Working

W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All 
Volume
Volume
V
V l
4, N
4
Number
b 2
2

February

F
F b
February
2015
2015

CA’S SAVAGE PRISON SYSTEM
An End to Solitary is Long Overdue
By Marie Levin
ess than two weeks ago the United
Nations Committee against Torture
issued a report strongly criticizing the U.S. record on a number of issues,
among them the extensive use of solitary
confinement. While the U.S. uses longterm solitary more than any other country
in the world, California uses it more than
any other state. It’s one of the few places
in the world where someone can be held
indefinitely in solitary. This practice is
designed to break the human spirit and is
condemned as a form of torture under international law.
Despite these repeated condemnations
by the U.N., the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is
harshening rather than easing its policies,
currently with three new sets of regulations.
The administration’s iron-fisted strategy is

L

CONTENTS
CA's Savage Prison System ....1
Immunity to Kill.........................2
Death for a Cigarette................2
Police State ..............................3
Editorial 4-2 ..............................4
Hands Up - Don't Shoot ...........6
Better to Kill than Imprison. ......7
Rotten Apple Broken Window ..7
Uncle Sam's Big Top ................9

emerging: project the appearance of a reforming system while extending its reach,
and restrict the ability of prisoners and their
loved ones to organize for their rights.
First, the CDCR has instituted a “Step
Down Program” ostensibly to create a
pathway out of indefinite solitary. However, the program actually widens the net
of who can be considered a threat and
therefore eligible for placement in solitary. Recently adopted regulations replace
the old language of “gang” with “Security
Threat Group” (STG) and the previous list
of a dozen identified gangs is now replaced
with a dizzying list of over 1500 STGs.
Under these new regulations, even family
members and others outside the prisons can
be designated as part of an STG. Given the
fact that indefinite solitary is used disproportionately against people of color – in
Pelican Bay, 85% of those in isolation are
Latino – the language used to justify placement in solitary eerily mirrors the rhetoric
of the federal government and its permanent state of war against its declared enemies, all of whom are people of color.
The CDCR promulgated a second set
of rule changes last summer with sweeping new “obscenity” regulations governing
mail going both in and out of prisons. The
original proposal was to explicitly ban any
“publications that indicate an association
with groups that are oppositional to authority and society,” yet after coming under
heavy criticism, CDCR decided to mask
its Orwellian motives by hiding behind the
above mentioned language of STGs. This
ominous language violates First Amendment rights, and reveals a broader agenda:
to censor writings that educate the public
about what is actually occurring inside the

prisons, and to stifle the intellectual and political education and organizing of prisoners themselves.
A third element of CDCR’s strategy
of containment is the implementation of
highly intimidating visiting procedures designed to keep family members away from
their loved ones. Draconian new visiting
regulations authorize the use of dogs and
electronic drug detectors to indiscriminately search visitors for contraband, even
though both methods are notoriously unreliable. These procedures effectively criminalize family members and deter them from
visiting, especially in a period of a growing
family-led movement against solitary.
The three new policies are also intended
to extend CDCR’s reach beyond the prison
walls. As an organizer and family member
of a prisoner, I’m censored when sending
letters to my brother, Sitawa N. Jamaa,
subjected to gratuitous and intimidating
searches during visits, and susceptible to
being labeled an STG associate. These are
all ways that CDCR is trying to keep me
from knowing how my brother and others
are doing, and to repress my organizing.
Taken individually, these regulations
may seem to address unrelated issues. But
given they are all coming down simultaneously – just a year after the last of a series
of historic hunger strikes by people in California prisons has given rise to the highest
level of self-organization and empowerment among imprisoned people since the
1970s – these regulations are nothing less
than a systematic attempt to silence and
retaliate against prisoners’ growing resistance. Over 30,000 prisoners participated
in 2013’s strike, some for 60 days, risking
their health and lives for an end to indefi-

nite solitary. Prisoners’ family members
and loved ones also took up leadership
roles in political organizing in unprecedented ways. The movement to abolish solitary continues to gain momentum around
the country.
The hunger strikes were a significant part
of an ongoing national sea change regarding the use of solitary, as states are waking
up to its dangers. Illinois, Maine and Mississippi have closed or drastically downsized their solitary units without any loss of
institutional safety. New York and Arizona
were recently forced to reduce their use of
isolation, with Colorado and New Jersey
following suit.
Yet California steadfastly remains an
outlier seemingly impervious to change,
led by an administration that relies on tired
rhetoric about “the worst of the worst” to
justify torture. People locked up in California have a decades-long history of fighting
for the rights and dignity of prisoners, affirming their humanity in the face of inhumane conditions and demanding change.
The U.N. report calls on this government
to “ban prison regimes of solitary confinement such as those in super-maximum
security detention facilities.” It’s time for
California to listen. ●
[Marie Levin is the sister of Sitawa N.
Jamaa, a prisoner in solitary confinement
at Tehachapi. She is a member of California Families Against Solitary Confinement
(CFASC) and Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS). Mohamed Shehk
is the Media and Communications Director
of Critical Resistance, and also contributed
to this piece.]

