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WorkingWorki ng t too E Extendxt end D Democracyemocracy t too All  VolumeVlVolume 4 4N4,, NNumberum ber 2 FebruaryFebruary 20152201015

CA’ S SAVAGE PRISON SYSTEM An End to Solitary is Long Overdue By Marie Levin emerging: project the appearance of a re- prisons, and to stifl e the intellectual and po- ess than two weeks ago the United forming system while extending its reach, litical education and organizing of prison- Nations Committee against Torture and restrict the ability of prisoners and their ers themselves. Lissued a report strongly criticiz- loved ones to organize for their rights. A third element of CDCR’s strategy ing the U.S. record on a number of issues, First, the CDCR has instituted a “Step of containment is the implementation of among them the extensive use of solitary Down Program” ostensibly to create a highly intimidating visiting procedures de- confi nement. While the U.S. uses long- pathway out of indefi nite solitary. How- signed to keep family members away from term solitary more than any other country ever, the program actually widens the net their loved ones. Draconian new visiting in the world, California uses it more than of who can be considered a threat and regulations authorize the use of dogs and any other state. It’s one of the few places therefore eligible for placement in soli- electronic drug detectors to indiscrimi- in the world where someone can be held tary. Recently adopted regulations replace nately search visitors for contraband, even indefi nitely in solitary. This practice is the old language of “gang” with “Security though both methods are notoriously unre- designed to break the human spirit and is Threat Group” (STG) and the previous list liable. These procedures effectively crimi- condemned as a form of torture under in- of a dozen identifi ed gangs is now replaced nalize family members and deter them from ternational law. with a dizzying list of over 1500 STGs. visiting, especially in a period of a growing Despite these repeated condemnations Under these new regulations, even family family-led movement against solitary. by the U.N., the California Department of members and others outside the prisons can The three new policies are also intended Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is be designated as part of an STG. Given the to extend CDCR’s reach beyond the prison harshening rather than easing its policies, fact that indefi nite solitary is used dispro- walls. As an organizer and family member currently with three new sets of regulations. portionately against people of color – in of a prisoner, I’m censored when sending The administration’s iron-fi sted strategy is Pelican Bay, 85% of those in isolation are letters to my brother, Sitawa N. Jamaa, Latino – the language used to justify place- subjected to gratuitous and intimidating ment in solitary eerily mirrors the rhetoric searches during visits, and susceptible to CONTENTS of the federal government and its perma- being labeled an STG associate. These are nent state of war against its declared en- all ways that CDCR is trying to keep me CA's Savage Prison System ....1 emies, all of whom are people of color. from knowing how my brother and others Immunity to Kill...... 2 The CDCR promulgated a second set are doing, and to repress my organizing. of rule changes last summer with sweep- Taken individually, these regulations Death for a Cigarette...... 2 ing new “obscenity” regulations governing may seem to address unrelated issues. But mail going both in and out of prisons. The given they are all coming down simultane- Police State ...... 3 original proposal was to explicitly ban any ously – just a year after the last of a series “publications that indicate an association of historic hunger strikes by people in Cali- Editorial 4-2 ...... 4 with groups that are oppositional to author- fornia prisons has given rise to the highest ity and society,” yet after coming under level of self-organization and empower- Hands Up - Don't Shoot ...... 6 heavy criticism, CDCR decided to mask ment among imprisoned people since the its Orwellian motives by hiding behind the 1970s – these regulations are nothing less Better to Kill than Imprison...... 7 above mentioned language of STGs. This than a systematic attempt to silence and Rotten Apple Broken Window ..7 ominous language violates First Amend- retaliate against prisoners’ growing resis- ment rights, and reveals a broader agenda: tance. Over 30,000 prisoners participated Uncle Sam's Big Top ...... 9 to censor writings that educate the public in 2013’s strike, some for 60 days, risking about what is actually occurring inside the their health and lives for an end to indefi - nite solitary. Prisoners’ family members and loved ones also took up leadership IMMUNITY TO KILL DEATH, FOR A roles in political organizing in unprece- By Lorenzo Johnson CIGARETTE! dented ways. The movement to abolish sol- t’s not a coincidence that minorities By Mumia Abu-Jamal itary continues to gain momentum around are being killed by police at an alarm- he name Eric Garner is now en- the country. Iing rate. Simply no regard for Human shrined in the grim annals of history. The hunger strikes were a signifi cant part Rights! By not having safeguards in place, It joins Mike Brown, Rahmarley of an ongoing national sea change regard- when an unarmed person is killed this gives T Graham, Alan Blueford, Dontre Hamilton, ing the use of solitary, as states are waking the police the okay to continue to kill. The Tamir Rice, and thousands of others, who up to its dangers. Illinois, Maine and Mis- fi rst thing society is told is: “The Grand were murdered by those their taxes have sissippi have closed or drastically down- Jury is reviewing evidence to see if a crime helped pay: cops. sized their solitary units without any loss of occurred.” This is all a smoke screen, just In many ways, Garner’s case is even institutional safety. New York and Arizona look at the murders of Michael Brown and more egregious than Brown’s, for it was were recently forced to reduce their use of Eric Garner to name a few. Mr. Garner’s videotaped, and one sees his takedown, his isolation, with Colorado and New Jersey death was recorded by a phone showing incessant choking, his unconsciousness - following suit. his assassination; still no police were in- and shortly thereafter - his death. Yet California steadfastly remains an dicted for using a Banned Choke Hold on Now, the words “I can’t breath” have outlier seemingly impervious to change, Mr. Garner. Until the police are held fully become joined with the cry “Hands Up!”