The widow of slain New Jersey state trooper Philip Lamonaco, Donna Lamonaco (center), and her children Sarah (right) and Michael (second from left)

So... the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, wanted to hold a forum on "social change" and the desired key note speaker was a celebrated American terrorist, bomber, and cop killer.

Of course the ACLU was present to whine about restricting freedom of speech, because the United States Parole Commission (the terrorist is a federal convict) would not allow the convicted terrorist to leave the state of Maine for the event in Massachusetts.

boston news

AMHERST - After several weeks of on-again, off-again anticipation, a controversial forum at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst was held last night focusing on sedition ... but without its key speaker, who had sparked controversy from the halls of the State House to a family in New Jersey.

With a line of several hundred police officers outside and a crowd of several hundred students inside, the panel discussion featured a former member of the United Freedom Front, a radical group involved in domestic terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, and others discussing the issue of sedition against the US government, centered around a 1989 criminal trial.

Ray Luc Levasseur, a founder and former leader of the UFF, had been scheduled to speak.(Ray Luc Levasseur, convicted terrorist, seditionist, cop killer, domestic bomber, bank robber...)
The invitation drew sharp criticism from veterans, police, school officials, and politicians, including Governor Deval Patrick, who urged the school not to allow Levasseur to appear.

After the event was canceled, the forum was rescheduled and professors reinvited Levasseur. (Which "professors" should have their heads examined for mental disorders... right after they are fired for abject stupidity) But this time, the US Parole Commission ruled that Levasseur, who is on federal parole living in Maine, would not be allowed to leave that state.

Instead, Levasseur’s former wife Pat, a former member of the UFF, appeared at the forum with members of the jury of the 1989 sedition trial and educators in a roundtable discourse on social change and movements....(Just perhaps UMASS needs to look up what the word "educators" actually means? I don't think they'll find that an educator is one who holds forums on how to use domestic terrorism to bring about social change.)

Ray Luc Levasseur had served 18 years in federal prison for his role in the UFF, which unleashed a wave of bombings, bank robberies, and shootouts with police in the 1970s and ’80s.

He told the Globe Wednesday that he is now a working as simple carpenter and enjoys being a grandfather. (Thanks Boston Globe for this benign reference to the gently, simple, family life of a terrorist and cop killer.)

Attorney William C. Newman, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the night both a victory and a defeat for freedom of speech, since the event went on without Ray Luc Levasseur. (cry, cry, cry baby. Perhaps we should allow the convicted cop, husband, father killer, kill someone you love, then you host the forum and allow him to speak on the virtues of his ideas about social change by killing your loved ones.)

But police scoffed at the freedom of speech issue, saying the roots of the UFF run deeper than this one event.

"The academics have gotten it wrong, and we are outraged that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has welcomed a law enforcement murderer," said Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association and president of the 250,000-member National Association of Police Organizations. ("outraged"... that is a good word Mr. Nee... as we should all be outraged.)

Lamonaco’s family - including his widow, daughter, and son, who is now a state trooper involved in antiterrorism activity - came up from New Jersey to be on hand last night.

"We lost our father for our whole lives," said daughter Sarah Lamonaco, 28.

To the family of Officer Lamonaco, my deepest sympathies and most fervent prayers for your continued healing as we await God's just sentence against this despicable evil committed against you and your loved one.

You will see it.

xtnyoda, shalomed