Police, prison and abolition

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:35 pm

Letter from an inmate: St Louis prisoners protest COVID violations, inhumane conditions
Anonymous via EXPOFebruary 10, 2021 41 10 minutes read

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Early in the morning of February 6, inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center protested for seven hours over the complete lack of response by jail officials to complaints from inmates about conditions in the CJC. The protest, involving over 100 inmates, occurred after months of peaceful actions by incarcerated people that had been violently repressed by guards. St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards called the February 6 protest “very aggressive, very violent” and “certainly not” a protest in response to COVID conditions in the CJC, despite the fact that inmates had repeatedly issued their demands for better PPE, isolation and treatment for inmates sick with COVID, and for COVID testing. Edwards went as far as to say that there had not been a positive case of COVID in the CJC before last weekend, a completely ridiculous and unbelievable statement. The inmates have also been protesting for access to edible and nutritious food and access to warm clothing in the cold winter months.

The following letter was received by the organization EXPO (EX-Incarcerated People Organizing) St. Louis after a protest at the CJC on December 29 was violently repressed by guards. It outlines the conditions in the CJC and the demands of the incarcerated people. EXPO says, “Nothing was done to address [the demands of the prisoners] and [the February 6th] uprising was the natural evolution of the actions of living and feeling human beings.” (The name of the inmate-author of the letter has been removed to avoid retaliation from prison officials.)

On the morning of Tuesday, December 29, 2020 around 10am CT, myself and more than 50 other inmates on at least two floors within Missouri’s Saint Louis Justice Center (CJC), stood together in solidarity outside of our cells as a form of peaceful protest to exercise our 1st Amendment right to free speech in a peaceful attempt to voice our grievances to be heard by CJC management that have gone unanswered after months (anywhere from 2-6 months or more) of following the established procedures for filing complaints and grievances. We recently learned from sympathetic guards/correctional officers (hearafter referred to as CO(s)), that these complaint and grievance forms rarely go past the CO whom the form was given to, let alone to their supervisor nor an outside entity or CJC official. Our peaceful protest was unequally matched with resistance by CJC staff akin to the pre-Civil Rights Movement — we were subjected to tear gas, hosed down with strong water, and placed faced down in inches of said but now contaminated water in order to be handcuffed, transferred to the known dilapidated Medium Security Institution (MSI) nicknamed the “Workhouse”, and placed “in the hole” without proper heat, dry clothing and new face masks. All this because we were trying to tell jail staff and management that we don’t want to DIE, we are hungry, we want proper ventilation, we are tired of being cold without being given winter clothing, we want proper PPE for COVID-19, we are tired of being price gouged in the commissary and vending machines, we want the mandated six “recs” per day, and we want visits from family and friends since there is a glass barrier between them and the inmates. How long do we inmates have to go without before one stops adhering to socially acceptable civil norms when they are blatantly and continously being denied such — not only the ability to live but also other basic [prison] rights such as the ability to breathe uncontaminated air?

Because of this incident, jail staff have threatened to destroy and discard our personal belongings, religious and otherwise, as punishment. Their purported excuse for this action is because of the tear gas they used has contaminated said belongings. So, we will no longer have our legal documents nor anything we or our family or friends purchased for us — food, clothing, toiletries, religious documents/books/items, photos, etc. This is our punishment for asking not to be infected with covid and to have proper and adequate food, PPE, etc.?

To my knowledge, there are at least 12 lawsuits filed by other inmates due to the outcome and actions of jail staff at CJC for this initially “peaceful protest” that has been quelled by correctional officials so the media and public are kept unaware.

On New Years Eve, there were already 51 of us in the hole in one “pod”, which is supposed to hold a maximum of 60 people pre-pandemic, that were healthy and uninfected with Covid. However, prison staff decided to add 11more inmates, some of whom were visibly infected with covid!

This is genocide.

Prior to this peaceful protest that is now being reported as a “riot”, there were 24 inmates in my pod KNOWN TO BE INFECTED with covid by jail staff, but instead of properly quarantining them, they kept them in the pod and with their cell mates in a 6 foot by 9 foot cell. 24 infected inmates soon turned into almost 50 infected inmates in less than 48 hours!!! Thats over 90% of the inmates housed in ONE pod of 60 persons!!! Further, COs are telling us that not only are they NOT going to test us but such testing is voluntary even if the inmate is visibly exhibiting the classic symptoms of a covid infection. When those of us who are healthy request to be tested for covid, we are denied and persons from the detention center regardless of their covid status are continuously mixed in with the uninfected population within the actual jail/CJC, which houses over 800 inmates and more than 60% of those are currently visibly and audibly infected with covid and are probably not getting proper/adequate medical attention.

Many of us have not yet gone to trial. There is at least one inmate who has been locked up at CJC for FIVE YEARS without going to trial. So how is it that the St. Louis Justice Center staff are allowed to be our judge, jury and now executioner during this deadly pandemic???

We don’t want to DIE from SARS COVID-19, especially not at the hands of correctional staff. We are tired of being purposely exposed to other inmates and detainees who visibly have covid. Jail staff won’t test inmates but claim that current pod members have been exposed to covid even though we have not been tested during the entire arrest and detention process yet COs are constantly placing untested people, healthy or infected, in a jail cell, pod or holding area, with healthy people.

Even though we are inmates and regardless of whether we have been found guilty of a crime we may or may not have committed, our request is not unreasonable. This IS genocide. We are being treated like the Jews during Hitler’s regime. Instead of Germany we are in America. And the jail is being ran much like the concentration camps. But because we are black and brown and don’t ft the historical standard of American beauty, we are treated less than. We are being treated worse than George Floyd. Instead of one officer with his knee on one Black man’s neck for almost 8 minutes, we have several officers and agents of the Missouri, and more specifically the CJC, who are knowingly not following the COVID guidelines and protocols set forth by the CDC and US Department of Justice.

We are HUNGRY. We are pleading for not only proper nutrition but portion sizes that are befitting of an adult male. The lack of proper and adequate sustenance is known to weaken the immune system, thus making any person more susceptible to any disease but especially the highly contagious covid virus. We get the same chunk of bread-like cake for every meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I have been in CJC for almost two months and have yet to be given any fruit, have only once been given a “salad” that consisted of three tightly stuck together pieces of lettuce and one sliver of a shredded carrot. Our vegetables, if we are given them, consist of canned corn or green beans. The commissary and vending machines (in the facility or online for purchase by our family and friends to send to us, which is received bi-weekly) consists mostly of highly processed and junk/snack foods that are grossly overpriced compared to the Missouri prisons and normal retail outlets accessible to most American citizens.

We are tired of being COLD when the temperatures outside are also cold. The COs verbally refuse to turn the heat up, even in the detention/holding facility, citing they are trying to keep all from getting covid. We have not been given proper clothing to deal with such temperatures within the actual facility. Most of the world is struggling financially so there are very few of us who are recently detained during this pandemic whose family can even afford to purchase a thermal top or bottom or thicker socks via the online commissary. The inmates are not working, and many of us newly detained have not worked during this pandemic, but even if we had we either don’t have access to those funds and/or have depleted them in our attempts to purchase food from the commissary and vending machines after we are given our “trays” (breakfast, lunch or dinner) that barely have portions nor nutrients acceptable for a 10 year old child let alone a grown man.

We need our RECREATION BREAKS to stay mentally and physically healthy. Per correctional guidelines, inmates are to be given six (6) recreation hours per day. Since I have been detained at CJC, we get less than 3 and its mostly at the discretion of the guards with seemingly no set time periods or systematic adherence to the standard CDC guidelines. For example, one or more pods are let out of their cells between 7a-9a for 45min, then around 3p for another 45min, and maybe around 11p for 15-20min. To myself and others, these actions by CJC-MSI staff seem like an effort to not fully perform the duties for which they are getting paid to perform in accordance with standard operating procedures and CDC and DOJ covid guidelines and protocols. I have found that if I want to exercise (push-ups, etc) in my cell or during rec, I must do so in the morning rec so I have enough time to take a shower. I save my commissary/vending and phone calls for the afternoon rec. All this because we’re not given 6 recs sessions/hours, time is short and we may not get the 3rd/last rec that is much shorter on time and at a time where business calls cannot be made.

