Herman Wallace
#76759 CCR U/D Cell #14
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola LA 70712
Albert Woodfox
#72148 CCR L/B Cell #3
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola LA 70712
Although most of the people, if anyone who reads this blog, probably dont write letters, this could be a form of action against the horrid prison system. Let them know we care.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Angola Prison, Our lives as Citezens of the United States of Imprisonment
I was given the privilege in January to see Robert king a former prisoner of Angola and black panther member speak to me and a group of other new york high school students spending time in New Orleans. He ended on a emphasized note of " We are not Free" this was a striking statement and caused a lot of havoc in our group (NY2NO.com) but essentially summarized what he had to say about his experiences and life after prison. I ran across his story again after reading a chapter in Amy Goodman's book Standing Up to the Madness, which briefly mentions him and the Angola 3. Although her narration of the grassroots movement in New Orleans is centered around Malik Rahim of Common Ground Collective, " WE ARE NOT FREE" can account for everything in which i will try to address here.
ANGOLA PRISON:
For some history on Angola Prison, it was originally a slave plantation owned by Isaac Franklin some mother fucker, who named the place after the country in Africa which exported the finest slaves. It eventually turned into a institution created by the state of Louisiana which leased convicts to work on the plantation. At one point the conditions were so terrible a group of 31 inmates cut their own Achilles tendons to protest( Wikipidea?). Today it is a full functioning prestigious penitentiary, with annual rodeo shows, and a prison magazine called the Angolite. The Angolite's purpose is to provide "freedom of expression in the world behind bars," it is said to be relatively uncensored. A side point to my real story; three men are sent to Angola on charges of armed robbery; Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King. Feeding an essential school to prison pipeline, the reasons for there incarceration are endless and go beyond their initial crimes. Angola is one of the most internally violent prisons. Mirrored by the prisons correctional service officers , up until 1991 " gruesome Gertie" an electric chair was used for execution of prisoner's. There was a stabbing in the prison in the same vicinity of the King, Woodfox, and Wallace's holding cells. For this they were immediately convicted; being charged by another inmate who testified abouth their involvement. This inmate was given special privileges; including access to hookers and was soon released from Angola. Robert King, Alfred Woodfox, and Herman Wallace all active members of the black panther party who were working from within the penitentiary to organize inmates against inmate exploitation, ending prisoner rape, were put into solitary confinement, a clear threat to the 100 percent white administration. Their efforts included hunger strikes,sit ins, education, and providing law services to other inmates.
In a 6X9 foot cell they are spending 23 hours of their lives for 36+ and Counting. Herman Wallace unable to obtain access to colored paper at the least ( Free Expression within Prison??) has been in contact with Jackie Sumell a women who i worked with while in New Orleans. She and him are organizing to start a dream house, representative of freedom from Angola. http://www.hermanshouse.org/
-African Americans represent 12.7% of the US population, 15% of US drug users (72% of
all users are white), 36.8% of those arrested for a drug-related crime, 48.2% of
American adults in state, and federal prisons and local jails and 42.5% of prisoners
under sentence of death.
-Due to felony convictions, 1.46 million African American men out of a total voting
population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote.
-One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of
correctional supervision or control.
In Respect to a man Abraham Lincoln that dude on our 5 smack, i will pose a question?Happy Belated by the way.
Is Slavery truly abolished in the United States, or has it just changed into a different form, under the title of the Prison Industrial Complex?
I personally would like to see a fight between the Warden of Angola Burl Cain, see picture above, and Abe; although his attempt at abolishing slavery was not as successful as some may argue. ex. "The average prison sentence is 88 years. Angola’s prisoner population which is now (only) 77.8% black. Every physically able prisoner is required to work. Wages range between 4 and 20 cents an hour. Relatively, the 13th Amendment to
the US Constitution does not in fact eradicate slavery:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction."
Here for the Angolite subscription, it shows a group of inmates picking cotton. Hmm../If i had my way things would be like this...
ANGOLA PRISON:
For some history on Angola Prison, it was originally a slave plantation owned by Isaac Franklin some mother fucker, who named the place after the country in Africa which exported the finest slaves. It eventually turned into a institution created by the state of Louisiana which leased convicts to work on the plantation. At one point the conditions were so terrible a group of 31 inmates cut their own Achilles tendons to protest( Wikipidea?). Today it is a full functioning prestigious penitentiary, with annual rodeo shows, and a prison magazine called the Angolite. The Angolite's purpose is to provide "freedom of expression in the world behind bars," it is said to be relatively uncensored. A side point to my real story; three men are sent to Angola on charges of armed robbery; Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King. Feeding an essential school to prison pipeline, the reasons for there incarceration are endless and go beyond their initial crimes. Angola is one of the most internally violent prisons. Mirrored by the prisons correctional service officers , up until 1991 " gruesome Gertie" an electric chair was used for execution of prisoner's. There was a stabbing in the prison in the same vicinity of the King, Woodfox, and Wallace's holding cells. For this they were immediately convicted; being charged by another inmate who testified abouth their involvement. This inmate was given special privileges; including access to hookers and was soon released from Angola. Robert King, Alfred Woodfox, and Herman Wallace all active members of the black panther party who were working from within the penitentiary to organize inmates against inmate exploitation, ending prisoner rape, were put into solitary confinement, a clear threat to the 100 percent white administration. Their efforts included hunger strikes,sit ins, education, and providing law services to other inmates.