2

IMMUNITY TO KILL DEATH, FOR A
By Lorenzo Johnson
CIGARETTE!
t’s not a coincidence that minorities

I

are being killed by police at an alarming rate. Simply no regard for Human
Rights! By not having safeguards in place,
when an unarmed person is killed this gives
the police the okay to continue to kill. The
first thing society is told is: “The Grand
Jury is reviewing evidence to see if a crime
occurred.” This is all a smoke screen, just
look at the murders of Michael Brown and
Eric Garner to name a few. Mr. Garner’s
death was recorded by a phone showing
his assassination; still no police were indicted for using a Banned Choke Hold on
Mr. Garner. Until the police are held fully
accountable, Minorities will continue to be
targeted and unfortunately killed.
There have been over five hundred (500)
Exonerations of Innocent Prisoners that we
know about. The average time frame an
Innocent Prisoner spends in prison is between thirteen and a half (13½) to fifteen
(15) years, and that’s only if they get the
necessary representation needed. In some
cases, Innocent Prisoners die in prison before their Innocence comes out.
Prosecutors continue to fight tooth and
nail to maintain their False Convictions.
They hide favorable material that can show
a prisoner’s Innocence. They let False Testimony stand just to secure a conviction.
Out of all the Exonerations of Innocent
men and women, NOT ONE percent (1%)
of the prosecutors were held accountable
for their Malicious Prosecutions. One fact
that can’t be disputed, minorities make up
NINETY PERCENT (90%) of Wrongful
Convictions. Until prosecutors are stripped
of their IMMUNITY and held fully accountable, this will unfortunately continue
to happen.
Mass Incarceration has been going on for
decades under a lot of different umbrellas.
The biggest one was and is the “War On
Drugs.” Once again the minorities are the
targets. I keep hearing politicians saying:
“Our Judicial System is off balance, we
must trust and strengthen it. As an Innocent
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 finally seeing what’s
been taking place in our communities. ●

By Mumia Abu-Jamal
he name Eric Garner is now enshrined in the grim annals of history.
It joins Mike Brown, Rahmarley
Graham, Alan Blueford, Dontre Hamilton,
Tamir Rice, and thousands of others, who
were murdered by those their taxes have
helped pay: cops.
In many ways, Garner’s case is even
more egregious than Brown’s, for it was
videotaped, and one sees his takedown, his
incessant choking, his unconsciousness and shortly thereafter - his death.
Now, the words “I can’t breath” have
become joined with the cry “Hands Up!”reminders of the Garner and Brown killings
at the hands of police.
Both cases are also noted for the behavior of grand juries, which now appear
reckless beyond belief, in their inability to
return indictments against cops.
The grand jury emigrated here from England, where, as it was then called, ‘grand
assizes’, a body of about a dozen knights,
under the direction of a baron (or some
other noble), would investigate cases and
charge people.
Later, they became tools of the king.
Today, they are instruments of the prosecutors, and used, just as under kings, to
target whom they wish - and to clear whom
they wish.
Outrage stems from the long history of
its use to protect cops -yes-even killer cops.
This, while the nation is awash in mass
incarceration, the majority of whom have
never had a grand jury indictment, unlike
the average cop.
The System is constructed to protect their
minions (the cops), no matter how outrageous their behavior. That’s just a fact.
And as the nation now celebrates historic
events from the civil rights movement of a
half-century ago, the grim and ugly present
of Black life-and Black Death-in America,
makes that glowing history feel hollow indeed. ●

T

Rock!

THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR
OUR CURRENT POLICE AND PRISON STATE
December 5, 2014 |
he 200 protesters arrested last night
in New York City and others being
arrested elsewhere in demonstrations against police brutality are confronting a police and prison system that has put
more people behind bars than any other [3]
country. Some have pointed out that those
doing the arresting are not exactly far-right
Replublican and conservative-led jurisdictions, but solidly Democratic strongholds.
Cities like New York City, where Eric
Garner was tragically killed – are run by
the Democratic Party from top to bottom,
with one of the countriy’s most progressive
mayors, Bill De Blasio at the helm. Given
that the party is, at least, traditionally associated with liberalism, civil rights and a
more permissive society, some observers
find that ironic. But the recent past tells us
that the Democratic Party in the past three
decades has abandoned concerns for civil
liberties and civil rights in the pursuit of
appearing to be just as tough on crime as
their Republican counterparts.
This is a story that begins when Bill Clinton embraced the law-and-order policies of
his Republican predecessors. Let’s review:

T

Clinton: The New Democrat With An
Old Approach To Crime
First some background: The first president to declare a “War On Drugs [4]” was a
Republican, Richard Nixon. Nixon began a
heavily police-focused drug policy, which
was then escalated by Republican Ronald
Reagan, who made his wife Nancy the
face of “Just Say No” – a more innocuous
phrase that was accompanied by a ramping
up of prisons and policing.
During this period, many Democrats resisted these policies, considering them to
be conflicting with the civil rights coalition
they had absorbed into their party since the
1960’s. The big change came when President Bill Clinton came into office.
Clinton was a “New Democrat” – part
of a new coalition of Democrats [5] who
believed that the liberalism represented by
the New Deal and Great Society had run
its course, and that Democrats must court
Big Business and certain right-wing interest groups in order to forge a new party.
Included in this policy shift were things
like “welfare reform,” the North American
Free Trade Agreement, and deregulation of
Volume 4, Number 2

the telecommunications and banking industries. But perhaps Clinton’s earliest and
most intense shifting of traditional Democratic Party liberalism was with respect to
crime. This took the form of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act (later commonly known as the crime
bill). To helm its passage, Clinton tapped
none other than our current vice president,
then Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.
Joe Biden: Clinton’s Crime Bill
Enforcer
Biden was the chief author of the 1994
crime bill [6], which vastly increased the
number of police officers on American
streets, eliminated Pell Grants for prisoners, expanded the federal death penalty and
upped the Border Patrol presence (recall
that this bill was passed around the same
time as NAFTA, which increased migration from Mexico [7]).
The bill was passed in a political climate of hysteria about crime and Biden
and Clinton used that climate to their advantage. Recall that during the earlier 1992
presidential campaign, Clinton himself
flew back to Arkansas during the presidential campaign to ensure a mentally ill black
man was executed. Following the execution, Clinton said [8], “I can be nicked a
lot, but no one can say I’m soft on crime.”
That was a sentiment Biden and congressional Democrats also sought to project. During the debate over the 1994 bill,
then-Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) introduced an
amendment [9] to eliminate death penalty
provisions for drug kingpin crimes where
no death occurred. Most Democrats voted
against the amendment, and it went down
in flames. In 1996, Biden joked that “someone asleep for the last 20 years might wake
up and think Republicans were representing Abbie Hoffman and Democrats were
representing J. Edgar Hoover.”
The death penalty alone was huge for
the Democratic Party’s image projection;
Clinton’s Attorney General nominee, Janet
Reno, boasted of “regularly” seeking the
death penalty as Dade County state attorney. The Department of Justice boosted its
defendants submitted for death penalty review from 47 (1988-1994) to 682 between
1995 and 2000.
A small group of progressive Democrats,
mostly African Americans, requested that

