US: Police abuse, and sometimes kill, innocent persons at will. Cops plant evidence, they lie, they coerce confessions and they commit perjury. Many are, simply, criminals.Prosecutors suborn perjury. They introduce "evidence" they know is false, they fail to disclose and try to suppress exculpatory evidence and they knowingly prosecute innocent people.
The laws against some drugs are primarily a means to give the cops an open-ended warrant for search and seizure and a mechanism to keep poor people, young people and especially poor, young *black* people fearful, off-balance and easy to control.
The law that mandates heavier penalties for crack cocaine possession than for the powdered Hollywood variety is an outrageous act of oppression aimed at ensuring that blacks are punished more harshly than whites for the same offence.
Criminal court judges, for the most part, are in collusion with the cops and prosecutors and many wouldn't know justice if God came down from Heaven and handed it to them on a golden platter.
The result is that almost one in four (23 percent) black men in the age group 20-29 is either in prison, jail, on probation, or parole on any given day (four times that of whites). The number of young black men under the control of the criminal justice system, [criminal law system], is greater than the total number of black men of all ages enrolled in college as of 1996.
That the system is a blunt weapon for the continued oppression of black people - and, in a larger sense, poor people - is so obvious it needs no further assertion.
The prisons are overflowing with people who have never harmed a soul, and uncounted thousands who are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.
The system must be brought down. It must be strangled, clogged and made so unworkable that it collapses under its own corrupt weight. Once the system grinds to a halt, the powers-that-be will panic, the legislators will be forced to act and the laws will change.
Accomplishing this may not be as difficult as it sounds. What it will take is to educate young people - and especially young BLACK people - to follow a few simple rules when dealing with the authorities.
The rules should be posted in foot-high letters on billboards in every city. They should be scrawled as graffiti on every ghetto wall. They should be taped to lockers in schools and carved into police-cell walls and posted all over the Internet. They should be set to a beat and turned into a hip-hop song. They should be seen wherever people who are the system's favourite targets gather.
If everyone followed the rules to the letter, the system would stumble to a halt under its own ponderous weight. And then, either the laws would change in an attempt to eliminate injustice, or the system would forced to cast off its mask and reveal the monster police state lurking underneath.
If that happens, there can be only one response, and that's to take it to the streets, dismantle the motherfucker and start afresh.
The rules fall into two categories: Stymie the Cops, and Get Your Rights - ALL Your Rights.
You've waited long enough. Here are
THE RULES OF RESISTANCE
NEVER tell the police anything the law doesn't require you to tell.
(According to a disastrous U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2004, that means your name only [unless you're driving a car]. Practice these words for all other cop questions: "I'd rather not say.")
NEVER consent to a search of your person, your vehicle, your possessions or your residence.
(Insist they get a warrant. If they search without one, they generally can't use as evidence whatever they might find.)
NEVER confess. To anything. Never admit to anything.
(If arrested, say "I want to speak to a lawyer." Say nothing until you have. Never believe the cops when they tell you things will "go easier with you" if you give a statement, turn in your partner or point them towards evidence. This is the biggest lie cops tell, everyone knows it and yet, dumb motherfuckers fall for it every day. Don't be a dumb motherfucker.)
NEVER discuss your case with cellmates or others in or out of jail.
(Assume everyone you meet in jail is a police informant. Many of them are.)
NEVER plea bargain.
ALWAYS demand a lawyer.
(From the moment you are arrested, tell the cops you want to speak to a lawyer.
At the police station, tell everyone you come into contact with that you want a lawyer. Don't talk to the cops until you've spoken with a lawyer.)
ALWAYS plead not guilty.
(Even if you're guilty as hell. Make them prove it. Often, they won't be able to if you don't help them.)
ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.
(Use the rights you have. Challenge jurors. Drag out the process. Make it as expensive as possible for the State.)
ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.
ALWAYS pass on these rules to everyone you know.
There they are. Ten simple rules that hold awesome power.
Skeptical? Good. But think about it.
