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Hundreds protest against UMass speaker

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 12, 2009 09:32 PM

Christina Rizer

Donna Lamonaco, right, and her daughter Sarah held photographs of slain New Jersey trooper Philip Lamonaco (Donna's husband) outside the forum Thursday night featuring Pat Levasseur, a member of radical group that shot the trooper.

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

AMHERST — After several weeks of on-again, off-again anticipation, a controversial forum at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst was held Thursday night focusing on sedition and a related trial in the 1980s — but without its key speaker, who had sparked controversy from the halls of the State House to a family in New Jersey.

With a line of several hundred police officers outside and a crowd of several hundred students inside, the panel discussion featured a former member of the United Freedom Front, a radical group involved in domestic terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, and others discussing the issue of sedition against the US government, centered around a 1989 criminal trial.

Ray Luc Levasseur, a founder and former leader of the UFF, had been scheduled to speak, which drew sharp criticism from veterans, police, school officials, and politicians, including Governor Deval Patrick, who urged the school not to allow Levasseur to appear. After the event was canceled, the forum was rescheduled when professors reinvited Levasseur. But this time, the US Parole Commission ruled that Levasseur, who is a federal parole living in Maine, would not be allowed to leave that state.

Instead, Levasseur’s former wife and a member of the UFF, Pat appeared at the forum with members of the jury of the 1989 sedition trial, and educators in a roundtable discourse on social change and movements. The trial ended with the acquittal of the Levasseurs.

Even without its main speaker, the event drew a throng of students, protesters, and media to the rural campus.

Ray Luc Levasseur had served 18 years in federal prison for his role in the UFF, which unleashed a wave of bombings, bank robberies, and shootouts with police in the 1970s and ‘80s. He told the Globe Wednesday that he is now a working as simple carpenter who enjoys being a grandfather.

Attorney William C. Newman, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the night both a victory and a defeat for freedom of speech, since the event went on without Ray Luc Levasseur.

But police scoffed at the freedom of speech issue, saying the roots of the UFF run deeper than this one event.

‘‘The academics have gotten it wrong. And we are outraged that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has welcomed a law enforcement murderer,’’ said Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association and president of the 250,000-member National Association of Police Organizations, which joined the protesters outside. Nee, referred to Levasseur as ‘‘Laba-sewer.’’

Inside at the forum, former jurors and defense attorneys discussed the judicial process and American society in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Students attending were divided on the issues.

Nesrin Sengul, 20, a junior journalism major, called police protesters hypocritical.

‘‘It’s kind of a contradicting statement, because they’re saying ’yes free speech should be welcomed,’ but they’re picking and choosing who’s allowed to speak formally to the public,’’ she said. ‘‘It would have been a completely different story if Ray was here himself, because of the fact that we would have been able to get a real impact as students as to what is really going on.’’

But criminal justice major Phil Southworth stood proudly outside Thursday night with the crowd of police protesters.

‘‘I’m just here supporting a brother,’’ Southworth, 21, a senior, said. ‘‘A domestic terrorist shouldn’t be here talking.’’

Thursday night's police opposition was sparked largely by the shooting death of New Jersey state trooper Philip Lamonaco in 1981 by a UFF member.

Lamonaco’s family, including his widow, daughter, and son — who is now a state trooper involved in anti-terrorism activity — came up from New Jersey to be on hand Thursday night.

‘‘We lost our father for our whole lives,’’ said daughter Sarah Lamonaco, 28.

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com