This article originally appeared in the Howard University newspaper, The Hilltop.
Many of us have come to the conclusion that the criminal justice system does not operate in the best interest of Black people, but fewer people realize the role that Black leadership has played in the perpetuation of the injustice.
For example, in the 1980s the Republican and Democratic Parties were in a race to prove how "tough on crime" they could be. Under the leadership of Tip O'Neal, the Democrats helped to push the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 that established a 100:1 ratio for sentences related to crack cocaine as opposed to those related to powder cocaine.
Never mind the fact that there is virtually no chemical difference between powder and crack cocaine, this law meant that people caught in possession of crack cocaine served much harsher mandatory minimum sentences than those found with the powder version. This anti-Black, uh, I mean, anti-crime hysteria reached such a fever pitch that Mickey Leland, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Harlem congressman Charles Rangel co-sponsored the legislation.
Oh it doesn't end there. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 extended a person's sentence even after release from prison by eliminating student loans for anyone with a drug conviction. So, not only were Blacks more likely to be arrested, they were also less likely to be granted an opportunity to attempt to improve the quality of their lives afterwards.
According to legal scholar Michelle Alexander, only six CBC members voted against it. A few years later in 1994, Kweisi Mfume, chair of the CBC, voted for legislation that codified the "three strikes" laws--which disproportionately affects Blacks convicted of non-violent crimes--at the federal level. Confused?
It's simple: Many of our Black elected officials actually contributed to the modern day re-enslavement of our people in the prison system.
I went to the CBC weekend one time. That's it. Once was enough. After looking at a proud display that showed their sponsors included the largest transnational corporations in the US, I decided I'd never come back.
It's time for a new Black leadership that is independent, visionary, and militant to step forward from this generation, one that doesn't simply maintain the status quo, and one that is not afraid to openly advocate for the interests of their people without regard for political judgment or consequences. The white left has the occupy movement. Where is our movement?
The new Black leadership should organize for 1) an equal 1:1 sentencing ratio for crack and powder cocaine offenses and an end to "three strikes" laws at the federal and state level, 2) the decriminalization of marijuana and consequently an end to stop-and-frisk policies that target Blacks, 3) reparations for newly released people for time spent in prison because of harsh racist drug laws and 4) the Black community and world to question the very existence of prisons in human society.
Next generation to the front of the line!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Free Marshall "Eddie' Conway
This article originally appeared in Howard University Student paper, The Hilltop.
The case of Marshall "Eddie" Conway is one of the longest-running political prisoner cases in the United States of America and on Nov. 1, Mr. Conway is set for a parole board hearing.
Conway and his supporters have consistently asserted that he has been imprisoned since 1970 because he was an effective organizer in the Baltimore Black Panther Party. He, along with two other suspects, Jack Johnson and Jack Powell, were convicted of the murder of a white police officer and of the attempted murder of another officer, after the officers responded to a domestic violence call.
Although there is a signed confession, a jailhouse informant, and police identification, there is no physical evidence that connects Conway to the murder. (Sound familiar?) Although Jack Johnson confessed to the crime before the trial began, he stated that he was tortured and forced to sign the confession.
So, contrary to the mainstream media's attention and coverage of the issue, forced confessions did not start with Amanda Knox. In the same way, torture of Black Panthers is not without precedent. (For more on this, check out the "Legacy of Torture" documentary.)
A jailhouse informant, who Conway protested having to be placed in a cell with, claims that Conway confessed to him that he committed the murder. After looking at two decks of pictures, in which Conway's picture was conveniently the only one to appear in both decks, another officer identified Conway as the killer. Surprise, surprise.
With all of this circumstantial evidence, how could Conway have been kept in prison for almost 41 years? It's simple. He was a victim of the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO).
One of the stated goals of COINTELPRO was to "disrupt, discredit, and otherwise neutralize Black Nationalist hate-type organizations." Neutralization meant illegal surveillance, infiltration, imprisonment, forced exile, and even assassinations.
For example, on Dec. 4, 1969, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered in a hail of bullets by the Chicago Police Department. William O'Neal, Hampton's bodyguard and government infiltrator, supplied the CPD with a layout of the victims' apartments and drugged Hampton to ensure that he wouldn't fight back.
Another victim of COINTELPRO, the late Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt, spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted of the murder of a white tennis instructor in Los Angeles, and the key witness was an FBI informant.
Eventually, Pratt was able get a hold of the memos showing that the key witness lied about his relationship with the FBI, but only after Pratt was falsely imprisoned almost three decades.
While the United States supposedly champions the right to political freedom for others abroad, Conway and dozens of other political prisoners are still incarcerated at home for their political beliefs and/or actions.