Can you imagine what the impact would be on the system if every single mother's son picked up by the cops refused to co-operate? Refused to tell them where he threw the dope, declined to identify the other dudes who were hanging out on the street corner, withheld permission for a search, demanded a lawyer, refused to confess or make a deal and insisted on a trial, complete with a jury of his peers? Do you think the system could withstand that for long?
It could not. The system sustains itself only because it is a revolving door into which the vast majority of its victims are sucked into the vicious vortex of arrest, bargain, confession, guilty plea, prison. Kind of like a giant garbage disposal unit.
But there are not enough public defenders to represent even a small percentage of charged persons if *everyone* demanded a lawyer and pleaded not guilty, not enough prosecutors to prosecute them, not enough courtrooms to try them in and not enough judges to fall asleep during their trials. Just finding enough people to sit on the vastly increased number of juries that would be required would throttle the system into paralysis.
And consider the effects on the police, if they knew that every single sonofabitch they charged would eventually face them in court, demanding to see their evidence, with a lawyer at their side to challenge their every lie.
The costs of running the system would rise astronomically. It could not be sustained. Things would change. And change is good.
So here they are again. The rules. Pass them on. Post them. Give them to your friends.
Think about it - revolution without firing a shot.
You have nothing to lose except the gun in your back.
THE RULES OF RESISTANCE
NEVER tell the police anything.
NEVER consent to a search.
NEVER confess.
NEVER discuss your case with others.
NEVER plea bargain.
ALWAYS demand a lawyer.
ALWAYS plead not guilty.
ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.
ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.
ALWAYS pass on these rules.
"Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice." - Arcesilaus.
By Everyone Knows It 5 July 04
Ed: Actually there is no justice in laws made by the ruling class, only their rule of law in their institutions. Justice is the word they use but, it is 'US Law' and much of police corruption starts out as 'Noble Cause Corruption' because The Government is the Problem. Then once the cops get used to that 'Green Light' then, 'Monkey See Monkey Do', for themselves of course, and straight out Police Corruption is born.
Remembering the Common Hood Soweto and Runnymede
I flew from Detroit, with one stop, to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to participate in an international conference, The Promise of Freedom and its Practice: Global Perspectives on South Africa's Decade of Democracy.
Related:
The Long Trail to Apology
Native America: All manner of unusual things can happen in Washington in an election year, but few seem so refreshing as a proposed official apology from the federal government to American Indians - the first ever - for the "violence, maltreatment and neglect" inflicted upon the tribes for centuries.
Free-speech lockdown
As state prisoners, we have long been portrayed by advocates of the tough-on-crime movement as a faceless and heartless amalgam deserving extreme punishment and permanent incapacitation.
Abu Ghraib, USA
When I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.
SACRAMENTO: Prisons to reform solitary confinement rules
US: Sacramento -- California corrections officials will revamp procedures used to keep thousands of prisoners isolated in tiny cells in some of the most remote lockups in the state, according to the settlement of a 10-year-old lawsuit brought by a jailhouse lawyer doing time at Pelican Bay State Prison.
Silencing the Cells: Mass Incarceration and Legal Repression in U.S. Prisons People without a voice are not people in any meaningful sense of the word. Silenced people cannot express their ideas; they can neither consent nor protest. They are reduced to being pawns in the schemes of the powerful, mendicants who must accept whatever is imposed upon them. In order to keep people in a state of subjugation, silencing their voices is essential. Nowhere is this clearer than in U.S. prisons.
USA: An ugly prison record
US: For a nation founded on slavery and genocide, Americans retain an astonishingly enduring faith in their continuing righteousness. They are sounding this note again as the prison torture scandal continues in Iraq.
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know." But being stripped, hooded and urinated on while your friend is forced to masturbate next to you? The only member of the Bush clan who knows about that kind of thing is Jenna.
Restorative Justice Practices
This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America. Part one of this series includes inter- views with three justice practitioners of the southwestern United States:
USA: Problems, blame abound in prison system
A correctional officer, [guard], watches over the central exercise yard at Folsom State Prison. California built 21 prisons and tripled prison staff as the statewide inmate, [prisoner], population grew in the '80s and '90s.
Mistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S.
Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates, [prisoners], and human rights advocates.
A Catch-22 for Ex-Offenders
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 -- As the Bush administration focuses attention on ex-offenders with its modest program to help them return to the community, an eye-opening new study shows that the effort will require a lot more than re-entry programs.
A Quite Deliberate Failure: Reflections on the Politics of Crime
Though it is always difficult to predict the outcome of an election in the United States, it is quite a bit easier to make accurate pronouncements about the way in which an election campaign will unfold.
Personal Voices: America From Inside Federal Prison
I offer these thoughts to readers who may have an interest in knowing how the growing American prison population perceives the electoral process. Elections are the essence of democracy; they give each eligible voter an opportunity to be heard.
Fighting for Florida: Disenfranchised Florida Felons Struggle to Regain Their Rights US: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush looked out over a roomful of felons appealing to him for something they had lost, and tried to reassure them.
Abolish the Security Housing Units: MIM
March 6 -- Protesters took to the streets in cities across the state of California to demand California prisons shut down the Security Housing Units (SHU). Like other control unit prisons across the country, the SHU are prisons within a prison. They are solitary confinement cells where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day for years at a time. The one hour a day these prisoner sometimes get outside of their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen not much larger than their cell, with no direct sunlight.
USA: Sobering Prison Statistics
US: If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 out of every 20 persons (5.1%) will serve time in a prison during their lifetime.
Helping Prisoners Find Their Way Home?
Antonio Pinder used to be scared of returning home from prison, stricken by fear that he would fall back into the life that landed him behind bars. He hadn't had a steady job before he was sent away 13 years ago, and he worried that he never would. A year out of prison, he is still searching for work.
US Prison system ending love affair with incarceration?
After 25 years of explosive growth in the U.S. prison system, is this country finally ending its love affair with incarceration? Perhaps, but as in any abusive relationship, breaking up will be hard to do.
CONS COMMIT CRIMES IN HASTE, NOW CAN REPENT AT LAWTEY - -- Gov. Jeb Bush, in a Christmas Eve address to prisoners at the nation's first ''faith-based'' prison, in North Florida.
CURE --- Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants
CURE --- is a nation-wide grass roots organization dedicated to reducing crime through reform of the criminal justice system.[Criminal Law System.]
The Truth About Private Prisons
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest operator of prisons for profit, is celebrating its 20th anniversary throughout this year "at both the company's corporate Nashville office and at all of the more than 60 prisons, jails and detention centers under CCA ownership and/or management."
CCA PRIVATE PRISONS: REPORT GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP
New National Study of Corrections Corporation of America Warns Investors and Legislators of Risky Investment. Report explores continuing operational and financial problems; questions CCA's long-term viability as states reassess prison policies.
Finally, States Release The Pressure on Prisons?
US: After decades of massive prison growth, America may be ending its love affair with incarceration. Policymakers around the country, some of whom previously supported ratcheting up punishments, have begun to rethink the wisdom of unbridled prison expansion, and are advocating alternatives to simply "locking them up and throwing away the key."
California Parole System Deemed 'Broken'
SACRAMENTO, Calif: California spends $1.5 billion annually on parolees who mostly fail and are sent back behind bars because they are no better prepared for life on the outside than the day they entered prison, according to a report.
People with Mental Retardation in the Criminal Justice System
Based on the 1990 census, an estimated 6.2 to 7.5 million people in the United States have mental retardation. Various studies have suggested between 2 percent to 10 percent of the prison population has mental retardation.
USA: With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms
OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 6 - After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime.
A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.
Report on State Prisons Cites Mental Illness
NEW YORK: Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation [solitary confinement], confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies.
High court keeps alive case of prisoners held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.
US: Mentally Ill Mistreated in Prison More Mentally Ill in Prison Than in Hospitals (New York, October 22, 2003) Mentally ill offenders face mistreatment and neglect in many U.S. prisons, Human Rights Watch. "Prisons have become the nation's primary mental health facilities. But for those with serious illnesses, prison can be the worst place to be."
