Former Advocate of Violence Now Law Prof at Northwestern
by Jim Brown
February 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - An analyst at a Washington-based counter-terrorism think tank says few Americans are aware that one of the country's most prestigious law schools is employing a professor who once held a leadership position in a notorious terrorist group.A new column for FrontPageMag.com written by attorney Brian Hecht reveals that Northwestern University law professor Bernardine Dohrn was once involved in the Weather Underground, a group whose goal was to take violent action against the U.S. government in an effort to stop the Vietnam War.
Also known as the "Weathermen," the group claimed credit for 12 bombings between 1970 and 1974 alone. Hecht, a terrorism analyst at the Investigative Project, says Dohrn was arrested for assaulting a police officer and inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, but failed to show up for her assault charges.
"While she was on the lam, her group was involved in several bombings," Hecht says. "So because she was a fugitive from justice and involved in a group that ... had in fact blown up several government installations and civilian office buildings, the FBI placed her on the 10 Most Wanted list."
According to Hecht, Dohrn gave herself up in 1980 and, after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated assault and bail jumping, was given three years probation and order to pay a fine of $1,500. He says he finds it disturbing that Northwestern Law School would employ someone who could not even be admitted to a state bar exam because of her past as a terrorist icon.
"Even if she was a model citizen today, sometimes someone's past can and should be held against them if they are going to hold certain positions in American society -- one of those positions being a law professor at a major school," the analyst says. "This is not some small, out-of-the-way, fringe university. Northwestern University is a top-twenty law school."
Dohrn now heads the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern's School of Law. It is ironic, Hecht points out, that Dohrn taught a class in 2003 called "Children in Trouble with the Law." He also notes that Dohrn once commended the "Manson Family" for committing the brutal Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles and referred to the victims as "pigs." She later claimed to have made the remarks in jest.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