- led by an administration that relies on tired accountable, Minorities will continue to be reminders of the Garner and Brown killings rhetoric about “the worst of the worst” to targeted and unfortunately killed. at the hands of police. justify torture. People locked up in Califor- There have been over fi ve hundred (500) Both cases are also noted for the be- nia have a decades-long history of fi ghting Exonerations of Innocent Prisoners that we havior of grand juries, which now appear for the rights and dignity of prisoners, af- know about. The average time frame an reckless beyond belief, in their inability to fi rming their humanity in the face of inhu- Innocent Prisoner spends in prison is be- return indictments against cops. mane conditions and demanding change. tween thirteen and a half (13½) to fi fteen The grand jury emigrated here from Eng- The U.N. report calls on this government (15) years, and that’s only if they get the land, where, as it was then called, ‘grand to “ban prison regimes of solitary confi ne- necessary representation needed. In some assizes’, a body of about a dozen knights, ment such as those in super-maximum cases, Innocent Prisoners die in prison be- under the direction of a baron (or some security detention facilities.” It’s time for fore their Innocence comes out. other noble), would investigate cases and California to listen. ● Prosecutors continue to fi ght tooth and charge people. [Marie Levin is the sister of Sitawa N. nail to maintain their False Convictions. Later, they became tools of the king. Jamaa, a prisoner in solitary confi nement They hide favorable material that can show Today, they are instruments of the pros- at Tehachapi. She is a member of Califor- a prisoner’s Innocence. They let False Tes- ecutors, and used, just as under kings, to nia Families Against Solitary Confi nement timony stand just to secure a conviction. target whom they wish - and to clear whom (CFASC) and Prisoner Hunger Strike Soli- Out of all the Exonerations of Innocent they wish. darity Coalition (PHSS). Mohamed Shehk men and women, NOT ONE percent (1%) Outrage stems from the long history of is the Media and Communications Director of the prosecutors were held accountable its use to protect cops -yes-even killer cops. of Critical Resistance, and also contributed for their Malicious Prosecutions. One fact This, while the nation is awash in mass to this piece.] that can’t be disputed, minorities make up NINETY PERCENT (90%) of Wrongful incarceration, the majority of whom have Convictions. Until prosecutors are stripped never had a grand jury indictment, unlike of their IMMUNITY and held fully ac- the average cop. countable, this will unfortunately continue The System is constructed to protect their to happen. minions (the cops), no matter how outra- Mass Incarceration has been going on for geous their behavior. That’s just a fact. decades under a lot of different umbrellas. And as the nation now celebrates historic The biggest one was and is the “War On events from the civil rights movement of a Drugs.” Once again the minorities are the half-century ago, the grim and ugly present targets. I keep hearing politicians saying: of Black life-and Black Death-in America, “Our Judicial System is off balance, we makes that glowing history feel hollow in- must trust and strengthen it. As an Innocent deed. ● prisoner, the last time I checked, the Judicial System has been our worst nightmare. Our Judicial System is no longer about Justice; it’s about politics and votes for politicians. When there are special Laws that target the Inner Cities that differ from Suburbia, the message is loud and clear. Thanks to Social Media the WORLD is fi nally seeing what’s been taking place in our communities. ●

2 Rock! THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR CURRENT POLICE AND PRISON STATE December 5, 2014 | the telecommunications and banking in- federal death penalty legislation include he 200 protesters arrested last night dustries. But perhaps Clinton’s earliest and the Racial Justice Act [10] (RJA), which in New York City and others being most intense shifting of traditional Demo- sought to allow those convicted of the Tarrested elsewhere in demonstra- cratic Party liberalism was with respect to death penalty to use statistical data to sup- tions against police brutality are confront- crime. This took the form of the 1994 Vio- port allegations of racial discrimination. ing a police and prison system that has put lent Crime Control and Law Enforcement The Clinton White House was silent on more people behind bars than any other [3] Act (later commonly known as the crime the RJA, and it didn’t make it into 1994 country. Some have pointed out that those bill). To helm its passage, Clinton tapped death penalty legislation. A memo later doing the arresting are not exactly far-right none other than our current vice president, released to the public revealed why. As Replublican and conservative-led jurisdic- then Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. author Naomi Murakawa notes [9] in her tions, but solidly Democratic strongholds. book The First Civil Right: How Liber- Cities like New York City, where Eric Joe Biden: Clinton’s Crime Bill als Built Prison America, a White House Garner was tragically killed – are run by Enforcer document titled “Draft Q&A/Racial Justice the Democratic Party from top to bottom, Biden was the chief author of the 1994 Act” wrote “[President gives his statement with one of the countriy’s most progressive crime bill [6], which vastly increased the on the urgency of the crime bill. No men- mayors, Bill De Blasio at the helm. Given number of police offi cers on American tion of RJA.] If the administration were to that the party is, at least, traditionally as- streets, eliminated Pell Grants for prison- be asked about the RJA, it would reply that sociated with liberalism, civil rights and a ers, expanded the federal death penalty and Clinton’s initiative was to “pass the bill and more permissive society, some observers upped the Border Patrol presence (recall get those cops out on the streets,” whether fi nd that ironic. But the recent past tells us that this bill was passed around the same there was an RJA included or not. that the Democratic Party in the past three time as NAFTA, which increased migra- Thus, the prison population saw a dra- decades has abandoned concerns for civil tion from Mexico [7]). matic increase under the Clinton admin- liberties and civil rights in the pursuit of The bill was passed in a political cli- istration, with the support of most Con- appearing to be just as tough on crime as mate of hysteria about crime and Biden gressional Democrats (and of course most their Republican counterparts. and Clinton used that climate to their ad- Republicans, who continued to egg on the This is a story that begins when Bill Clin- vantage. Recall that during the earlier 1992 Democrats to go even further to the right). ton embraced the law-and-order policies of presidential campaign, Clinton himself Here’s what the prison population boom his Republican predecessors. Let’s review: fl ew back to Arkansas during the presiden- looked like, illustrated by the Center for tial campaign to ensure a mentally ill black Budget and Policy Priorities: Clinton: The New Democrat With An man was executed. Following the execu- Old Approach To Crime