Chicago, IL- A dozen protesters gathered on Friday, September 19 outside the 50th Anniversary Gala of the Illinois Humanities nonprofit, a celebration for which Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had been named an honorary co-chair. The protesters rallied and chanted to demand that Pritzker use his executive power to grant clemency for hundreds of petitioners with credible claims of police torture and wrongful conviction.

The protest was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture, a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Pritzker is a primary target of the CFIST campaign because he has the power to free hundreds of torture survivors, and he has presented himself as a progressive by speaking out against Trump and through association with nonprofits like Illinois Humanities.

Pritzker is aware of the legacy of police torture in Chicago, having commuted the sentence of Gerald Reed, a survivor of torture at the hands of the infamous torture cop Jon Burge. But he hasn’t acted on the pile of clemency petitions on his desk, hundreds of which were written by survivors of torture.

“It don’t make sense for him to have the power with a stroke of his pen to free these people, and yet he does nothing,” said Patricia Williams, a co-chair of CAARPR. “That was one of the first things he promised us, that he was going to pardon those people who were wrongfully imprisoned.”

“I’m calling on the governor to have a heart and stop wasting taxpayers’ dollars keeping people behind bars who are innocent,” said Mark Clements, a survivor of police torture and leader at the Chicago Torture Justice Center. Clements was tortured by Chicago police in 1981 and received a settlement from the city of Chicago as a result of his wrongful conviction.

“There are people who have been locked up for 41 years, and none of their sentences are being commuted,” said Clayborn Smith, who spent 31 years in a maximum security prison as a result of a confession extracted through torture. While incarcerated, Smith submitted a claim to the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC), the only body of its kind in the country, which was created to assess claims of torture and decide whether they merit judicial review.

The TIRC found Smith’s case to be credible in 2013, but it took another ten years for him to be released from what he described as “the egregious, horrific nightmare that the Chicago machine put us through.”

Smith urged the governor to use his power to grant clemency for torture survivors who remain incarcerated, before it’s too late for them, stating, “I could have been one of the many torture victims that died in prison waiting for some justice.”

Protesters chanted “Brick by brick, wall by wall, free our loved ones! Free them all!” as passersby and gala attendees stopped to express support and learn more.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #CAARPR #CFIST #TIRC #Torture

Chicago, IL – Chicago's Area 5 Police Districts had a special meeting on Monday, July 28, in response to community outrage over slow investigation into sexual assaults. The commander tasked with helping residents “learn more about how CPD works” was John Foster, who is linked to multiple cases of wrongful convictions. Survivors of police torture and their allies confronted Foster and demanded his removal from CPD.

Superintendent Larry Snelling celebrated the detective work in cases where an assault perpetrator was charged, but Northwest Side residents said these cases only saw progress when hundreds of them consistently packed the 14th Police District Council meetings to support survivors and demand accountability.

District Councilors (DCs) in attendance included Ashley Vargas (14th), Elizabeth Rochford (17th), Angelica Green (25th), and Anthony Tamez (17th). Several helped facilitate the discussion in which constituents presented questions to CPD.

Residents called on DCs to make a vote of no confidence in John Foster’s ability to investigate criminal assault cases. Foster has at least 66 civilian complaints listed against him and has cost taxpayers $3.4 million in settlements for misconduct.

“Do you remember that man, right across from you,” Jasmine Smith, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), asked Foster, “that you and Forberg pulled over and put a gun to his head and told him he’d never see daylight or these streets again?”

Smith pointed to Kevin Jackson, who spent 23 years and four months wrongfully incarcerated after being abused by John Foster and his partner at the time, Brian P. Forberg.

“You, Brian Forberg and Kevin Eberle are the cause of 41 wrongful convictions, including my two loved ones, Lester Owens and Rico Clark,” Smith continued. She is also a chair of CAARPR’s Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), which fights for the freedom of hundreds of known survivors of wrongful conviction. She called on the DCs and the Mayor to fire Foster, Eberle and Forberg.

Foster’s 15 minute presentation included a slide on building trust with survivors and the community, but he refused to answer most questions.

