WelcomeTo My World
Monday, 31 March 2014
I'm like, 'Hell no!'
Death row inmate John Thompson confronts a proposed shift in legal strategy aimed at saving his life. What you're up against' A first-time meeting between death row inmate John Thompson and his appellate lawyers yields mutual skepticism. Final death warrant Death row inmate John Thompson describes his reaction after Louisiana set his official execution date.
Waikiki Child/Teen Protective Law Campaign, April 1-19, 2014
Join The Hitting Stops Here! and AZ Op! in Waikiki and downtown Honolulu locations during a 19-day, 24/7 campaign for preserving "legislative protective needs" of citizens under 18 beginning, April 1-19, 2014 (http://youtu.be/D6JwEgEHoS8).
Two main purposes:
To raise awareness of the 19 US states where American educators (US government-funded employees) may beat and sexually assault (www.christianpost.com/news/8th-grader-s
To have USA/UK Child Protective Services (CPS) "legalized-kidnappings" exposed, abolished and replaced with authentic services for protecting needy children, teens and infants.
Are you a parent? Guardian? Concerned citizen?
Today's citizens under 18 are counting on your taking responsible actions that will preserve their human and civil rights. Let us not leave them behind in a world that is insufferable and where they are powerless to effectively seek life, liberty and happiness in their adult years.
Apathy, indifference and complacency regarding "legislative protective needs" of citizens under 18 within adults surrounding this class of citizens, are their greatest enemies.
Learn more and how to help: SafeChildEnvironmentS@gmail.com, 800.515.9216, www.TheHittingStopsHere.com
Sunday, 30 March 2014
ABDULLAH MAJID IS IN THE HOLE! YOUR CALLS ARE URGENT!
URGENT MEDICAL CAMPAIGN FOR PP ABDULLAH MAJID
PP/POW Abdullah Majid is in need of our help. Months ago we reported that he was experiencing excruciating pain from an attack of sciatica. He was scheduled to have back surgery in October of 2013, and was instructed to stop taking the ibuprofen medication he was using to alleviate some of the pain. During this time, the only remedy provided has been a too short cane given to him by the prison doctor, making it difficult for him to walk or lean on.
When the surgery was first postponed, Majid was told it was because he needed to have some pre-op medical tests. Those tests were performed, and he has seen a cardiologist and the doctor who is to perform the surgery.
As the days and months go by, his 90 year old Mother, Mrs. LaBorde, becomes more and more anxious and frustrated by the DOCCS lack of response to her concerns.
In addition, we just found out on Friday, March 28th, that Majid has been put in the SHU due to unfounded allegations against him by the DOCCS Muslim chaplain.
We ask you to contact DOCCS, the Superintendent at Elmira and Governor Andrew Cuomo to express your concerns about the continued negligence and disregard for Abdul Majid's health and medical well-being and to demand that he be released from SHU and that the surgery take place as soon as possible. Please be sure to give his name and DIN #: Abdullah Majid, DIN # 83-A-0483 when you call or write.
Dr. Carl J. Koenigsmann, Deputy Commissioner/Chief Medical Officer
DOCCS Division of Health Services
Harriman State Campus--Building #2
1220 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12226-2050
518-457-7073
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
518-474-8390
Superintendent Paul Chappius
Elmira Correctional Facility
607-734-3901
Let us know what kind of response you receive.
Retaliation Measures Taken at Texas Detention Facility as Detainees Resume Hunger Strike in Tacoma
Friday, 28 March 2014 09:46 By Candice Bernd, Truthout
Family members of detainees on hunger strike at the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have retaliated against three detainees they believe to be "leaders" of the ongoing peaceful protest by isolating and shackling them and scheduling another for deportation.
Truthout reported on a hunger strike at a privately run GEO Group immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington, that inspired a similar strike at the Conroe facility, also owned by the GEO Group, last week. Since then, the hunger strike at the Tacoma detention center has resumed and instances of retaliation at both facilities are apparent.
