An interview with anarchist political-prisoner Eric King with the Seattle-Tacoma chapter of Black and Pink.
In this time when authorities refuse to keep people safe from COVID-19, when rebellion is a fresh on our minds, and when the abolition of police and prisons is becoming a clear necessity to more and more people, we’ve got something to learn from an anarchist political prisoner like Eric King. Eric vandalized the office of a government official in Kansas City, MO, in solidarity with the Ferguson uprising, was arrested in September 2014, and then was sentenced to ten years for the window he broke in June 2016. Such a sentence is horrible, but not shocking. Prisons, after all, do more to keep hierarchies safe than people.
The following is an interview with Eric conducted through snail mail by the Seattle-Tacoma chapter of Black and Pink, a queer/trans abolitionist group that focuses on building community across prison walls.
Good Morning everyone. I’m not sure if this is such a good morning but i don’t know how to open this letter to everyone.Yes i heard the loser did not sign my clemency, i had this strong feeling yesterday that I wasn’t going to get it, i don’t know why i had it,? I guess it was the spirits telling me so i sat down trying to write you all a letter but my tears of self pity must have over whelmed me as i could not see to finish it so i had to stop for a while, thought about my family friends and people’s how it must be for them too . so i pulled myself together. and thought to myself well
I’m not going to give up.Its been a hard 45 yrs, and it will get a lot harder I’m sure as I aged and in the moments when hopelessness over takes me, but at my age all i can do is ask so many of you to stay with me and lets try again. b/cuz we have the only weapon we can use and that’s the constitution and the laws of this so called free democracy EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL, and must get everyone to know what the laws was that they violated not just the lawyers, But what a joke that is,!! IT HAS never has been this way for my people. and more then likely will never be. BUT I welcome all who will stay with me and fight on until i take my last breath.
Thank you. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Doksha,
Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP Coleman I Post Office Box 1033 Coleman, Fl 33521
This month we are asking that folks write letters of support to former Black Panther, Kamau Sadiki. Kamau has been held in the Augusta State Medical Prison for years and suffered medical neglect. Right now, Kamau is in danger of needing his left foot amputated and needs to see a wound specialist. Before you join us next Monday to write a letter, please take a minute to tweet at @GovKemp & call the Augusta State Medical Prison at (706) 855-4700 to demand he be taken to the wound care clinic ASAP. At the letter-writing event, we will have an update about the medical campaign and send words of solidarity directly to Kamau so that he knows, and the prison knows, this situation is getting wider public attention.
At age 17, Kamau dedicated his life to the service of his people working out of the Jamaica office of the Black Panther Party. Kamau worked in the Free Breakfast Program each morning and then went out into the community to sell the BPP newspaper later in the day. At nineteen, Kamau was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Several members of the BLA, including Kamau, left New York City and lived in the Atlanta area for a short period of time. On the night of November 3rd 1971, witnesses observed three black males run from a van where a police officer was murdered at a gas station in downtown Atlanta. The witnesses failed to identify Kamau from a photographic line-up and there was no physical evidence that implicated him. In 1971, the Atlanta police department closed the case as unsolved.
In 1999, the FBI in pursuit of collaboration in their attempts to recapture Assata Shakur (the mother of one of Kamau’s daughters), a political exile in Cuba, threatened him with life in prison if he did not assist them. When he did not comply, the FBI convinced Atlanta police to re-open the case and charge Kamau. He was arrested in 2002 in Brooklyn, New York some thirty-one years later after the murder. In 2003, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and ten years to run consecutively for armed robbery. Much of his sentence has been spent in a medical prison because he suffers from Hepatitis C, Cirrhosis of the Liver, and Sarcoidosis. February 19th will be his 68th birthday so send him some birthday love as well!
This event will be held on Jitsi – we’ll post the meet link on social media the day of. You can also message us to get the link beforehand.
If you can’t join us on Monday, send him a message of hope and healing at:
Freddie Hilton #0001150688 Augusta State Medical Prison 3001 Gordon Highway Grovetown, GA 30813
We also encourage sending birthday cards to political prisoners with February birthdays: Veronza Bowers (the 4th) and Oso Blanco (the 26th).
On January 5th, 2021, Eric was once again placed on a 6- month communication restriction in response to a New Year’s Eve noise demo that was held outside of FCI Englewood by various groups in Denver, a demo that happens every single year at prisons worldwide. After being accused of organizing the demo, the BOP finally admitted that they are aware that Eric had nothing to do with the noise demo. Despite this fact, the BOP North Central Regional office instructed Englewood to restrict Eric’s communication.
