NYC Councilmember Defends Puerto Rican Day Parade Honoring Oscar López Rivera

Upon the release of longtime political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade organizers have chosen to honor Rivera as the parade's first "National Freedom Hero." This prompted the city's police chief to boycott the event. "You shouldn't be telling people who their heroes should or shouldn't be," responds Jumaane Williams, New York city councilmember. In 1981, Lopez Rivera was convicted on federal charges including seditious conspiracy-conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico. In 1999, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but Lopez Rivera refused to accept the deal because it didn't include two fellow activists, who have since been released. In January, President Obama commuted Oscar Lopez Rivera's sentence. He was finally freed earlier this month.