The wife of one detainee at the Joe Corley Detention Facility says her husband, Rubén Rodriguez Bonilla, phoned her Tuesday morning with news of ICE plans to deport him to Honduras on Thursday.
"They're trying to disappear my husband," Sandra Bonilla said in a translated statement released by the grassroots Houston group Alianza Mexicana. "Instead of treating the detainees like human beings they want to treat them like animals. And if they ask for better, they try to get rid of them. My husband should be home with our family, not in detention. He doesn't want to be treated like a dog, and so they're punishing him even more. There's nothing humane about that."
According to family members, lawyers and immigrant justice groups working on their behalf, another three men have been isolated at the Texas facility, and shackled at the ankles, wrists and connected by the waist to steel beds with no blankets or pillows.
ICE officials did not publicly acknowledge a hunger strike at the Texas facility last week, despite two letters outlining a list of demands released by detainees who have since been isolated at the facility.
This week, Houston ICE spokesman Greg Palmore acknowledged that at least three detainees are participating in a hunger strike, saying the men "have been separated from the general population and placed under medical observation." Palmore told Truthout that no punitive actions have been taken against individuals who are participating in the protest.
He confirmed to Truthout that Rodriguez Bonilla was not scheduled for deportation Thursday and that his case is going through appeal. But Palmore said ICE does not provide "removal information for detainees for security reasons." Palmore did not confirm whether ICE officials would force-feed detainees.
But detainees and others who have visited the facility have told Truthout retaliatory measures are being taken at the Texas facility.
Rodriguez Bonilla told his wife that he has not been isolated but was put into a smaller cell with other detainees, some of whom are on hunger strike. He told her four detainees have been removed from his cell this week; he believes them to have been deported. He has also alleged that detention facility officials have attempted to coerce the detainees into signing voluntary departure forms to speed their deportation.
The current number of hunger-striking detainees is difficult to confirm this week because visitation with civilians has been limited since detainees launched the hunger strike last Monday. At one point, at least 120 men were on hunger strike at the Texas facility, but the detainees have been separated from each other, according to family members, and put into smaller group cells, making the number of hunger strikers difficult to confirm.
"Joe Corley detention center is shut down like Fort Knox," said Hope Sanford, who organizes with Alianza Mexicana. "It's … opaque. That's how [prison officials] are keeping it."
Sanford and family members told Truthout that prison guards purposely unshackle the detainees who have been isolated when any visitors approach. The three isolated detainees are allowed only one visit per week.
Tacoma Strikers Negotiate, Inspire Legislative Action
Meanwhile at least 70 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center have resumed hunger striking Monday, but exact numbers remain difficult to assess. Retaliatory measures also may have been used against detainees at the Tacoma facility, such as placing some detainees in solitary confinement and threatening to force-feed them, according to immigration rights activists working with and visiting the detainees in Tacoma.
Organizer Maru Mora Villalpando told Truthout that prison guards at the Tacoma detention center have been listening in on the detainees' conversations and that the detainees have responded to by finding more "creative" ways to communicate.
Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat from Bellevue, among other representatives, visited the Northwest Dentention Center last week after news of the detainees' massive hunger strike made national headlines. Smith met with three detainees and agreed with the men that their concerns about the center's conditions were valid. Smith plans to introduce legislation that would create minimum standards by which immigrants can be detained.
"It is really problematic having a private company running this," Smith told The Stranger, emphasizing that the GEO Group contracts out the handling of meals for detainees to third parties. "So I can imagine that the less they pay for the food, the more money they make."
Immigrant rights activists acted on behalf of Tacoma hunger-striking detainees during negotiations with ICE officials in Seattle on Friday, presenting the detainees' list of demands. Organizers said ICE officials invited organizations that had nothing to do with negotiations, and that one group declined the invitation for this reason.
ICE officials told the group that the Tacoma facility is one of the top detention centers in the country. "If that's true, then it tells me the rest of the country is in terrible, terrible shape," Villalpando told Truthout in response.