We need INFORMATION to research our cases.We have not or only sporadically been given access to the jail’s law library during recs. There are also only six tablets provided to one or more pods housing 60+ people. These tablets are supposed to allow us access to the jail’s law library and also, for a fee, be able to communicate with our family and friends via text messaging who have a SmartJailMail account. Most of the times, said tablets are inoperable because they weren’t charged properly between recs and/or will not hold a charge. Further, the tablets do not allow for video chatting with anyone.

We need to SEE our loved ones. The CJC website says visitation is allowed and special allowances for such may be made to family members or friends who reside out-of-town. However, this is a lie. All inmates have been told that there is no visitation due to covid despite the fact that in the visitation area at CJC the inmates are separated from the visitors by a glass partition and wall.

We need but are not given proper PPE. Yet COs are walking around in what appears to be hazmat suits. Inmates are only given a standard face mask bi-weekly. Many don’t have one because it broke, became dirty, wet, etc. Payphones, vending machines, tablets, etc. are not sanitized after each use and tables, common areas, etc.are not sanitized after each rec. We need more types of PPE (gloves, N95 masks, face shields, etc.) to protect us against our cellmate who is infected with covid whom the COs purposely place in our cells and refuse to remove healthy inmates or quarantine the infected ones in a separate area or facility.

I personally was NEVER tested for covid during my entire arrest and lockup experience (October 14, 2020 to present). Not given a temperature check, covid test kit nor nose swab, nor blood check. I have been denied my repeated requests for such. After my arrest, I was placed in the detention/holding facility attached to CJC. I was denied access to a shower and clean clothing for at least 2 weeks. It wasn’t until I had an outside person to contact my parole officer and a visit was made that I was given a shower, notified of why I was arrested, given a standard jumpsuit and thin (and too small) footwear, and then transferred to the jail-side of CJC. During my time in holding, officers were constantly moving detainees in and out of the holding area I was in, especially during the day. The area was not cleaned nor sanitized. I was not given any PPE during that time. All of this escalated my exposure to this deadly and highly contagious covid virus.

My detainment in the jail side of CJC has been, for the most part, no different to my initial detainment, as indicated above. How is it that not only do I have to protect myself against violence from much younger inmates, I now have to be strategically conscious of protecting my desire to continue to live and breathe unencumbered by a deadly pandemic-level worldwide virus because correctional staff intentionally place me and others in dangerous and hazardous conditions which further lends us to intentionally get covid in a short time frame, in some inmates’ cases this happens within 24 hours of their cellmate or they themselves being exposed to another inmate or guard who is handling them after dealing with a previous inmate(s) who’s visibly and knowingly infected. We are only given a basic face mask ever 2 weeks. No gloves or other PPE is given nor can we have any mailed to us by our family nor friends. How can we socially distance in a 6 foot by 9 foot cell with no ventilation in an open plan/air facility that is kept cold and we are denied and not provided with additional clothing (jackets, gloves, hats, etc.) nor blankets. How can those of us who are not sick stay healthy if we are not given nutritious and portions that sustain us. Yes we are inmates yet many of us have not yet been tried for our supposed crimes. Many of us also have families that we cannot see, barely are able to talk to because their funds are running low or are non-existent for us to call them collect or message them via SmartJailMail.

We feel like POWs in a foreign land in hostile territory. Because of our blackness/ancestral ties to Africa or Latin America, we are being treated less than human. We are dying at CJC in unheard of numbers and being intentinionally infected at alarming rates.

In my homeland that is the civilized country of America…THIS IS GENOCIDE!

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Sun Feb 14, 2021 2:22 pm

Interview: Formerly incarcerated organizer on Feb. 6 St. Louis jail protest
Ryan HambyFebruary 13, 2021 41 6 minutes read

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On February 10, Liberation News interviewed Ronnie Amiyn, an organizer with EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing) St. Louis about the organization, the conditions in St. Louis jails, the protests and organizing of incarcerated people and the responses of jail officials and the media. Those interested in contacting EXPO can text EXPOSTL to 31996.

Liberation News: What is EXPO?

Ronnie Amiyn: EXPO is an organization of formerly incarcerated individuals and other people involved with the criminal justice system. We are a voice for people adversely affected by this system. We are an offshoot of EXPO Wisconsin, which started in 2014. In just a few years, we have made tremendous strides to address issues that reduce the quality of life for people transitioning after being incarcerated.

We are leading a few campaigns now. One is Unlock the Vote, which is a fight to restore voting rights for individuals convicted of a felony and who are now on probation or parole. We hope to restore these rights because people who have had a brush with law need to be able to return to society as assets, to be able to contribute in a positive way. And what is more positive than utilizing their voice? This is really a basic right being denied, sometimes because of one poor decision.

We have another campaign to break the school-to-prison pipeline. This system sees my demographic, Black men, as a threat early on, as early as preschool. We are not seen as people, as humans that can evolve and grow. That attitude shapes the trajectory of our existence in society. Everyone else is given an opportunity to grow up, even with their mistakes — we should have this too.

We as EXPO believe that wherever there is any form of structural discrimination against formerly incarcerated people or anyone involved in the criminal justice system, someone should represent them and give them a voice.

LN: I know that there have been protests in the St. Louis City Justice Center for a few months now over the jail allowing COVID to spread and not providing PPE, the lack of access to warm clothing, and the lack of food, especially nutritional food. How many protests in the jail have there been in the past few months?

RA: There have been at least three major protests that I know about. Initially, of course, before any protests, those in the CJC tried to write letters to staff, to case workers, to administration. They wrote grievances and submitted them in the way that they are supposed to.

They asked for more and better PPE, access to COVID testing and isolation for those sick or with symptoms, as well as more nutritional food and adequate calories, warmer clothing and blankets in the winter, COVID-safe visits with loved ones, exercise and recreation access and the ability to research and study their cases. Much of this is mentioned in the letter we received from an inmate. https://www.liberationnews.org/letter-f ... onditions/

However, detainees and protesters learned from sympathetic correctional officers that these letters and grievances did not make it up the chain of command, or were even thrown in the trash! These people have a right to be heard. They are still human beings, still fathers, sons, brothers. And it is important to remember that these people are in jail, not prison — most have not been to court or before a judge. They are not yet “guilty.”

There is a natural progression of protest when rights are being denied and not respected. The first protest, as mentioned in the letter, took place on December 29. It was nonviolent; detainees just stepped outside their cell and did not lock down at that time. The COs responded with extreme violence and retaliation. After the protest, some were sent from the CJC to the Workhouse.

LN: What is “the Workhouse” and what is its relationship to the CJC? Why are activists like those in EXPO struggling to get it shut down?

RA: To clarify for those that may not be familiar — jail is where you go after you get arrested but before you go to trial in front of a judge. Jail is especially for people who cannot pay bond, so jail is for poor people, really.

There are two jails in St. Louis: the Medium Security Institution, or the Workhouse, and the City Justice Center, CJC, which is for “high risk” detainees. The Workhouse is supposed to only be for medium- and low-risk detainees. But actually, that isn’t always true. Sometimes people arrested for “high-risk” crimes end up in the Workhouse, and people end up in the CJC that are “low-risk.” This causes lots of issues.

Conditions in the Workhouse are very bad. There is severe mold, undrinkable water and the food is inedible and should not be served to humans. The whole place is a health hazard, especially during COVID. We actually won our campaign to shut down the Workhouse, and it was supposed to be shut down in January. But apparently the city found reasons to keep it open.