tion, Clinton said [8], “I can be nicked a The Failed Effort To Stop Police First some background: The fi rst presi- lot, but no one can say I’m soft on crime.” Militarization dent to declare a “War On Drugs [4]” was a That was a sentiment Biden and con- The crime legislation of the 1990’s didn’t Republican, Richard Nixon. Nixon began a gressional Democrats also sought to proj- just put more cops on the streets and build heavily police-focused drug policy, which ect. During the debate over the 1994 bill, more prisons, it also made sure those cops was then escalated by Republican Ronald then-Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) introduced an were armed to the teeth. Throughout the Reagan, who made his wife Nancy the amendment [9] to eliminate death penalty 90’s, there was an expansion [11] of Com- face of “Just Say No” – a more innocuous provisions for drug kingpin crimes where munity Oriented Policing Services (COPS) phrase that was accompanied by a ramping no death occurred. Most Democrats voted and Byrne grants, which fi nanced local po- up of prisons and policing. against the amendment, and it went down lice departments to wage a heavy-handed During this period, many Democrats re- in fl ames. In 1996, Biden joked that “some- drug war (both programs increased under sisted these policies, considering them to one asleep for the last 20 years might wake President Obama). be confl icting with the civil rights coalition up and think Republicans were represent- This past June, progressive House they had absorbed into their party since the ing Abbie Hoffman and Democrats were Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced an 1960’s. The big change came when Presi- representing J. Edgar Hoover.” amendment [12] to the defense appropria- dent Bill Clinton came into offi ce. The death penalty alone was huge for tions bill that would block the “transfer” of Clinton was a “New Democrat” – part the Democratic Party’s image projection; “aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehi- of a new coalition of Democrats [5] who Clinton’s Attorney General nominee, Janet cles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers, believed that the liberalism represented by Reno, boasted of “regularly” seeking the silencers, toxicological agents, launch ve- the New Deal and Great Society had run death penalty as Dade County state attor- hicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles” its course, and that Democrats must court ney. The Department of Justice boosted its from the Department of Defense to state Big Business and certain right-wing inter- defendants submitted for death penalty re- and local police forces. The amendment est groups in order to forge a new party. view from 47 (1988-1994) to 682 between received the support of only 62 Members, Included in this policy shift were things 1995 and 2000. [11] and those voting against it included like “welfare reform,” the North American A small group of progressive Democrats, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), who rep- Free Trade Agreement, and deregulation of mostly African Americans, requested that resents Ferguson, and every senior member

Volume 4, Number 2 3 of Democratic Party leadership including ken [17] about police brutality, and has [10] http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04- Reps. Nancy Pelosi (CA), Steny Hoyer gone further than any leading Democrats in 22/news/mn-49044_1_death-penalty (MD), and James Clyburn (SC). calling for an absolute end to the War On [11] http://www.vanityfair.com/online/ These Democrats (and Republicans, Drugs [18]. daily/2014/08/militarization-police-force- most of whom joined them) were courted None of this is to say that these Demo- ferguson-congress by police unions such as the National Fra- crats or Republicans who have fl ip-fl opped [12] https://beta.congress.gov/ ternal Order of Police and by weapons and are now calling for reforms are in any amendment/113th-congress/house- manufacturers who develop the Pentagon way sincere in their convictions. Who is to amendment/918 armaments that are now fi nding their way say that Bill Clinton was more honest when [13] http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ to the police. talking about executing the mentally ill bill-clinton-prison-sentences-take-center- than he is about reducing the prison popu- stage-2016 Can The Democrats – And Repub- lation today? [14] http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ licans -- Shift Back Towards Crime But politicians are fundamentally oppor- ferguson-congressman-alarmed-by- Sanity? tunistic, and the fact they are talking about militarized-police/ Despite all this, there is evidence that we rolling back decades of harsh policies is a [15] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ are starting to see a real shift – driven by testament to the hard work activists are do- blogs/the-fi x/wp/2014/12/03/obamas- increasing hostility to the police state by ing across the country, and to the sacrifi ces body-camera-argument-just-took-a-big- Americans of all political ideologies – by of men like Eric Garner who lost their lives, hit/ both the Democrats and Repu blicans to- and, in the process, showed us why today’s [16] http://www.motherjones.com/ wards less militarization of the police and prison and police state is a failure and why politics/2014/02/conservatives-prison- less authoritarian crime policy. both the Democrats and Republicans must reform-right-on-crime None other than Bill Clinton, the man change course. ● [17] http://time.com/3605426/ferguson- who oversaw the largest expansion of the michael-brown-darren-wilson-rand-paul/ federal death penalty in history, admitted Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/ [18] http://reason.com/blog/2014/11/18/ as much [13]. “We basically took a shot- civil-liberties/truth-about-who-really- rand-paul-last-week-i-want-to-end-the-war gun to a problem that needed a .22 – a very responsible-our-current-police-and-prison- signifi cant percentage of serious crimes in state this country are committed by a very small Links: EDITORIAL 4-2 number” of criminals, he told an audience [1] http://alternet.org It’s been awhile since I’ve written an in October. We took a shotgun to it and [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/zaid- editorial. Mayhaps I’ll start this one off just sent everybody to jail for too long. “I jilani-0 with a bible quote from Genesis 6:4: “The think in this next step where we’re going to [3] http://thinkprogress.org/ Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, be apparently debating all this and as the justice/2014/09/17/3568232/the-united- as well as later, after the sons of God had presidential election approaches, we’ll start states-had-even-more-prisoners-in-2013/ intercourse with the daughters of human to have a discussion of all of this,” he con- [4] http://www.drugpolicy.org/new- beings, who bore them sons. They were the tinued, pointing to Republican