When negotiating over the detainees' food concerns, ICE officials offered to provide the detainees chicken with bones. When Villalpando took that information back to hunger striking detainees, one detainee told her that ICE's response was "literally just throwing a bone at [detainees] to make them quiet."
ICE officials also told the group that the detainees' personal anecdotes about medical care at the facility were not enough evidence to agree to any of their demands concerning adequate care.
But perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the negotiation process was the discussion concerning the center's profit margins, the length of time it takes for detainees to be released and the rate of bond at the center.
"One thing that we learned is that because we have a detention center here, really, it's a priority to fill up that place and not to offer alternatives to detention," Villapando said. "It really means that if we didn't have these private detention centers here, people would be more likely out with their families in their homes with alternatives to detention, going through civil proceedings."
ICE hasn't yet followed up with the group concerning the negotiations, but the group did provide a report about their meeting to Congressional representatives.
Pressure Mounts for Immigration Reform Vote, Halt to Deportations
The hunger strikes at the privatized detention facilities continue this week as immigrant justice organizers increase pressure on the Obama administration to put an immediate halt to deportation and to pass immigration reform legislation through a range of tactics, including nonviolent civil disobedience.
Protests have erupted this week at the GEO Group's headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as at ICE's headquarters in Portland, Oregon. And on Monday, seven activists with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice were arrested while blocking the entrance of the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, with two undocumented immigrants among them.
Another group, Presente.org, launched a new campaign Wednesday aimed at Obama's immigration legacy. Several regional and national immigrant-rights groups have worked together to unveil the "Obama Legacy Project." The groups hope the campaign will hold Obama accountable by providing a comprehensive account of his immigration record, saying he risks becoming "the worst president in history on immigration."
The projects looks at Obama's record on a long list of issues such as deportation, border militarization, mass incarceration of undocumented immigrants, racial profiling policies, hate crimes, the Secure Communities program, the experiences of immigrant women in detention centers and oversight of border patrol, among others.
"It is a tipping point for the president," said Jesús Iñiguez, a campaigner with Presente.org who is openly undocumented. "He can either be remembered as deporter-in-chief, the worst president in history on immigration, responsible for the record deportations that have ripped hundreds of thousands of families apart, or he can choose to act."
House Democrats tried once again Wednesday to force a vote on immigration reform legislation with a rarely used procedural maneuver called a discharge petition that would circumvent the Republican majority and skirt the regular committee process to bring the legislation to the floor. The move has been called a long shot and is designed mostly to put pressure on House Republicans to act on a reform package before the year's end, according to The New York Times.
"I applaud the efforts of Democrats in the House to give immigration reform the yes or no vote it deserves," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "Like the Senate bill, the House bill would strengthen our borders, modernize our legal immigration system, and keep more families together. It would make sure everyone plays by the same rules by providing a pathway to earned citizenship for those who are living in the shadows."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reaffirmed Tuesday that the House immigration reform package, which is very similar to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act that passed out of committee in the Senate, would reduce the federal deficit by about $900 billion over 20 years.
The move comes after Obama, citing concern about family separation, called for a review of his administration's immigration-enforcement policies this month, to look into whether enforcement could be accomplished "more humanely within the confines of the law."
Iñiguez, though, says that these statements - unaccompanied by action - are not enough.
"The debates happening in Congress seems to be more theatric between both political parties than they are constructive. Meanwhile, immigrants continue to suffer on a daily basis because President Obama has strayed from providing any kind of relief by using his executive authority," Iñiguez said.
--
Freedom Archives
Freedom Archives
"Our Only Hope Will Come Through Rebellion"
Chris Hedges speaks on 3/29/2014 at the "One Nation Under Surveillance" civil liberties conference at CCSU in CT. He's introduced by Mongi Dhaouadi, Executive Director of CAIR-CT. Hedges was one of he plaintiffs in a suit against the government "indefinite detention" policy.
He's a former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times
He's written "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt", "What Every Person Should Know About War", "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning", and other books.
He's a columnist at Truthdig.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedges_v... give some of the description of the lawsuit.