federal death penalty legislation include
the Racial Justice Act [10] (RJA), which
sought to allow those convicted of the
death penalty to use statistical data to support allegations of racial discrimination.
The Clinton White House was silent on
the RJA, and it didn’t make it into 1994
death penalty legislation. A memo later
released to the public revealed why. As
author Naomi Murakawa notes [9] in her
book The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America, a White House
document titled “Draft Q&A/Racial Justice
Act” wrote “[President gives his statement
on the urgency of the crime bill. No mention of RJA.] If the administration were to
be asked about the RJA, it would reply that
Clinton’s initiative was to “pass the bill and
get those cops out on the streets,” whether
there was an RJA included or not.
Thus, the prison population saw a dramatic increase under the Clinton administration, with the support of most Congressional Democrats (and of course most
Republicans, who continued to egg on the
Democrats to go even further to the right).
Here’s what the prison population boom
looked like, illustrated by the Center for
Budget and Policy Priorities:
The Failed Effort To Stop Police
Militarization
The crime legislation of the 1990’s didn’t
just put more cops on the streets and build
more prisons, it also made sure those cops
were armed to the teeth. Throughout the
90’s, there was an expansion [11] of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
and Byrne grants, which financed local police departments to wage a heavy-handed
drug war (both programs increased under
President Obama).
This past June, progressive House
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced an
amendment [12] to the defense appropriations bill that would block the “transfer” of
“aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers,
silencers, toxicological agents, launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles”
from the Department of Defense to state
and local police forces. The amendment
received the support of only 62 Members,
[11] and those voting against it included
Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), who represents Ferguson, and every senior member
3

of Democratic Party leadership including
Reps. Nancy Pelosi (CA), Steny Hoyer
(MD), and James Clyburn (SC).
These Democrats (and Republicans,
most of whom joined them) were courted
by police unions such as the National Fraternal Order of Police and by weapons
manufacturers who develop the Pentagon
armaments that are now finding their way
to the police.
Can The Democrats – And Republicans -- Shift Back Towards Crime
Sanity?
Despite all this, there is evidence that we
are starting to see a real shift – driven by
increasing hostility to the police state by
Americans of all political ideologies – by
both the Democrats and Republicans towards less militarization of the police and
less authoritarian crime policy.
None other than Bill Clinton, the man
who oversaw the largest expansion of the
federal death penalty in history, admitted
as much [13]. “We basically took a shotgun to a problem that needed a .22 – a very
significant percentage of serious crimes in
this country are committed by a very small
number” of criminals, he told an audience
in October. We took a shotgun to it and
just sent everybody to jail for too long. “I
think in this next step where we’re going to
be apparently debating all this and as the
presidential election approaches, we’ll start
to have a discussion of all of this,” he continued, pointing to Republican support for
reducing prison time, particularly among
the religious wing of the party.”
Many of the Members who voted against
Grayson’s amendment, prodded by thousands of protesters in the streets, are now
calling for oversight of police militarization. Clay now says [14] he’s “alarmed” by
the way Ferguson’s police are armed; the
President has pledged to fund a new program [15] to make 50,000 body cameras
available for police to wear to reduce incidents of brutality, although many commentators have observed that having his death
by chokehold videotaped did not help Eric
Garner or his family get much justice.
On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans who goaded the Democrats into
becoming the new party of crime authoritarianism, are starting to shift as well. A
number of Republican governors [16] have
embarked on ambitious criminal justice reform programs, lowering their prison populations. Likely 2016 presidential candidate
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been outspo4

ken [17] about police brutality, and has
gone further than any leading Democrats in
calling for an absolute end to the War On
Drugs [18].
None of this is to say that these Democrats or Republicans who have flip-flopped
and are now calling for reforms are in any
way sincere in their convictions. Who is to
say that Bill Clinton was more honest when
talking about executing the mentally ill
than he is about reducing the prison population today?
But politicians are fundamentally opportunistic, and the fact they are talking about
rolling back decades of harsh policies is a
testament to the hard work activists are doing across the country, and to the sacrifices
of men like Eric Garner who lost their lives,
and, in the process, showed us why today’s
prison and police state is a failure and why
both the Democrats and Republicans must
change course. ●
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/
civil-liberties/truth-about-who-reallyresponsible-our-current-police-and-prisonstate
Links:
[1] http://alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/zaidjilani-0
[3] http://thinkprogress.org/
justice/2014/09/17/3568232/the-unitedstates-had-even-more-prisoners-in-2013/
[4] http://www.drugpolicy.org/newsolutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drugwar
[5] https://medium.com/@matthewstoller/
its-al-froms-democratic-party-we-justlive-here-5d0de7f89c3e
[6] http://www.politifact.com/truth-ometer/statements/2008/aug/24/barackobama/bidens-crime-bill-helped-some/
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/
weekinreview/18uchitelle.html
[8] http://books.google.com/books?id=cZ
e1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA108&lp
g=PA108&dq=clinton+flew+back+a
rkansas+execution&source=bl&amp
;ots=pHk3XkOik5&sig=xu3S6qreY
FWY3-06RppN3WoRKGA&hl=en&
amp;sa=X&ei=ue2AVPyGLY6jyAS9
tILIBg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=o
nepage&q&f=false
[9] http://books.google.com/books?id=b6_
DAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA244&dq
=1994+crime+bill&hl=en&sa=
X&ei=W9eAVIH_CYWvggSci4DQ
Cw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepa
ge&q&f=false