support for solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug- heroes of old, the men of renown.” Being a reducing prison time, particularly among war godless commie, I have no use for gods of the religious wing of the party.” [5] https://medium.com/@matthewstoller/ any sort. But I thought it interesting that, Many of the Members who voted against its-al-froms-democratic-party-we-just- according to this quote, god had many sons. Grayson’s amendment, prodded by thou- live-here-5d0de7f89c3e Why’d we just pick the one to worship? sands of protesters in the streets, are now [6] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- calling for oversight of police militariza- meter/statements/2008/aug/24/barack- Police, A Part of The State’s Appara- tion. Clay now says [14] he’s “alarmed” by obama/bidens-crime-bill-helped-some/ tus of Repression the way Ferguson’s police are armed; the [7] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/ While recent killings by police in Fergu- President has pledged to fund a new pro- weekinreview/18uchitelle.html son, Missouri, and New York City receive gram [15] to make 50,000 body cameras [8] http://books.google.com/books?id=cZ national attention, the fact is that from 1999 available for police to wear to reduce inci- e1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA108&lp through 2011, American law enforcement dents of brutality, although many commen- g=PA108&dq=clinton+fl ew+back+a offi cers killed 4,531 people, 96 percent by tators have observed that having his death rkansas+execution&source=bl& fi rearms and 96 percent of them men, ac- by chokehold videotaped did not help Eric ;ots=pHk3XkOik5&sig=xu3S6qreY cording to the Centers for Disease Control Garner or his family get much justice. FWY3-06RppN3WoRKGA&hl=en& and Prevention. African Americans, 13 On the other side of the aisle, the Re- amp;sa=X&ei=ue2AVPyGLY6jyAS9 percent of the population, are victims in 26 publicans who goaded the Democrats into tILIBg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=o percent of police shootings. Law enforce- becoming the new party of crime authori- nepage&q&f=false ment kills African Americans at 2.8 times tarianism, are starting to shift as well. A [9] http://books.google.com/books?id=b6_ the rate of white non-Latinos, and 4.3 times number of Republican governors [16] have DAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA244&dq the rate of Asians. embarked on ambitious criminal justice re- =1994+crime+bill&hl=en&sa= Hundreds of police killings have been form programs, lowering their prison popu- X&ei=W9eAVIH_CYWvggSci4DQ left out of a nationwide database that keeps lations. Likely 2016 presidential candidate Cw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepa tabs on these acts, according to an investi- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been outspo- ge&q&f=false

4 Rock! gative report published by the Wall Street fuddled. How, I wondered, can you wage the world’s wealth. Inequality is rising Journal (WSJ). The newspaper collected a war against terrorism, which is nothing most rapidly in the US, where the rich- information from more than 100 police but a tactic (like a war against the tactic of est 1% have benefi tted the most from agencies across the country [out of tens of a fl anking maneuver)? Terrorism is a tac- economic growth since 2009. During thousands] all among the largest depart- tic most often used by the weak against the that same period, the poorest 90% in ments in the US. According to the report, powerful, but is also frequently used by the the US became poorer. This massive more than 550 killings by police had not powerful against the weak (only it’s not concentration of economic resources been included in the national data kept by called “state terrorism” when done by the in the hands of fewer people presents the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). U.S.). a signifi cant threat to inclusive politi- In its report, WSJ took data from the FBI This war against a tactic did not start cal and economic systems,” the Oxfam and compared it with information provided with the attack on September 11, 2001 on report stated. to the media outlet by 105 police agencies. the Twin Towers in NYC. It was going on The bourgeois politicians here in the U.S. The paper tallied 1,800 deaths at the hands long before 2001. No need a lot of jibber- should be offering citizens dreams of a bet- of police between 2007 and 2012, which is jabber, are we winning or not? Have there ter world, instead they claim to be protect- 45 percent more than the number of “jus- been many terrorist attacks since 2001? ing us from nightmares. Just as the dreams tifi able homicides” recorded by the FBI in Well, in 2013 there were just under 10,000 of something better were a lie, also false is the same time period. such attacks, killing 17,958 people, includ- the nightmares of the terrorist boogieman. ing large numbers of women and children. Whatever happens you can rest assured that The Newsletter Draw your own conclusions. not only do the American people have the This is interesting. After announcing my As Gwynne Dyer notes, “The invasions, best government the rich can buy, they also illness and complaining about the lack of the drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and have the government they deserve. stamps from the inside, people evidently Africa, the whole lumbering apparatus of Why would I say something that mean? fi gured the newsletter was at an end and the “global war on terrorism” have not In today’s Seattle Times are the results of so their payment strategy changed. What I killed the terrorist beast. They have fed it, a poll of U.S. citizens on the subject of am getting now (with the exception PBSP’s and the beast has grown very large.” Can torture. The article said “Just over half of B-5 unit, which sent me 80 stamps) is letters you spell ISIS? Worse, we are pissing off Americans say they believe the interroga- with only two, three, or four stamps. Folks more and more people around the globe tion methods the CIA used against terror- are hedging their bets, and that’s okay. You with our indiscriminate killings. If drone ism suspects … were justifi ed.” Breaking won’t lose much money, only the cost of strikes are okay, then so too should be sui- the bones in their feet and making them postage needed to send those few stamps cide bombings. Why is one terrorism and crouch in a tiny box on those same feet. each month or so. Whatever works with the other not? State sponsored terror is still Stringing them up naked to a wall and beat- you is fi ne with me. Since I cut off the 550 terror. It’s the ‘war on terror’ that is producing them, leaving them in the cold, at least freeloaders from the mailing list this whole ing more terrorism. one died from the cold (oh, and come to process of cranking out the newsletter has But not to worry my dear Republicrats, fi nd out, the one who died was innocent). been made much easier. It’s wonderful not