Saturday, 29 March 2014
The blind and ignorant leading the blind and ignorant.
Sunday 30 March 2014. The blind and ignorant leading the blind and ignorant.
Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs, the text for your own letter.
Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.
Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona. Not to be missed.
http://
Dear Mr Cameron,
Overheard in McDonald's yesterday:
Adult woman: 'I'll have a happy meal cos I want a toy.'
Friend: 'They're doing the Mario characters.'
Adult woman: 'Ooh, they're nothing like the real thing.'
The circumstances that led me to be present at this 'event' aside, my immediate thought was, 'Shoot me now!' That was a lot more than just a passing flippant thought.
I share this only to highlight that you and your party are not alone in being so cut off from any semblance of reality that people are driven to just give up in the face of madness. This exemplifies, however, the votes you are after with Osborne's beer and bingo budget, the blind and ignorant leading the blind and ignorant. The only differences being that you know that you can get extraordinarily rich on the ignorance of those who are blind enough vote for you and that you despise them.
Similarly, 19 year old asylum Yashika Bageerathi can be separated from her family, imprisoned and deported alone, separated from her family, on Mother's Day, only because of the monumental blindness and ignorance of a whole series of human beings, from the top down, who are utterly divorced from anything resembling humanity or engaging with a humane reality.
Fortunately, those of us who have managed to develop a grown up sense of justice, caring, thoughtfulness and consideration have been calling Air Mauritius, the airline who have been booked to fly Yashika out of the country, to protest, only to receive the satisfying message, 'Lines are busy, please try later.' I am happy to report that I have still not managed to get through.
Yashika is a hard working student and is supported in her devastating circumstances by her school. Yashika's head teacher, Lynne Dawes, accompanied students to the Mauritian High Commission to ask Air Mauritius not to allow Yashika to leave on the flight. On the other hand, Home Secretary, Theresa May, has announced it would not be appropriate to "interfere" with 'the case'. Of course, had Yashika's family been wealthy it is certain that a different response would have been forthcoming from May because that is the kind of puerile, shallow, people you are, for whom money speaks louder than conscience.
People matter, Mr Cameron, we might not matter to you, but we matter and that is why none of today's MPs, with very few exceptions, are fit to hold office.
http://
http://www.sodiumhaze.org/
Parents go hungry to feed children. UK Welcome to Tory Britain
Parents go hungry to feed children. UK Welcome to Tory Britain
Yashika Bageerathi 'will be deported without family on Mother's Day' Keep calling...
Yashika Bageerathi 'will be deported without family on Mother's Day' on an Air Mauritius flight at 5pm.
Air Mauritius - 0207 434 4375 'Sorry, all the lines are currently busy.'
Keep calling...
Keith Ordinary Guy's
#FightForYashika Stop this sixth form student being deported alone. She deserves a future!
Please sign please share
Enfield A-level student to be deported to Mauritius 'alone'
An A-level student has been told she will be deported to her native Mauritius without her family on Sunday.
Stop the deportation of Yashika
Stop the deportation of Yashika
4pm Parliament today
Heathrow Terminal 4 Tomorrow
The artist taxi driver
Yashika Bageerathi 'will be deported without family on Mother's Day' on an Air Mauritius flight at 5pm.
Air Mauritius - 0207 434 4375 'Sorry, all the lines are currently busy.'
Keep calling...
Friday, 28 March 2014
Corporate greed and redundant, surplus, humanity.
A letter a day to number 10. No 696.
Saturday 29 March 2014. Corporate greed and redundant, surplus, humanity.
Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs, the text for your own letter.
Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.
Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona. Not to be missed.
http://
Dear Mr Cameron,
Resources and population growth go hand in glove and the rise of the fossil fuel age has resulted in a similar rise in population. Actually both, on the Earth's timeline, represent explosions rather than mere rises.
In the halcyon days when it was presumed that natural resources would last a relatively long time with no end in sight, consuming was enthusiastically and aggressively encouraged and pursued, with America coming to dominate the world in an ever increasing hunger for, and exploitation of, resources.