[10] http://articles.latimes.com/1994-0422/news/mn-49044_1_death-penalty
[11] http://www.vanityfair.com/online/
daily/2014/08/militarization-police-forceferguson-congress
[12] https://beta.congress.gov/
amendment/113th-congress/houseamendment/918
[13] http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/
bill-clinton-prison-sentences-take-centerstage-2016
[14] http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/
ferguson-congressman-alarmed-bymilitarized-police/
[15] http://www.washingtonpost.com/
blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/03/obamasbody-camera-argument-just-took-a-bighit/
[16] http://www.motherjones.com/
politics/2014/02/conservatives-prisonreform-right-on-crime
[17] http://time.com/3605426/fergusonmichael-brown-darren-wilson-rand-paul/
[18] http://reason.com/blog/2014/11/18/
rand-paul-last-week-i-want-to-end-the-war

EDITORIAL 4-2
It’s been awhile since I’ve written an
editorial. Mayhaps I’ll start this one off
with a bible quote from Genesis 6:4: “The
Nephilim appeared on earth in those days,
as well as later, after the sons of God had
intercourse with the daughters of human
beings, who bore them sons. They were the
heroes of old, the men of renown.” Being a
godless commie, I have no use for gods of
any sort. But I thought it interesting that,
according to this quote, god had many sons.
Why’d we just pick the one to worship?
Police, A Part of The State’s Apparatus of Repression
While recent killings by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City receive
national attention, the fact is that from 1999
through 2011, American law enforcement
officers killed 4,531 people, 96 percent by
firearms and 96 percent of them men, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. African Americans, 13
percent of the population, are victims in 26
percent of police shootings. Law enforcement kills African Americans at 2.8 times
the rate of white non-Latinos, and 4.3 times
the rate of Asians.
Hundreds of police killings have been
left out of a nationwide database that keeps
tabs on these acts, according to an investiRock!

gative report published by the Wall Street
Journal (WSJ). The newspaper collected
information from more than 100 police
agencies across the country [out of tens of
thousands] all among the largest departments in the US. According to the report,
more than 550 killings by police had not
been included in the national data kept by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In its report, WSJ took data from the FBI
and compared it with information provided
to the media outlet by 105 police agencies.
The paper tallied 1,800 deaths at the hands
of police between 2007 and 2012, which is
45 percent more than the number of “justifiable homicides” recorded by the FBI in
the same time period.
The Newsletter
This is interesting. After announcing my
illness and complaining about the lack of
stamps from the inside, people evidently
figured the newsletter was at an end and
so their payment strategy changed. What I
am getting now (with the exception PBSP’s
B-5 unit, which sent me 80 stamps) is letters
with only two, three, or four stamps. Folks
are hedging their bets, and that’s okay. You
won’t lose much money, only the cost of
postage needed to send those few stamps
each month or so. Whatever works with
you is fine with me. Since I cut off the 550
freeloaders from the mailing list this whole
process of cranking out the newsletter has
been made much easier. It’s wonderful not
having to beg you for money each month.
Now the mailing list is almost up to 100, all
paying customers (there is no such thing as
a “free lunch,” someone pays for it).
For those who are reading Rock for the
first time, Mark and I have put thousands
of dollars of our own money into getting
this newsletter in to prison readers. We are
now broke. There are no free subscriptions.
Nor is your promise to send stamps at some
future date going to get you a subscription.
If you are too lame to hustle a few stamps,
then clearly this is not the publication for
you. You need to be reading the sports page
from one of the bourgeois media outlets, to
see how billionaire A’s team beat billionaire B’s team (as if you had a horse in that
race).
War and Peace
So, Republicrats, how’s that whole
global war thing going—you know, the
War Against Terrorism? I have got admit that when you first started out on this
latest series of wars, I was somewhat beVolume 4, Number 2

fuddled. How, I wondered, can you wage
a war against terrorism, which is nothing
but a tactic (like a war against the tactic of
a flanking maneuver)? Terrorism is a tactic most often used by the weak against the
powerful, but is also frequently used by the
powerful against the weak (only it’s not
called “state terrorism” when done by the
U.S.).
This war against a tactic did not start
with the attack on September 11, 2001 on
the Twin Towers in NYC. It was going on
long before 2001. No need a lot of jibberjabber, are we winning or not? Have there
been many terrorist attacks since 2001?
Well, in 2013 there were just under 10,000
such attacks, killing 17,958 people, including large numbers of women and children.
Draw your own conclusions.
As Gwynne Dyer notes, “The invasions,
the drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and
Africa, the whole lumbering apparatus of
the “global war on terrorism” have not
killed the terrorist beast. They have fed it,
and the beast has grown very large.” Can
you spell ISIS? Worse, we are pissing off
more and more people around the globe
with our indiscriminate killings. If drone
strikes are okay, then so too should be suicide bombings. Why is one terrorism and
the other not? State sponsored terror is still
terror. It’s the ‘war on terror’ that is producing more terrorism.
But not to worry my dear Republicrats,
to paraphrase Mike Whitney, “the glorious US military has spent the last 13 years
fighting sheep herders in flip-flops in Afghanistan in a conflict that, at best, could
be characterized as a stalemate. And now
the White House wants to take on Russia?”
After thirteen years of war against terrorism, and after trillions in treasure wasted
on pointless goals, your reward of an even
wider war is looming large. But not to worry, Regardless of who might win these little
wars of convenience, the military industrial
complex will get even richer. And while the
youth outside of prison might have to fight
and die in these pointless wars, it is a small
price to pay for the ever greater profits of
the rich and the maintenance of the best
government their money can buy. As journalist Benjamin Dangl writes:
The 85 richest people in the world
now have the same wealth as the 3.5
billion poorest. That was one of the
findings of a report from UK-based
Oxfam International, which also concluded that the wealthiest 1% of the
global population owns roughly half of