to paraphrase Mike Whitney, “the glori- Don’t get the idea that only one died, there having to beg you for money each month. ous US military has spent the last 13 years were dozens, possibly hundreds or thou- Now the mailing list is almost up to 100, all fi ghting sheep herders in fl ip-fl ops in Af- sands (we only see the tip of the iceberg). paying customers (there is no such thing as ghanistan in a confl ict that, at best, could I personally have read accounts of many a “free lunch,” someone pays for it). be characterized as a stalemate. And now such killings in the bourgeois press. For those who are reading Rock for the the White House wants to take on Russia?” The American people are the “good Ger- fi rst time, Mark and I have put thousands After thirteen years of war against terror- mans” of today; like their counterparts of of dollars of our own money into getting ism, and after trillions in treasure wasted old who blissfully believed every lie the this newsletter in to prison readers. We are on pointless goals, your reward of an even Nazi’s cynically fed them. The problem now broke. There are no free subscriptions. wider war is looming large. But not to wor- is that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said Nor is your promise to send stamps at some ry, Regardless of who might win these little (Adapted from Dante) “He who accepts future date going to get you a subscription. wars of convenience, the military industrial evil without protesting against it is really If you are too lame to hustle a few stamps, complex will get even richer. And while the cooperating with it.” Torturing people is then clearly this is not the publication for youth outside of prison might have to fi ght evil, period! The majority of Americans you. You need to be reading the sports page and die in these pointless wars, it is a small who today support torture are complicit in from one of the bourgeois media outlets, to price to pay for the ever greater profi ts of those war crimes. The thing of it is, there see how billionaire A’s team beat billion- the rich and the maintenance of the best is a second torture report locked away at aire B’s team (as if you had a horse in that government their money can buy. As jour- CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The race). nalist Benjamin Dangl writes: agency says the document is so sensitive The 85 richest people in the world that national security would be at risk if War and Peace now have the same wealth as the 3.5 any details about it were publicly revealed. So, Republicrats, how’s that whole billion poorest. That was one of the It must be like the recent Wikileaks reveal- global war thing going—you know, the fi ndings of a report from UK-based ing that the CIA admitted drone strikes are War Against Terrorism? I have got ad- Oxfam International, which also con- ineffective. Indeed, according to a leaked mit that when you fi rst started out on this cluded that the wealthiest 1% of the CIA document released by Wikileaks, the latest series of wars, I was somewhat be- global population owns roughly half of controversial U.S. drone strikes may be

Volume 4, Number 2 5 helping rather than hindering the Taliban in Afghanistan. Similarly, the U.S. State HANDS UP – DON’T SHOOT Department is delaying the release of a By Jalil A. Muntaqim, s/nAnthony Bottom wrote the book “Negroes With Guns,” re- volume from its U.S. foreign relations his- ontrary to the refrain from the trag- fl ecting on the institutionalization of State tory that deals with the CIA-backed over- ic Ferguson, Mo., shooting of Mi- violence and the inherent human rights of throw of an Iranian prime minister in the Cchael Brown, we know that keep- Black people to defend themselves, that 1950s out of concern that publication could ing your hands up does not mean you will was also practiced by the Deacons for De- undermine nuclear diplomacy with the Is- not be shot. Assata Shakur had her hands fense opposing Klu Klux Klan violence. lamic republic. up when she was shot on the New Jersey Reynolds continues: Uh, no. Iran already knows you over- turnpike by a State Trooper, Oscar Grant “By confronting the perpetration of po- threw their democratically elected gov- was lying face down on a subway platform lice racial violence with the maintenance ernment in order to install the hated dic- when he was shot in the back by a Bay of social order, it is rendered unidentifi able, tator, the Shaw of Iran, Mohammad Reza Area Transit cop, Sean Bell was executed ignorable, and in articulable. Having been Pahlavi, who butchered his people until the in a hail of bullets by a half dozen N.Y. so deeply written into our very conception masses fi nally drove him out of power. By city cops while sitting in a car, and Tray- of social organization and policing, police that time, however, all of the progressive von Martin fought to defend himself when brutality and racism becomes invisible to elements had been killed by the Shaw, leav- he was murdered by a wanna-be cop just white society (who also has an investment ing only the religious sector remaining to yards from his home. Obviously, I fi nd this in denying the reality of racial violence). pick up the reins of power. So in effect, it plea for mercy sorely insuffi cient, in fact, Shocked by stories of police violence and was the U.S. who is ultimately responsible indefensible when a trained killer has a unmoved by the dehumanization of racial for the religious elements currently ruling weapon pointed at you under the guise of profi ling, white people simultaneously re- Iran. Just like the murderous regime cur- Blue authority. Needless to say, this pas- veal their ignorance of and investment in rently in power in Guatemala, there too the sive posture generally supports the inferior the violent inherent in the protection of U.S. overthrew a democratically elected and superior paradigm, creating a social white supremacy.” government to install yet another fascist. In environment in which Black lives do not Furthermore, Reynolds states: 1971, in a coup orchestrated by then Presi- matter. Brooke Reynolds, in an essay titled “The ignorability and inarticulability of dent Nixon and his crime partner Henry “Policing Race,” informed: racist police violence to white society is Kissinger, the democratically elected gov- “This 'order' was created and protected directly related to its historical and current ernment of Chile was overthrown and a by US law. From slavery to today’s milita- impunity. Authorized by the government fascist dictator (Augusto Pinochet) was in- rized ghettos, it is clear that racial violence end white society as a whole, the police stalled (after the elected president was mur- has almost always occurred explicitly or are given the freedoms necessary in order dered in his offi ce by Pinochet’s soldiers). implicitly in cooperation with the law. Wil- to guarantee the stability of white suprem- These are just a few examples of the many liam and Murphy trace the relationship be- acy