldenGlobes http://t.co/Abmb1ZGk7q
— COMMON (@common) January 12, 2015
Rapper Common won an award with John Legend for best original song from Oprah Winfrey’s movie, “Selma.”
Congratulations to Common and John Legend on winning a Golden Globe Award for their song "Glory" from the motion picture, "Selma"!!!
— Taylor (@teejtweetsthngs) January 12, 2015
In his acceptance speech, Common sermonized about racial injustice. He compared himself to Ferguson teen Michael Brown…and also claimed solidarity and identity with the slain NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
Watch:
So true. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/hYRJTH66Uc
— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) January 12, 2015
The chutzpah. It burns.
I am the two fallen police officers, murdered in the line of duty.
— alex medina (@mrmedina) January 12, 2015
https://twitter.com/Jason4SCSU/status/554457404545712128
I loved @common speech. So eloquent, so sincere #GoldenGlobes
— Heavenly (@hvnlygaines99) January 12, 2015
Classy speech by #Common. Mentions black victims AND the two dead police officers in Brooklyn. Lessons for all in #Selma #GoldenGlobes
— Jason Fraley (@JFrayWTOP) January 12, 2015
While talking about #Selma, @common says, "I am the two fallen #police officers, murdered in the line of duty"#GoldenGlobes #AllLivesMatter
— Rachel Coyle (@RRuby44) January 12, 2015
#Common's shout out to the two fallen #NYPD officers was super classy. Well done. #GoldenGIobes
— Jeannie Evanchan (@jeannieevanchan) January 12, 2015
Recommended
Sorry, we’re not joining the gushing. Common’s fans may have conveniently forgotten that he heaped praise on convicted cop-killers Mumia abu Jamal and Assata Shakur (a.k.a. Joanne Chesimard). But we still remember.
New Jersey State Trooper Dave Jones could hardly believe it.
An official from the White House had called him to find out more about his objections to the participation of the hip hop artist “Common” in White House poetry night, and the official had never heard of Joanne Chesimard.
Common celebrated Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, in his song “A Song for Assata,” one of a handful of works that have this week been criticized with his invitation to the White House. Common is a fairly mainstream hip hop artist, but he has voiced opinions that members of law enforcement and others find offensive.
Jones, a 33-year veteran and president of the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association, explained to the White House official – whom he wouldn’t name – who Joanne Chesmard is.
“She’s a domestic terrorist who wrapped her criminality and her abhorrent anti social behavior in a cause to try to disguise her disgust for America in this make believe 1960s radicalism,” Jones told ABC News Wednesday morning. “In 1973 she executed Trooper Werner Foerster with his own gun after he was already shot and didn’t represent a threat to anyone. And after she shot him she kicked him in the head to the point that hours later after he was picked up his brain was still part of the remnants on her shoe.”
Common has a different take: “Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done,” Common rapped. “Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun….I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me/All of this sh*t so we could be free./Yeah, I often wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? /All of this sh*t so we could be free, so dig it, people.”
…Chesimard was a member of the Black Liberation Army who was wanted for her involvement in felonies including bank robbery. On May 2, 1973, Chesimard was stopped for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike by two State Troopers; according to the FBI, she and her two accomplices opened fire on the State Troopers, wounding one and killing the other.
In 1977, Chesimard was found guilty of first degree murder, assault and battery of a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill, illegal possession of a weapon, and armed robbery, and was sentenced to life in prison. In November 1979, she escaped from prison and now lives in Cuba.
In a Def Poetry Jam poem, Common said, “flyers say ‘free Mumia’ on my freezer,” a reference to cause célèbre Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, whose supporters maintain his innocence.
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