Shut down the Security Torture Units
San Francisco: October 18 In solidarity with other prison activist organizations, MIM, RAIL, the Barrio Defense Committee (BDC) and the Prison Reform Unity Project held a four hour rally in San Francisco demanding the Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons be shut down.
Solitary Confinement: Mental illness in prisons
As noted earlier, inmates [prisoners] with mental illness are over represented in our toughest prison settings. Symptoms of mental illness (i.e., delays in response time, paranoia, difficulty interpreting the actions of others, command hallucinations, and so on) can make complying with prison rules difficult.
Post-Incarceration Sentences
Pat: "The 1990s brought a new front in the war on drugs, featuring a new layer of the Prison Industrial Complex, which has the effect of ensuring that people coming in contact with the criminal punishment system remain within the grasp of the Prison Industrial Complex even beyond prison walls."
Inside Prison, Outside the Law
Every year, tens of thousands of prisoners in state and federal custody are attacked. The exact number who die is difficult to determine: According to the nonprofit Criminal Justice Institute, in 2000, the most recent year for which figures have been compiled, 55 prisoners were murdered, 39 died "accidentally," and 118 died for unknown reasons.
Day Seven of the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health:
PASADENA, CALIF: On the seventh day of a hunger strike by six psychiatric survivors to oppose human rights violations in the mental health system, the American Psychiatric Association faces a direct and unprecedented challenge from a Scientific Panel of 14 academics and clinicians.
Supreme Court Justice Criticises Sentencing Guidelines
San Francisco, August 9, 2003, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said today that prison terms are too long and that he favours scrapping the practice of setting mandatory minimum sentences for some federal crimes.
US prison population 2.1 million
The US prison population grew more than twice as fast last year as in 2001, bringing the total number of people held behind bars in the United States to more than 2.1 million, a record, according to a government report.
McKean Federal Prison: An Alleged Model
McKean, a federal correctional institution [? prison], does everything that "make 'em bust rocks" politicians decry--imagine, educating inmates [prisoners]! And it works. [Allegedly works.]
Prisoners Justice Day Press Release (Montreal)
On August 10th, 1974, Eddie Nalon bled to death in a solitary confinement unit at Millhaven Maximum Security Prison near Kingston,Ontario when the emergency call button in his cell failed to work. An inquest later found that the call buttons in that unit had been deactivated by the guards.
Notebook of a Prison Abolitionist
In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass recalls how as a slave he would occasionally hear of the "abolitionists." He did not know the full meaning of the word at first, but he heard it used in ways that he found appealing.
Study Warns of Rising Tide of Released Prisoners
Washington: More than 625,000 former prisoners will be coming back into U.S. society this year, part of a record flow of prisoners who will face crushing obstacles in finding work and housing and repairing long-fractured family ties, according to a newly released study.
Incite Statement Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex
We call social justice movements to develop strategies and analysis that address both state AND interpersonal violence, particularly violence against women.
Second International Conference on Human Rights & Prison Reform
**This second gathering will be much smaller and more in depth in participation. A report on the human rights violation of discrimination in regard to prisoners will be produced. This report will be given to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which will be having its annual meeting near our conference and is the"think tank" for the human rights agenda of the United Nations.
Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
US: California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs [?] and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur. [? According to the ruling-class]
California Family Visiting Case
US: CALIFORNIA: Today (5/03/08) in Superior Court around twenty friends and family members of inmates from CSP Solano showed up to show their support in the Gordon vs. CA Department of Corrections (Case #322862) which deals with the subject of bringing back Family Visits to all inmates.
Prison Rates Among Blacks Reach a Peak, Report Finds
An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department.
Justices question prison visitation policies
WASHINGTON: In a case that could affect the visitation rights of millions of prisoners, Supreme Court justices on Wednesday struggled with the question of whether inmates have a constitutional right to visits with friends and family.