Such was the explosive growth in the exploitation of natural resources that the time scale of their presumed availability has shrunken from thousands of years, to hundreds, to, currently, mere decades and it's still shrinking.
Cue a pretty vast number of problems that are pivotal in the fast approaching, and inevitable, future, two of which I would like to comment on in which the first impacts the second. Resource exploitation has led to the polarisation of wealth in the, self serving, explosive rise of corporations hungry for profits which are doing everything in their power to maintain business as usual. That has led to a head to head conflict with the needs of humanity which is being treated as having reached a surplus in so far a production and profit is concerned.
One way or another it looks as though population reduction is inevitable as resources go into free fall. How that reduction is handled is one of the major issues we are facing today.
You, your government and most MPs have chosen to align yourselves with the profit hungry resource grabbers with little or no regard for, and active hostility towards, the plight of ordinary people and, indeed, the entire planet.
Working towards the future is something that we should all be facing together but to treat ordinary people as hostiles in the continuing apocalyptic resource grabbing of the few is as unforgivable as it is ultimately stupid and self defeating. Put mutually assured destruction on the balance sheet and see how good your investment portfolio looks then.
https://physics.ucsd.edu/
— in Peasedown Saint John.
Saturday 29 March 2014. Corporate greed and redundant, surplus, humanity.
Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs, the text for your own letter.
Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.
Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona. Not to be missed.
http://
Dear Mr Cameron,
Resources and population growth go hand in glove and the rise of the fossil fuel age has resulted in a similar rise in population. Actually both, on the Earth's timeline, represent explosions rather than mere rises.
In the halcyon days when it was presumed that natural resources would last a relatively long time with no end in sight, consuming was enthusiastically and aggressively encouraged and pursued, with America coming to dominate the world in an ever increasing hunger for, and exploitation of, resources.
Such was the explosive growth in the exploitation of natural resources that the time scale of their presumed availability has shrunken from thousands of years, to hundreds, to, currently, mere decades and it's still shrinking.
Cue a pretty vast number of problems that are pivotal in the fast approaching, and inevitable, future, two of which I would like to comment on in which the first impacts the second. Resource exploitation has led to the polarisation of wealth in the, self serving, explosive rise of corporations hungry for profits which are doing everything in their power to maintain business as usual. That has led to a head to head conflict with the needs of humanity which is being treated as having reached a surplus in so far a production and profit is concerned.
One way or another it looks as though population reduction is inevitable as resources go into free fall. How that reduction is handled is one of the major issues we are facing today.
You, your government and most MPs have chosen to align yourselves with the profit hungry resource grabbers with little or no regard for, and active hostility towards, the plight of ordinary people and, indeed, the entire planet.
Working towards the future is something that we should all be facing together but to treat ordinary people as hostiles in the continuing apocalyptic resource grabbing of the few is as unforgivable as it is ultimately stupid and self defeating. Put mutually assured destruction on the balance sheet and see how good your investment portfolio looks then.
https://physics.ucsd.edu/
Is There Hope for the Survivors of the Drug Wars?
But when he was released, returning to a compact corner of the unfinished basement of his girl’s mom’s house in West Baltimore, he turned it into a cell: bed, TV, weight bench, stacks and rows of books, DVDs, and video games, accumulating dust and teenage-boy-bedroom smell. He rarely left. When he did, he was jumpy. He was no fun at parties. “It seemed like when he came home, he was still locked up,” says his childhood friend Kendall Wilson. “It seemed like he was still in jail for a long time, just in the basement.”