One particular reason they kept the Workhouse open was this situation — jail administration using the Workhouse to separate and punish protest organizers from the CJC. They transport CJC protesters to the Workhouse to isolate them from the other detainees in the CJC general population.

LN: There’s been a lot of jail officials talking about what happened on February 6, and the media reporting their comments uncritically. I think we’d all appreciate hearing from an organizer, an activist, about what happened that morning. Walk me through what happened, as you understand it, the morning of February 6?

RA: We are still learning exactly what happened. As far as how it was planned and executed, I would be reluctant to say, as the narrative can always be changed. But I know the reasons were just. This is the natural progression of protests when the protesters aren’t heard, like I said.

Part of why we are still trying to learn what happened is because there was immediate retaliation. Individuals were transferred to the Workhouse. COs and jail officials trashed personal effects from cells; this means letters from loved ones, important legal documents and research, and other important possessions. They said that they were damaged by fire hoses and fire, and just threw a lot of stuff away. We know that detainees were kept wet and dirty and not allowed to clean or shower, despite very cold conditions. We know that some were even denied food.

When Jimmie Edwards [the St. Louis Public Safety Director -LN] talked about protest, he said it started out as “one defiant individual making trouble at 2 am, getting in a tussle with a guard, and then others joining in.” This is not accurate. He is trying to act like some criminal was misbehaving and then all of the other criminals joined in. We don’t believe that for a second. He is trying to make it like there was no reason for anyone to be protesting.

Jimmie Edwards is also saying that the detainees all “jimmied” their locks to join the protest. We are very sceptical of this — jimmying locks in a maximum security jail? It is ironic, though, he would use the word “jimmy,” meaning to force a mechanical object to malfunction, because that is how we see him — Jimmie is defective, not working like the “public safety” director should.

LN: I want to ask you about how you felt about the media coverage of Feb. 6, as well as how jail and city officials talked about what happened. Jimmie Edwards called the protest “very aggressive, very violent” and “certainly not” a protest in response to COVID conditions in the CJC, despite the fact that inmates had repeatedly issued their demands, and he went as far as to say that there had not been a positive case of COVID in the CJC before last weekend, which is just ridiculous seeing that we have had COVID cases in the U.S. for over a year. What is your response to how the media, jail and city officials have covered the protests before Feb. 6, and the uprising on Feb. 6?

RA: I would have hoped, and I do hope, that the media would take more time to scrutinize the public officials they quote. Hold them accountable. The media acts like they work for the people, speak for the people. And in this case, there is cause for more questions, more scrutiny.

We hope that there is an investigation of the events that led up to the protest on Feb. 6. We want an investigation into the conditions, into detainees not getting PPE, sustenance, medical treatment and clothing. We want COVID vaccines for detainees. They are in Phase 3 lockdown, and they are extremely vulnerable. It is impossible to social distance in a cell block, or from your cell mate. Jail inmates are obviously more susceptible to COVID, and this is not being addressed. Officials, COs and jail administration aren’t adhering to protocols. The media should investigate these things.

As for public officials: We are in a mayoral race, and we want these people to state their positions on these issues. The city, after the Feb. 6 protest, is creating a task force to address the concerns of the inmates. We want full transparency of this task force, and we want the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated and people speaking for the incarcerated on it.

Sometimes issues in jails and prisons are hidden from people. The officials try to hide their bad deeds, and this is easier to do in a jail, because the detainees have been forgotten and left behind, their guilt has already been decided. These protests help bring these issues to the surface.

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:35 pm

Freedom Rider: Forced Labor in the U.S.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 10 Feb 2021

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Freedom Rider: Forced Labor in the U.S.

Forced labor of Uyghurs in China is questionable, but there is absolute proof that incarcerated people in this country are forced to work for little or no pay.

“Anyone curious about sources of information is silenced or accused of being a genocide denier.”

By any measure, the United States has the worst human rights record among the nations called democratic or developed or advanced or “free world” or any of the other labels that rich capitalist countries use to describe themselves. The U.S. has the worst health care system in that group, the worst benefits for workers, and the worst income inequality. It also has the dubious distinction of being the world’s biggest jailer, with some 2.3 million people behind bars. This country which treats its people so terribly is also the one most likely to project its evil doing on to others.

There is a method to the madness. When the United States claimed that Saddam Hussein or Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, or that Muammar Gaddafi gave his troops Viagra to commit rapes, there was public acceptance of interventions, invasions, and sanctions. People in this country like to think of themselves as virtuous, even as they approve of violations of human rights at home and abroad.

The latest target of hybrid warfare propaganda is the People’s Republic of China. The Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region are now being used in a futile and dangerous attempt to contain this country whose economic power and independent foreign policy stance challenges the United States and its allies.

“This country which treats its people so terribly is also the one most likely to project its evil doing on to others.”

The corporate media, politicians, NGOs, and supposed experts of dubious backgrounds relentlessly report that 1 million Uyghurs are imprisoned and that the state forces them to work. Yet there is no mention of the U.S. and its allies using Uyghur proxies in their campaign against Syria or of the jihadist terrorist attacks in China which followed. The government has established what they call technical training schools to end this activity, but that is all that can be established. There is no proof of anything that can be called a concentration camp or of forced labor, yet these stories are repeated endlessly.

In addition, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM ) was removed from the United States terrorist group list in 2020, not coincidentally at the same moment that hostility towards China was ramped up by the Trump administration. Biden is hardly different, repeating hostile tropes about China, continuing Trump policy but with slightly better vocabulary.

“There is no proof of anything that can be called a concentration camp or of forced Uyghur labor.”

While the stories of forced labor in China are questionable, there is absolute proof that incarcerated people in this country are forced to work for little pay , ranging on average from .86 to $3.45 per day, and in five states they are paid nothing at all. They are even charged for being in prison. Their family members also suffer and must pay for video conversations which in some jurisdictions have replaced in-person visits. They are charged for those as well and these communications are not private, even when the incarcerated speak to their attorneys .

The human rights violations in this country that are well known and documented are seldom discussed. While members of Congress in the U.S. and parliamentarians around the world discuss boycotting Chinese cotton because of unproven allegations of Uyghur forced labor, they say nothing about the well documented instances of forced labor right here that are permitted under the 13th amendment to the constitution.

The hypocrisy would be stunning if it were not carried out so consistently. Joe Biden is just the latest president to claim that human rights abuses are rampant in other countries while ignoring gross violations taking place in his own. He already tried to fool the public when he announced a policy that the Department of Justice will no longer contract with privately run prisons. But he said nothing about the Department of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over private immigrant detention centers. In any case, most privately run prisons are under the jurisdiction of states, and not the federal government. While other countries are lectured, Americans get another bait and switch.

“Members of Congress say nothing about the well documented instances of forced labor right here that are permitted under the 13th amendment to the constitution.”

Neither Biden, members of congress, or the media who act like scribes should be allowed to use words like “genocide” without being challenged. The charges against China take on a life of their own, and anyone curious about sources of information is silenced or accused of being a genocide denier. The term implies that genocide is proven when it hasn’t been, and that anyone who questions the allegations is the liar.

These stories are amplified by NGOs funded by the U.S., allies like Australia, and weapons manufacturers who create “experts ” who are then given undeserved credibility. Meanwhile incarcerated people here have no legal protections and no right to refuse the use of their labor. They may do dangerous work such as fighting California wildfires for a maximum of $5.12 per day , but are prohibited from doing the same work upon their release.

It is prudent to be skeptical whenever the United States government, its ally partners in crime, and their friends in corporate media make claims of human rights violations around the world. There is always an ulterior motive which gives the green light to aggression. Forced labor is just one example of American hypocrisy meant to promote war propaganda. One must always ask how the alleged crime compares to how this country treats its own people.

