Political Prisoners, Isolation and Toture in America May 1st Phily

Time
Sunday, May 1 · 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Location

The Moonstone Arts Center

110A S. 13th St
Philadelphia, PA

More Info

Sunday May 1: RED INK: MAY DAY – 2PM

Moonstone Arts Center
110A S. 13th St
Philadelphia, Pa 19107
...215-735-9600

Political Prisoners, Isolation & Torture in America

Film, Discussion & Exhibit of Collages by Ojore Lutalo

With Hikim Green, Bonnie Kerness, Ojore Lutalo & TJ Whitaker

Hakim "Hak" Green is Hip-Hop. He uses it to address the ills affecting black culture
and he founded the For Life Initiative, a non-profit that promotes Hip-Hop as a
positive lifestyle. Hakim has recorded albums with Channel Live, lectured for Human
Education Against Lies (H.E.A.L.), Stop the Violence Movements, and the
International Youth Organization.

Bonnie Kerness serves as Coordinator of the AFSC’s Prison Watch Project and has
worked as a human rights advocate in US prisons with a focus on torture, isolation
(no touch torture), and use of devices of torture in US prisons. She contributed to
Our Children’s House (testimonies on juvenile imprisonment); Torture in US Prisons
(Evidence of US Human Rights Violations); The Prison Inside the Prison (Control
Units, Supermax Prisons and Devices of Torture), and other publications. She speaks
widely on human rights violations of United Nations Covenants in US prisons.

Ojore Lutalo is a former New Afrikan Anarchist political prisoner who served 28
years in prison for clandestine activities during the 1970’s and 1980’s. 22 of those
years were in isolation in the Management Control Unit at New Jersey State Prison,
for entertaining thoughts that the NJ Department of Corrections/Homeland Security
didn’t approve of. During this time Ojore created collages of political and social
commentary on the neo-slavery of US prisons.

T.J. Whitaker is the National Secretary and a New Jersey representative for the
Jericho Movement, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness and support
for U.S. Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. He is currently completing his
PhD in Global Affairs at Rutgers University, Newark, where his research focuses on
human rights violations of political activists.

La Junta to settle lawsuit with man who was wrongfully jailed

By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post Feb 15, 2011

Ojore Lutalo, 64, filed a suit against La Junta after he was wrongfully jailed on suspicion of terrorist threats. The city's insurance carrier will pay him an undisclosed amount. (Ed Andrieski, The Associated Press)

The city of La Junta's insurance carrier will pay an undisclosed amount to Ojore Lutalo, a New Jersey passenger on an Amtrak train who was wrongly jailed after another passenger mistook his phone conversation for terrorist threats.

Lutalo filed suit in U.S. District Court in Denver against the city of La Junta, Police Chief Todd Quick and Sgt. Shawn Mobley, claiming Mobley lied in an arrest affidavit to justify the charge against him.

The terms of the settlement say the city does not admit liability and that the amount of money paid to Lutalo is to remain confidential.

Bill Jackson, La Junta's assistant city manager, said Monday the city does not have to publicly disclose the amount because it was paid by the city's insurance company and not the taxpayers.

Lutalo was offered $20,000 early on in the suit, but declined to settle for that amount, said his attorney, Francisco Martinez.

The city has also agreed to submit a letter to authorities in New Jersey and Colorado that says Lutalo's arrest was based on misinformation.

On Jan. 26, 2010, Lutalo was arrested on suspicion of endangering public transportation while headed home to New Jersey after attending the Anarchist Book Fair in Los Angeles.

Amtrak called the La Junta police after a conductor said a Missouri couple on board thought they overheard Lutalo making statements about bombing the train and al-Qaeda.

But other passengers sitting near Lutalo told police they didn't hear him say anything threatening, Lutalo said in his lawsuit. La Junta police did not include those statements in their reports and arrest papers.

The lawsuit also says Mobley filed a report that says Lutalo was born in Nigeria even though he is an American born in New Jersey.

The district attorney declined to file a case against Lutalo, citing a lack of evidence, but Lutalo was in custody for three days.

The incident occurred shortly after the Nigerian bomber attempted a terrorist attack on an airplane Christmas Day 2009, and Martinez believes the hysteria surrounding that case led to Lutalo's arrest.

"He ran into this perfect storm," Martinez said.

Lutalo already had notoriety because he spent 28 years in prison for getting into a police shootout in 1975 and another shooting with a citizen in 1981.

While in prison, he pushed for reforms that led to his release in August 2009.