You can tell a lot about people by the people they surround themselves with, and California Governor Gavin Newsom seems to want to surround himself with people who want to see murderers go free, specifically those who kill police officers.

As reported by Fox News, Melina Abdullah, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles, spoke at an event on Monday encouraging voters to go out and pull the lever for Newsom. It was there that she rattled off such gems as claiming Newsom’s most threatening Republican opponent, Larry Elder, was a “Black face on White Supremacy.”

Extreme comments like that could only come from an extreme person. Looking back at Abdullah’s history reveals that “extreme” is a pretty accurate description for her as Fox News reported. As it turns out, Abdullah is very adamant that cop-killers should be released:

Abdullah, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter chapter in Los Angeles and an “original member” of the national BLM leadership team, has a controversial history of defending convicted cop killers and calling for police departments to be abolished. A Fox News review of Abdullah’s social media accounts found that she wants Mutulu Shakur and Sundiata Acoli released from prison, despite their involvement in two separate events that resulted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper and the slayings of an armed guard and two police officers.

Abdullah recently wished Shakur a “Happy Birthday” and called her a “Freedom Fighter, organizer, and lover of our people and whose words we utter weekly.”

She’s also a big fan of rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, whom she felt “humbled” and “overwhelmed” to share a stage with during the “Justice Or Else” rally in 2015.

As you can imagine, Abdullah is also really big into abolishing the police and is very vocal about her position.

Fuck the police .

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) May 31, 2020

Don’t be afraid to say
ABOLISH THE POLICE. #BlackLivesMatter

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) April 21, 2021

One has to wonder why someone like this would want to support Newsom, and what kind of policies Newsom has in mind that would make someone like Abdullah want to support him. It’s unknown if Newsom knew Abdullah was going to speaking at the event but it’s likely that someone so extreme wouldn’t have been run by him first.

Pictures show Newsom was actually at the event where Abdullah spoke.

On stage right now is @DocMellyMel, @AsmMikeGipson and Sen. @sydneykamlager.

Without naming Larry Elder, Asm. Kamlager says there's a recall challenger who “thinks he might have an edge because of his color. But racism … comes in all shapes and sizes, and we’re not stupid.” pic.twitter.com/nnOfWhc6Zl

— Kyle Stokes (@kystokes) September 6, 2021

If Newsom is standing by as people like Abdullah speak on his behalf, Californians have even more reason to take this recall seriously.