Almost 40 years ago, one of San Francisco’s finest was murdered in a bomb blast. Yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., a former FBI informant, a former San Francisco police sergeant and an investigative reporter said they know who killed Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell on Feb. 16, 1970.
The San Francisco police officers association also nailed the suspects in a letter.
All signs point to the Weather Underground and its leaders, Bill Ayers and his bat-crazy wife, Bernardine Dohrn.
“There are irrefutable and compelling reasons to believe that Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn … are largely responsible for the bombing of Park Police Station,” the police union’s letter says, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The letter, dated Feb. 24, is signed by union President Gary Delagnes, Vice President Kevin Martin, Secretary Tony Montoya, Treasurer Martin Halloran and Sergeant at Arms Christopher Breen,” the Chronicle reported. (For the record, this report is a hack job that tried to discredit the police officers, the FBI informant and anybody who believes that President Obama’s buddy, Billy Ayers, would do such a thing. None of this is surprising, given the Chronicle’s position as Obama lapdog and apologist for radicals like Ayers.)
Larry Grathwohl, whom my organization Move America Forward flew to San Francisco two months ago as part of a demonstration at St. Mary’s College against Ayers’ appearance, spoke yesterday for Officer McDonnell’s family and the rule of law. Joining him were retired Sgt. James Pera, who has continued his three-decades-long campaign for justice in the murder of his sergeant. Grathwohl successfully infiltrated the Weather Underground during its heyday in the ’60s and ’70s as an FBI informant, so he saw the killer instincts and intent of the terrorist group.
“One of the issues in Washington, D.C., for President Barack Obama is what to do with the terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after he issued an executive order to close the detention facility,” Grathwohl said. “The question we want answered is why terrorists close to him politically have escaped justice for the 1970 bombing of the Park Police Station in San Francisco. We believe the Department of Justice should make available all the evidence in this case to local authorities and law enforcement officials.”
Grathwohl makes a strong point here. Is the United States under President Obama going to take on terrorists, foreign or domestic, or not? If Obama is willing to sit down and talk, without preconditions, to terrorists such as Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, why won’t he chat with his old buddy Ayers about his alleged involvement with the killing of a law officer?
At the National Council Meeting that took place in Flint, Mich., in late December of 1969, Bernardine Dohrn praised mass murderer Charles Manson and said, “The Weathermen is about a communist revolution to destroy the white racist’s society and establish a democratic centralist’s government.” Furthermore, Bernardine wanted everyone at the council meeting to “bring the war home and off (kill) their parents.”
“One other historical fact that demands mention is the explosion of the Weatherman bomb factory in Greenwich Village in February of 1970,” Grathwohl said. ” The bombs being built for use at an Army dance at the Fort Dix Army Base on a Saturday night contained roofing nails for the shrapnel effect, and if the bombs hadn’t prematurely detonated, killing three Weathermen, the effect would have been devastating.”
The lethal bombs that killed Ayers’ lover and allies were intended to murder soldiers and their dates. When Islamists do this, we hunt them down, kill them, or throw them into prison. Why should anybody get away with this terrorism? I don’t care if Ayers and his wife are buddies of the president and the first lady. In fact, that makes it all the more scandalous and worthy of investigation.
Ayers already has admitted to using bombs in his revolution against the United States during the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and dozens of other sites. He and his wife were chased for years and got off on criminal charges due to a technicality.
But murder, cop killing, has not statute of limitations.
I applaud the San Francisco police union for speaking out loudly about the injustice and the need to go forward with a full criminal investigation by the FBI, which has recently re-interviewed Grathwohl and perhaps reopened the investigation.
Kudos also go to investigative reporter Cliff Kincaid, who has bird-dogged this case and brought light to the truth of the terrorists of the Weather Underground who roam free to this day.
“Law enforcement officials, at the federal, state and local levels, want justice to be done,” Kincaid said during the press conference. “That is why, with the critical support of the federal government, arrests were made and charges filed against members of the Black Liberation Army in connection with the murder of Sergeant John Young in San Francisco back in 1971. That is the model of law enforcement cooperation that we seek in the case of Sergeant McDonnell’s murder.”
There will be many more stories about this situation, but will anything happen for the McDonnell family, who lost their father, son, brother and hero? Will the Obama administration break open this case, even though he is closely tied to the alleged perpetrator?
As a person who has worked on a cold case for almost a decade, I understand how difficult it is to bring this kind of case to a conclusion. But we can only pray and work hard to help Larry Grathwohl and James Pera, who saw his boss blown to pieces 39 years ago, tell what they know about criminal masterminds turned mild-mannered college professors William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