“How in the world could victims receive treatment, when they were locked inside interrogation rooms and tortured by your members? You are also accused of torturing individuals inside police stations, and I think that is very unfair. Where is the integrity of justice?” asked Mark Clements, a survivor and organizer with the Chicago Torture Justice Center

Foster’s response? “I think it’s very disrespectful, this meeting is about sexual assault, it’s not about past behaviors or anything like that. So I think we should focus on criminal sexual assault.”

Residents pushed back on Foster's attempts to pit survivors of sexual assault against survivors of police torture. Many who were there for other reasons echoed the call for a vote of no confidence.

Foster rushed out the back door at the close of the meeting. Outside, he was seen verbally assaulting a woman who works for CPD.

17th District Councilor Anthony Tamez remarked “I am standing here today with community members to demand justice in the wrongful conviction of Kevin Jackson. Commander John Foster played a direct role in this miscarriage of justice and it is unacceptable. That is why I will be calling for a formal vote of no confidence at our next District Council meeting, August 17.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceBrutality #CAARPR #Torture #Feature

Chicago, IL – 50 people rallied in Washington Square Park on Saturday, June 21, near the two Gold Coast properties of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. They demand that the governor grant executive clemency to the hundreds of proven survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction who are still incarcerated in Illinois.

The action was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), one of the central campaigns of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).

Activist Jasmine Smith, co-chair of the CFIST Committee of CAARPR, kicked off the rally by informing the residents of Gold Coast about the governor’s abandonment of torture survivors in the Illinois prison system and highlighting parallels between plantations and “correctional” centers.

“We get calls day after day after day of the way that the prisons are being ran,” Smith said. “they have no functioning good water, that they have no functioning air conditioning, they have nothing by the means of keeping the person healthy and safe in those prisons.”

Smith, whose loved ones Rico Clark and Lester Owens were wrongfully convicted in 2006 and 2007, continued “They are being treated worse than animals, and we say shame on you, Governor, and shame on you, Lieutenant Governor, because y’all can step in at any time and take a strong stance when it comes to the prison and the ways that these prisons are being ran in Illinois, and you’re not.”

Survivors and family members shared testimonies of the crimes committed by police against themselves and their loved ones and their steadfast battles against the criminal legal system, as some passersby paused their daily walks to listen. Douglas Livingston, who has been incarcerated since his wrongful conviction in 2012, thanked attendees over the phone for fighting for his freedom from the outside. Livingston is one of over a dozen Black men, including Rico Clark and Lester Owens, who were wrongfully convicted by the corrupt practices of detective Brian P Forberg.

Marie Ketchum, whose brother, Sai Pinesta, has been incarcerated for over 20 years after being wrongfully convicted of murder, was one of several family members and survivors who spoke about the importance of organization in the fight to free survivors.

“Today, I’m here not just as a sister but as a voice for justice for my brother, Sai Pinesta, and countless others still trapped behind these walls,” Ketchum said. “We must speak, organize and fight. We must demand that elected officials, from prosecutors to governors like JB Pritzker, no longer turn a blind eye to the lives destroyed under their watch. Hold those in power accountable because they won’t correct themselves unless we force them to.”

Merawi Gerima, the other co-chair of the CFIST committee, was in Washington DC during the protest but linked the oppression of his own loved ones with those of immigrants in the U.S. and oppressed people around the world in a written statement.

“The best payback is our movement,” Gerima said. “Only we can stop both mass incarceration and mass deportation. Both are carried out by billionaires and their politicians, red and blue, against our people. Just like it’s the same people carrying out the genocide of Palestinians and now bombing Iran.”

Many of the protesters attended one of the weekly marches organized by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) directly after the CFIST rally. Rania Salem, member and activist of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), which is a member of CJP, spoke on the importance of international solidarity.

“The criminalization, police killings, and mass incarceration of Black people here in the belly of the beast is almost the same as how Palestinians in Palestine are criminalized, murdered by the IOF, and are imprisoned in Israeli jails,” Salem Said.

Protesters chanted “Free them all!” and “Free them now!” Jasmine Smith closed the rally by encouraging attendees to get involved by supporting survivors at court dates, planning future actions, and calling their alderpersons about the referendum for community power over policing (CPOP).

“We have many actions coming up,” Smith said in closing. “It’s gonna be a busy, freedom fighting ass summer.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #Torture #CFIST #CAARPR #NAARPR #CPOP

Chicago, IL – Over 30 protesters rallied in downtown Chicago, outside the office of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, to demand he grant executive clemency to all incarcerated survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction. The protest was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST), a grassroots campaign led by survivors of wrongful conviction and their loved ones.