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:44 pm

Angola inmates on hunger strike against unlawful extension of solitary confinement
John McDevittFebruary 20, 2021 52 2 minutes read

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On February 17 at 5:10 am the entire tier CBC Lower Left (solitary ward) at Angola Penitentiary began a hunger strike over unlawful and excessive detention in solitary confinement, as well as horrendous conditions.

“The reason [for the strike is]…EVERYONE over here is between one month to six months past their initial disciplinary detention,” according to communications from the inmates carrying out the hunger strike.

On the first day of the hunger strike, prison officials threatened inmates with mace if they did not return their trays. By lunchtime, officials began recording the names of the initial hunger strikers. On the second day, inmates were given word that a warden was en route to come speak with them.

Ultimately, the hunger-strikers have only received empty promises and excuses.

The inmates only have access outside of a 9’ by 6’ cell for one hour a day, 15 minutes of which is used to shower. There is no heat in the prison and the inmates only have a jumpsuit and a sheet. Louisiana has had very cold temperatures as of late and with the latest winter storm, lows are in below-freezing temperatures.

“My boyfriend has been [in solitary confinement] for two months past his due date. First, he was put in on March 20th and then was supposed to be released [from solitary] on November 12th, then [the prison officials] stopped answering calls from me [at the prison],” said Jer’Rica Rush, whose partner is one of the hunger strikers, to Liberation News.

“They come in to check their vitals and everything every night but some of the inmates have been in there months past their due date. No one is paying attention to them. They refused eight meals so far and are still on with the strike,” Rush elaborated.

“All they have is a jumpsuit and a sheet and they haven’t even been able to wash their clothes. I’m just trying to get him out of the hole right now. There’s no heat on and it’s freezing in there. There’s mold in there and people are getting sick,” Rush emphasized. She explained, “We’re trying to push the story out there– it’s really bad conditions.”

The inmates asked that all their names be included so that no one person is singled out for retaliation:

Theoshamond Norman #407759
Ronald Reel #356002
James Thom #313821
Percy Hawthorne #348602
Donald Hensley #112218
Frederick Ross #585778
Courtney Williams #623982
Tonka Hayes #338440
Robert Hunt #318004
Harry Dupre #292174
The hunger-strikers are asking concerned people to call Warden Nettles LSP at 225-655-4411. Inmates want guarantees in writing: to be released from solitary and to be moved to appropriate and safe conditions.

For further updates and to get involved, please join the Angola Inmates Defense Committee and the Central Gulf Coast affiliate of the National Committee for Justice in Denver on March 1 at 6 PM Central time.

The committees will discuss this prisoners’ struggle, as well as the repression against those in Denver who are facing up to 48 years in prison for organizing for justice for Elijah McClain murdered by police in 2019.

To donate to Angola inmate Quierza Lewis’s legal fees: https://www.gofundme.com/f/serving-life ... conviction

Lewis is close to garnering enough financial support to finally have legal defense, which all 1,500 prisoners impacted by that ruling are seeking.

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:51 pm

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The Case for Abolition, for Skeptics

Posted Mar 05, 2021 by National Lawyers Guild (NLG)

Originally published: National Lawyers Guild (NLG) (March 1, 2021) |

This is the concluding post in a four part series, view the first three parts HERE https://www.nlg.org/category/blog/

The NLG National Office, in collaboration with NLG Review, is publishing a 4-part blog series exploring questions around policing in the United States. Guild members shared pieces analyzing the policing of social movements, the role of police in maintaining current power dynamics, and alternatives to policing from community power to defunding to abolition. The goal of this series is to generate discussion and conversation among our members and the public regarding the current state of policing and to envision new strategies of social organization. Please also read the Guild’s recent resolution supporting the abolition of policing passed by the membership in 2020.


In the final piece of the series, NLG Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair and one of the proponents of the 2020 policing resolution Kira Kelley makes the case for the abolition of policing and offers examples of individuals and projects taking power and resources away from police and prisons to create non-carceral, non-punitive alternatives.

Content warning for police violence, sexual assault, drugs & addiction, and gun deaths.

Start by Questioning Assumptions
Challenging a multi-billion dollar industry and centuries of social conditioning, abolitionists work to debunk the propaganda that equates policing with safety. In reality, police are fundamentally dangerous; they were created and are maintained to protect racial capitalism. In order to achieve their foundational purpose, police destroy lives and communities—in particular, those of Black and Indigenous people.

The wealthy elite sustain their ability to profit off of everyone else because they have a mechanism to keep exploited people under control: policing. In order to manufacture our consent to this set-up, beneficiaries of this system instruct everyone who is concerned about police brutality to see law enforcement as a less than ideal, but still necessary feature of society.

This conditioning tells us that police prevent violence, when in reality police simply control and respond to violence and themselves directly enact it. Under the guise of “protecting and serving,” police enforce laws that prop up systemic racism and poverty, criminalize addiction and block access to health care, and trap people in abusive situations.

Campaigns to reform and thereby to preserve policing glorify anecdotes where someone who prevented harm also happened to be a law enforcement officer. These incidental positive outcomes are attributed to the uniform, not the person in it, and are uplifted to justify salvaging an institution whose primary function is to maintain power hierarchies.

A false solution should not be preserved for its alleged incidental benefits, when those incidental benefits could in fact be better achieved by the mere elimination of the false solution. To effectively reduce hardship, we must abolish systems that stabilize oppression and that encourage certain people to kidnap, assault, and murder others—like prisons and police.

A Close Look at Reality
Statistics abound in leftist and liberal discourse that support a critique of policing: police are the sixth leading cause of death for young Black men; the majority of all police murders arise when cops respond to a nonviolent situation; and the U.S. prison industrial complex costs over $180 billion annually to operate yet has no positive effect on public safety.

These numbers, infuriating and tragic as they are, still paint an incomplete picture of the pervasive and constant violence that police represent. Records are rarely created after non-lethal police assaults, which are bread and butter in the establish-control-at-all-costs training of a police officer. Nor will any survey accurately document the full harm of sexual assault police commit both on duty and in domestic situations using the training, equipment, and immunity from consequences that comes with a badge. Incalculable incidents of sexual violence are never reported, or when reported are ignored or met with retaliation. Police target already vulnerable populations, such as sex workers, unhoused people, disabled people, people suffering from addiction, and people with existing criminal records—all of whom are less likely to be believed should they share their experiences.

Police defenders often respond to these critiques by invoking gruesome case studies, citing insatiable murderers to demonstrate that police are ultimately still necessary. Notably, serial murderers commit about 1 out of 100 homicides. Police officers commit about 1 out of 16. (These calculations include police who committed but were not convicted of murder, and exclude suicides.)

Even after pointing out that police and prisons have categorically failed to prevent or even reduce violence in our society (and to the contrary are a direct cause of it), abolitionists are constantly asked to provide an alternative safety plan before reformists consider abolition itself as an alternative.

Abolition is a realistic, practical solution. Abolition uproots our toxic fixation with ignoring or exacerbating systemic problems and instead throwing money at an industry that counterproductively addresses the flashiest symptoms. Extricating ourselves from our contrived dependency on the prison industrial complex frees up our financial and imaginative resources to invest in localized, effective solutions. Without police, we can address the drivers of such intense and frequent circumstances of harm—disparate access to healthcare, education, and housing for example—while also embracing better ways to heal from the harms that do exist.

“No Police” Does Not Mean “No Response”
Police should not be the ones searching for missing people, intervening in abusive situations, responding to people in crisis, mentoring youth, or helping people who have been robbed figure out what’s missing and what they might need to feel safe. Police training makes someone a danger, not an asset, to people in these situations.

A world without police would still have people who are willing to take risks for the well-being of others. People would still be breaking up fights, asking neighbors to turn the music down, and talking to people who are causing harm or who are suffering. But, without police causing these problems and then solving them clumsily or dangerously, the solutions we design will be intentional and thus more effective and better funded, and there will be fewer problems to solve. Literally and metaphorically, we can fix each other’s broken tail lights by offering resources and support, not by imposing fines or pointing guns.

