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Protesters decry UMass talk by former domestic terror group member

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 12, 2009 08:12 PM

Christina Rizer

Demonstrators outside the hall

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff

AMHERST – A talk by a former member of the United Freedom Front, a radical group involved in domestic terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, has drawn both protesters and the media to the quiet campus of the University of Massachusett tonight.

At a news conference this afternoon, members of state, local, and regional law enforcement agencies promised to demonstrate against the talk by Pat Levasseur, the ex-wife of one of the former leaders of the group, which was responsible for a series of bank robberies and bombings, and the death of a New Jersey state trooper.

Donna Lamonaco, whose husband was a trooper killed in New Jersey in 1981 by a Freedom Front member, said, “Young minds at this school should understand that there is a right and a wrong, and bringing a criminal here is wrong.

“These people, these domestic terrorists, they have no use for the government and no use for our soul and compassion.”

Lamonaco said if she could convince one UMass Amherst student of the wrongfulness of bringing the members of the United Freedom Front to speak on campus, then she hoped it would have a ripple effect.

Arnie Larson, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police, said, “We’re here to support Donna Lamonaco.”

Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, referred to Levasseur as “Laba-sewer.”

“Sewer, that’s all he has to offer. Garbage to our youth,” he said. “He has nothing good to offer to our children.”

“The academics have gotten it wrong. And we are outraged that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has welcomed a law enforcement murderer.”

A proposal to bring Ray Luc Levasseur, one of the co-founders of the United Freedom Front, to speak at the campus ignited a firestorm of controversy. Levasseur said Wednesday he would not speak, but his ex-wife, who was also a member of the group, stepped in to take his place.