by Kerry Dougherty
What is it about politicians and their affection for cop killers?
Here in Virginia, former Terry McAuliffe appointee Parole Board Chair Adrianne Bennett (now a judge in Virginia Beach) led the board in springing convicted cop killer Vincent Martin during a freeing spree that sprung a number of violent criminals.
Martin was serving a life sentence for the execution of Patrolman Michael Connors during a traffic stop in 1979. Both the murderer and his victim were 23. One man’s life ended that night on a Richmond street. Another is a free man today. Thanks to the soft-heartedness of Bennett and the board she headed.
Now, as one of his final acts as governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo has granted clemency to five criminals, including David Gilbert, a member of the domestic terrorist group The Weather Underground, who was sentenced to 75 years to life for the infamous 1981 Brink’s Robbery. That bloody crime left two police officers and one security guard dead. Gilbert will be referred to the state parole board to be freed.
Yep, Cuomo’s gift to New York was to free a cop-killing domestic terrorist. A big middle finger to the people who elected and then abandoned him.
This sensational 1981 heist was the work of two radical groups: The Black Liberation Army and The Weather Underground. Gilbert was a member of the latter. He represented himself at trial, screamed and called for revolution during court proceedings and was dragged off to prison not expressing remorse for the crime he participated in, but reveling in the botched armed robbery that briefly netted the criminals $1.6 million.
Gilbert’s wife, Kathy Boudin, was in one of the getaway cars. She pleaded guilty to one count of felony murder and was paroled in 2003.
A piece in Tuesday’s Washington Post headlined “San Francisco’s top prosecutor was 3 when his dad went to prison. Cuomo just granted his father clemency,” focused on Gilbert and Boudin’s son, Chesa Boudin, who’d been dropped off at a babysitter before his parents went out to take part in the bloody crime that left three men dead.
The Post story implied that Gilbert was merely the getaway driver.
That doesn’t tell the whole story. According to news reports, Gilbert was a self-proclaimed revolutionary who planned this crime and helped secure the automatic weapons that were used to gun down the innocent men.
Naturally, The Post focused sympathetically on Chesa Boudin, who’s the subject of a recall election in California.
“Growing up, I had to go through a metal detector and steel gates just to give my parents a hug,” Boudin said in a 2019 campaign video…
“Not having to take my child through metal detectors and steel gates to meet their grandfather was just one of the most amazing gifts I could have imagined,” he (Chesa Boudin) said.
Oh please. My give-a-damn for murderous radicals and their offspring is busted.
There was one glaring omission from The Post: The newspaper didn’t bother to name the murdered police officers and the guard.
But I will, because some of us believe the victims of crimes actually matter.
The men who perished on that awful day in 1981 were Nyack Police Officers Edward O’Grady, 33, a Vietnam veteran and father of three and Waverly Brown, 46, a Korean War vet and the first African-American member of the Nyack Police Department. Also killed was Brink’s guard Peter Paige.
Say their names.
You can be sure former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
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