Vito Fossella: “I just want to talk about three people. Their names are Rocco Laurie, Werner Foerster, and Joanne Chesimard. Rocco…”

“I just want to talk about three people. Their names are Rocco Laurie, Werner Foerster, and Joanne Chesimard. Rocco Laurie was born in Staten Island. He joined the police department in the late 1960s and then enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam. He came back to rejoin the police department. He was married in May of 1970; and, in 1972, he and his partner were on a foot patrol in the lower East Side of Manhattan. His partner was shot eight times in the back and was killed instantly. Rocco Laurie was shot seven times. He died 5 hours later. Werner Foerster was a State trooper who was shot twice in the chest and then, execution style, twice in the head by Joanne Chesimard. Joanne Chesimard was convicted and then fled the United States and lives, I guess, as a hero in Cuba. Recently, a couple of months ago, her companion so many years ago was arrested. He has now brought forward charges and reports that Joanne Chesimard was involved in planning the assassination and killing of police officers Rocco Laurie and Foerster, who were gunned down more than 30 years ago. Is it too much to ask that we declare and demand of Fidel Castro that he send someone like Joanne Chesimard back to the United States before we pay him these courtesies? Do we not owe it to the honor of their families, their legacies, their wives, their police department, the communities from which they came? Is that too much to ask?”