Travis is 32. He’s short, at five feet six, but broad and muscular. He keeps his hair shaved close to his head and maintains a slim goatee. He has a way of sitting with his legs splayed and his head hanging slightly forward but his eyes looking up and his mouth unsmiling—half-relaxed and half-tensed. Around new people, he’s shy and suspicious that they’re talking about him behind his back, but he can be funny, too, and draw a crowd around him. In the basement, Travis spent a lot of time reading, as he had in prison ( Black Boy, Native Son, books about Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela). He binge-watched premium cable. The Wire. (“It was sad how Dukie ended up being a fiend.”) The new show that the guy who played Omar, Michael K. Williams, is in. (“I like him better on Boardwalk Empire.”) Game of Thrones. (“Khaleesi, she shaped herself up toward the end. She turned out to be a real force. When she freeing slaves you know I always get behind that. I ain’t like her at first; I fucks with her now.”) He played a lot of video games with his girl, Joyce Fisher, and a few other friends who’d stop by. Travis especially liked Call of Duty. He’d always wanted to be a Marine, but when he’d finally caught the charge that sent him to prison in Hagerstown, Maryland—police found vials of cocaine in his house—he’d given up on that. Just like he had on everything else.
When his stepdad left after two years of marriage to his mom, Travis was 14. They’d done father-and-son things like go fishing together on weekends and been close in a way he never was with his own dad, who was in the Navy and had never lived with him. His stepdad’s absence fed Travis’s teenage rebelliousness. He dropped out of school his junior year. His mom blames his attention deficit disorder, which was diagnosed when Travis was 12. (“Did she talk about the ADD?” he asked me one day and shook his head. “She always brings up that ADD.”) But Travis says he just acted out. He’d been a Boy Scout and his mom was a teacher, and he wanted to fit in. “Nobody likes a church boy,” he says.
Travis grew up in the same West Baltimore neighborhood where he now lives with Joyce, who is ten years his senior. It’s the kind of place where a walk to the 7-Eleven could get him robbed and where everyone is hustling all the time. People talk about the 1980s as the good days, when guys in the neighborhood could do well for themselves, when crack and heroin pumped money through the streets and gave neighborhoods an economy of their own; now, there is just violence, little money, and a lot of prison.
NYC, Tuesday, April 1st - Letter-writing to California Political Prisoners
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
WHERE: CAGE – 83A Hester Street (UPSTAIRS) New York, New York 10002 (directions below)
COST: Free
Oh, no, guys! Chris Brown says being in jail is like being a caged animal. Maybe the revelation of a millionaire pop star will shed light on the realities faced by about 1.5 million other prisoners in the United States. Maybe it will lead his legion of fans to call for the abolition of prisons! Or, in all likelihood, it will simply cause logistic problemsfor court cops at his next appearance date. If nothing else, jailing a pop star exposes more folks to just how shitty imprisonment really is. And that’s where NYC ABC comes in. With our every-other-week letter-writing dinners, we try to remind our comrades that no matter how awful their conditions, they have support on the outside. This week we are writing to three prisoners in California– Chip Fitzgerald, Ruchell “Cinque” Magee, and Hugo “Yogi” Pinell.
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
WHERE: CAGE – 83A Hester Street (UPSTAIRS) New York, New York 10002 (directions below)
COST: Free
Oh, no, guys! Chris Brown says being in jail is like being a caged animal. Maybe the revelation of a millionaire pop star will shed light on the realities faced by about 1.5 million other prisoners in the United States. Maybe it will lead his legion of fans to call for the abolition of prisons! Or, in all likelihood, it will simply cause logistic problemsfor court cops at his next appearance date. If nothing else, jailing a pop star exposes more folks to just how shitty imprisonment really is. And that’s where NYC ABC comes in. With our every-other-week letter-writing dinners, we try to remind our comrades that no matter how awful their conditions, they have support on the outside. This week we are writing to three prisoners in California– Chip Fitzgerald, Ruchell “Cinque” Magee, and Hugo “Yogi” Pinell.
Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, born and raised in Compton, California, joined the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in early 1969 as a teenager who had just been released from the California Youth Authority. In September of that year, as a dedicated member of the Party, Chip was arrested in connection with a police shoot-out and tried for assault on police and related charges, including the murder of a security guard. He was sentenced to death.