A key difference between policing and an abolitionist, community-driven approach to safety is this coercive power dynamic. Lying to cops is criminalized, but cops go to school to learn how to lie. Cops can physically and sexually assault, kidnap, and murder people with near impunity, but if a civilian so much as puts a hand on a squad car, they risk the charge of assaulting a police officer. Police prevent people from using discretion to break immoral, oppressive or pointless laws, but an officer can claim to have used their “reasonable best judgement” as a virtually ironclad defense against liability for harmful and violent behavior.

Some people become police officers out of a desire to serve their community and a willingness to risk their lives for the greater good. These community-minded recruits become the so-called “good cops” who despite best intentions are inescapably harmful. Any initial compassion is lost to a violent institution whose training and function is to reproduce and stabilize anti-Blackness, racism, ableism, colonialism, transphobia, misogyny, xenophobia, and classism.

Abolition would not rid our world of people who would risk their own lives to save other people. Instead, abolition would prevent the institution of police from co-opting, corrupting, and weaponizing the kindness of people who buy into propaganda telling them that the best way to help their community is to join the police force. This theft is just one more way that police turn a community’s resources against it.

People can much more effectively and safely protect and serve their community by joining EMTs, firefighters, social and mental health workers, teachers, crossing guards, youth mentors, organizers, mutual aid providers, and other groups—who would be much better financed without having to compete with police budgets for resources.

Forget “Bad Apples” and “Rotten Trees”
Police are the enforcement tool of a colonizer system that allow the rich to hoard resources and coerce labor from everyone else. This system pays and trains its henchpeople to selectively murder, assault and imprison people who are Black, Indigenous, poor, brown, queer, trans, disabled, and/or immigrant, and anyone fighting the racial capitalist and imperialist status quo.

Police evict houseless encampments near shopping districts that “interfere” with business. At the beck and call of railroad and coal industries, police arrest activists who put themselves in front of trains to disrupt a lethal economy repeatedly refusing to pay its workers and destroying the chance of a livable future for all of humanity. Police make arrests to meet quotas, ensuring a guaranteed population of legalized slave labor to work in prisons and a steady supply of new construction, security, medical, and consumer goods contracts for the ever expanding prison industrial complex.

Not only does racial capitalism govern police discretion in oppressive ways, but also police enforce laws that themselves are tools of oppression. Police, prisons, lawmakers, and the courts work together using the fallacy of legality to justify exploitation. In addition to abolishing police and our fixation with revenge and punishment as a proxy for healing, we must also dismantle the belief that laws and courts are somehow “neutral” or inherently just. Laws and courts exist to maintain stability, not fairness. The people with control over what laws are passed and which judges get appointed have a vested interest in maintaining this complacent, ordered society, which operates on international human and environmental exploitation. Courts, much like police, are designed to appear impartial in order to disguise that their fundamental reason for existing is to protect hoarded wealth. However, both institutions are charged with maintaining the status quo, which is far from neutral and skewed at its core against collective well-being.

If we want to live in a society whose stability does not depend on exploiting marginalized groups and whose existence does not guarantee ecological collapse, we need to revoke our consent to be governed by the courts, prisons, police, and laws that entrench this reality under the guise of public safety.

What Can Be Done?
Abolitionist practice can be anywhere on a spectrum from individual to systemic. Individual abolitionist practice lets us begin to shatter the molds we have been cast in that shape us into carceral thinkers. This in turn helps us build healthy and powerful relationships with each other as we plug into groups working systemically to shatter the machines that cast everyone else in the same mold.

The following are just a few out of many fantastic activists, organizers, projects, and groups to explore and support: Mariame Kaba (founder of Project NIA, creator of transform harm); Angela Davis; Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Kelly Hayes (cofounder of Lifted Voices); Critical Resistance; M4BL; #8toabolition; Survived and Punished.

Projects that take power and resources away from police and prisons and/or to create non-carceral, non-punitive support mechanisms for people vary widely in scope and form. Other bloggers in this series have already lifted up the incredible work of CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), which is a fantastic example of how all over the country people are creating new social service organizations or eliminating the police presence in existing programs to provide resources, without coercion, to people struggling with addiction, mental health, domestic violence, and houselessness. Abolitionist pen-pal and solidarity letter-writing programs offer tangible, accessible ways to grow the movement. Groups are passing municipal legislative measures that include non-reformist reforms and cuts to police budgets. People across the country train themselves in de-escalation and conflict resolution, form mutual aid groups, and host pop-up free clinics to fix tail lights.

Abolition can and must happen immediately, without requiring a universal alternative method of curbing violence or addressing harm to be put in place first. Communities who have never been able to safely call on the police have already developed and implemented these practices. Any mechanism for public safety should not be imposed like just another top-down mandate that disregards the specific needs and autonomy of each different community.

https://mronline.org/2021/03/05/the-cas ... -skeptics/

Well, it certainly needs to be done and it should be pursued vigorously. But the only thing I can see coming of it is heightened public awareness(as though non-white folks need that...), otherwise not so much. Consider the past year, have we seen any of these murderous pigs going to the slammer? Maybe one, I think. Because effective impunity is requisite for cops to function as the heavy hand of the ruling class. They are not going to perform their function of social control and intimidation if there is a chance of that action putting them in jail with a bunch of pissed off proles. No way in hell. And the bosses need the cops to be just the assholes that they are so they'll not do anything substantial to curb police violence. Look how it has gone with mandated 'police body cameras'. When actually worn they are often not turned on or are even turned off before the hitting/shooting starts. And even if there is footage it is denied public viewing whenever possible citing 'internal review' and down the memory hole it goes. Big fucking deal.

This is one of those fights we must engage in even though we know it cannot be won because it will further other purposes.

Of course the National Lawyers Guild will will promote this reformist avenue because the alternative solution(that will work) is a reversal of class relations, and lawyers got class interests too...
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:24 pm

Chauvin trial, week 1: Will there be justice for George Floyd?
Chris BanksApril 2, 2021 203 4 minutes read

Download PDF flyer https://flyer-generator.herokuapp.com/? ... osts/93067

The murder trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin has wrapped up its first week, ten months after Chauvin and three other officers killed unarmed father-of-five George Floyd outside of a convenience store.

There is no bigger story in U.S. media. The trial, which is expected to last about four weeks, is being broadcast in its entirety. The entire world saw Chauvin commit the infamous murder of Floyd thanks to viral bystander video, and the attention of millions are now fixed on the courtroom.

Chauvin is being charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He could be convicted by a jury on all, some, or none of these charges. It must be remembered that, initially, there were no charges at all. For four long days, none of the officers involved in the May 25, 2020, murder of Floyd had even been detained. It was only after an anti-racism rebellion erupted in the streets of Minneapolis and spread nationwide that state authorities found the motivation to arrest and charge Floyd’s killers.

During Monday’s opening statements, with hundreds rallying outside demanding justice, the prosecution made it clear that they would use video as the core of its argument to convict Chauvin. It was revealed that Chauvin, while asphyxiating Floyd, ground his knees into Floyd’s neck and back, squeezing the very breath out of him, for substantially longer than the 8 minute-and-46-second duration reported in an earlier investigation. In total, Chauvin’s knees were pressed down into Floyd’s body for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. He kept a knee on Floyd’s neck 4 minutes and 44 seconds after he became unresponsive, not letting up even while paramedics checked and failed to find a pulse, eventually taking it off only to allow the deceased corpse of George Floyd to be loaded onto a gurney.

The prosecution has already introduced a mountain of previously unseen surveillance and police body-cam footage.