The protesters called on Pritzker to move on the 2000-plus clemency petitions sitting on his desk, starting by granting clemency for all petitioners who have credible cases of police torture and wrongful conviction.

“The governor has the power with the stroke of his pen to free innocent people, and yet he continues to ignore us,” said Jasmine Smith, a leader of CFIST and a loved one of Rico Clark, one of hundreds of wrongfully convicted clemency petitioners waiting on action from Pritzker

Clark was wrongfully convicted based on the actions of Chicago Police Detectives Brian Forberg, Kevin Eberle and John Foster, infamous torture cops who have advanced their careers by securing convictions based solely on coerced witness testimony.

While Clark fights for his freedom from inside Illinois prisons, other survivors of Chicago’s torture machine have won their freedom and continue to pressure the governor to take a stand against these injustices.

One of those survivors is Mark Clements, who was tortured at age 16 by detectives working under Jon Burge, the grandfather of Chicago police torture. Today, Clements is a leading organizer with the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and he didn’t mince words when speaking at Friday’s protest.

Clements condemned the web of torture cops that sends innocent people to prison and the rotten food, dirty water, medical neglect and physical abuse at the hands of correctional staff that survivors suffer inside Illinois prisons.

“I am mad because the same conditions that existed to send me to prison still exist to this day,” Clements said. “We must stand up for justice!”

Next to speak was Clayborn Smith, another survivor of torture at the hands of the detectives who worked under Burge, known as the Midnight Crew. As a teenager, Smith was beaten, threatened and interrogated for 39 hours before signing a false confession that landed him three decades in prison.

“Prizker’s inaction when he has the power to free hundreds of torture survivors is a show of support for the injustices that have earned Chicago the title of torture capital of the United States,” Smith said. “This system is what is being defended by keeping these men and women in prison.”

Mass pressure targeting governors to use their powers to address criminal injustices is a strategy that has seen success. Past Illinois governors have taken bold, progressive action using executive powers after sustained pressure from the movement, as in the case of Governor George Ryan, who issued a moratorium on the death penalty and commuted the sentences of 167 death row prisoners near the end of his term.

Friday’s protest against Pritzker comes at a time when he is seeking to present himself as a “progressive” for his 2028 presidential bid. But for Frank Chapman, a torture survivor and executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said that Pritzker is a billionaire governor who refuses to use his power to right wrongs, and that he is better described as a “criminal.”

In his remarks, Chapman asked the protesters, if kidnappings, coercion and torture are a violation of the constitution, what does that say about Pritzker when he allows it to happen?

Chapman stated, “The governor is guilty,” he said. “So we demand that you get up off your guilty ass and sign these pardons, commutations and clemencies!”

This rally against the governor was the largest CFIST has organized to date, according to its organizers, and they promised it won't be the last.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceBrutality #Torture #CFIST

Chicago, IL – “You can't throw a stone and not hit someone who is affected by police torture and wrongful conviction here in Chicago, the torture capital of the United States,” said Merawi Gerima, a co-chair of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST.)

Gerima was speaking at the annual People's Hearing on Police Crimes on Saturday, February 24, at the office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) in Woodlawn neighborhood on the predominantly Black South Side.

Activists and organizers raised demands for freedom for survivors of torture, wrongful conviction and political imprisonment. They called for improvement of conditions in prisons, accountability for cops who killed and tortured people, an end to cruel practices like solitary confinement, and renewed the call for community control of the police.

“Growing up in Englewood, I saw my brother get beat up by the police. My nephews got beat up by the police,” said Norma Scales, the aunt of Douglas Livingston, who was wrongfully convicted due to Sergeant Brian P. Forberg, emphasizing the widespread nature of police crimes in Chicago.

“It's mind boggling that hundreds of people have been tortured by police into confessing to crimes they didn't commit. It's even more mind boggling that many of them are still in prison 20, 30, or 40 years later,” said Frank Chapman, CAARPR field organizer, explaining the history of police torture in Chicago.

Chapman particularly focused on Detective Jon Burge, who trained a whole generation of CPD detectives in torture techniques he learned from the U.S. war on Vietnam. CAARPR initiated the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture in 2019 to demand mass pardons for Burge’s victims and all survivors of police torture.

