Friday, April 1, 2022

In Contempt #15: Eric King’s Trial Ends; Updates on Uprising Defendants; State Targets Mutual Aid Groups; Dispatches from Mongoose Distro

Welcome to your monthly installment of In Contempt. As always, there’s lots to cover. From good news about anarchist prisoner Eric King, to reports on new cases, campaigns, and calls for solidarity. In this month’s column, you’ll find updates on abolitionist media projects, prison rebel news and action, info on uprising defendants, and political prisoner birthdays.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dive in!

Political Prisoner News

As anyone who’s been following It’s Going Down or other anarchist news sources will be aware, March saw a big, and very welcome, piece of political prisoner news, as a jury threw out the state’s attempt to prosecute anarchist prisoner Eric King. Eric, who’s due to be released from his original sentence at the end of 2023, was facing the possibility of 20 extra years being added on to his sentence if convicted of assaulting a guard, but the jury recognized that he was acting in self-defense after the officer decided to “interview” him in a storage closet with no CCTV or witnesses around.

For more on this victory, see the official statement from Eric’s lawyers at the Civil Liberties Defense Center here, and a short response from his support crew here. Unicorn Riot provided highly detailed coverage of the entire trial, and The Final Straw Radio show have a new interview with his support crew about the trial.

The trial itself was certainly an eventful one, as Eric was first moved, and then had his cell flooded, destroying his belongings, in a clear act of retaliation that prison authorities attempted to blame on a bird.

Ferguson prisoner Josh Williams is another current political prisoner who’s nearing release but facing new charges that could extend his sentence. You can donate to his legal fundraiser here, and read about his new charges in this thread from Chuck Modiano.

Antifascist prisoner Dan Baker has published a new article, describing how negligent guards caused the death of another prisoner.

Fundraisers are currently running for Doug Wright, the last of the Cleveland 4 prisoners to be released, and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a former Black Panther/Black Liberation Army prisoner who needs help for medical expenses after being diagnosed with cancer.

Lastly, former Earth Liberation political prisoner and current Certain Days/Anarchist Black Cross organizer Daniel McGowan was recently featured on the Green and Red Podcast.

Uprising Defendants and other Ongoing Cases

In Georgia, uprising co-defendants John Wade and Ellie Brett were sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 60 months for conspiracy to commit arson of a federal vehicle. John and Ellie, along with a third defendant who is cooperating with the state, are to pay a restitution of $35,000. John was additionally sentenced to three years of supervised probation, including mental health visits and mandatory medication. New York uprising defendants Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman were also due to be sentenced, but their sentencing date has now been postponed to May. Seattle uprising defendant Isaiah Willoughby has just been featured on an episode of Kite Line Radio.

Elsewhere, the Resist Line 3 collective have shared a big thread of updates about defendants facing charges for fighting the Line 3 oil pipeline. The Guardian recently ran an article looking at the use of felony charges against pipeline defendants.

It’s Going Down has published a report by Vishal Singh on a federal task force from the Department of Homeland Security targeting mutual aid efforts in Los Angeles County, and Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross have a statement from the Asheville Sanctuary Camp defendants who are facing charges for organizing around mutual aid, food sharing and housing rights projects. The state of Idaho has now also launched a lawsuit targeting a protest camp and Boise Mutual Aid.

Texas

Mongoose Distro has recently published a huge amount of material from Texas prisoners documenting ongoing struggles in the prison system there. Jamon Hestand, an anarchist and IWW member who’s currently bringing a civil rights lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has put out a request for solidarity. Julio “Comrade Z” Zuniga has been very busy, recently carrying out an interview with another prisoner, writing a statement on prison abolition, helping to file a class action lawsuit, and exposing the retaliation and harassment he has faced in response to his organizing efforts.

General Prison Struggle and Abolitionist Media News

Pre-trial detainees held in Merced County Jail, California, have launched a hunger strike. You can follow their struggle on the Merced Under Construction facebook or instagram pages, and check out detailed coverage of the hunger strike from UpFront on KPFA and The Final Straw Radio.

The “Vaughn 17,” prisoners who faced criminal charges after the 2017 Vaughn Uprising in Delaware, have published a new book, simply titled V17 Speaks. You can find out more about the book by watching this video, along with the interviews carried out by Prison Riot Radio.

Kevin “Rashid” Johnson has published a new article explaining how Indiana prison staff deliberately kept him separated from Kwame Shakur, another prison organizer, for fear of what their combined influence could lead to. Also on the Indiana prison system, Black Myths Podcast has published a new interview with two of the prisoners involved in a 1985 uprising against white supremacist guards. Free Our Brothers is a new campaign from Omar Gent and other Colorado prisoners who are asking for more outside support.

Recent articles from the San Francisco Bay View have included one exposing the case of a California prisoner who was denied parole for sharing the paper with other prisoners, and one on white supremacy and transphobia at the Lane Murray Unit, a women’s prison in Texas.

Recent episodes of Kite Line Radio have included one on Leonard Peltier, a conversation on tech companies and prison profiteering, and a discussion with Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity.

Events tracked by Perilous Chronicle in March include a “disturbance” at Regina Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan that left 8 staff injured, escapes from Bridge City Centre for Youth in Louisiana and Bowie County Correctional Center in Texas, a possible hunger strike at Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois, and a protest at the Blue Earth County jail in Minnesota.

International

In international news, the Anarchist Black Cross groups in Moscow and Belarus have both published recent updates about their work and the situation of prisoners and defendants they support.

In France, Libre Flot, a former internationalist volunteer in Rojava, has launched a hunger strike after being held in solitary confinement for 15 months pre-trial. An international day of solidarity with Libre Flot has been called for April 4th, which will be his birthday and also his 36th day of hunger strike. You can find more about the case and keep updated at the December 8 (the day of the original raids) support site.