Commonly regarded as the longest held political prisoner in the U.S., Ruchell Magee has been imprisoned since 1963. He was politicized in prison and participated in the August 7, 1970 Marin County Courthouse Rebellion— the attempted liberation of political prisoner George Jackson and the Soledad Brothers by Jackson’s younger brother Jonathan. Magee was seriously injured in the incident and subsequently pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced in 1975 to life in prison and has been denied parole numerous times.
While Hugo Pinell was imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison he made contact with revolutionary prisoners such as George Jackson, one of the Soledad Brothers and W.L. Nolen. On August 21, 1971, there was a prisoner uprising in Pinell’s housing unit at San Quentin, led by George Jackson. On August 21, 1971, Jackson used a pistol to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. At the end of the roughly 30 minute rebellion, guards had killed George Jackson, and two other prisoners and three guards were dead. Of the remaining prisoners in the unit, six of them, including Pinell, were put on trial for murder and conspiracy. They were known as The San Quentin Six. Three of them were acquitted of all charges, and three were found guilty of various charges. Pinell was convicted of assault on a guard. Although Pinell was convicted of assault, and another of the San Quentin Six had a murder conviction, only Pinell remains imprisoned.
In the unlikely event that there is a better use of your Tuesday night, but you still want to support the prisoners (or want to send these three a book) you can write to them at:
Romaine Fitzgerald* #B27527
Kern Valley State Prison
Post Office Box 5104
Delano, California 93216
*Address card to Chip
Kern Valley State Prison
Post Office Box 5104
Delano, California 93216
*Address card to Chip
Ruchell Magee* #A92051
California State Prison – Los Angeles County
Post Office Box 8457
Lancaster, California 93539-8457
*Address card to Cinque
California State Prison – Los Angeles County
Post Office Box 8457
Lancaster, California 93539-8457
*Address card to Cinque
Hugo Pinell* #A88401
California State Prison – Sacramento
Post Office Box 290066
Represa, California 95671
*Address card to Yogi Bear
California State Prison – Sacramento
Post Office Box 290066
Represa, California 95671
*Address card to Yogi Bear
The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with a delicious vegan meal, information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the PP/POW Birthday Calendar.
DIRECTIONS:
Getting to CAGE is simple:
From the J/M/Z:
Essex Street Stop: Walk west on Delancey Street (toward Essex Street, away from Norfolk Street) and make a left on Essex Street. Walk three blocks and turn right onto Hester Street. We’re two and a half blocks down, on the right.
Getting to CAGE is simple:
From the J/M/Z:
Essex Street Stop: Walk west on Delancey Street (toward Essex Street, away from Norfolk Street) and make a left on Essex Street. Walk three blocks and turn right onto Hester Street. We’re two and a half blocks down, on the right.
From the F:
East Broadway Stop: Walk north on Rutgers Street (toward East Broadway, away from Henry Street), that becomes Essex Street, and turn left on Hester Street. We’re two and a half blocks down, on the right.
East Broadway Stop: Walk north on Rutgers Street (toward East Broadway, away from Henry Street), that becomes Essex Street, and turn left on Hester Street. We’re two and a half blocks down, on the right.
From the B/D:
Grand Street Stop: Walk east on Grand Street (Toward Forsyth Street, away from Chrystie Street) and turn right on Orchard Street. Walk one block and turn right onto Hester Street. We’re a few storefronts down on the right.
Grand Street Stop: Walk east on Grand Street (Toward Forsyth Street, away from Chrystie Street) and turn right on Orchard Street. Walk one block and turn right onto Hester Street. We’re a few storefronts down on the right.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise, we’ll see you at supper.
Post Office Box 110034
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Brooklyn, New York 11211
nycabc[at]riseup[dot]net
http://nycabc.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/nycabc
http://twitter.com/nycabc
http://www.abcf.net/nyc
http://nycabc.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/nycabc
http://twitter.com/nycabc
http://www.abcf.net/nyc
Free all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War!
For the Abolition of State Repression and Domination!
For the Abolition of State Repression and Domination!