Chapman also spoke about cases of survivors of wrongful conviction who had gotten their charges dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

“Kim Foxx started budging because of the noise people made and the outreach people was doing to bring awareness to these cases,” said Jasmine Smith, one of the co-chairs of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture, describing how the strategy of mass pressure works to free survivors.

“We need masses of the community coming out and speaking on behalf of our loved ones,” said Marylin Mulero of Innocent Demand Justice, who spent 28 years incarcerated for a crime she didn't commit.

“The police are still using torture, not just in Chicago but all over the country,” said Curtis Ferdinand with the Chicago Torture Justice Center (CTJC), explaining how torture and other police crimes in Chicago are connected to the system of white supremacy throughout the United States.

Many other survivors and loved ones of people harmed or killed by the police and prisons, including Cassandra Greer, Adolfo Davis, Melba Brown and David Lincoln, spoke about the violence committed by the state and how they have been fighting for justice. Speakers made connections between police crimes and other crimes of the ruling class, such as the genocide in Gaza, homelessness, deportations and exploitation of workers.

“This movement is about survival. It’s about resistance. We don’t just preach against injustice. We fight injustice, and it’s not just Black people, it’s everybody who needs to join together and fight,” stated Frank Chapman said before reciting a poem about solidarity with Palestine. “We can’t give up hope and we can never give up unity.”

“These stories remind us of why we have to unify and transform our society into one where these things can never happen again,” said Gerima before describing how the movement for community control of the police has already taken steps towards empowering oppressed people in Chicago to stop police crimes with Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS).

The People’s Hearing ended with chants of “free them all!”

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #Torture #PoliceBrutality #OppressedNationalities #CAARPR #CFIST #ECPS #Feature

The news came after more than a week of investigation and public pressure on the Saudi government by journalists and state officials around the world. Days earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called on the Saudis to release whatever surveillance footage they had of the embassy, which was met by Saudi denials of involvement. Even President Trump gave into pressure from U.S. lawmakers and others to acknowledge the disappearance, by calling Kashoggi’s fiancé and making a statement.

But the revelation of Turkish surveillance footage within the Saudi embassy has adds another layer to this complex web of brutality and intrigue.

According to officials, these recordings show a Saudi special forces team of 15 men – called an “assassination squad” by Turkish media – capturing Kashoggi upon entry to the embassy. In a scene suited for a horror film like Saw, video and audio show this hit squad torturing and interrogating the U.S. journalist for hours before ultimately killing him and dismembering his body. They likely loaded Kashoggi’s remains onto a plane headed back to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

As a well-known journalist for a prominent U.S. newspaper, Kashoggi heavily criticized the Saudi royal family’s repressive monarchy and its murderous war on Yemen – the likely motivation for his murder at the hands of the Saudis.

On October 10, the Washington Post published a report by the U.S. State Department showing they knew of a Saudi plot to capture Kashoggi. In response, State Department officials commented on the disappearance. Whether U.S. officials warned the journalist of his imminent danger remains unknown.

The news brought a renewed wave of criticism and disgust aimed at Saudi Arabia, which had previously denied any involvement in Kashoggi’s disappearance. Activists and some politicians in the U.K. and the U.S. have called for a full stop of arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to this murder.

Erdogan’s decision to make public the Turkish government’s own surveillance footage will likely shake the uneasy relationship between the two states, as well. Saudi Arabia has provided crucial investment for Turkey’s energy sector in recent years, and the two have cooperated, if unevenly, in attempts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s national democratic government in Syria. The existence of these recordings paints a different picture: two regional rivals spying on each other to get the upper hand.

The U.S. has relied on Saudi Arabia as one of its main proxies, along with Israel, to dominate the Middle East. As the world’s largest producer of petroleum, Saudi Arabia remains critical to global energy markets, and the U.S. has maintained a close relationship with the repressive royal family to secure its cooperation.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has strengthened this toxic relationship. On his first major international trip as president, Trump signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia totaling around $110 billion – money that would go towards their disastrous three-year war on Yemen. During the trip, the Saudi royal family rolled out the red carpet for Trump and his advisors and won the egotistical president’s favor through flattery. Since then, the Trump administration has consistently backed Saudi actions, whether through direct support or providing diplomatic cover – even as it threatens key U.S. allies like Canada.

