Legislative Update

VICTORY!!! NAPO Successful in Preventing Speech by Cop-Killer at University of Massachusetts

A convicted bomber and cop-killer will NOT be able to speak to students at the University of Massachusetts after all.  The killer, who is on federal parole for his crimes, has been refused permission by the United States Parole Commission to travel from his home in Maine to the event in Massachusetts.  This change occurred after the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), its president, Tom Nee, and executive director Bill Johnson personally lobbied the United States Attorney General and the U. S. Department of Justice to revoke permission for the killer to travel.  Nee's experience as a Massachusetts police officer with 27 years on the job, and Johnson's knowledge of parole laws (as a veteran prosecutor he taught the subject to new prosecutors in Miami)  enabled NAPO to present legal reasons to the AG and DOJ strong enough to allow them to revoke the travel.    

Because of NAPO's standing at the national level, it has also been able to obtain a policy change in the U.S. DOJ that from now on, cases like this must be reviewed in Washington before any U.S. federal parolee be allowed to take part in such an event. 

Raymond Luc Levasseur (rhymes with "sewer"), the former leader of the revolutionary group United Freedom Front, was released from federal prison in 2004 after serving 18 years for his role in the group, which plotted a series of bombings and bank robberies along the East Coast between 1976 and 1984.  New Jersey State Trooper Phil Lamonaco was fatally shot by members of the United Freedom Front in 1981.  The group also attempted to kill two Massachusetts State Troopers.  Trooper Lamonaco was survived by his wife and three children.