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WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing
WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, November 17th, 2020
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free

NYC ABC and Page One Collective are back for our every-other-week Political Prisoner Letter Writing. As anarchists, it should come as no surprise that we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving– we’ll take your damned day off from work, but not in exchange for commemorating the historic and ongoing genocide of indigenous folks and the 250 million turkeys who are killed each year. While we might be eating the fruits of the fall harvest, don’t confuse that with an acceptance of the Thanksgiving myth.

This Tuesday’s event will focus on indigenous political prisoners Leonard Peltier and Rattler.

Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement (AIM) warrior. In the 1970s, the United States government continued its legacy of decimating indigenous communities, focusing on those organized and prepared to challenge its authority. Peltier is imprisoned for the 1975 shoot-out between the FBI and AIM in which two federal agents and an indigenous man were killed. Four years after his imprisonment, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request released documents which prove Leonard Peltier’s innocence and the FBI’s targeting him. And still, Peltier remains imprisoned. For more information and ways to help, visit whoisleonardpeltier.info

Rattler (Michael Markus) is Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a water protector, and one of six folks who eventually came to be known as the Standing Rock 6. The Standing Rock 6 are arrestees enduring felony charges stemming from arrests on October 27, 2016 at ceremonial resistance camps at Standing Rock. These camps were convened in North Dakota by Native peoples and their allies who gathered there to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Collectively, they are referred to as water protectors. These seven arrestees are out of the 800-some water protectors arrested, many the result of widespread police sweeps at demonstrations like October 22 with scant or no evidence to link most individuals to any crime. More information: freerattlernodapl.com

Please take the time to write a letter to Leonard and Rattler (and share a photo of your completed envelopes with us online):

Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Coleman I
Post Office Box 1033
Coleman, Florida 33521

Rattler* #06280-073
FCI Sandstone
Post Office Box 1000
Sandstone, Minnesota 55072
*Address envelope to Michael Markus

A New York Black Panther, he endured two years of prison awaiting trial for the Panther 21 Conspiracy Case. He and his comrades were eventually acquitted on all the bogus charges. The case was historic and a classic example of police and government attempting to neutralize organizations by incarcerating their leadership. As a result of this political attack and because of the immense pressure and surveillance from the FBI and local police Sundiata, like many other Panther leaders went “underground.”

On May 2, 1973, Sundiata Acoli and two companions were ambushed and attacked by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. One was wounded and the other was killed. During the gun battle, a state trooper was shot and killed in self-defense. Sundiata was tried in an environment of mass hysteria and convicted, although there was no credible evidence that he killed the trooper or had been involved in the shooting. He was sentenced to thirty years. Sundiata was ordered released on parole by a state appeals court in New Jersey in September 2014 when the court ruled the parole board had “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” when it previously denied him parole. The State of New Jersey has appealed the decision and won in October 2018.

Write:
Sundiata Acoli* #39794-066
FCI Cumberland
Post Office Box 1000
Cumberland, Maryland 21501
*Address envelope to Clark Squire
Birthday: January 14

More information: sundiataacolifc.org
Petition for clemency to Governor Murphy
Info was taken from NYC ABC’s Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners.
More PP addresses here.

Our beloved elder Russell Maroon Shoatz, suffering stage 4 cancer for the last year and a half, has now been diagnosed with COVID-19. This infection is no doubt a result of the “full-blown resurgence” of the virus in Pennsylvania state prisons, and the callous disregard shown by prison authorities to elderly and infirm incarcerated people, including withheld testing and unhygienic isolation of those who report symptoms. 

Maroon is asking that all supporters call the office of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and demand his immediate, unconditional release, as well as that of ALL elderly prisoners infected with COVID-19.

Please call (717) 787-2500 beginning the morning of Monday, November 16, and keep the pressure on!
Our sincere gratitude for all of your support.

More via russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com

Many of the Kings Bay Plowshares were sentenced recently. Here are some updates. Be sure to check out their website as the activists will be reporting to prison soon.