the world’s wealth. Inequality is rising
most rapidly in the US, where the richest 1% have benefitted the most from
economic growth since 2009. During
that same period, the poorest 90% in
the US became poorer. This massive
concentration of economic resources
in the hands of fewer people presents
a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems,” the Oxfam
report stated.
The bourgeois politicians here in the U.S.
should be offering citizens dreams of a better world, instead they claim to be protecting us from nightmares. Just as the dreams
of something better were a lie, also false is
the nightmares of the terrorist boogieman.
Whatever happens you can rest assured that
not only do the American people have the
best government the rich can buy, they also
have the government they deserve.
Why would I say something that mean?
In today’s Seattle Times are the results of
a poll of U.S. citizens on the subject of
torture. The article said “Just over half of
Americans say they believe the interrogation methods the CIA used against terrorism suspects … were justified.” Breaking
the bones in their feet and making them
crouch in a tiny box on those same feet.
Stringing them up naked to a wall and beating them, leaving them in the cold, at least
one died from the cold (oh, and come to
find out, the one who died was innocent).
Don’t get the idea that only one died, there
were dozens, possibly hundreds or thousands (we only see the tip of the iceberg).
I personally have read accounts of many
such killings in the bourgeois press.
The American people are the “good Germans” of today; like their counterparts of
old who blissfully believed every lie the
Nazi’s cynically fed them. The problem
is that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said
(Adapted from Dante) “He who accepts
evil without protesting against it is really
cooperating with it.” Torturing people is
evil, period! The majority of Americans
who today support torture are complicit in
those war crimes. The thing of it is, there
is a second torture report locked away at
CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The
agency says the document is so sensitive
that national security would be at risk if
any details about it were publicly revealed.
It must be like the recent Wikileaks revealing that the CIA admitted drone strikes are
ineffective. Indeed, according to a leaked
CIA document released by Wikileaks, the
controversial U.S. drone strikes may be
5

helping rather than hindering the Taliban
in Afghanistan. Similarly, the U.S. State
Department is delaying the release of a
volume from its U.S. foreign relations history that deals with the CIA-backed overthrow of an Iranian prime minister in the
1950s out of concern that publication could
undermine nuclear diplomacy with the Islamic republic.
Uh, no. Iran already knows you overthrew their democratically elected government in order to install the hated dictator, the Shaw of Iran, Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, who butchered his people until the
masses finally drove him out of power. By
that time, however, all of the progressive
elements had been killed by the Shaw, leaving only the religious sector remaining to
pick up the reins of power. So in effect, it
was the U.S. who is ultimately responsible
for the religious elements currently ruling
Iran. Just like the murderous regime currently in power in Guatemala, there too the
U.S. overthrew a democratically elected
government to install yet another fascist. In
1971, in a coup orchestrated by then President Nixon and his crime partner Henry
Kissinger, the democratically elected government of Chile was overthrown and a
fascist dictator (Augusto Pinochet) was installed (after the elected president was murdered in his office by Pinochet’s soldiers).
These are just a few examples of the many
instances of our deadly meddling in the
internal affairs of other sovereign nations.
Might does not make right.
Indeed, if you had broken someone's
bones and shoved anything up their asses,
you'd be charged with rape and who knows
what. Youi'd never see daylight. Just as you
would be held accountable for such crimes,
so too should the torturers of the Bush and
Obama administrations. If they are not held
accountable in the United States, they must
be pursued internationally under the principles of universal jurisdiction. ●

6

HANDS UP – DON’T SHOOT
By Jalil A. Muntaqim, s/nAnthony Bottom
ontrary to the refrain from the tragic Ferguson, Mo., shooting of Michael Brown, we know that keeping your hands up does not mean you will
not be shot. Assata Shakur had her hands
up when she was shot on the New Jersey
turnpike by a State Trooper, Oscar Grant
was lying face down on a subway platform
when he was shot in the back by a Bay
Area Transit cop, Sean Bell was executed
in a hail of bullets by a half dozen N.Y.
city cops while sitting in a car, and Trayvon Martin fought to defend himself when
he was murdered by a wanna-be cop just
yards from his home. Obviously, I find this
plea for mercy sorely insufficient, in fact,
indefensible when a trained killer has a
weapon pointed at you under the guise of
Blue authority. Needless to say, this passive posture generally supports the inferior
and superior paradigm, creating a social
environment in which Black lives do not
matter. Brooke Reynolds, in an essay titled
“Policing Race,” informed:
“This 'order' was created and protected
by US law. From slavery to today’s militarized ghettos, it is clear that racial violence
has almost always occurred explicitly or
implicitly in cooperation with the law. William and Murphy trace the relationship between the law and social order: “The fact
that the legal order not only countenanced
but sustained slavery, segregation, and discrimination for most of our nation’s history
and the fact that the police were bound to
uphold that order sets patterns for police
behavior and attitudes toward minority
communities that has persisted until the
present day.” (Parenti). In terms of the relationship to the police themselves, “Government-sponsored racial discrimination
and segregation have deeply affected the
organizing ethos and practices of US policing.” (Parenti)—thus, it becomes clear that
“... relationship between police violence
and social institution of policing is structural, 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 supremacist attack” with determination and
fervor.”
In response this reality, Robert Williams