Under the rule of Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has become increasingly bold and vicious in its actions, both at home and abroad. Last November, Saudi forces kidnapped Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, forcing him to issue statements denouncing Hezbollah aimed at stirring up civil war. Increasingly aligned with Israel, Salman’s monarchy has ramped up efforts to destabilize other nations, including other Gulf states like Qatar, and to push for war with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Domestically, Salman jailed rival members of the royal family in the name of ‘anti-corruption’ in 2017. He ordered the public beheadings of dozens of dissidents, including a prominent Shi’a cleric. Internal terror, always a fixture of Saudi society, has become more brazen and far reaching under Salman’s reign.

Saudi Arabia’s almost complete dependency on oil and low-paid foreign labor has plunged the ruling family into a sustained crisis. A global drop in oil prices and revenue from petroleum forced the monarchy to take on massive foreign debt, even as it continues to wage unrelenting warfare on neighboring Yemen. Salman’s anti-corruption campaign, backed by the Trump administration and praised by liberal journalists like Thomas Friedman, has nothing to do with government accountability – it is a move to eliminate internal challenges to Salman’s authority and consolidate wealth in the increasingly desperate Saudi state coffers.

As the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen continues, officials have ceased reporting casualty numbers and UN offices have withdrawn much of their aid to victims. Civilian casualties now number in tens of thousands, according to most observers. Saudi Arabia’s blockade of its neighbor – the poorest nation in the Persian Gulf – has stopped critical food and medical aid from reaching the people. Devastation of public health infrastructure and water sources, deliberately targeted by Saudi warplanes, has led to the resurgence of diseases like cholera. War is literally starving the people of Yemen to death.

The brutal murder of the journalist Kashoggi reflects the monstrous nature of U.S. imperialism and its wars, whether waged through proxies like Saudi Arabia in Yemen or directly in places like Afghanistan. It’s an important event that should draw vocal criticism from people across the U.S. who value peace and free speech.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #torture #SaudiArabia #Kashoggi #MiddleEast

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee. In open court, torture expert says Rasmea Odeh suffers from PTSD, and defense slams Israeli military courts

October 21, 2014

Detroit, MI – Dr. Mary Fabri testified in today’s evidentiary hearing in the case of Palestinian leader Rasmea Odeh. Fabri, a world renowned clinical psychologist who specializes in working with survivors of war trauma and torture, told the court that Rasmea suffers from “chronic” Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Department of Homeland Security arrested Rasmea almost exactly a year ago, on Oct. 22, 2013, and charged her with Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization, for allegedly answering questions falsely, in her 2004 application for U.S. citizenship, about whether she was ever arrested, convicted, or imprisoned. In 1969, she was sentenced by an Israeli military court that convicts 99.74% of Palestinians who come before it, and served ten years as a political prisoner. The conviction was based on a confession that was forced in the wake of vicious physical and sexual torture by the Israelis.

Defense attorneys Michael Deutsch and Jim Fennerty contend that the PTSD prompted Rasmea to assume that the questions were addressing her time in the U.S. “I found her to be very credible,” Fabri testified. “As a torture survivor, you develop strategies to live everyday life. Those filters cause you to narrow your focus. She would look at [these questions] with a narrowed filter and a narrowed focus of timeframe.”

When challenged by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Turkel about whether the filter can be controlled, Fabri added, “No, it’s not something you control. It’s automatic.”

Fabri’s testimony is critical to Rasmea’s defense, which argues that the government has to prove “specific intent,” that she willfully lied on her immigration application for the purpose of gaining citizenship.

A few weeks ago, Judge Drain issued a decision agreeing that the government must prove this, but prosecutors have filed a detailed motion asking that he reconsider. Today, Rasmea’s supporters were disappointed to hear that the judge agreed to look at the question again, as he asked the defense to file a written response.

Other major motions were also discussed today, without decisions from Judge Drain. Deutsch argued that documents related to the unlawful Israeli conviction of Rasmea in 1969 should be excluded, since the conviction was based on a confession forced by torture and does not meet U.S. standards of justice.

