{"article":{"id":398,"heading":"Philly Prisoners Shoutout From Jail","author":"x","created":"2000-08-07 16:45:28","modified":"2005-08-15 00:18:01","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:18:01","article":"

Message from Prisoners at CFCF

By Prisoners at CFCF, forwarded by R2K Legal

We are 24 male prisoners currently held at Curran-Fromhold

Correctional Facility for our participation or attempted participation in the August 1st

non-violent direct actions against the Republican convention in Philadelphia. The carefully

choreographed conventions of both major parties have nothing to do with democracy. They

are corporate sponsored pageants designed to legitimize a system of corporate class rule that

crushes the human spirit and that is destroying the planet. The criminal justice system of cops,

courts and prisons that targets poor and working class people in general and people of color in

particular is a cornerstone of a system that serves the rich and maintains their rule. Our

actions in the streets of Philadelphia were intended to shine a light on the incarceration of 2

million people in the U.S., on the systematic use of police brutality to terrorise whole

communities, on the racism and cruelty of the death penalty, on the many political prisoners,

including Mumia Abu-Jamal, who are caged for their commitment to social justice. Our actions

were aimed at disrupting the Republican convention to the best of our ability. While we're sorry

any inconvenience we may have caused the people of Philadelphia, we are proud of what we

did to expose this rotten system. From the moment of our arrest we have experienced and

witnessed the workings of a system designed to dehumanize people. Many of us were

brutalized in the course of arrests. Some of us were beaten or peppersprayed after we were

handcuffed. In jail as many as nine people were packed into cells designed for two people.

People with dietary restrictions went without food for up to 48 hours. In some cases our hands

and feet were cuffed together and some of us had our cuffs so tight that we lost feelings in our

hands or bled as a result.

We were denied the opportunity to meet with our lawyers prior to arraignment and were

arraigned in a court room closed to the general public with the exception of select members of

the capitalist media. We were arraigned with a court appointed public defender serving as

counsel despite our explicitly and repeatedly stated desire to be represented by our own

counsel who were denied access to the proceedings. We were charged with a variety of

misdemeanors and in a few cases with felonies. Our individual bails have been set at between

$10,000 and $1,000,000. Many if not all of the charges against us are either greatly

exaggerated or completely falsified.

At Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility [County Jail] we have been placed in a special pod

where we have little contact with other prisoners. While we regard our conditions here as

dehumanizing we recognise that we are receiving special treatment such as extra food. So far

we have not been beaten or physically hurt by personnel here.

Throughout this process we have sought to resist and stand in solidarity with each other to the

best of our abilities. Almost all of us have refused to give our names. Many of us have had to

be physically dragged through the various stages of this process. We have kept our spirits

high through singing and chanting and pounding on our cell walls. We developed systems for

communicating with each other and for reaching decisions by consensus. Many of us ripped

the bracelets intended to identify us off our wrists. We resisted fingerprinting and attempts to

photograph us. Some of us have refused food. In jail we stripped naked to make our

processing more difficult. In the course of all this we have discovered strengths we never knew

we had and have built a wall of solidarity based on profound love and respect for each other.

We have drawn particular strength from the proud defiance of the sisters whose loud voices

we have heard and whose acts of resistance we have occasionally been able to witness.

While our access to information is restricted we are aware of the efforts of those on the

outside to assist us. We love you all. We are in here for you and know that you are out there

for us.

We believe that our experiences so far strongly vindicate us in our decision to take powerful

action to expose the brutality and injustice of the so-called criminal justice system. As we go

through this process we are learning personally of the mistreatment people experience every

day in this country. As a group of mainly white and mainly middle class men we know full well

that the treatment routinely received by poor people, people of color, and other marginalized

people is much worse than what we have received.

While we have had little contact with other prisoners, that contact has been overwhelmingly

positive, they know why we are here and they let us know in many ways that they support our

actions and respect our commitment and solidarity. In turn we are learning from them about the

workings of the prison and their own traditions of resistance. They have our respect,

admiration and solidarity. So far the efforts of some personnel to cultivate distrust and

antagonism between us and the other prisoners have failed.

We are political prisoners: We are being held on outrageous charges, in many cases with no

foundation whatsoever in our actual actions; Our bail figures are far out of proportion even for

the crimes we are falsely accused of; We are here because of our political commitment and

because we dared to defy the corporate powers that be as they were attempting to give a

veneer of popular support to the rule of the few.

We call on those who support us to continue to put pressure on the Philadelphia authorities to

win our quick release. We urge you all to continue to organize protests on our behalf and to

write and call the mayor's office, the prosecutors and the prison authorities to demand: 1.Our

immediate and unconditional release on our own recognizance 2. That all charges be dropped

and 3. That prisoners with dietary restrictions (vegans and vegetarians) be provided with

adequate food that they can eat.

Call these officials and let them know that you support our demands: District Attorney Lynne

Abraham 215-686-8701 Mayor John Street 215-686-2181 City Solicitor Ken Trujillo

215-683-5003

30 of us have gone on hunger strike to win these demands. We want everyone to know that

we are in good spirits and remain strong in our solidarity. We come from a variety of

backgrounds and perspectives, but we are united in our commitment to genuine democracy

and an end to corporate rule in general and to the criminal injustice system in particular.

FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

STOP POLICE TERROR

TEAR DOWN THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

END THE DEATH PENALTY

Write to us:

John Doe \"JD\" Professor John Doe ODB John Doe Wolfman John Doe 6010 \"Dinger\" John

Doe \"That's not good for business\" John Doe Slick

Camilo Viveiros Jr.

John Doe 6013

Christopher Hartley

John Doe Mac

John Doe Mango

John Doe \"B.A.\"

John Doe Sparky

John Doe Flea

John Doe \"Hank H. Parts\"

John Doe \"Wisp\"

John Doe Tennessee\/Jimnikov

John Doe Buckshot

John Doe GOD

John Doe Switchblade

John Doe Ms. Pac Man

John Doe Zeke

JD Lovebug

J.D. Kowbone<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Philly Prisoners Shoutout From Prison\r\nTo You And Me","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/08\/philly_pri.txt","filesize":"9.2 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/08\/398.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}