Crooked in Canada

Following up yesterday’s blog entry

When poet Gary Freeman shot officer Terrence Knox in self-defense in Chicago in 1969, the last thing on the wounded officer’s mind was forgiveness, and I’m sure he wanted a little more than justice from the black man who had just taken him down. Freeman (who changed his name from Joseph Pannell and fled to Canada after the shooting) on the other hand was probably relieved that Knox wasn’t going to beat him senseless once he put a bullet in him, and did what any smart and scared 19-year-old black teenager would do after shooting a white cop in self-defense during that particular era in the US , run.

As I mentioned the other day here in Crooked in Canada, Freeman fled to Canada where he lived in relative obscurity until his capture. After he was captured, Freeman who by that time was a family man, didn’t fight his extradition to the US where he spent the next 6 years of his life in jail until a plea bargain was reached in which it was agreed that Freeman would serve 30 days in jail, and make a $US250,000 contribution to police fund (100 Club), which looks after families of fallen officers by providing scholarship with children of police officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

The case is now closed, and after Freeman completes his sentence he will reunite with his family in Canada, if of course Canadian immigration authorities allow him to re-enter Canada.

Shooting a police officer, never mind concealing one’s true identity upon entry into Canada, is reason enough for authorities to bar him from entering into Canada. But it is this writer’s hope that immigration authorities consider the mitigating circumstances in Freeman’s case, and give him a free pass into the country which by all accounts has been very good to Freeman and his family, and vice versa.

And Terrence Knox, while he is forgiving now, I suspect that his forgiveness and his willingness to accept Freeman’s plea bargain deal is motivated by the fact that he has something to hide about the real circumstances surrounding the shooting.

In other words; it is my opinion that by forgiving Freeman and accepting that justice has been served for the shooting that left his right arm with no feeling, and forced his early retirement from the force, he will still be able to collect his pension (he would have lost it if there was evidence that he was in the midst of committing an act of police brutality when he was shot) and go to his grave knowing that the truth as he really knows it will never be told.