Council speaker rides float with terrorist

From the NY Post:

Controversial onetime convicted terror leader Oscar Lopez Rivera may have declined the Puerto Rican Day Parade’s “National Freedom Award,” but he was still at the head of the event Sunday — with the City Council speaker right by his side.

Lopez Rivera — who did 35 years behind bars for his ties to the Puerto Rican terror group FALN — was on the first float out of the gate at the Manhattan parade, and speaker pal Melissa Mark-Viverito hopped on to join him at 62nd Street.

BDB now claims he really didn't want OLR honored at parade

From CBS 2:

The mayor, who is running for reelection, was asked repeatedly if he would join Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Goya Foods, the New York Yankees, AT&T, Coca-Cola, and many others in refusing to participate. Each time, he said he would march.

“I’m going to do everything I would normally do with the parade,” de Blasio said on May 19.

But on Monday, de Blasio said he was just being “diplomatic.”

The mayor claimed he had privately voiced concerns to parade organizers about López Rivera – whose sentence for sedition, armed robbery, and conspiracy to transport explosives was commuted after 36 years by President Barack Obama.

The mayor said to get the parade committee to sever ties with López Rivera, he privately threatened not to march.

“I made it clear to them that I was uncomfortable with the situation and I wanted them to resolve it,” de Blasio said, “but if it wasn’t resolved, I wasn’t going to be comfortable being a part of it.”

The mayor said he didn’t make his efforts public because “sometimes to get something done, you hold your tongue in public.”

Lopez-Rivera no longer the honoree at PRD parade

From NY1:

Trying to put an end to a controversy, Mayor Bill de Blasio says Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera will no longer be officially honored at the Puerto Rican Day parade.

The Thursday night announcement comes after Rivera wrote a column published in the Daily News, saying, "I will be on Fifth Avenue not as your honoree but as a humble Puerto Rican."

City Hall on Thursday night said Rivera won’t be honored. They released a statement that reads, in part, "Oscar Lopez Rivera agreeing to step aside from any formal role in the parade is a critical step forward in refocusing our city's attention on the more important issues facing Puerto Rico."

Too late.

Council members think terrorists are heroes

From the Queens Chronicle:

On Monday, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan, Bronx), a native of Puerto Rico, released a letter to the parade’s board commending the organization “for recognizing that Oscar Lopez Rivera represents the voice, tenacity and resolve of Puerto Rico and its people.”

The letter, signed by 30 members of the City Council including seven who represent Queens, concludes by saying, “We stand in solidarity with Oscar and express our full support for the board’s decision to recognize and uplift the legacy of Oscar Lopez Rivera.”

The Queens Council members who signed on include Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria); Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights); Julissa Ferreras Copeland (D-East Elmhurst); Peter Koo (D-Flushing); Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans); Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn, Queens) and Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton).

The Chronicle contacted the offices of all Queens Council members to ask about either their reasons for signing the letter or whether they intend to march. A handful responded via email.

“Oscar Lopez Rivera was pardoned by President Obama because he was never convicted of a violent crime,” Councilman Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) wrote. “He is one of a number of people being honored at the parade for his work highlighting the struggles of his people. The parade is an event that gives all of us an opportunity to celebrate the Puerto Rican people and I proudly support their efforts.

“Additionally, I am curious as to why some people are so unwilling to give Oscar a second chance but glowingly highlight a visit from Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to dedicate Easter Rising Way in Maspeth [last November] an effort that I also supported.”

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale) said she was not attending the parade but that her reasons had nothing to do with Lopez Rivera.

She also took issue with any implied criticism tying Adams, a leader in Northern Ireland Sinn Fein political movement, to terrorism. While he had been imprisoned by the British as a young man, he has continuously denied involvement with the Irish Republican Army, a violent revolutionary group long tied to Sinn Fein.

“Adams was central to bringing peace to a long, bloody conflict in Northern Ireland,” Crowley wrote. “I’m pleased that while he was visiting New York City, he could make time to celebrate a historic moment in Maspeth at the co-naming of Easter Rising Way.”

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) will attend.

Do you ever feel like you're living in a bizarre nightmare by staying in NYC?

De Blasio makes up reasons to support terrorist

From the Daily News:

A group representing Hispanic police officers will boycott next month's Puerto Rican Day Parade to protest a decision by organizers to honor a controversial nationalist jailed for his connection to a string of deadly bombings.

While Oscar López Rivera is seen as a hero in some circles, he is still regarded as a terrorist by others, including many cops who hold him and his Puerto Rican independence group responsible for the 1975 bombing at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan that killed four people.

Also from the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio said he will march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade as usual this year, when the event honors Oscar López Rivera — who spent decades in prison for his work with a group that set off deadly bombs in New York City.

“It’s a complicated situation for several reasons. The organization he was affiliated with did things I don’t agree with obviously and that were illegal. He has, however, renounced terrorism,” de Blasio said. “He was pardoned by two United States Presidents. I think that speaks volumes. He also was a Vietnam veteran. He is someone who served this country even though he had real political differences over how Puerto Rico was being treated.”

“I don’t agree with the way he did it. But he did serve his time. He was pardoned appropriately,” de Blasio said. “He has renounced violence. So I’m going to do everything I would normally do with the parade.”

Fact check:

• Lopez-Rivera actually was offered an early release in 1999 by Bill Clinton if he would renounce terrorism. He refused. When Obama commuted his sentence, he did not ask that of Lopez-Rivera. Lopez-Rivera has never renounced terrorism.
  
• Lopez-Rivera was never pardoned by any president. He was offered clemency.