BROCKPORT, N.Y. (PIX11/WROC) — The widow of an NYPD officer who was assassinated along with his partner in 1971 expressed outrage this week that paroled killer, Jalil Muntaqim, was booked by a state college to speak about his experiences as a "political prisoner."
Diane Piagentini, the widow of Officer Joseph Piagentini, wrote to the event's sponsor, assistant professor Rafael Outland at SUNY Brockport, and demanded they cancel it. Piagentini noted that Muntaqim—known as Anthony Bottom in 1971, a 20-year-old member of the Black Panther party—showed no mercy when he and two accomplices executed Officer Waverly Jones, a Black cop, and her husband, a white cop, outside a Harlem housing complex.
"When asked why he had killed a Black officer, Bottom replied, 'A pig is a pig,'" Piagentini noted in her letter.
Muntaqim, now 70, is slated to be the key draw at the April 6 event, which is called "History of Black Resistance, U.S. Political Prisoners and Genocide: A Conversation with Jalil Muntaqim." According to college officials, a faculty member invited Muntaqim, who was approved for a grant. Now the calls to stop this event are getting louder.
Muntaqim was quietly paroled during the pandemic in 2020, two years after one of his accomplices, Herman Bell, inspired the police community's outrage after his parole. The third accomplice, Albert Washington, died behind bars.
Muntaqim spent nearly 50 years in prison for the brutal execution of the officers, who responded to a phony 911 call on May 21, 1971. "While my husband lay on the ground pleading with them not to kill him, pleading he had a wife and children," Mrs. Piagentini said in her letter, "Bottom took his service revolver and emptied it into his body. There were 22 bullet holes in his body."
In a previous interview about the paroles, Piagentini noted that Muntaqim attacked Officer Jones from behind. "He shot him in the head and down his spine," she said in 2018.
After then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed guidelines in 2011, commissioners sitting on the Parole Board were expected to focus more on inmates' rehabilitative efforts in prison, including education and volunteer work with peers.
Muntaqim has reportedly been living in Rochester. In a statement, officials from the Rochester Police Locust Club said the tax-payer-funded talk should be replaced with a better lesson. Police union president Mike Mazzeo is asking for a talk that promotes positive change and will bring people together, adding they will always stand behind their slain brothers in blue.
SUNY Brockport President Heidi Macpherson issued a statement to members of the college community in response to the controversy. "We do not support the violence exhibited in Mr. Muntaqim's previous crimes, and his presence on campus does not imply endorsement of his views or past actions. However, we believe in freedom of speech,” she said. “The college has received strong feedback about this visit. Some are outraged that a man convicted of such crimes was invited on the campus. Others look forward to the opportunity to learn about [his] experiences.”
Law enforcement representatives point out that Jones and Piagentini both served in the 32nd Precinct, the same station house where NYPD Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were assigned in January before they were killed responding to a domestic dispute in Harlem.
"SUNY Brockport has a duty to teach its students the truth," said Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association in New York City. "This individual is not a hero. He was not a political prisoner. He is an unrepentant murderer who can teach nothing but how to tear our society apart through violence."