Killer cops’ lawyer bases defense on textbook racism
Chauvin’s defense attorney, on the other hand, argued in his opening statement that it was not in fact the crushing force used by Chauvin — as observed by the world — against the unarmed and handcuffed Floyd that killed him. According to Chauvin’s attorney, non-lethal force resulted in a lethal outcome because Floyd had high blood pressure and heart disease — two health conditions shared by half of all adults in the United States! — and had traces of opioids in his system.

The judge ridiculously allowing information about Floyd’s struggle with addiction to be admitted into the court will allow the defense to try and redirect attention away from Chauvin’s deadly use of force and into the deep well of racist stereotypes about Black men and drug use, whereby Black men are so thoroughly demonized that any police abuse or denial of rights becomes self-justified.

This racist defense strategy which claims there was no asphyxiation is refuted most powerfully by the words of George Floyd himself. In the 4 minutes and 45 seconds before going unconscious and pulseless, Floyd verbalized 27 times that he could not breathe. His last words were, “I can’t breathe.”

During the opening days of the trial, the prosecution called multiple eyewitness bystanders to testify. One of them, Donald Wynn Williams II, a wrestler trained in mixed martial arts, testified that Chauvin used a “blood choke” on Floyd. The same observation was made by UFC Light Heavyweight champ Jon Jones in a Tweet days after the murder: “Anyone who has practiced the very basics of jujitsu recognizes a #bloodchoke when they see this.”


A blood choke, as opposed to an air choke, cuts off circulation to the brain and causes loss of consciousness. After a few minutes, a person will suffer permanent brain damage or death. Floyd was held in this dangerous submission hold for 9 minutes and 29 seconds!

Several other bystanders took the stand expressing grief and recalling feelings of horror as they watched George Floyd slowly die under the knee of police officer Chauvin.

The response prepared by Chauvin’s defense to these harrowing testimonies was to assert during cross examination that the pleading onlookers were “angry” and thus constituted a growing “threat.” This “threat” included three high school students, a 9-year-old girl, a 61-year-old man, an off-duty firefighter, and the teenage convenience store clerk who took Floyd’s $20 bill — and described Floyd as “very friendly, approachable, talkative.”

Defense attorney Eric Nelson insinuated throughout cross examination that the “angry” crowd of onlookers, not Chauvin, was to blame for Floyd’s death because they distracted the police “from the care [author’s emphasis] of Mr. Floyd.”

In reality, the police lynch mob tortured George Floyd to death, and ignored onlookers’ desperate pleas to provide medical care, preventing the only medically trained person on scene from helping: off-duty Minneapolis firefighter and certified EMT Genevieve Hansen.

Hansen, who became a bystander while out for a walk, testified that while Floyd was alive there was no medical assistance and the officers repeatedly denied her access to provide lifesaving medical care. In court, Hansen listed all of the things she would have done: call 911, ask someone to look for a defibrillator from nearby businesses, check Floyd’s airway, look for obstructions, check his spinal cord because of the weight on him, check his pulse and if necessary, begin chest compressions. None of this happened. Why? Police officers denied the assistance.

Unable to gain access to the scene, Hansen even offered to walk the officers through how to do chest compressions. The police refused that also.

Even though the entire world saw Chauvin commit murder against defenseless George Floyd, it is still up for grabs whether there will be a conviction. The U.S. ruling class routinely shields perpetrators of violence if they are police or other agents of the capitalist state. Since 2015, one recent study found that police killed 135 unarmed Black people nationwide. Only 13 officers were charged with murder, and only two were convicted.

In this case, the ruling class knows that without a conviction there may very well be major rebellions across the country. For that reason, they may favor a conviction in this instance. However, they also know, just like we know, that it is very possible that the racist criminal justice system, which is skewed toward the cops, produces another Rodney King-style acquittal.

In preparation for that possibility, the City of Minneapolis, state authorities and certainly authorities at the federal level are preparing massive repression against the people. The National Guard has already been deployed to Minneapolis and remains on high alert.

https://www.liberationnews.org/chauvin- ... rationnews

Cops have their own mythologies which help explain their savage and murderous behavior to themselves and a lot of white folks. Besides all of the racist trash heaped upon black people with which cops excuse themselves there is the myth of the superpowers of the drug user. The strength and savagery of The Incredible Hulk are often referred to drug users, this is especially common when a drug has recently come to prominence and most people know little about it. All sorts of mad urban myths proliferate and when suitable they become 'given knowledge' among the boss's uniformed thugs. I have heard many and when young and stupid believed some of them too. But they prove false, exaggerations at best, but cops will never believe that because it just doesn't suit...And anyway they are going home tonight and are taking no chances otherwise, none at all, and if surety requires the maiming or death of 'others' as collateral damage necessary so they are going home tonight , well, that's just part of the job. Nothing short of abolition will do. And lots of jail time.

Tough call for the bosses: civil unrest or betray the trust of their uniformed gangs, a hard conviction will be seen as nothing less by the 'Blue Wall' and the rich really do need those people, they ain't shit without them.
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:06 pm

Image

Protests Erupt in Brooklyn Center After Police Kill Daunte Wright
By Unicorn Riot April 12, 2021

Brooklyn Center, MN – After the police killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a vehicle stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Sunday afternoon, hundreds gathered near 63rd Avenue North and Lee Avenue North calling for justice.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) identified the cop who shot and killed #DaunteWright as Officer Kim Potter, a 20+ year department veteran who is also head of the Brooklyn Center Police Officer’s Association.

Image
Daunte Wright and his child

Brooklyn Center is a suburb of Minneapolis with about 31,000 residents, more than a quarter of whom are Black per recent demographic data.

Content Advisory: Police violence.

April 13: Protests continued for a third day



Later protests shifted to the Brooklyn Center police station at 6645 N. Humboldt Avenue. Police forces fired volleys of OC gas canisters, triple chasers, and flashbangs repeatedly. In the minutes leading up to midnight, police demanded the crowds disperse and a group of State Patrol officers turned up.


Defense Technology munitions like those seen tonight have often been fired by law enforcement during large protests including Standing Rock. Field force weapons like the “sponge rounds” are part of a national doctrine provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.


Unicorn Riot talked to a war veteran who said he came back only to “still be harassed by the same system that I fought for.”



Minnesota National Guard members were also spotted at various locations throughout the city as several businesses were reportedly vandalized in reaction to this police killing. Through the early morning, roves of vehicles from Brooklyn Center to South Minneapolis drove the streets, taking from store after store. A large police presence pushed some actions off and an unknown number of arrests were made.



Dozens of people suffered injuries from the munitions fired by the police. At least a handful of protesters were detained by police, many of those were given unlawful assembly citations and released.

On Tuesday, Governor Tim Walz and other state and local officials announced a 7 PM curfew for Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, and Dakota counties along with increased deployment of police and National Guard. Despite this, many people came out to protest for a second day. Many gathered at the vigil site where a memorial to Daune Wright has sprung up at the site in Brooklyn Center where he was killed. The crowd at the vigil seemed to disperse without incident around 7 PM. A large crowd had also gathered around the Brooklyn Center police station where clashes had broken out the night before. Thousands surrounded the police station security fence perimeter at first – quite a few militant protesters had umbrellas, leaf blowers, and other items for to mitigate police use of gas and riot munitions. The Brooklyn Center officers hold up in the fence around their station used lots of gas volleys to drive the crowd slightly back from the station, and then a large formation of state troopers arrived to move the crowd, and was met with resistance from the angry crowd. Several arrests were made as police slowly pushed the crowd away from the area – several arrest attempts also seemed to have been thwarted by a crowd reluctant to hand an easy win to officers. The police forces seemed to continue to grow as the pushed the ever-shrinking crowd further and further away from the target of their rage. Involved agencies included Minnesota State Patrol, Anoka County sheriff’s deputies, Eden Prairie Police, and Conservation Officers from the Department of Natural Resources.

40 people were arrested Monday night, according to an ‘Operation Safety Net’ press conference by authorities.