Carmen Trotta was sentenced to 14 months in the morning session. This was a downward departure based on the judge granting his objection that the seriousness of his criminal history was overstated by the probation report.

Clare Grady was sentenced in the afternoon in a three hour session. She was sentenced by Judge Wood to one year and one day which is well below the guidelines.  Both defendants were also sentenced to three years supervised probation and ordered to “jointly and singly” pay restitution of $33,501. Carmen requested that he be able to self report to prison in 30 days and Judge Wood agreed to recommend that. Clare requested 90 days.

Martha Hennessey received 10 months in federal prison, restitution, and three year’s supervised probation.  

Fr. Steve Kelly was sentenced in Brunswick on Oct. 15 to 33 months incarceration, three years of supervised release and restitution ($33, 501 shared jointly with other defendants). He has served 30 months in pretrial confinement in Georgia jails so should have completed this sentence with the addition of accumulated good time. Steve still has to answer for a probation violation from a previous arrest so may be taken to Tacoma in Washington State to face the judge there. 

Patrick O’Neill was sentenced on Oct 16 to 14 months in prison and the same probation and restitution. He will have to self report to prison when ordered by the Bureau of Prisons within the next 90 days. 

Liz McAlister was sentenced to time served (17 months) in June.

A Critical Moment in the Fight to FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

Join the Movement to Free Mumia on Monday November 16th at 12pm EST for this historical press conference during a critical time in the case of our esteemed elder and revolutionary leader, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Hear from Angela Davis, Pam Africa, Kwame Ajamu, Linn Washington, Jr and others as they continue the decades long fight calling for the Freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal , All Political Prisoners, and Prison Abolition. Tune in, learn more, spread the word, show your support and get involved!
Register at http://linktr.ee/mumia
or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mumia-press-conference-freedom-abolition-tickets-128825535645

Thanks to NYC ABC, there is this useful birthday calendar for political prisoner’s birthdays! Be sure to bookmark the calendar and send out birthday cards or greetings to the political prisoners.

Via our friends at Philly ABC

#EdPoindexter is on a wait list of commutation applicants & high-risk for COVID. Please write, email & call the Board of Pardons & request they expedite Ed’s application, schedule his hearing, & immediately commute his sentence.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jay-chase-of-the-nato3-is-free

We are happy to report that Jared (Jay) Chase has finally been released from prison after eight+ hard years. Jay was one of the NATO 3, arrested in 2012 in Chicago, Illinois in an entrapment scheme organized by the Chicago police department.

This was the first time the state of Illinois charged people with conspiracy to commit terrorism, and it was simply for protesting NATO. Thanks to many awesome people on their legal team, and broader community support, they were found not guilty on all terrorism related charges Jay and his two codefendants were convicted on one felony. Jay was sentenced to the longest time, 8 years.

This sentence was beyond terrible but especially awful because Jay Chase has Huntington’s disease. He was diagnosed with it back in 2013 and the disease has been progressing since then. Huntington’s is a terminal disease that affects his motor skills and cognitive ability.

Jay is out, but he has a long fight ahead of him with this disease. There is no cure for Huntington’s but there is treatment that can slow symptoms and prolong life. Jay did not receive proper health care in Illinois state prisons but we want to get him proper care now that he is free.

Donations will be used to:
1) get Jay set up with basic necessities people need,
2) medical care, and
3) housing.

Leonard Peltier is a Native American political prisoner and American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, serving two consecutive life sentences for a crime he was framed for— the 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Oglala Sioux reservation. After the acquittal of his codefendants and being extradited form Canada under false pretenses, Peltier was convicted by an all white jury 12 in a hostile town. Peltier has appealed his sentence many times and has sued the FBI for withholding thousands of pages of important legal documents from FOIA requests.

He is an accomplished painter and writer, having published his memoir, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, in 1999. Peltier has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times. His defense campaign continues to advocate for executive clemency and his transfer close to home. More information: whoisleonardpeltier.info

Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Coleman I
Post Office Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521

Birthday: September 12

Info was taken from NYC ABC’s Illustrated Guide to Political Prisoners.
More PP addresses here.