In a 6X9 foot cell they are spending 23 hours of their lives for 36+ and Counting. Herman Wallace unable to obtain access to colored paper at the least ( Free Expression within Prison??) has been in contact with Jackie Sumell a women who i worked with while in New Orleans. She and him are organizing to start a dream house, representative of freedom from Angola. http://www.hermanshouse.org/
-African Americans represent 12.7% of the US population, 15% of US drug users (72% of
all users are white), 36.8% of those arrested for a drug-related crime, 48.2% of
American adults in state, and federal prisons and local jails and 42.5% of prisoners
under sentence of death.
-Due to felony convictions, 1.46 million African American men out of a total voting
population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote.
-One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of
correctional supervision or control.
In Respect to a man Abraham Lincoln that dude on our 5 smack, i will pose a question?Happy Belated by the way.
Is Slavery truly abolished in the United States, or has it just changed into a different form, under the title of the Prison Industrial Complex?
I personally would like to see a fight between the Warden of Angola Burl Cain, see picture above, and Abe; although his attempt at abolishing slavery was not as successful as some may argue. ex. "The average prison sentence is 88 years. Angola’s prisoner population which is now (only) 77.8% black. Every physically able prisoner is required to work. Wages range between 4 and 20 cents an hour. Relatively, the 13th Amendment to
the US Constitution does not in fact eradicate slavery:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction."
Here for the Angolite subscription, it shows a group of inmates picking cotton. Hmm../If i had my way things would be like this...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Unacceptable. Facism
New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Counterterrorism teams like these city detectives armed with M-4 rifles will patrol the subways.
By AL BAKER
Published: February 2, 2008
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Officials said the operation would begin in March.
Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the grants at a news conference on Friday at Grand Central Terminal, where Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly outlined his plans to add a layer of security to the city’s 24-hour transit system.
Mr. Kelly’s plan to heighten security and monitor a subway system that carries nearly five million people a day along 656 miles of tracks reflects the city’s continuing concerns about a possible attack.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, police patrols increased in the subways, particularly at the entrances to the 16 underwater tunnels. As terrorists have hit rail systems around the world, the police in New York have reacted with strategies tailored to thwart similar attacks.
For instance, after the bombings of three trains and a bus in London on July 7, 2005, police officials in New York took steps to protect the city’s subways, including random inspections of train riders’ backpacks and packages, a program that continues today.
“New York remains at the top of the terrorist target list, and mass transit remains a concern because it has been targeted many times around the world,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement released by his chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne. “There have been several thwarted plots against New York’s subway system as well.”
Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.
The officers will work in shifts of 12 hours to provide as much coverage of the subway system as possible, Mr. Browne said.
Officers with high-powered rifles have patrolled sensitive sites above ground in New York, like the Empire State Building, and have guarded subway entrances after attacks in other cities, but have never made daily patrols. .
Michael A. L. Balboni, the state’s deputy secretary for public safety, said that since May, National Guardsmen armed with automatic rifles have patrolled the platforms of the PATH train system in New York and in New Jersey.
Mr. Balboni said that having heavily armed city officers routinely patrol the subways was an important first step.
But more broadly, he said, linking security plans for the disparate rail systems in the metropolitan region was “key in securing additional funding from the Department of Homeland Security.” He said that Mr. Chertoff praised the state for collaborating across geographic regions, since transit systems in New Jersey and Connecticut would also be affected.
“Going forward, the New York metropolitan transit system is getting a $50 million increase over last year’s funding for transit security,” Mr. Balboni said. “What we did was pull together eight agencies, three states and a multitude of police agencies to come up with regional funding priorities.”
I saw this in columbus circle in the morning and when i passed this stone faced combatant i actually felt incredibly nervous. More than anything the act of placing these police armed with such powerful weapons in the subway is terrorism itself. More and more projects that are being implemented by the city are provoking thoughts of me burning my mothers taxes. I guess all that we can do is not let these fuckers get to our heads with their fear schemming shennanigans. The most important thing i learned last year which i am taking with me into 2009 with great emphasis as cliche as it may sound is to actually not fear the people around me. Cause fear is the cause of the death. All these social barriers that are implemented by this spectacle in which we live are tearing us apart more overtly day by day. FUCK YOU Raymond W. Kelly, and your pretty bad yourself Eliott Spitzer.
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