This story is ongoing and will be updated as events occur. For more detailed coverage check our previously recorded livestreams below.

https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/protests ... te-wright/

Multiple screen shots and videos at link.

(Damn but I hate the name of this outfit but they are often good at getting their people into the front line of 'civil disturbances'.)
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:53 pm

A: Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on APRIL 15, 2021
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka

Image

Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show TrialThe Black-murder-by-cop next door to Minneapolis shows the world the dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonialism will continue to produce crimes against our collective humanity.

“The murder of George Floyd was no more an aberration in U.S. society than the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was.”

The fix was in. The U.S. state was determined to demonstrate to the world that its system was able to render “justice” to its captive African/Black population.

So, unlike in the handful of cases where charges were brought against police officers for killing a Black or Brown person, the prosecutors this time did not pretend to follow the demands of the ill-informed public to bring charges of first degree or second-degree murder that would set a bar for conviction so high, it could not be met. That is a favorite strategy of prosecutors when conviction is not what they are looking for.

The prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin case did the opposite. They stacked the charges in a way that would make it impossible to escape a conviction. And everyone fell in line because the stakes were so high. Could the Shining City on the Hill, whose leadership was now associated with the “decent” Democrats, render justice for the killer of George Floyd? The answer to that question was going to be an emphatic yes. The press committed to gavel-to-gavel coverage and everything was ready for one the greatest show trials of U.S. history.

But the intractable, racist nature of the relationship between Black people and the U.S. settler-colonial state reared its ugly head again and everything went off script right in the middle of the international production. That is because another young Black male was gunned down, ironically in the same metropolitan area where Floyd’s life was snatched from him.

“Everything went off script right in the middle of the international production.”

Everything was now confused again. What would justice mean for Floyd and any other Black individual murdered or assaulted by agents of the state even if Chauvin is convicted? Would the call for “justice” now just mean a demand for a trial since it is clear cases of Black murder will continue, as they have since the inception of this nation? Is that not what made the U.S. “exceptional” as the first republic ever established on the basis of race in human history?

The ruling class response to Covid-19 demonstrated how cheap life is in the United States, but the lives of Black people are even lower on the scale of human value. Yet, the charade continues. U.S. authorities gun down Black people in the United States, while its armies kill Black and other colonized peoples and nations around the world in the name of advancing democracy.

Everyone knows really that the murder of George Floyd was no more an aberration in U.S. society than the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was. Extreme, systematic, murderous violence has always been at the heart of the white supremacist settler project. The Chauvin show trial was just supposed to help us to forget that for a moment.

It did not matter that no one was held accountable for the murder of Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, or the now countless murders where local prosecutors failed to bring charges and the government under the Obama and Trump administrations made political decisions not to launch federal investigations.

This case was different. It could not be ignored or explained away. The world had seen the gruesome snuff film of George Floyd that evoked global revulsion. An inflection point had been reached in which the U.S. brand was potentially damaged beyond repair—so a sacrifice was required.

“Extreme, systematic, murderous violence has always been at the heart of the white supremacist settler project.”

With the killing of Daunte Wright, a mistrial may not be the result and Chauvin will probably be convicted. That conviction, however, will not have the effect that the plan had originally imagined. Out of the confusion around what is to be demanded when the killings continue, is the slow awakening to the unavoidable reality that unless African/Black people are able to self-govern and exercise authentic collective self-determination, the degradation and dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonialism will continue to produce Breonna Taylors, Eric Garners, mass incarceration, and crimes against our collective humanity.

And how do we shift that power?

Malcolm X gave us a direction from the radical Black human rights tradition. He said you must be ready to pay the price required to experience full dignity as a person and as members of a self-determinant people.

And what is that price?

“The price to make others respect your human rights is death. You have to be ready to die… it’s time for you and me now to let the world know how peaceful we are, how well-meaning we are, how law-abiding we wish to be. But at the same time, we have to let the same world know we’ll blow their world sky-high if we’re not respected and recognized and treated the same as other human beings are treated.”

That outcome cannot be scripted by Hollywood or the state propagandists.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/04/ ... how-trial/
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:29 pm

Spirit of Self-Emancipation Continues to Rise at the St. Louis City Justice Center
Adofo Minka 15 Apr 2021

Image
Spirit of Self-Emancipation Continues to Rise at the St. Louis City Justice Center

Like Christ on the third day, detainees in St. Louis jails have risen to challenge state oppression.

“Apparently, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner fights racism by sustaining it, while presiding over the mass incarceration of hundreds of inmates, a majority of who are poor and Black.”

In the early morning hours of April 4, 2021, a day that many Christians recognized as Resurrection Sunday, detainees, at the St. Louis City Justice Center moved in the spirit of insurrection to challenge their oppressors and well documented repression at the jail. After the first major rebellion at the jail grabbed national attention on February 6, 2021, government bureaucrats in collaboration with “activists” of the social justice state scrambled to mystify what is really happening to detainees at the city’s jails through sham reports and pseudo-independent investigations.

The attempt to paper over the status quo of cruelty and inhumanity exacted on detainees in the aftermath of the February 6th jail uprising has proved unsuccessful. Detainees continue to show those who thought they had repressed their instincts toward self-emancipation wrong. Their continued desire to expose the barbarism masquerading as civilization that is the carceral state evinces that they have been resurrected. Indeed, like Christ on the third day, they have risen.

Barbarity Continues Unabated

True to form, St. Louis Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass continues to deny the legitimacy of detainees’ grievances claiming that they are not being mistreated. Such contentions come on the heels of recent reports that, Demeria Thomas, a former guard at the Justice Center allegedly orchestrated the vicious beating of a detainee that resulted in the man’s jaw being broken by two other inmates. I perennially received accounts of the savage treatment of detainees by jail officials in the aftermath of the February 6th jail uprising.

Detainees suspected of being involved in the February rebellion have been forbidden phone usage, medical treatment, showers, personal hygiene products, and legal documents pertaining to their pending cases. The 5th floor of the Justice Center was designated for administrative segregation (the hole). Those identified as participants in the rebellion were moved there, pepper sprayed, and brutalized for weeks.

Mayor Lyda Krewson’s Task Force employed to investigate conditions at the jail following the first major rebellion was refused access to investigate the 5th floor. This exposed how much a farce the body of misleaders tapped by the mayor were and that their task was to pacify, not ameliorate with respect to conditions at the jail.

Criminal Justice Power Brokers Bury Their Heads in the Sand

Those with arguably the most power in the criminal punishment system, prosecutors, have disregarded information detailing ongoing abuse at the jail at bond hearings. Individual Assistant Circuit Attorneys, in an effort that appeared to be coordinated from the office’s leadership due to its uniformity, declare that such information is mere hearsay. However, many of the State’s cases are predicated upon scuttlebutt alone and yet this is enough to keep the accused in cages.

Judges, when presented with inmates’ accounts regarding the conditions at the Justice Center, have asked for defense attorneys to present video and other information that can only be obtained through public information requests to the government that is notorious for stonewalling such requests. These same judges rarely question the state when cases come before them with flimsy or nonexistent evidence.

Kim Gardner: Opposer of Institutional Racism or Administrator of Institutional Racism?

In the wake of the detainee’s rebellion, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was one of the first public officials to proclaim that she was launching an “independent investigation” into what was happening at the jail. Since that time, she has appeared on 60 Minutes projecting her phantom fight against institutional racism in the hierarchy of the St. Louis Police Officer Association while presiding over the mass incarceration of hundreds of inmates, a majority of who are poor and Black.