and to continue constructing racialized instances of our deadly meddling in the tween the law and social order: “The fact identities. Within this system, injustices internal affairs of other sovereign nations. that the legal order not only countenanced done to people of color are not classifi ed Might does not make right. but sustained slavery, segregation, and dis- as injustices, if they are recognized at all. Indeed, if you had broken someone's crimination for most of our nation’s history Police murders, abuses, and terrorization of bones and shoved anything up their asses, and the fact that the police were bound to people of color, no matter how gratuitous, you'd be charged with rape and who knows uphold that order sets patterns for police are more often than not met with legal in- what. Youi'd never see daylight. Just as you behavior and attitudes toward minority difference, public support, and are virtually would be held accountable for such crimes, communities that has persisted until the so too should the torturers of the Bush and present day.” (Parenti). In terms of the re- Obama administrations. If they are not held lationship to the police themselves, “Gov- accountable in the United States, they must ernment-sponsored racial discrimination be pursued internationally under the prin- and segregation have deeply affected the ciples of universal jurisdiction. ● organizing ethos and practices of US policing.” (Parenti)—thus, it becomes clear that “... relationship between police violence and social institution of policing is struc- tural, rather than incidental or contingent.” (Martinot, Sexton). Wielding an arsenal of moralist rhetoric and trained over hundreds of years of historical practice, the police work in conjunction with white society and its government to keep white lawlessness understood as nothing other than “public order,” enforcing “the law of white su- premacist attack” with determination and fervor.” In response this reality, Robert Williams "Time" by Chris Carrasco

6 Rock! bereft of consequences. Martinot notes the well-being of Black people’s lives. Rather, and Ivan Rios is thought to have eroded relationship between modern-day police such modus operandi parallels the racial at- cohesion among the FARC ranks and the impunity, slave patrols, and white suprem- titudes of the slave patrols out of which the assassinations of HAMAS founder Sheik acist law: police system evolved. (See, Hadden, Sally Ahmed Yassin and co-founder Abdel Aziz “Both the police and the impunity of E., Slave Patrols, Cambridge, MA: Har- is thought to have demoralized the ranks of slave masters belong to the same paradigm vard University Press, 2001) (Reynolds, that organization. of dual systems of law, sanctioned by the pg. 3-8). Despite its low rate of success, however, law, in producing the subjection of people The task of young people today is to in- the review does suggest that assassination of color. What contemporary juridical pro- crease pressure and defi ne the national de- of high-value targets is sometimes prefer- cedure has done, by valorizing police im- bate on the relationship between the Black able to attempts to capture. Captured tar- punity, is regenerated the doubled system community and police. De-Militarization gets may often become icons of resistance of law of the slave system… Thus, both and De-Centralization must become the pri- while they serve in prison. The example in manifest the component elements of white mary demand. The call for community con- that case is none other than Nelson Man- racialized identity paranoia…, violence…, trol of the police was what the BPP fought dela who served 27 years in prison for his and white solidarity…” (Martinot). to achieve, and that objective is what needs anti-apartheid activities in South Africa. “The racist police violence which per- to be demanded now. The police need to “Capturing leaders may have a limited vades the landscape of US society today is live in the community, not come from out- psychological impact on a group if mem- not incidental, nor [is it] the work of ‘rogue side the community. There must be more bers believe that captured leaders will cops,’ [It is] an essential part of the larger diversity in the command and structure of eventually return to the group,” the review campaign of social re-racialization” (Mar- the police, refl ecting the composition of the reads, “or if those leaders are able to main- tinot). Historically rooted in a very real community they patrol. tain their infl uence while in government desire to subjugate and control people of It is time to reverse the chant ‘No Justice custody, as Nelson Mandela did while in- color in America, and operating in a way No Peace’ to “No Peace Without Justice,” carcerated in South Africa.” which inscribes and deepens whiteness as it is time to ensure Black lives matter as Perhaps as a result of the analysis, such an identity and a value, today’s police forc- much as white lives, and that all people’s assassinations radically increased over es operate along the same paradigm as their lives are as sacred as police lives. the years after the publication of the 2009 predecessors.” (Reynolds) The First Line of Defense IS power to booklet. The following year became “the These lengthy quotes from Reynolds the People! year of the drone” with 751 people killed “Policing Race” establish the lens in which Remember: We Are Our Own Liberators by UAV strikes in Pakstan alone in 2010, we are to view the recent rash of police Jalil A. Muntaqim # 77A4283 according to the Bureau of Investigative killings of unarmed Black people. It is ex- s/n Anthony Bottom Journalism. tremely important that conversations and Attica CF, PO Box 149 After that, however, one of the report’s national debate about the relationship be- Attica, NY 14011 prognosis seems to have come true with the tween the police and the Black community radicalization of areas devastated by drone- is not the same as the relationship between based assassinations such as Waziristan. the police and the white community. The CIA: "MANDELA “The potential negative effect of HLT historical ramifi cations of this dynamic [high-level targets] operations include in- relationship today are subject to the real- SHOWS BETTER creasing the level of insurgent support…, ity of the racist culture in law enforcement. strengthening an armed group’s bonds Law enforcement modus operandi, for all TO KILL THAN with the population, radicalizing an insur- intents and purposes, are based on outside IMPRISON" gent group’s remaining leaders, creating armed forces, albeit white people, patrol- a vacuum into which more radical groups study by the Central Intelligence ling communities of color, with all of its can enter, and escalating or de-escalating a Agency that evaluated the pros and inherent racial implications. confl ict in ways that favor the insurgents.” cons of assassination programs has Over forty years ago, the Black Panther A http://us.sputniknews.com/ revealed signifi cant