Since my last correspondence I’ve experienced the greatest oppression in
my entire 8-year sentence. This past week or so also presented me with
revelation into the power of positive energy and the adverse effects of
negative energy, which can affect your mental and physical health.
At Sussex II State Prison, a pig ran in and dribbled my head 3 times
between his knee and the ground, when I was cuffed and already grounded.
Then, that same pig tossed me in the box and stuck his knee in my neck
with intensive force. At this same time, my arm was being bent so far
back that breaking it was highly anticipated. Furthermore, my ankles and
thumb were in the hands of the pigs. My thumb had nerve damage for 2 or
3 months.
At Red Onion State Prison I was sprayed for a false claim of assault by
a super redneck. The pig first grabbed the shackles as if he was going
to strike me with them, he looked around, and then had his partner use
the can. They rinsed me fully clothed, returned me to storage and then I
tried to refuse to give up the leg irons. They then took me out on the
block and tackled me to the ground. During this they twisted me, bent my
fingers and yelled “stop resisting.” Afterwards I was stripped naked and
8-10 pigs placed a turtle suit on me - chained me - and left me for
about 15 hours. This happened because the officer refused to correct my
negative meal, and I stuck my arm out of the slot because of it.
Those are just two of the oppressive events I experienced in kaptivity.
This week though, it was oppression from kaptive residents. The
oppression came by high energy/high volume gossip, to spread wildfire
word of myself being homosexual. The fire starter(s) knows nothing about
me, knows no one within or outside the block who knows me, and has no
evidence of such activity. Fifteen to twenty people whispered this
around. The way this happened in a rapid and collective manner, you
would’ve thought I was of great status and/or a part of a group that
calls for questioning and violation. I got into a 30-second-or-so
bullshit fight and received rejection from workout crews. The fight was
with a comrade who was supposed to be a good friend and solid
individual, but he needed to protect himself and reputation, so he got
defensive and helped the spread.
My point in presenting this is: I’m not gay and this event is coming my
way at a time when my sentence is over. I’ve never seen or heard of this
shit before. It was so collective and everyone possible was engaged.
Yet, never is this type of bullshit/energy applied to the fight against
the true enemy of imperialist oppression. We have to acknowledge that in
order to get others to move within/for the struggle, the key influencing
factor(s) have to be identified.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This report of abuse by the guards is
nothing new to the pages of ULK, though it is important to
remind our readers on the streets of the brutality of prison guards and
document it for our records. But this report of prisoner-on-prisoner
attacks in the form of gossip and attempts at character assassination is
particularly important for us to discuss.
This is an example of the lack of unity in prisons across the United
$tates, where, as this comrade points out, more energy is put into
attacking other prisoners than into fighting the true enemy of
imperialism. But just as important, we want to address the use of gender
in this particular attack. Claiming someone is gay as an insult or
character attack is a more fundamental problem than just disunity. This
is no different than accusing someone of being Chicano as if that would
be an insult. We can not allow the oppressors to divide us along lines
of gender or nation. Sexual orientation and identity are not a measure
of a persyn’s character. We should look to people’s work fighting
oppression, the way they treat others, and their political outlook.
Lowering ourselves to considering labels and gender/sexual
orientation/identity as decisive is putting ourselves on the level of
the pigs who lock up and beat up people for the very same reasons.
We must build a United Front of all prisoners, coming together against
the common enemy of imperialism. Reject the guards’ attempts to pit
prisoners against each other.