C

wrote the book “Negroes With Guns,” reflecting on the institutionalization of State
violence and the inherent human rights of
Black people to defend themselves, that
was also practiced by the Deacons for Defense opposing Klu Klux Klan violence.
Reynolds continues:
“By confronting the perpetration of police racial violence with the maintenance
of social order, it is rendered unidentifiable,
ignorable, and in articulable. Having been
so deeply written into our very conception
of social organization and policing, police
brutality and racism becomes invisible to
white society (who also has an investment
in denying the reality of racial violence).
Shocked by stories of police violence and
unmoved by the dehumanization of racial
profiling, white people simultaneously reveal their ignorance of and investment in
the violent inherent in the protection of
white supremacy.”
Furthermore, Reynolds states:
“The ignorability and inarticulability of
racist police violence to white society is
directly related to its historical and current
impunity. Authorized by the government
end white society as a whole, the police
are given the freedoms necessary in order
to guarantee the stability of white supremacy and to continue constructing racialized
identities. Within this system, injustices
done to people of color are not classified
as injustices, if they are recognized at all.
Police murders, abuses, and terrorization of
people of color, no matter how gratuitous,
are more often than not met with legal indifference, public support, and are virtually

"Time" by Chris Carrasco

Rock!

bereft of consequences. Martinot notes the
relationship between modern-day police
impunity, slave patrols, and white supremacist law:
“Both the police and the impunity of
slave masters belong to the same paradigm
of dual systems of law, sanctioned by the
law, in producing the subjection of people
of color. What contemporary juridical procedure has done, by valorizing police impunity, is regenerated the doubled system
of law of the slave system… Thus, both
manifest the component elements of white
racialized identity paranoia…, violence…,
and white solidarity…” (Martinot).
“The racist police violence which pervades the landscape of US society today is
not incidental, nor [is it] the work of ‘rogue
cops,’ [It is] an essential part of the larger
campaign of social re-racialization” (Martinot). Historically rooted in a very real
desire to subjugate and control people of
color in America, and operating in a way
which inscribes and deepens whiteness as
an identity and a value, today’s police forces operate along the same paradigm as their
predecessors.” (Reynolds)
These lengthy quotes from Reynolds
“Policing Race” establish the lens in which
we are to view the recent rash of police
killings of unarmed Black people. It is extremely important that conversations and
national debate about the relationship between the police and the Black community
is not the same as the relationship between
the police and the white community. The
historical ramifications of this dynamic
relationship today are subject to the reality of the racist culture in law enforcement.
Law enforcement modus operandi, for all
intents and purposes, are based on outside
armed forces, albeit white people, patrolling communities of color, with all of its
inherent racial implications.
Over forty years ago, the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense raised the e very
same issues, establishing their patrols to
ensure police officers conducted their business in accord with the law. For their actions and concerns for the welfare of the
Black community, the BPP became the
number one target for extermination by
law enforcement across the country. The
primary reason is because the BPP did not
believe or practice passive resistance, they
were not in the streets chanting “Hands Up
Don’t Shoot.” Such passive pleas would
be considered a misguided belief protesters would be safe challenging a system of
armed forces with innate disdain for the
Volume 4, Number 2

well-being of Black people’s lives. Rather,
such modus operandi parallels the racial attitudes of the slave patrols out of which the
police system evolved. (See, Hadden, Sally
E., Slave Patrols, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001) (Reynolds,
pg. 3-8).
The task of young people today is to increase pressure and define the national debate on the relationship between the Black
community and police. De-Militarization
and De-Centralization must become the primary demand. The call for community control of the police was what the BPP fought
to achieve, and that objective is what needs
to be demanded now. The police need to
live in the community, not come from outside the community. There must be more
diversity in the command and structure of
the police, reflecting the composition of the
community they patrol.
It is time to reverse the chant ‘No Justice
No Peace’ to “No Peace Without Justice,”
it is time to ensure Black lives matter as
much as white lives, and that all people’s
lives are as sacred as police lives.
The First Line of Defense IS power to
the People!
Remember: We Are Our Own Liberators
Jalil A. Muntaqim # 77A4283
s/n Anthony Bottom
Attica CF, PO Box 149
Attica, NY 14011

CIA: "MANDELA
SHOWS BETTER
TO KILL THAN
IMPRISON"

A

study by the Central Intelligence
Agency that evaluated the pros and
cons of assassination programs has
revealed significant insights into the agency’s thinking about targeted killings, including potential backlash. The study was
published by Wikileaks on Thursday.
The study is titled “CIA Best Practices
in Counterinsurgency” and evaluates assassination operations against the Taliban,
al-Qaeda, the FARC, PLO, HAMAS and
the Shining Path, among others, including
those managed by other countries.
One of the determinations is that most
assassinations of “high-value targets” do
not usually produce the desired result. The
booklet notes a few exceptions: the 2008
assassinations of FARC leaders Raul Reyes

and Ivan Rios is thought to have eroded
cohesion among the FARC ranks and the
assassinations of HAMAS founder Sheik
Ahmed Yassin and co-founder Abdel Aziz
is thought to have demoralized the ranks of
that organization.
Despite its low rate of success, however,
the review does suggest that assassination
of high-value targets is sometimes preferable to attempts to capture. Captured targets may often become icons of resistance
while they serve in prison. The example in
that case is none other than Nelson Mandela who served 27 years in prison for his
anti-apartheid activities in South Africa.
“Capturing leaders may have a limited
psychological impact on a group if members believe that captured leaders will
eventually return to the group,” the review
reads, “or if those leaders are able to maintain their influence while in government
custody, as Nelson Mandela did while incarcerated in South Africa.”
Perhaps as a result of the analysis, such
assassinations radically increased over
the years after the publication of the 2009
booklet. The following year became “the
year of the drone” with 751 people killed
by UAV strikes in Pakstan alone in 2010,
according to the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism.
After that, however, one of the report’s
prognosis seems to have come true with the
radicalization of areas devastated by dronebased assassinations such as Waziristan.
“The potential negative effect of HLT
[high-level targets] operations include increasing the level of insurgent support…,
strengthening an armed group’s bonds
with the population, radicalizing an insurgent group’s remaining leaders, creating
a vacuum into which more radical groups
can enter, and escalating or de-escalating a
conflict in ways that favor the insurgents.”
http://us.sputniknews.com/
us/20141218/1013345124.html