insights into the agen- Party for Self-Defense raised the e very us/20141218/1013345124.html cy’s thinking about targeted killings, in- same issues, establishing their patrols to cluding potential backlash. The study was ensure police offi cers conducted their busi- published by Wikileaks on Thursday. ness in accord with the law. For their ac- The study is titled “CIA Best Practices tions and concerns for the welfare of the in Counterinsurgency” and evaluates as- Black community, the BPP became the sassination operations against the Taliban, number one target for extermination by al-Qaeda, the FARC, PLO, HAMAS and law enforcement across the country. The the Shining Path, among others, including primary reason is because the BPP did not those managed by other countries. believe or practice passive resistance, they One of the determinations is that most were not in the streets chanting “Hands Up assassinations of “high-value targets” do Don’t Shoot.” Such passive pleas would not usually produce the desired result. The be considered a misguided belief protest- booklet notes a few exceptions: the 2008 ers would be safe challenging a system of assassinations of FARC leaders Raul Reyes armed forces with innate disdain for the

Volume 4, Number 2 7 "ROTTEN APPLES" & taliate for chokehold death of Eric Garner.” ORGANIZING Just as the Seattle suspect was responding "BROKEN WINDOWS" AGAINST POLICE to police terror, so too was today’s case in By Mumia Abu-Jamal NYC. The massive demonstrations rocking TERROR Police terror is a national problem in U.S. cities from coast to coast are loud and By Ed Mead America’s poor and minority communities. visible refl ections of the deep anger and ou have listened to me prattle on One might understandably respond to such antipathy rising up against the long and and on about the necessity for provocations in a violent way. But prison- bloody train of police terrorism. Ypeaceful protest on the inside, that ers cannot stoop to engage in the luxury If you have read my writings or listened violence in the prison struggle only serves of revenge. The prisoners’ struggle must to my commentaries, you know that I de- the interests of the state, and that those ad- be peacefully waged, both inside and out. scribe the police violence as what it is: ter- vocating violence are provocateurs who And yeah, I did bomb the headquarters of rorism, not ‘brutality’. will give the Green Wall exactly what they the Department of Corrections in the state For the aim of all police violence is to in- need to put an end to all forms of resistance capitol, but that was then and this is now. In still terror in Black populations, just as was to slavery. From this one might have con- my day we did not have 30,000 prisoners the aim of white terrorists of the past, like cluded that I’m a pacifi st. Not so. As regu- we could draw on for support, we did what the Ku Klux Klan, which lynched Black lar readers know, I’ve bombed the federal we did in the absence of a mass movement. men, women and yes- children. and state governments numerous times, Today, to one extent or another, that move- And although these protests by young and have been in fi re-fi ghts with police too. ment exists on the inside of California’s people across the country are remark- Indeed, last night I was watching the prisons. Remember, without mass struggle able, we must remember that cop violence TV news when a story came on about the there can be no revolution. Our job is to against African American communities Federal Courthouse in Tacoma, I said to build that mass movement on the inside, ain’t a new thing. the person next to me “I’ve bombed that without provoking additional repression It was Dec.4, 1969 – 45 years ago, when courthouse.” I’m not a pacifi st, but I am in the process. Every GP tier should have cops raided the Monroe Street apartment somewhat of a strategist. Prisoners and ex- an elected representative, one accountable building of young Black Panthers, includ- prisoners must not use violence in the fur- to those who elected him or her, not to the ing Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton, of therance of the struggle. Period. If you feel prison administration. Dormitory and other Chicago. There, police, armed with sub- you must implement some form of protest open housing units should similarly elect machine guns, shot Capt. Mark Clark, of beyond the confi nes of bourgeois law, then prisoner representatives. Peoria, Illinois, and Deputy Chairman take those impulses to another struggle, not The International Declaration of Human Fred Hampton, as he slept in his bed, next the prisoners’ movement. Rights, a treaty the U.S. is a signatory to, to his pregnant wife. Both Mark and Fred As long as the capitalist state exists there states that we have a right to peacefully or- were killed; at least 7 other Panthers were will be violence between the oppressors ganize ourselves. ● wounded by police gunfi re – as they lay in and the oppressed. Often, as demonstrated their beds. in the rash of recent police killings of un- Not a single cop was ever charged with armed Black people who did not even rise these murders or these attempted murders to the level of “suspect” in a crime, the per- and aggravated assaults on members of the son killed can be a 12 year old child with Illinois Black Panther Party. a toy gun. This is police terror. One of the Next spring marks the 30th anniver- dictionary defi nitions of the word “terror” sary of the MOVE Bombing – where cops is to rule through the use of fear. George dropped bombs from a helicopter, and Jackson wrote “If terror is going to be the killed 11 men, women and children – mem- choice of weapons, there must be funerals bers and relatives of the Black Naturalist on both sides” [Blood in My Eye, p. 26]. group, MOVE. We have a Black man sitting in Seattle’s Eleven people burned and/or shot to jail charged with stalking and shooting two death – and 2 city blocks in Philadelphia police offi cers while they sat in their patrol turned to glowing red bricks and ashes. And car, one cop was killed the other wounded. again, not a single cop ever even charged He too was responding to the police kill- with anything. Only MOVE survivor, Ra- ings of Seattle’s youth. They busted the al- mona Africa would ever get to prison – for leged killer two days later. Mark Cook and Riot! 7 years. I both wrote to him in the King County Jail, The movement protesting police terror- offering our support. His lawyers made us ism is a remarkable thing; but it didn’t be- stop contacting him, saying it would not gin yesterday. help the defendant’s case to be associated Police terrorism is decades long, and it with the likes of us. This morning I picked ain’t about ‘rotten apples’ nor ‘broken win- up the Seattle Times newspaper and on the dows’. It’s about blocking a popular free- front page was an article titled “2 NYC Po- dom movement, and protecting a system of lice Offi cers Shot Dead in Patrol Car” with repression. ● a subtitle of “Gunman vowed online to re-