As Hunger Strike Enters 21st day, Detained Army Veteran Put in Solitary Confinement for Suggesting Work Stoppage in Addition to Hunger Strike
Tacoma, WA – As the hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center enters its 21st day, Hassall Moses, detained immigrant and U.S. army veteran, faced swift retaliation after suggesting hunger striking detainees add a work stoppage to their peaceful protest. Attorneys visiting hunger strikers were informed that Mr. Moses had been pulled from the general population after attempting to print a letter calling for a work stoppage. Audio of Mr. Moses explaining being placed in solitary confinement has been obtained and is available upon request.
In the recording made on March 26th, Mr. Moses states he is in solitary confinement “Because I tried to type up a letter making a work stop protest.” He explains, “I got put into segregation last night. I printed out a letter asking my fellow detainees to come together as one people, united.” He goes on to describe how his letter was intercepted by a GEO employee, who “called the Sergeant and they put me in segregation.” He describes his reasons for calling for a work stoppage, stating, “Basically this facility is run by the detainees, and that if everybody stopped working, we could
negotiate the pay raise, because right now everybody is working for a dollar. We could talk about the quality of the food, the living
conditions.” He explains that he has been detained for 21 months,
fighting his deportation without legal representation, and is “just
trying to do this for my kids.” Between 80% and 90% of those detained at the Northwest Detention Center navigate their deportation cases before the Immigration Court without legal counsel.
Dozens of individuals continue on hunger strike in the Northwest Detention Center. They remain committed to their demands for improved detention conditions and a moratorium on deportations, and are calling for their release to their families and communities. At the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, where detained immigrants last week began a hunger strike of their own, ACLU attorneys were denied access to hunger strikers yesterday, and concerns over ICE’s retaliation continue to grow. Both hunger strikers and outside supporters are gearing up for the April 5th
national day of action to mark two million deportations under the Obama Administration, with a large rally planned that day outside the gates of the Tacoma facility.
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Freedom Archives
Freedom Archives
After Decades On Death Row, Inmate Finally Gets A Chance At Justice
"A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the release and a retrial of an ageing prisoner accused of murder who served on death row for over 30 years, amid doubts about the evidence used to convict him.
Japan and the United States are the only two Group of Seven rich nations to maintain capital punishment and the death penalty has overwhelming support among ordinary Japanese.
Capital punishment is carried out by hanging and prisoners do not know the date until the morning of the day they are executed."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
*Read more here from Elaine Lies / Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/0...
Thursday, 27 March 2014
Blood in my pen
by Cornelius Harris
My pen cutting wounds into the surface, forming letters, creating words that express my existence.
Wounds that never seem to heal because they are real testaments to who I am, where I come from, and what I been through.
George Jackson, author of the posthumous collection of his letters titled “Blood in My Eye”
However, when time does heal these wounds – because these wounds will ameliorate – you will be forced to look at those scars and fear the reprisal of the political monster you created.
Hiding my scars by forcing me into solitary sequester, away from the inquisitive eyes of society, only corroborates your barbaric nature and prolongs your trial date.
With every stroke of this pen my blood flows profusely, racing to record my pain that will one day be used as evidence against my tormentors.
Who is really the criminal? Me and my ancestors who was kidnapped and brought to this bellicose foreign land? Don’t want to talk about that though, huh?
Locked in solitary confinement, fighting a war that’s within myself.
Never quitting on myself even when those around me have done just that. I’m believing in myself.
Reality is present at all times while surrounded by nonsense and men with small minds.
Gotta be careful not to shed too many tears, though; you would surely drown in such small confines.
In solitude, strength is a luxury and not all men are capable of being strong.
Every day will test your strength and you will lose your grip and fall if you don’t hold on.
Gotta hold on even when you don’t know if the struggle will ever end.
I’m holding on to the smallest things, because I see the blood and I know that it’s life in this pen.
Send our brother some love and light: Cornelius Harris, 420151, NBCI, 14100 McMullen Highway SW, http://sfbayview.com/2014/blood-in-my-pen/?prsrc=3Cumberland, MD 21502.
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