In addition, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Jebson wanted to enter the word “terrorism” into evidence to describe the alleged crime for which Rasmea was convicted in Palestine. Deutsch rebutted strongly that if the government was allowed to put “terrorism” into evidence, then it “opens up a whole can of worms.” He added that the defense would again then challenge everything about Israel’s military tribunals, including Rasmea’s arrest, torture, and conviction.

Muhammad Sankari, one of the spokespeople for the Rasmea Defense Committee, says, “The prosecution wants to use the word to sway the jury against Rasmea, even though it has nothing at all to do with the alleged immigration fraud. They have hired Matthew Levitt, a discredited ‘terrorism expert,’ to testify against Rasmea. He is a director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and has made a career out of fear mongering, scapegoating and attacking the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities. We are concerned that the prosecutors are doing the same.”

Dozens of Rasmea’s supporters again filled the courtroom today, despite attempts by prosecutors to discourage their efforts. In response to a government motion that portrayed defense committee members as “mobs” and “hordes” that would intimidate a jury, Judge Drain issued several directives to restrict their conduct inside and outside the courtroom.

Unwavering, supporters pledged to redouble their efforts. Several activists from Chicago and Minneapolis have moved to Detroit, where they are working full time to mobilize people to fill the courtroom every day of the trial, which begins Nov. 4 and is expected to last two to three weeks. One of the activists, Jess Sundin of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, said, “We can’t be intimidated and won’t be deterred. This is a huge case for Rasmea and for Palestine and we are going to win.”

Email justice4rasmea@uspcn.org to make your plans for the trial. Visit uspcn.org and stopfbi.net for more information, and to sign the petition demanding Drop the Charges Now!

#DetroitMI #Palestine #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #torture #PoliticalRepression #RasmeaOdeh

The prisoners say they will not eat and will also not work unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands. Their five demands are:

-- End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse -- Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria -- Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement -- Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food -- Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

California prisoners engaged in two three-week hunger strikes in 2011 based on the five demands. There were 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons who participated in the 2011 hunger strikes. In the face of the protests, the authorities had agreed to make some changes, but two years later those changes haven’t been implemented and some conditions have worsened.

The prisoners’ action has its roots in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) prison. The SHU is a supermax prison designed to isolate that prisoners who authorities feel they can’t control, including politically conscious prisoners. They are away from the general population in total isolation, in conditions widely acknowledged to be torture. Prisoners can get sent to the SHU indefinitely. Similar conditions exist in the Administrative Segregation units of California’s other prisons. The California prison system currently holds nearly 12,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation.

Those 12,000 imprisoned people spend 23 of 24 hours living in a concrete cell smaller than a large bathroom. The cells have no windows, no access to fresh air or sunlight. People in solitary confinement exercise an hour a day in a cage the size of a dog run. They are not allowed to make any phone calls to their loved ones. They cannot touch family members, who often travel days for a 90 minute visit; their conversation and their mail is monitored by prison guards. They are not allowed to talk to other imprisoned people. They are denied all educational programs and their reading materials are censored. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated that any time over 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. Yet many people in California state prisons have been caged in solitary for 10 to 40 years.

The prisoners have called on people on the outside to support their struggle and amplify their voices. See a video about the hunger strike: and follow the hunger strike solidarity website for developments: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

#LosAngelesCA #torture #HungerStrike #PelicanBay #supermax #SHU

Charleston, WV – Hundreds of people rallied and marched here at West Virginia’s capitol building, Nov. 3, to demand justice for Megan Williams and an end to hate crimes in the United States.

Megan Williams, a 20 year old woman from West Virginia, was held captive by six people for days while being raped repeatedly. Her captors forced her to eat human and rat feces, lick blood off the floor, beat her with switches and at one point had a noose around her neck while raping and stabbing her, saying, “This is what we do to n_____s down here.” When asked about her experiences, Megan said, “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking about my momma and I just wanted to come home. Every time I close my eyes now all I see is that knife from when they kept stabbing me and stabbing me.”

The rally at the capitol building including preachers, professors, activists and lawyers who spoke out against sexual violence, racist violence and hate crimes. Megan Williams and her family spoke at the end of the rally thanking those who came out to support her, then led the march through downtown. Protesters chanted, “No justice, no peace!” and held signs saying “Stop racial violence” while marching through downtown Charleston from the capitol building to the courthouse.