Apparently, she fights racism by sustaining it. Her anti-racism is counterfeit and is primarily based on her social identity as a Black woman, not her deeds. Her office has yet to find any criminality among Black misleaders who orchestrate the abuse of inmates from their administrative posts. Instead she pretends to be fighting a white racial state as more Black people are elected to government posts in St. Louis. This should be odious to anyone with any ethics or values to speak of regardless of race.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Unrest at the City Justice Center

In the aftermath of both Justice Center insurrections that grabbed national media attention, bureaucrats have unceasingly pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a primary reason for the rumblings and angst at the jail. The pandemic was not the cause, but it certainly did not help ameliorate the existing conditions that ultimately led to the eruptions at the jail. Well before the pandemic, detainees have been warehoused for years at a time as they await trial. They have been denied basic necessities such as nutritious food, adequate recreation, and freedom from ruthless abuse. The pandemic merely aided in the peeling back of the band-aid placed over a gaping wound, exposing a gruesome and dismal reality.

Arriving on Our Own Authority, Bringing the New Society Closer

While Easter passed with the annual handing out of chocolates and references to bunnies, the counter-procession of the prisoners bearing their crosses as they are everlastingly maligned remind us what “the last week” was all about. Will the oppressed rise again from blood splattered degradation? Detainees have been left for dead and risen twice. When will people outside the prison rise?

Many organizations, institutions, and personalities claim to represent justice. Most are compensated to play charades that they are guardians of ordinary people as they contain our better instincts. When the prisoners move under great adversity, under grave consequences that imperial mayors, prosecutors, and judges are not even permitted to “discover,” we are reminded what is required as they lay more eggs. The further breaking up of the old world so we can arrive at a new beginning. That is what the Easter season truly promises.

No attempt to explain, evade, or excuse from those in hierarchical government will suppress the permanent slaughter that is ongoing at the jail. The efforts to paper over the depravity of the carceral state with recommendations from a phony task force sponsored by the government did not prevail this time. The self-emancipating activity of detainees has done more in two months to expose the bankruptcy of the municipal government than phony prison reform activists who speak of a “new Jim Crow” have done in a decade. When ordinary people arrive on their own authority the new society in embryo comes into sharper focus for those with vision.

Adofo Minka is a criminal defense attorney and St. Louis native. He can be reached at adofom1@gmail.com COMMENTS?

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:04 pm

Columbus, Ohio, police kill 16-year-old
Leif AutzenApril 21, 2021 95 2 minutes read

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Activists and community members gathered April 20 in Columbus, Ohio, to mourn the loss of another life at the hands of police. Merely 20 minutes before Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict was announced to the nation, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot four times in the chest by officer Nicholas Reardon of the Columbus Police Department. Bryant was Black, and she was in the care of Franklin County Children’s Services.

Columbus Police claim that officers were responding to a call about a young woman with a knife; witnesses on the scene say that Ma’Khia was being attacked and pulled out a knife to defend herself. In the state of Ohio, a weapons reform law was recently passed which legalized the carrying of knives, brass knuckles and other handheld weapons. Ohio also recently passed a “stand your ground” law which explicitly revokes any “duty to retreat” for a person who feels they are experiencing a legitimate threat to their physical safety. However nothing in the Columbus Police’s handling of this situation reflects either of those new laws.

Bodycam footage released after the incident shows that Officer Nick Reardon made no attempt to de-escalate the situation. He arrived on the scene, saw a physical altercation, shouted and fired four shots. Multiple witnesses on the scene also say that they heard officers shouting “Blue lives matter!“ after the shots were fired, in response to bystanders reproaching them for shooting a child. Bryant was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The murder of Ma’Khia Bryant is only the latest in a series of heinous killings perpetrated by the Columbus Police, closely following the shooting of Miles Jackson in an emergency room, as well as the killings of Andre Hill and Casey Goodson, Jr. This is also not the first time a child has been a victim of the Columbus Police; in 2016, Columbus Police officers killed 13-year-old Tyre King by shooting him in the back.

Community activists in Columbus were preparing to mobilize the city’s residents in response to the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, regardless of the result, but they were not expecting to be met so soon with another police killing. Kimberly Shepherd, a resident of the neighborhood where the shooting took place, said to the Associated Press, “We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that, because as you’re getting one phone call that he’s guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”

In addition to being the latest in a spree of deadly shootings committed by the Columbus Police, Bryant’s story exposes the hypocrisy of “stand your ground” legislation. Who has the right to stand their ground? Witnesses on the scene have reported that Ma’Khia Bryant was “standing her ground” against an attack. The State of Ohio, enforcing their “monopoly on violence” through the Columbus Police, seems to value the rights of white law enforcement to “stand their ground” against citizens over the rights of Black citizens to “stand their ground” against legitimate threats of physical harm.

This hypocrisy was exemplified by the militarized response of the Columbus Police, who gathered in riot gear to suppress the demonstration following the Chauvin trial. Protesters responded by moving the demonstration around the downtown area, occupying the intersection of Broad St. and High St.

“A guilty verdict doesn’t mean justice,” said a protester who wished to remain anonymous. “A guilty verdict didn’t stop them from murdering a child tonight. It’s not just Derek Chauvin. The whole system is guilty. They’re showing us that by the way they are treating us out here. They don’t know anything but violence.”

https://www.liberationnews.org/columbus ... -year-old/

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Police Break Equipment, Shoot, Beat, and Detain Press
By Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot April 20, 2021

Brooklyn Center, MN – Minnesota authorities were court-ordered to stop brutalizing the press in Brooklyn Center after an aggressive and violent week following the police killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Hours after Wright was killed, a swift and vast community responded to the killing. Shortly after gathering outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department protesters and press were attacked by police. In the week that followed, dozens of press had been shot by police with ‘less-lethal’ munitions, pepper sprayed, punched in the face, slammed on the concrete, and detained outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department (BCPD).

The night of Wednesday, April 14, police detained a Unicorn Riot (UR) reporter, the duo from The Neighborhood Reporter (TNR) and at least three other journalists who clearly identified themselves as press and had cameras in their hands.

After the short detainment and being forcibly photographed by authorities, UR and TNR found their microphones were thrown to the side and broken by the police.

Two days before the equipment-breaking featured in the video above, video journalist Mark Vancleave was forced to have surgery after being shot in the hand with a police munition.

The next night (the night before being detained) on Humboldt Ave. N., Unicorn Riot reporter Niko was deliberately shot in the leg by police with a white chalk 40mm CS marker round as police moved up the block.


During the first nights of police aggression, declarations spoken into a long range acoustic device (LRAD) included threats to the media that they must leave or face arrest. The litany of attacks on press led journalist Jared Goyette to file a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order on the police. United States District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright granted the order, barring authorities from arresting and brutalizing press for 14 days.


After no arrests or brutality on Thursday, Friday night featured a kettle and mass arrest of 134 people on Humboldt Ave. N. near the BCPD. Dozens of press were told to lay on the ground and were held at gunpoint before having their press credentials checked and their badges and faces pictured by the police. This was all despite the restraining order.

Image

That Friday night, photojournalist Tim Evans was attacked by a Minnesota State Trooper. During the police rush, Evans said a trooper punched him in the face, threw his press badge to the side and slammed his head on the ground before detaining him.


Along with this reality of police attacking the press is the racial dynamics at play. A large majority of the press are white and male. Yet, when press of other ethno-linguistic backgrounds were detained last week, they faced racist practices in the process.


The same night that UR reporter Niko was shot while live streaming, Carolyn Sung, an Asian-American CNN producer was arrested and brought to the Hennepin County jail where she was processed. Sung was asked by a MN State Trooper, “Do you speak English?“


Over the weekend, media representatives met with authorities and presented a letter on the “treatment of journalists by law enforcement officers” addressed to Governor Tim Walz, Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, State Patrol Chief Colonel Matt Langer, and Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell. Numerous other instances of attacking the press are listed in the letter.

As the unified command of the ‘Operation Safety Net’ task force escapes culpability and consequences for their violent and unconstitutional actions, they’ve stated individual agencies are “investigating” wrong doing by their officers.

https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/police-b ... ain-press/

Screenshots and video at link.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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