7

"ROTTE N APPLES" &
"BROKEN WINDOWS"
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
The massive demonstrations rocking
U.S. cities from coast to coast are loud and
visible reflections of the deep anger and
antipathy rising up against the long and
bloody train of police terrorism.
If you have read my writings or listened
to my commentaries, you know that I describe the police violence as what it is: terrorism, not ‘brutality’.
For the aim of all police violence is to instill terror in Black populations, just as was
the aim of white terrorists of the past, like
the Ku Klux Klan, which lynched Black
men, women and yes- children.
And although these protests by young
people across the country are remarkable, we must remember that cop violence
against African American communities
ain’t a new thing.
It was Dec.4, 1969 – 45 years ago, when
cops raided the Monroe Street apartment
building of young Black Panthers, including Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton, of
Chicago. There, police, armed with submachine guns, shot Capt. Mark Clark, of
Peoria, Illinois, and Deputy Chairman
Fred Hampton, as he slept in his bed, next
to his pregnant wife. Both Mark and Fred
were killed; at least 7 other Panthers were
wounded by police gunfire – as they lay in
their beds.
Not a single cop was ever charged with
these murders or these attempted murders
and aggravated assaults on members of the
Illinois Black Panther Party.
Next spring marks the 30th anniversary of the MOVE Bombing – where cops
dropped bombs from a helicopter, and
killed 11 men, women and children – members and relatives of the Black Naturalist
group, MOVE.
Eleven people burned and/or shot to
death – and 2 city blocks in Philadelphia
turned to glowing red bricks and ashes. And
again, not a single cop ever even charged
with anything. Only MOVE survivor, Ramona Africa would ever get to prison – for
Riot! 7 years.
The movement protesting police terrorism is a remarkable thing; but it didn’t begin yesterday.
Police terrorism is decades long, and it
ain’t about ‘rotten apples’ nor ‘broken windows’. It’s about blocking a popular freedom movement, and protecting a system of
repression. ●
8

ORGANIZING
AGAINST POLICE
TERROR
By Ed Mead
ou have listened to me prattle on
and on about the necessity for
peaceful protest on the inside, that
violence in the prison struggle only serves
the interests of the state, and that those advocating violence are provocateurs who
will give the Green Wall exactly what they
need to put an end to all forms of resistance
to slavery. From this one might have concluded that I’m a pacifist. Not so. As regular readers know, I’ve bombed the federal
and state governments numerous times,
and have been in fire-fights with police too.
Indeed, last night I was watching the
TV news when a story came on about the
Federal Courthouse in Tacoma, I said to
the person next to me “I’ve bombed that
courthouse.” I’m not a pacifist, but I am
somewhat of a strategist. Prisoners and exprisoners must not use violence in the furtherance of the struggle. Period. If you feel
you must implement some form of protest
beyond the confines of bourgeois law, then
take those impulses to another struggle, not
the prisoners’ movement.
As long as the capitalist state exists there
will be violence between the oppressors
and the oppressed. Often, as demonstrated
in the rash of recent police killings of unarmed Black people who did not even rise
to the level of “suspect” in a crime, the person killed can be a 12 year old child with
a toy gun. This is police terror. One of the
dictionary definitions of the word “terror”
is to rule through the use of fear. George
Jackson wrote “If terror is going to be the
choice of weapons, there must be funerals
on both sides” [Blood in My Eye, p. 26].
We have a Black man sitting in Seattle’s
jail charged with stalking and shooting two
police officers while they sat in their patrol
car, one cop was killed the other wounded.
He too was responding to the police killings of Seattle’s youth. They busted the alleged killer two days later. Mark Cook and
I both wrote to him in the King County Jail,
offering our support. His lawyers made us
stop contacting him, saying it would not
help the defendant’s case to be associated
with the likes of us. This morning I picked
up the Seattle Times newspaper and on the
front page was an article titled “2 NYC Police Officers Shot Dead in Patrol Car” with
a subtitle of “Gunman vowed online to re-

Y

taliate for chokehold death of Eric Garner.”
Just as the Seattle suspect was responding
to police terror, so too was today’s case in
NYC.
Police terror is a national problem in
America’s poor and minority communities.
One might understandably respond to such
provocations in a violent way. But prisoners cannot stoop to engage in the luxury
of revenge. The prisoners’ struggle must
be peacefully waged, both inside and out.
And yeah, I did bomb the headquarters of
the Department of Corrections in the state
capitol, but that was then and this is now. In
my day we did not have 30,000 prisoners
we could draw on for support, we did what
we did in the absence of a mass movement.
Today, to one extent or another, that movement exists on the inside of California’s
prisons. Remember, without mass struggle
there can be no revolution. Our job is to
build that mass movement on the inside,
without provoking additional repression
in the process. Every GP tier should have
an elected representative, one accountable
to those who elected him or her, not to the
prison administration. Dormitory and other
open housing units should similarly elect
prisoner representatives.
The International Declaration of Human
Rights, a treaty the U.S. is a signatory to,
states that we have a right to peacefully organize ourselves. ●

Rock!