Conway's supporters are asking everyone to call and write letters to the Maryland Parole Commission to demand his freedom. This is the chance for those of us on Howard's campus to support a man who struggled for us long before we were even born and to pay him back for over 41 years of hard work in the Black Liberation Movement.
The case of Marshall "Eddie" Conway is one of the longest-running political prisoner cases in the United States of America and on Nov. 1, Mr. Conway is set for a parole board hearing.
Conway and his supporters have consistently asserted that he has been imprisoned since 1970 because he was an effective organizer in the Baltimore Black Panther Party. He, along with two other suspects, Jack Johnson and Jack Powell, were convicted of the murder of a white police officer and of the attempted murder of another officer, after the officers responded to a domestic violence call.
Although there is a signed confession, a jailhouse informant, and police identification, there is no physical evidence that connects Conway to the murder. (Sound familiar?) Although Jack Johnson confessed to the crime before the trial began, he stated that he was tortured and forced to sign the confession.
So, contrary to the mainstream media's attention and coverage of the issue, forced confessions did not start with Amanda Knox. In the same way, torture of Black Panthers is not without precedent. (For more on this, check out the "Legacy of Torture" documentary.)
A jailhouse informant, who Conway protested having to be placed in a cell with, claims that Conway confessed to him that he committed the murder. After looking at two decks of pictures, in which Conway's picture was conveniently the only one to appear in both decks, another officer identified Conway as the killer. Surprise, surprise.
With all of this circumstantial evidence, how could Conway have been kept in prison for almost 41 years? It's simple. He was a victim of the FBI's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO).
One of the stated goals of COINTELPRO was to "disrupt, discredit, and otherwise neutralize Black Nationalist hate-type organizations." Neutralization meant illegal surveillance, infiltration, imprisonment, forced exile, and even assassinations.
For example, on Dec. 4, 1969, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered in a hail of bullets by the Chicago Police Department. William O'Neal, Hampton's bodyguard and government infiltrator, supplied the CPD with a layout of the victims' apartments and drugged Hampton to ensure that he wouldn't fight back.
Another victim of COINTELPRO, the late Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt, spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted of the murder of a white tennis instructor in Los Angeles, and the key witness was an FBI informant.
Eventually, Pratt was able get a hold of the memos showing that the key witness lied about his relationship with the FBI, but only after Pratt was falsely imprisoned almost three decades.
While the United States supposedly champions the right to political freedom for others abroad, Conway and dozens of other political prisoners are still incarcerated at home for their political beliefs and/or actions.
Conway's supporters are asking everyone to call and write letters to the Maryland Parole Commission to demand his freedom. This is the chance for those of us on Howard's campus to support a man who struggled for us long before we were even born and to pay him back for over 41 years of hard work in the Black Liberation Movement.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Support the Pelican Bay Prisoners’ Hunger Strike
This article originally appeared in the Howard University Newspaper, the Hilltop
On Sept. 26, prisoners in California reinitiated a hunger strike to protest their inhumane conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison. The prisoners are located in isolation, or, the technical term, Segregated Housing Units (SHU) or Administrative Segregation. SHU is confinement to a cell approximately 10 feet by 6 feet with no windows, little to no human contact for 23 hours a day. But get this; some of them have been in SHU for five, 10, and 20 plus years! They have five core demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.
In other words, they are asking the California Department of Corrections to observe their basic human rights. (I mean "provide adequate food," really?)The last strike, in July of this year, lasted a little of more than three weeks after California officials stated they would comply with the demands. But, according to Mutope Duguma (James Crawford) who issued the call, little has been done to follow through on the prisoners' concerns.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called the treatment of prisoners in the US torture. That isn't surprising. Remember those photos from Abu Ghraib? Well, several of the troops who conducted the torture techniques there were correctional officers in US prisons. In short, they'd been practicing on black folk in prison for years.
In 1971, the prisoners who took part in the uprising at Attica in New York were reacting to the racist mistreatment by guards, overcrowding, and lack of adequate medical care. In response to the uprising, Governor Rockefeller ordered state troopers to retake the prison, leaving ten hostages and twenty-nine inmates dead. By portraying the multiracial uprising as, in the words of Richard Nixon, "basically a Black thing", the State was able to justify the massacre.
Just last year, Police Commander Jon Burge was convicted of lying about torturing over one hundred Black men in Chicago jails. Some of his victims spent years in prison for confessing to a crime they didn't commit.
