radman says: My recollection was Foster wanted to institute fingerprinting, but these references don't say whether the ID cards were to have students' fingerprints...(not that any of it justifies murder)... ===================================================================== From: <http://www.sfbg.com/News/33/39/Features/sla.html> [Foster]...was a moderate African American educator who....aroused the SLA's ire by proposing that students carry ID cards. From: <http://www.nexttimes.8k.com/olson.htm> The SLA claimed responsibility; members thought Foster was encouraging conformity through the issuance of student-identification cards. ---- And, just to mix things up a bit.. From: <http://www.newsmakingnews.com/mbinsidehearstkidnap.htm> The purpose of the Foster murder was to establish the existence of the S.L.A. In October, 1973, the American Nazi Party was passing out leaflets in the San Leandro shopping center, outside Oakland, that stated, "There might be shotgun blasts into the guts of Mix Master principals and superintendents." Dr. Foster was black, and his co-worker and close friend, Mr. Blackburn, is white. A well-respected black educator was eliminated in Oakland, and the murder would be associated with black radicals to spread terror among the community. Two different kinds of bullets were used for the shootings, which allowed the white educator to live. The black man never had a chance; the bullets that murdered him were tipped with cyanide. Another fictitious police front, the "August Seventh Guerrilla Movement," claimed credit for the death of two Oakland policemen who went down in a helicopter in December, 1973. The National Transportation Safety Board, Hughes Aircraft, and local authorities said it would have been impossible for radicals to have caused these deaths. The purpose of these feats of violence in California, bragged about by people who are unknown even to the F.B.I. and the local police, is to spread the illusion that multiple terrorists are hiding among us, trying to create chaos and disrupt our daily lives. The result was that when Patricia Hearst was kidnapped, it appeared that America's first political kidnapping was an act performed by already-existing militant forces. =================================================== At 06:40 PM 10/6/00 -0400, Michael Rossman <mrossman@igc.org> wrote: Although I abhor such violence as much as the next pacifist, even at targets less-generally respected, it's instructive to review the rationale given by the SLA for the assassination of Marcus Foster. As I recall, they saw him as presiding over the military pacification of the public schools -- the key points being their fenced enclosure with armed guards, and the drugging of then-termed "hyperactive" students, particularly with Ritalin. Although the paths of development since do not coincide with SLA expectations, the irony of the present situation is apparent. For the degree of protective fortification and policing has advanced significantly, not only in inner-city schools but in spreading to those more privileged; and the degree of drugging, across all social levels, has multiplied remarkably with the popularity of ADD/ADHD diagnosis and the general trend towards pharmaceutical management of personal and social problems. Ironically also, perhaps, Foster's assassination was a significant factor in disrupting the development of analyses and activism concerned with the conjunction of these two continuing developments.
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