8 Rock! "*" equals new paragraph) By Josua (Zero) Cartrette, Pendleton OR UNCLE SAM’S BIG TOP You see, our directors run our show from the shade ark now all you merry souls And they’ve learned from the mistakes that others have made. And listen as the drumbeat rolls They won’t use the same tricks as say Hitler or Stalin. Oh what sounds and sights abound H We all know how those big tops have fallen. Come one and all, let’s strap you down No, we’ll use balloons! And face paint! And clowns! No worries friends. No danger here And gadgets and gewgaws! Distractions abound! No cause for panic, fright or fear It’s fun for the family, a glorious ride! We’re your friends, make no mistake (But if you resist, force will be applied) Don’t mind those guards, guns, dogs and gates We’ll sit you in rows, correct social class stations, Just follow me. Yes right this way All facing front toward the big presentation ‘Cause in the tent you’re sure to stay. * While little you notice the stage hands behind Now step to the right folks, here you’ll see All locking the exits and changing the signs…. * Rows upon rows of new TVs Now the music has stopped. The lights have gone low. What a marvel, just sit and watch The ringmaster enters to kick off the show. These fl ashing pictures as you rot What will they do? What will they say? Pay close attention. Here comes the end For what grand display did we come all this way? So smile and nod at the message they send. The excitement mounts. Oh the suspense! As they tell you what to want and wear He raises his arms, and here he comments… On what to spend, and when to care. “A worldwide welcome to our global mistake! And who hate, and emulate, In which you get nothing for the tolls that we take. And who should run this police state. You’ve read the signs wrong, yet now they are gone. It’s all for your own good, you see? But since you’re all here, the show must go on. Freedom of thought saps your energy. “So you there,” he points to the bottom rung seating, Yes that’s it, makes perfect sense. Cracking his whip at those of us retreating. Now sit and stare, and let’s commence…. * “You minorities, poor folks, and freaks with mohawks, Now once you’ve gone through the program phasing, Into the freak show cages with locks! We’ve something else that’s just as amazing! And don’t waste your time trying to resist A feast for the mind now, if you will ‘Cause our guards are on ‘roids, and you don’t want them pissed Euphoria! In just one tiny pill. And the rest of your lower class ladies and gents? We’ve got Prozac, and valium, we’ve got Vicodin! You’ll be the labor to prop up my tents. And Xanniies, and Oxies, and sweet Ridalin! You best not resist, get your asses in gear. We’ve got Benzos and Dexos, and Xicabilferal! As we control you with cops and tactics of fear…. * We’ve got shit that you can’t even pronounce at all! “For you in the middle, lest I forget, We got you’re your stuff, no matter your vice. You’re too unpredictable, therefore a threat. Opiat derivatives to the pharmaceutical ice. We’re removing your station, so move down below. We’ll fi x your brains, your chondriatic disease, We need gaps in the middle, and distinguishable rows. Your moods, your stress, even your shaky knees! But don’t worry folks, no cause for alarm. With only the safest new medications, Cooperate and I promise we’ll bring you no harm. Designed by private health care corporations, Have a laptop, and iPhone, a “binky” of sorts, Profi teers in big business completion A gesture of thanks for being such good sports. For capital gain and political position. We’ll keep you medicated, and very well fed, So pay no mind to that small print warning We’ll play your favorite cop shoes, then send you to bed. Just pay for your drugs and take two every morning…. * Just make no sudden movements, don’t stray from your places, Ahh, good. I see you’re all pacifi ed on your new medication! Or we’ll send in the drones to drop pies in your faces…. * Well then come right this way to the next demonstration But for you in the toppest of social class stations? Onward we go, deeper into the tent. It’s all just for you, such vast exploitation. Now give me your money, you have to pay rent. Such death to those workers in third world countries, Oh yes, now here I should tell you, Death to the ecosystem and its cute little monkeys, We also reserve our full rights to sell you. And death to the dissenters who don’t like our shows. And to buy you. And to steal you. And death to nature, care of new G.M.O.s And to enslave you. And even kill you. And human progress itself, by way of oppression. But never mind all that just yet, And death to all those who we can’t squeeze for money. I’ll explain it all later (once you forget). And death to anyone who even looks at us funny. Now come along for this great demonstration. As we pump tons upon tons of poisonous fumes It’s about to begin, on what a sensation! Up into the atmosphere in visible plumes. Oh what brilliance! Oh what drama! It’s all for us here, in the toppest of rows. The procession is even being led by Obama For wealth and for power, now on with the show! It’s the greatest of shows, the biggest one ever! It’s the greatest one ever, too big to be stopped! The world’s never seen such audacious endeavor! * Come one, come all, to Uncle Sam’s bit top! Volume 4, Number 2 9 Free Electronic Copy Important Notice Outside people can read, down- Articles and letters sent to the load, or print current and back is- Rock newsletter for publication are sues of the Rock newsletter by go- currently being delivered and re- ing to www.rocknewsletter.com and ceived in a timely manner. Please clicking on the issue of the Rock do not send such materials to third newsletter they'd like to read. parties to be forwarded to Rock as it Outside folks can also have a only delays receiving them and adds free electronic copy of the newslet- to the workload of those asked to do ter sent to them each month by way the forwarding. of e-mail. Have them send requests Letters sent to Rock (located in for a digital copy of the newsletter to Seattle) in care of Prison Focus (lo- [email protected]. cated in Oakland) can take over a month to reach us. Send Rock mail to this newsletter's return address (below). Anything for publication in On Jailhouse Lawyers Prison Focus can be sent either to “…jailhouse lawyers often unwit- me or to CPF in Oakland. tingly serve the interests of the state by propagating the illusion of ‘justice’ and ‘equity’ in a system devoted to SHOUT OUT BOX neither.” They create “illusions of legal options as pathways to both indi- A hearty shout out to the men vidual and collective liberation.” of PBSP's B-5 unit for the eighty stamps they sent for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Rock newsletter. JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. The U.S.A. Rock On!

Ed Mead, Publisher Rock Newsletter P.O. Box 47439 Seattle, WA 98146

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