The resistance to these conditions is growing. Over $12,000 prisoners throughout California, and in parts of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona, have [been] at some point rejected food in support of the strike. Last year, in Georgia, prisoners in six prisons went on strike to receive compensation for jailhouse labor.
So whether it's strikers in Pelican Bay or prisoners at Red Onion in Virginia stating their fingers are being broken arbitrarily by correctional officers (no that's not a misprint, Google it), we must support them with statements from our organizations. We must tell the governor to concede to their demands. We must provide monetary support for the prisoners' organizational efforts. At the end of the day, in disproportionate numbers, these are OUR people. Let us never forget our own that are trapped in the belly of the beast.
On Sept. 26, prisoners in California reinitiated a hunger strike to protest their inhumane conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison. The prisoners are located in isolation, or, the technical term, Segregated Housing Units (SHU) or Administrative Segregation. SHU is confinement to a cell approximately 10 feet by 6 feet with no windows, little to no human contact for 23 hours a day. But get this; some of them have been in SHU for five, 10, and 20 plus years! They have five core demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.
In other words, they are asking the California Department of Corrections to observe their basic human rights. (I mean "provide adequate food," really?)The last strike, in July of this year, lasted a little of more than three weeks after California officials stated they would comply with the demands. But, according to Mutope Duguma (James Crawford) who issued the call, little has been done to follow through on the prisoners' concerns.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called the treatment of prisoners in the US torture. That isn't surprising. Remember those photos from Abu Ghraib? Well, several of the troops who conducted the torture techniques there were correctional officers in US prisons. In short, they'd been practicing on black folk in prison for years.
In 1971, the prisoners who took part in the uprising at Attica in New York were reacting to the racist mistreatment by guards, overcrowding, and lack of adequate medical care. In response to the uprising, Governor Rockefeller ordered state troopers to retake the prison, leaving ten hostages and twenty-nine inmates dead. By portraying the multiracial uprising as, in the words of Richard Nixon, "basically a Black thing", the State was able to justify the massacre.
Just last year, Police Commander Jon Burge was convicted of lying about torturing over one hundred Black men in Chicago jails. Some of his victims spent years in prison for confessing to a crime they didn't commit.
The resistance to these conditions is growing. Over $12,000 prisoners throughout California, and in parts of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona, have [been] at some point rejected food in support of the strike. Last year, in Georgia, prisoners in six prisons went on strike to receive compensation for jailhouse labor.
So whether it's strikers in Pelican Bay or prisoners at Red Onion in Virginia stating their fingers are being broken arbitrarily by correctional officers (no that's not a misprint, Google it), we must support them with statements from our organizations. We must tell the governor to concede to their demands. We must provide monetary support for the prisoners' organizational efforts. At the end of the day, in disproportionate numbers, these are OUR people. Let us never forget our own that are trapped in the belly of the beast.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
SAMI Statement in support of Pelican Bay Strike & Occupy Wall Street
Students Against Mass Incarceration
(SAMI-Howard University
Police State in Action from New York to California
NYPD, CDCR, Use Strong-Arm Tactics against Peoples Movement
The NYPD showed its true colors on October 1st as they faced off with protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration of five-thousand originated from lower Manhattan at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment, as protestors marched across the bridge to Brooklyn the police trapped, or “kettled,” the march and carried out a mass arrest of over seven-hundred. This followed a week of harassment of the OWS encampment and actions by police. As OWS has drawn from increasingly wider layers of disaffected and exploited people, its clear that NYPD tactics are aimed at stifling the movement.
On Thursday September 29th California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation threatened harsh reprisals against hunger-striking prisoners. At least six thousand California inmates are refusing meals in eight prisons across the state. Inmates are striking for the second time this year over inhumane living conditions, including some inmates being held for decades in windowless cells. The response of the prison authorities has been to threaten to throw more inmates into these dungeon-like isolation cells.
The rich and powerful have been waging a fierce struggle against the working class and oppressed communities from which they wring their massive profits. Now, at the seat of American economic power, and in its deepest, darkest dungeons the people are starting to fight back. At their essence these two struggles are about power. Whether the powers of war, racism, and profiteering will control the streets and operate a brutal far-flung complex of repressive institutions. Or whether they will be forced to yield to the power of the popular masses.
The occupation movement continues to grow, and the will of the striking prisoners remains strong. Now is the time to take action, to stimulate and swell the ranks of the struggle against the profit-over-everything, racist, sexist, brutal, and obsolete capitalist system.
Students Against Mass Incarceration remains committed to the struggle against the repressive apparatus that seeks to keep order in the face of class exploitation and racial oppression. We extend our solidarity to those in the streets and in the prisons who continue to fight against austerity and the oppressive police state.