UNCLE SAM’S BIG TOP

"*" equals new paragraph)
By Josua (Zero) Cartrette, Pendleton OR
ark now all you merry souls
And listen as the drumbeat rolls
Oh what sounds and sights abound
Come one and all, let’s strap you down
No worries friends. No danger here
No cause for panic, fright or fear
We’re your friends, make no mistake
Don’t mind those guards, guns, dogs and gates
Just follow me. Yes right this way
‘Cause in the tent you’re sure to stay. *
Now step to the right folks, here you’ll see
Rows upon rows of new TVs
What a marvel, just sit and watch
These flashing pictures as you rot
Pay close attention. Here comes the end
So smile and nod at the message they send.
As they tell you what to want and wear
On what to spend, and when to care.
And who hate, and emulate,
And who should run this police state.
It’s all for your own good, you see?
Freedom of thought saps your energy.
Yes that’s it, makes perfect sense.
Now sit and stare, and let’s commence…. *
Now once you’ve gone through the program phasing,
We’ve something else that’s just as amazing!
A feast for the mind now, if you will
Euphoria! In just one tiny pill.
We’ve got Prozac, and valium, we’ve got Vicodin!
And Xanniies, and Oxies, and sweet Ridalin!
We’ve got Benzos and Dexos, and Xicabilferal!
We’ve got shit that you can’t even pronounce at all!
We got you’re your stuff, no matter your vice.
Opiat derivatives to the pharmaceutical ice.
We’ll fix your brains, your chondriatic disease,
Your moods, your stress, even your shaky knees!
With only the safest new medications,
Designed by private health care corporations,
Profiteers in big business completion
For capital gain and political position.
So pay no mind to that small print warning
Just pay for your drugs and take two every morning…. *
Ahh, good. I see you’re all pacified on your new medication!
Well then come right this way to the next demonstration
Onward we go, deeper into the tent.
Now give me your money, you have to pay rent.
Oh yes, now here I should tell you,
We also reserve our full rights to sell you.
And to buy you. And to steal you.
And to enslave you. And even kill you.
But never mind all that just yet,
I’ll explain it all later (once you forget).
Now come along for this great demonstration.
It’s about to begin, on what a sensation!
Oh what brilliance! Oh what drama!
The procession is even being led by Obama
It’s the greatest of shows, the biggest one ever!
The world’s never seen such audacious endeavor! *

H

Volume 4, Number 2

You see, our directors run our show from the shade
And they’ve learned from the mistakes that others have made.
They won’t use the same tricks as say Hitler or Stalin.
We all know how those big tops have fallen.
No, we’ll use balloons! And face paint! And clowns!
And gadgets and gewgaws! Distractions abound!
It’s fun for the family, a glorious ride!
(But if you resist, force will be applied)
We’ll sit you in rows, correct social class stations,
All facing front toward the big presentation
While little you notice the stage hands behind
All locking the exits and changing the signs…. *
Now the music has stopped. The lights have gone low.
The ringmaster enters to kick off the show.
What will they do? What will they say?
For what grand display did we come all this way?
The excitement mounts. Oh the suspense!
He raises his arms, and here he comments…
“A worldwide welcome to our global mistake!
In which you get nothing for the tolls that we take.
You’ve read the signs wrong, yet now they are gone.
But since you’re all here, the show must go on.
“So you there,” he points to the bottom rung seating,
Cracking his whip at those of us retreating.
“You minorities, poor folks, and freaks with mohawks,
Into the freak show cages with locks!
And don’t waste your time trying to resist
‘Cause our guards are on ‘roids, and you don’t want them pissed
And the rest of your lower class ladies and gents?
You’ll be the labor to prop up my tents.
You best not resist, get your asses in gear.
As we control you with cops and tactics of fear…. *
“For you in the middle, lest I forget,
You’re too unpredictable, therefore a threat.
We’re removing your station, so move down below.
We need gaps in the middle, and distinguishable rows.
But don’t worry folks, no cause for alarm.
Cooperate and I promise we’ll bring you no harm.
Have a laptop, and iPhone, a “binky” of sorts,
A gesture of thanks for being such good sports.
We’ll keep you medicated, and very well fed,
We’ll play your favorite cop shoes, then send you to bed.
Just make no sudden movements, don’t stray from your places,
Or we’ll send in the drones to drop pies in your faces…. *
But for you in the toppest of social class stations?
It’s all just for you, such vast exploitation.
Such death to those workers in third world countries,
Death to the ecosystem and its cute little monkeys,
And death to the dissenters who don’t like our shows.
And death to nature, care of new G.M.O.s
And human progress itself, by way of oppression.
And death to all those who we can’t squeeze for money.
And death to anyone who even looks at us funny.
As we pump tons upon tons of poisonous fumes
Up into the atmosphere in visible plumes.
It’s all for us here, in the toppest of rows.
For wealth and for power, now on with the show!
It’s the greatest one ever, too big to be stopped!
Come one, come all, to Uncle Sam’s bit top!
9

Free Electronic Copy

Important Notice

Outside people can read, download, or print current and back issues of the Rock newsletter by going to www.rocknewsletter.com and
clicking on the issue of the Rock
newsletter they'd like to read.
Outside folks can also have a
free electronic copy of the newsletter sent to them each month by way
of e-mail. Have them send requests
for a digital copy of the newsletter to
ed@rocknewsletter.com.

Articles and letters sent to the
Rock newsletter for publication are
currently being delivered and received in a timely manner. Please
do not send such materials to third
parties to be forwarded to Rock as it
only delays receiving them and adds
to the workload of those asked to do
the forwarding.
Letters sent to Rock (located in
Seattle) in care of Prison Focus (located in Oakland) can take over a
month to reach us. Send Rock mail
to this newsletter's return address
(below). Anything for publication in
Prison Focus can be sent either to
me or to CPF in Oakland.

On Jailhouse Lawyers
“…jailhouse lawyers often unwittingly serve the interests of the state
by propagating the illusion of ‘justice’
and ‘equity’ in a system devoted to
neither.” They create “illusions of legal options as pathways to both individual and collective liberation.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal,
JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: Prisoners
Defending Prisoners v. The U.S.A.

SHOUT OUT BOX
A hearty shout out to the men
of PBSP's B-5 unit for the
eighty stamps they sent for
the Rock newsletter.

Rock On!

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

FIRST CLASS MAIL