Apparently, in the BOP prisoners will be held responsible for anything anyone may do. It is interesting though that in 2017 when the right-wing Bundy family attempted to force their way into the prison to visit a prisoner they stood in solidarity with, driving around the parking lot, evading guards, blasting music… there were no disciplinary actions or restrictions enforced on the prisoner. This must be another special BOP rule that only applies to anti-fascists.
Eric can no longer correspond with anyone outside his family and lawyer. He is again cut off from communication from anyone that might offer him support and strength and solidarity during a global pandemic. He is again isolated from all contact with friends that matter deeply to him.
If folks want to help, he can receive books. These can be a great distraction for him and all of the prisoners he passes them onto, especially during this next level federal lock-down.
Donations to the bad ass lawfirm who has stepped up for him in a real way can be made, to help ensure they have the resources to continue to stand behind folks who are fighting oppression in real ways. Donate here.
Many of you have asked about the addresses for our KBP7 (now) prisoners of conscience. Here are the addresses for Carmen, Martha, and Patrick. Fr Steve Kelly is in transit so there is no address currently for him. Clare reports to FCI Alderson on February 12th; Mark is scheduled to be sentenced on February 19th. Liz has finished serving her sentence, and lives with her family in New London, CT. Please go to our website for current updates https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/
Carmen Trotta #22561-021 FCI Otisville-Satellite Camp PO Box 1000 Otisville, NY 10963
MONTHS AFTER NEW York had become a global epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, state officials began quietly moving dozens of elderly men with underlying health conditions from prisons across the state to a facility close to the Canadian border.
The transfers, which began in June 2020, after the virus had spread widely and caused several deaths among the state’s incarcerated population and prison staff, were ostensibly intended to protect the most vulnerable from Covid-19. But defying both public health recommendations and common sense, prison officials moved the men from different facilities, including some with large outbreaks, without first testing them, transporting them on crowded and poorly ventilated buses. They then mixed them at the Adirondack Correctional Facility in Ray Brook, New York, without quarantining them. Since then, officials have tested the men only sporadically, even after some were exposed to the virus inside the prison, and have taken minimal steps to promote hygiene and social distancing. When a man incarcerated at the facility was discovered to have contracted the virus, prison officials ordered the guards who had come in contact with him to quarantine at home for two weeks. But they took no measures to test and isolate the incarcerated people with whom he had also been in close proximity.
WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, December 12th, 2021 WHERE: YOUR HOME COST: Free
NYC Anarchist Black Cross is promoting virtual letter writing to elder political prisoner David Gilbert who has been in New York State prisons since 1981.
“It’s our first every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing event of 2021 and we are starting off by writing to David Gilbert–someone close to us, both physically and in spirit. For this first event of the year, NYC ABC and Page One Collective are asking you to continue to write to from home, staying safe, while also keeping our imprisoned comrades front and center.”
For David to come home, he would need Governor Andrew Cuomo to grant him clemency (release or make him parole eligible). Please write Cuomo and urge him to grant clemency to David Gilbert (#83A6158):
On Monday January 18th, The Free Maroon Now Coalition will be gathering at 11 am on the Capitol Steps in Harrisburg (501 N. 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA 17120) demanding the immediate release of PA political prison Russell Maroon Shoatz. On this Martin Luther King holiday, we remind the community that Martin Luther King was unpopular with the government of his time and that he was a political prisoner incarcerated for standing up for Black Lives.
Russell Maroon Shoatz is a 77 year old grandfather who has spent over 50 years in prison for standing up for Black Lives. 22 of those years were spent in solitary confinement. Maroon was diagnosed with stage 4 colo-rectal cancer in 2019 and has undergone chemo over the last year. He is an elder who is no threat to anyone. Maroon is one of 1300 people over the age of 60 sentenced to die in PA Prisons. We must change the practice of excessive sentencing and the mass incarceration of elders.Maroon was diagnosed with Covid in December, where he experienced “refugee like” circumstances with 30 ailing men living in a gym with only one bathroom. 145 organizations from across the country signed on to a letter demanding his immediate release.
Join us as we call for Mercy for Maroon. Join us as we demand Amnesty for all Political Prisoners.Join us as we invoke the call for Reparations. Granting compassionate release for people defending Black lives is a part of Reparations.Join us as we mourn the death of justice. For as long as people continue to be incarcerated for defending Black Lives there can be no justice.There will be a funeral procession to an undisclosed location following the gathering at the Harrisburg Capitol Steps.
Please sign up here, so we can get an idea of how many people are planning to attend and keep you updated with event details. Traveling is expensive, so if that is a barrier to your participation we can support your gas and toll money.