###
About SAMI
SAMI was founded in February 2011 at Howard University. The mission of the organization is to raise awareness about the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and recidivism. We feel the aforementioned are the fundamental issues of our generation and can only be addressed through radical and militant Black activism linked to previous social movements but revised for a 21st century context.
Contact: 607-339-8188 or stdntsagainstmassincarceration@gmail.com
(SAMI-Howard University
Police State in Action from New York to California
NYPD, CDCR, Use Strong-Arm Tactics against Peoples Movement
The NYPD showed its true colors on October 1st as they faced off with protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration of five-thousand originated from lower Manhattan at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment, as protestors marched across the bridge to Brooklyn the police trapped, or “kettled,” the march and carried out a mass arrest of over seven-hundred. This followed a week of harassment of the OWS encampment and actions by police. As OWS has drawn from increasingly wider layers of disaffected and exploited people, its clear that NYPD tactics are aimed at stifling the movement.
On Thursday September 29th California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation threatened harsh reprisals against hunger-striking prisoners. At least six thousand California inmates are refusing meals in eight prisons across the state. Inmates are striking for the second time this year over inhumane living conditions, including some inmates being held for decades in windowless cells. The response of the prison authorities has been to threaten to throw more inmates into these dungeon-like isolation cells.
The rich and powerful have been waging a fierce struggle against the working class and oppressed communities from which they wring their massive profits. Now, at the seat of American economic power, and in its deepest, darkest dungeons the people are starting to fight back. At their essence these two struggles are about power. Whether the powers of war, racism, and profiteering will control the streets and operate a brutal far-flung complex of repressive institutions. Or whether they will be forced to yield to the power of the popular masses.
The occupation movement continues to grow, and the will of the striking prisoners remains strong. Now is the time to take action, to stimulate and swell the ranks of the struggle against the profit-over-everything, racist, sexist, brutal, and obsolete capitalist system.
Students Against Mass Incarceration remains committed to the struggle against the repressive apparatus that seeks to keep order in the face of class exploitation and racial oppression. We extend our solidarity to those in the streets and in the prisons who continue to fight against austerity and the oppressive police state.
###
About SAMI
SAMI was founded in February 2011 at Howard University. The mission of the organization is to raise awareness about the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and recidivism. We feel the aforementioned are the fundamental issues of our generation and can only be addressed through radical and militant Black activism linked to previous social movements but revised for a 21st century context.
Contact: 607-339-8188 or stdntsagainstmassincarceration@gmail.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Racial Roots of Campus Policing
The article originally appeared in the Howard University student newspaper the Hilltop
"Overseer, Overseer, Overseer, Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!"
-KRS One, "Sound of Da Police"
On Sept. 16, the Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) held a rally at the flagpole on The Yard in support of
Troy Davis, inviting community members and the media to protest the injustice of the impending execution. Not only was the media barred from campus, but HUPD stated that because the protest was not authorized by the university, the rally could not take place.
When the point was raised that fraternal organizations did not need authorization to do stepping routines on the yard, SAMI was told "that's a tradition." Well, in the militant tradition of Howard student takeovers in 1925, 1968, and 1989 SAMI preceded with the rally, consequences be damned.
Why did the campus police attempt to stop the rally? In an article entitled "The Modern Campus Police" John Sloan shows that contemporary campus police are a response to the student rebellions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Think about it, Black students all over the country were taking over administration buildings and the anti-war movement was in full swing.
Since campus security could not put down these rebellions, the National Guard often had to be called in. At places like Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Kent State some students were even killed in campus rebellions. Therefore, the campus police did their historical and assigned role: putting down any and all potential radical student activity.
Thus, the campus police and the American police force appear to have similar origins and purposes, maintaining "order" and squashing any potential acts of rebellion. Several scholars and commentators have traced the origin of American policing to the slave patrols in the American south. Slave patrols were composed primarily of lower class whites who put down insurrections of enslaved Africans and caught those who attempted to escape enslavement.
Armed with this information, no Black person should be shocked by the over-policing in our communities or by that campus police officer who flies on his Segway to the scene of a student protest, but is mysteriously missing when you need an escort.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense stated that the role of the police in Black communities is similar to that of an occupying army. The primary purpose of police is to protect property: Howard University, its image, reputation (oh yeah, and you, the student [intellectual property],too). Whether on campus or in the community, understanding that the purpose of the police is primarily one of social control can only serve to enlighten and enhance our inevitable interactions with them as Black youth.
This does not mean that individual Black policeman are our inherent enemies, but the police are an institution. Although individual Black policeman are our potential working class allies, unfortunately, that is not usually the case at Howard, or in the world.