Malik Shabazz, Esq. – of Black Lawyers for Justice and head of the New Black Panthers Party – has been aiding Megan Williams and her family in advocating for federal hate crime charges to be brought against the six defendants in the case. In a moving speech at the capitol, Shabazz said, “Hate crimes are on the rise. Nooses are being hung, we are being shot and our women are being raped. We want this to be tried as a hate crime… from a legal and spiritual standpoint, I don’t care what happened before, all I care about is that this is one of the worst hate crimes in recent U.S. history.” Shabazz also spoke out against local black organizations, including the local NAACP, that declined to support the rally and march.

Many speakers linked racial oppression to sexual oppression and spoke out in favor of black women and against rape regardless of the nationality of the oppressor or the oppressed. Another speaker at the rally, Rev. Mary Kay Jacquet of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, said, “Sisterhood is not a privilege – it’s an obligation. No woman, regardless of race, creed or color should be subjected to the emotional and physical consequences of such barbaric actions.”

The recent events of Jena 6, the noose hangings across the United States, the murder of Sean Bell and the rape and torture of Megan Williams show the harsh oppression that the Black community faces on a daily basis. There is a growing African American movement to resist racist attacks and police killing and which insists on complete liberation.

#CharlestonWV #News #WomensMovement #AfricanAmerican #torture #WhiteSupremacy #brutalRape

Smithfield, NC – Around 250 demonstrators rallied here, Oct. 27, to protest the war in Iraq and demand an end to the ‘torture taxi service’ run by Aero Contractors out of the Johnston County airport. Activists with the North Carolina Stop Torture Now coalition and independent journalists have documented that the CIA has moved hundreds of detainees through the rural Johnston County airport. The airport forms a link in the chain of the transportation of so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ suspects on their way to be tortured, and sometimes killed, in secret prisons outside of the United States.

“The purpose of the protest is a peaceful witness against the ongoing evil of torture which has been perpetuated by the people and planes behind that fence,” said Roger Ehrlich of North Carolina Stop Torture Now. “This shameful activity is harming America and the world and must be stopped.”

The protesters marched through downtown, where they were met by a small group of the Gathering of Eagles, an extremely reactionary grouping that has in recent months unsuccessfully attempted to intimidate and silence the progressive and popular movements. The march was followed by a rally, in the course of which numerous speakers representing a broad alliance of anti-war, faith and student groups called for an end to the 'extraordinary rendition' program and an end to the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq Veterans Against the War member Jimmy Massey said, “The protest today shows the solidarity of the community. I’ve been in this movement since the time I was discharged from the Marines in 2003 and seen this movement grow. There is change now even in small-town America, here in rural Smithfield, North Carolina.”

At the end of the rally, a procession to the Johnston County airport took place, where demonstrators placed photographs of tortured ‘extraordinary rendition’ detainees on the airport’s security fence. The organizers of the demonstration promised to continue their struggle to end the torture flights through Smithfield.

#SmithfieldNC #AntiwarMovement #News #Afghanistan #Iraq #torture #extraordinaryRendition

Senior Ben Zabel explained what happened, “We chose to put on an informative display concerning the human rights abuses taking place in Guantanamo Bay. The main feature of the demonstration was me dressing up as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner in the schools cafeteria. Midway through the demonstration, Jefferson’s principal, Mr. Hill, demanded that we stop the demonstration immediately. I refused and was suspended for insubordination. This is an abuse of the school’s administrative authority and this is a blatant example of censorship of political dissent.”

Zabel asked principal Hill to discuss the issue in front of the other Youth Against War and Racism students and to have a public dialogue about what their rights to speech are at school, instead of having a private discussion in Hill’s office. Another student, senior Nick Groenke, photographed Zabel and Hill’s interaction and the guerrilla theatre. Principal Hill demanded Groenke’s BlackBerry. Hill threatened that if Groenke refused to turn over his BlackBerry he would be suspended. After Groenke gave the BlackBerry to the principal, the principal erased the photographs.

“This is just another incident in the administration’s ongoing campaign of intimidation, but we won’t be silenced. We have the right to talk about and organize against human rights abuses and the war on Iraq,” explained Groenke. Students have repeatedly been threatened with suspension for their efforts to pass out flyers and to organize participation in several city-wide walk outs. This is the first actual suspension of a Jefferson YAWR activist for organizing efforts.

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