In the UK, sentencing continues in the Bristol “Kill the Bill” cases, with one defendant getting five and a half years for riot and another being given nine months for arson, bringing the total number of prisoners currently requesting support to twelve. Ryan Roberts, the Kill the Bill prisoner serving the longest sentence, has been moved, and Bristol ABC have published a new letter from him.

Anarchist prisoner Toby Shone has faced repeated threats and harassment from staff, including the censorship of his letters, and has now been moved to a new prison where he’s being wrongly held as a high risk prisoner, despite the fact that he should now be eligible for home release.

Uprising Defendants

Everyone should support the defendants facing charges related to their alleged participation in the George Floyd uprising – this list of our imprisoned comrades needs to be getting shorter, not longer. See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. The status of pre-trial defendants changes frequently, but to the best of our knowledge they currently include:

Isaiah Willoughby 49960-086
FCI Mendota
P.O. Box 9
Mendota, CA 93640

Kelly Jackson 50288-086
FCI Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 5000
Sheridan, OR 97378

Tyre Means 49981-086
USP Beaumont
PO BOX 26030
Beaumont, TX 77720

Malik Muhammad #825999
11540 NE Inverness Dr.
Portland OR 97220

Montez Lee
Sherburne County Jail
13880 Business Center Dr. NW
Suite 200
Elk River, MN 55330-1692

Matthew White #21434-041
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

Matthew Rupert #55013-424
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

José Felan
Sherburne County Jail
13880 Business Center Dr.
NW Suite 200 Elk River, MN 55330-1692

Branden Wolf #22425-041
FCI Oxford
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 1000
Oxford, WI  53952

Dylan Robinson 45802-013
USP Leavenworth
P.O. BOX 1000
LEAVENWORTH, KS  66048

David Elmakayes 77782-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

You can donate to David’s legal funds here.

Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal 70002-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

Andrew Augustyniak-Duncan
2016-0021433
100 W. Cherry Ave.
Washington, PA 15301

Christopher West 04670-509
USP Canaan
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 300
Waymart, PA 18472

You can also buy fundraiser clothing for Christopher “Brother Hush” West here.

Ellie Brett 14822509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

John Wade 14762509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

Alvin Joseph 99529156 (POSTCARDS ONLY)
Gwinnett Co Jail
2900 University Parkway
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

Shamar Betts 22080-043
FCI Hazelton Federal Correction Inst.
P.O. Box 5000
Bruceton Mills, WV 26525

Diego Vargas 55070-424
MCC Chicago
Metropolitan Correctional Center
71 West Van Buren St.
Chicago, IL 60605

Andrew Garcia-Smith 02324-509
FCI Williamsburg
PO Box 340
Salters, SC 29590

Kyree Robertson #597000
Parnall Correctional Facility
1780 E. Parnall Rd.
Jackson, MI 49201

Chase Vladimir Spencer
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Howard Nall
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Antonio Wooden 17569-028
FCI McDowell
PO Box 1009
Welch, WV 24801

Upcoming Birthdays

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

Lebanese revolutionary political prisoner held in French prisons since 1984 for actions targeting U.S. and Israeli officials. You can find a statement calling for an international day of solidarity with Georges on April 2 here, and April 17 is traditionally observed as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

Birthday: April 2

Address:

Mr. Georges Ibrahim ABDALLAH
2388/A221
CP de Lannemezan
204 rue des Saligues
BP 70166
65307 LANNEMEZAN
France

Roy Brown

Ferguson rebel convicted of looting during the Ferguson uprising, along with other unrelated robbery charges. Missouri uses Jpay, so you can send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search,” then selecting “State: Missouri, Inmate ID: 1310047.”

Birthday: April 20

Address:

Roy Brown #1310047
Potosi Correctional Center
11593 State Highway O
Mineral Point, MO 63660

Pavel Shpteny

Pavel Shpetny was detained on 2 March 2021 under a criminal case against the anarchist movement from Brest region. ABC Belarus add “We are unaware of his political views, but since he is detained under the anarchists’ case, we consider it important to support him in every possible way.”

Belarusian prisons will usually only accept letters in Belarusian or Russian, so if you don’t speak one of those languages your best bet is to email your message to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net or use this online form and they should be able to translate your greetings and pass them on.

Birthday: April 22

Address:

(Belarusian or Russian letters only – use this form for English messages)

SIZO-1, ul. Volodarskogo 2, Minsk, 220030
Pavel Aleksandrovich Shpetny

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia is an award winning journalist and was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia, PA. He has struggled for justice and human rights for people of color since he was at least 14 years old; the age when he joined the Party. In December of 1982, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving a taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the melee, a police officer was shot and killed. Despite the fact that many people saw someone else shoot and then runaway from the scene, Mumia, in what could only be called a kangaroo court, was convicted and sentenced to death. During the summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed by Governor Tom Ridge, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. Since that time, Mumia has had his death sentence overturned, but still has a life sentence with no opportunity for parole.

Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding Mumia as a contact by searching his name or “AM8335.”

Birthday: April 24

Address:

Smart Communications/PA DOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335
SCI Mahanoy
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

Janiis Mathis

A former Vaughn 17 defendant.While the state has now given up on its attempts to charge Mathis in relation to the Vaughn uprising, he is facing continued retaliation, as he has been moved out of state to Pennsylvania, where many Vaughn defendants are being held on lockdown indefinitely (via placement on PA’s Restricted Release List) on vague and questionable grounds. Years later, these prisoners are still being abused for staying in solidarity with one another against the state.

Birthday: April 24

Address:

Janiis Mathis
SBI# 00492275
Sussex Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 500
Georgetown DE 19947

photo: Pandav Tank via Unsplash


by In Contempt via It's Going Down
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