As students, acknowledging and challenging the racial roots and consequences of policing—in all its forms--is an important step towards stopping the trend of criminal injustice in our communities.
"Overseer, Overseer, Overseer, Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!"
-KRS One, "Sound of Da Police"
On Sept. 16, the Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) held a rally at the flagpole on The Yard in support of
Troy Davis, inviting community members and the media to protest the injustice of the impending execution. Not only was the media barred from campus, but HUPD stated that because the protest was not authorized by the university, the rally could not take place.
When the point was raised that fraternal organizations did not need authorization to do stepping routines on the yard, SAMI was told "that's a tradition." Well, in the militant tradition of Howard student takeovers in 1925, 1968, and 1989 SAMI preceded with the rally, consequences be damned.
Why did the campus police attempt to stop the rally? In an article entitled "The Modern Campus Police" John Sloan shows that contemporary campus police are a response to the student rebellions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Think about it, Black students all over the country were taking over administration buildings and the anti-war movement was in full swing.
Since campus security could not put down these rebellions, the National Guard often had to be called in. At places like Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Kent State some students were even killed in campus rebellions. Therefore, the campus police did their historical and assigned role: putting down any and all potential radical student activity.
Thus, the campus police and the American police force appear to have similar origins and purposes, maintaining "order" and squashing any potential acts of rebellion. Several scholars and commentators have traced the origin of American policing to the slave patrols in the American south. Slave patrols were composed primarily of lower class whites who put down insurrections of enslaved Africans and caught those who attempted to escape enslavement.
Armed with this information, no Black person should be shocked by the over-policing in our communities or by that campus police officer who flies on his Segway to the scene of a student protest, but is mysteriously missing when you need an escort.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense stated that the role of the police in Black communities is similar to that of an occupying army. The primary purpose of police is to protect property: Howard University, its image, reputation (oh yeah, and you, the student [intellectual property],too). Whether on campus or in the community, understanding that the purpose of the police is primarily one of social control can only serve to enlighten and enhance our inevitable interactions with them as Black youth.
This does not mean that individual Black policeman are our inherent enemies, but the police are an institution. Although individual Black policeman are our potential working class allies, unfortunately, that is not usually the case at Howard, or in the world.
As students, acknowledging and challenging the racial roots and consequences of policing—in all its forms--is an important step towards stopping the trend of criminal injustice in our communities.
Friday, September 16, 2011
We are Troy Davis
On September 21, 2011, an innocent man could die. That is the execution date that the state of Georgia has set for Troy Anthony Davis. In 1989, Davis was convicted of murdering a white police officer named Mark Allen MacPhail. An off-duty cop, MacPhail was working as a security guard outside of a Burger King, when he was shot multiple times.
Nine people originally stated that they witnessed Davis shoot Macphail but, today, seven witnesses have recanted their testimony. Several now assert they were coerced by local law enforcement. One witness who worked at the Burger King states he cannot read, but was forced to sign a written confession. In addition, there is not one shred of physical evidence--such as a gun--which connects Davis to the crime.
His case has gained international support and calls for clemency from such well-known figures as former United States President Jimmy Carter, anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, and many more. This is Troy Davis' fourth execution date. Each time the international outcry has been so great that the state of Georgia has issued a stay of execution. This time, however, the Supreme Court has refused to hear his case.
The racist nature of the criminal justice system is hardly a revelation to most black people in America. While Nelson Mandela is now arguably the most celebrated ex-political prisoner in the world, the late Black Panther Party member Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt never experienced such reputation reversal, after spending twenty-seven years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Better yet, maybe someone should ask Sean Bell's young New York widow and fatherless daughters what justice means to them. There are so many examples of the horrors black people have experienced at the hands of the criminal justice system that criminal injustice has become the norm. How many of us, brothers especially, were raised to anticipate and handle interactions with law enforcement? Despite our best efforts, some of us still failed during those encounters. Even more of us know someone who did. Troy Davis was one of those people, and because of it, his life has been hanging in the balance for the last two decades.
As Howard students, it is up to us to stop settling for the status quo. We cannot simply be those parents who raise our children to anticipate injustice. Instead, it is time for us to be the young adults who challenge it.
An International Day of Action has been called for this Friday September 16. Mr. Davis has been saved several times before, and it is up to us to do it again. For our parents and grandparents, for Sean and Geronimo, for every brother and sister we know who has ever been a victim of criminal injustice, for ourselves, and most importantly for our brother, we must stand again and again and say, "We are Troy Davis."
Monday, September 12, 2011
Students Against Mass Incarceration
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