Tag Archives: resistance

‘They always cry it’s a security concern when they don’t want to change for the better’

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Hey J & S,

I hope y’all don’t mind me responding to you both in a single letter. I have just completed putting final touches on a petition for Writ of Mandamus to be mailed to Durham District Court in the AM. Trying to level the playing field keeps me wide open in here!

I can hardly wait to get out of this awful place. I am 65 years young. There is much work to do in the realm of jurisprudence for the offenders and the courts to get the playing field leveled and reduce crime.

I am going to seek a Soros Justice Fellowship when I get out to conduct a study in Durham, Wake, Guilford, and Mecklenburg jails and courts to see just how effective their court appointed lawyer system is and how justice is meted out in these courts. I’d like to compare the plea deals offered by those various DAs for similar offenses committed in those 4 counties. If I get a justice fellowship, I could then hire a small staff and have other non-profit agencies help me to extend this study to all 100 counties.

The courts need someone — a serious watchdog — looking over their shoulders, as District Attorneys. Continue reading →

‘We’ve been taught to love a song that blatantly disrespects us’

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Hey,

What’s happening? I’m glad you reached out to me. I do have a few comments concerning a few different topics. First I want to shout out the new food company ABL. They holding it down with the new food changes they’re regulating with. After eating Aramark for 3.5 years and now eating ABL’s I truly understand that Aramark are a bunch of damn crooks. Words can’t explain how much of a shame and absurd it is how they’ve got over for all these years on what they served to us as “food.”

Next shout out to Danielle Mace. What you told me they did to you was unacceptable and I hope you push with legal action till you receive the proper acknowledgment you deserve to expose these bastards. Nothing but love shorty. Next I want to acknowledge a recent incident that took place last week. Officer Faulkner kicked us off the recreation yard after 30 minutes of basketball. (as also described in this post) Continue reading →

‘I pray that all my brothers make it through’

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Unity—One body—More Power

We are all convicts at the end of the day. I don’t bang nothing. But we killing each other on the outside. And it’s no better on the inside. Do we not see the system is trying to lay us down. It’s black and white right in front of our face. They don’t care about red or blue. The only color standing behind these walls are black. Young or old, we as black men are losing power in a system that wants us to fall. Continue reading →

‘The world is watching and this is only the beginning’

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This letter was returned to the sender for no reason back in early September. He re-sent it with another letter.

 

Power Comrade

After reading the last edition of feedback my current situation changed. I was placed in solitary confinement for an altercation with another detainee, for which I was given 30 days. Everybody except myself looked at it as if it was a bad thing. I don’t look at things one-sided. As I said after reading feedback, and observing what’s been happening lately as far as the killings of black men and the police, and observing my surroundings in here it seems like people are numb or they just don’t care. Continue reading →

‘How can they get away with this, and press charges on me!’

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To whom it may concern:

My name is Danielle Mace. I am 26 years old. While I’ve been here I was recently charged with felony assault causing physical injury to a detention employee and misdemeanor assault on government official, which (excuse my language) is Bullshit. Continue reading →

UNITE!

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Unity is a Must

“To conquer you must divide.” I believe the first time I quoted that my focus was only aimed at Afro-Americans. For that narrow-mindedness, I give my sincere apologies. Although my ideology was correct, it wasn’t socially correct. By me only focusing on the Afro-Americans, I’ve isolated my views on the mass struggle. In reality, I should have known better for the simple fact that the oppression and repression applied by this capitalist nation has no limitations. I should have grasped the full picture of oneness and of unity. My mind has taken the trip to Mecca, and I have realized and understand that the struggle knows no boundaries and by us fighting a well-organized system separately, we’ve already lost the war. Continue reading →

‘That fist bump keeps me going til the next time’

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fencing at DCDF (1)

This photo was taken near the end of June. The fencing is still up.

In front of the jail last week, topics of conversation ranged from the construction all around us (that has been underway since late June with little to show for it), to the jail’s plans for video visitation, to the new contract for food preparation, and much more. The following are snippets of conversation:

M: You look around, and it just seems like things are going to get worse here. This construction, for one. They used to have trees here and benches. Then they took down the trees, and they took out the benches.

Y: Yeah, when we started protesting.

M: But what are they putting in here? It’s not gonna be better. You can only assume it will be worse based on what goes on here. They also seem to be doing some kind of construction on the roof. I saw porta potties up there, and stuff hanging off the edge. What’s going on up there?

S: I don’t know.

M: This whole place is a mess.

S: And then there’s fewer benches to sit on in the lobby, and the recently removed curtain where the locker area was. That’s gonna be for video visitation, right?

M: There’s fewer benches because there will be less waiting for visits maybe? We don’t know because they never say. For video visits, forget it. If it comes to that, I won’t go. I’d rather talk to my dad on the phone. It’s bullshit that they’re doing that. I would rather talk to him on the phone than through a video screen.

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C: Visits on a video monitor is gonna be worst on children of inmates. And on the inmates themselves. Why would they take away face to face when there’s no reason to? That’s gonna kill people. It’ll make people so much worse off than now even.

T: They’re not doing that, or, if they try it’s not gonna fly. No way. It might be with glass between you, but you’re really seeing them. And the fist bump. I live for a fist bump at that end. You can’t do that on video. If I don’t have that fist bump…It keeps me going til the next time.

S: What do you think they’re doing here (construction)? Do you know?

G: I don’t know. They don’t say. Maybe someone is digging a tunnel out of the place? (Smiles).

S: I like the way you think. (Smile)

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N: We were told they put up this (construction fence) to stop us and others from talking to the inmates at the windows.

S: Really? Someone from the jail told you that?

J: No, other people said it, not anyone who works here, I don’t think.

S: So, I see it hasn’t really stopped you from communicating. Or anyone else.

J: (Laughs). No, not really.

S: Does anyone from the jail ever try to tell you to stop signaling?

N: Hell no. They know it ain’t gon’ stop me.

 

 

Back to School Thesis

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We are students for 4 years, but we’re oppressed our whole lives. This is the sad but true part of the educational/capitalist system that supports this oppression. Before I begin this thesis, I would like to tell the readers what inspired me to write this. I (recently) received a letter from a young woman who is in high school and on her summer vacation is taking the time to learn about activism. She wrote me as part of a project her organization was doing. I enjoy seeing consciousness among young people such as her, and for her I wrote this. Continue reading →

‘Coffee is like air, and sleep the cousin of death…’

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As my daily routine changes, coffee has become like air, and sleep has become the cousin of death. I’ve been operating on 3 to 6 hours of sleep, my revolutionary studies have reached an all-time high. I currently have been disregarding individuals whose presence only waste time, and I’ve been spending more time preaching my outlook/standpoint on social issues and conditions we face. In any area, my vision has been clearing up by the day, my self-discipline  been worked on also daily. Noticing my influence, I’ve also been trying to tap into the other brothers’ consciousness.
Continue reading →