From Environmentalist to “Domestic Terrorist” with former Earth Liberation member Daniel McGowan (G&R 150)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-environmentalist-to-domestic-terrorist-with/id1501708978?i=1000555556457

From Green and Red:

In the past ten years, we’ve also seen state repression of movements coming out of Occupy Wall Street, the Ferguson uprising, Standing Rock, Line 3 and various anti-Trump movements. Green and Red has had numerous episodes on radical movements and state repression of political movements from antifascists in Portland and Austin to water protectors at Line 3 to DAPL saboteur Jessica Reznicek.

But, before that, we had the era known as the “Green Scare,” where radical environmental and animal rights activists were targeted by the “state” (corporations, politicians, law enforcement) for its anti-capitalist politics and escalating tactics that included sabotage, animal liberation, property destruction and arson. The FBI called their operation to stop these radical movements “Operation Backfire.” After 911, they labeled people taking action “domestic terrorists.” Congress passed corporate lobbyist written legislation, such as the Animal Enterprise Terror Act and the Patriot Act, to stop them.

In our latest episode, we talk with Daniel McGowan (@thetinyraccoon), an anarchist organizer, Earth Liberation Front (ELF) member and partisan during the Green Scare era. He was part of two ELF actions in 2001. After another ELF member turned informant, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with arson, property destruction and conspiracy.  In June, 2007, McGowan was sentenced to seven years in federal prison and given a “terror enhancement” for his actions.  Most of his time in prison was spent in a secret prison unit called a Communication Management Unit.

Daniel tells us about his journey as a radical environmentalist, actions with the ELF, time in federal prison and, now, supporter of political prisoners.

Daniel McGowan is a former political prisoner and former member of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). He spent 48 months in experimental Communication Management Units operated by the federal Bureau of Prisons during his seven year sentence. Daniel has been involved with political prisoner support and prison struggles for most of his activist life. He is currently a member of the Certain Days collective, NYC Books Through Bars and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF). Daniel works on the campaign to defend and free anarchist political prisoner Eric King and is an advisory board member of the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) & the Coalition for Civil Freedoms. Daniel is a lifelong New Yorker and grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens, NYC. He works  professionally as a paralegal and consults with people preparing to go to prison and their family & friends in setting up defense committees.

Outro// Catharsis “Arsonist’s Prayer”
Daniel’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tinyraccoon
G&R: Dakota Access Pipeline Saboteur Jessica Reznicek Sentenced to Prison
G&R: The Story of SHAC

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Listen to Mookie Moss of @CLDC & Josh Davidson of @CertainDays talk about Eric King’s trial (and subsequent acquittal) on @StrawFinal.

Listen at https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2022/03/27/merced-prisoner-hunger-strikes-eric-king-trial-ends/

We women are standing up during Women’s History Month for Kamau Sadiki. We invite our whole community to join us for a letter-writing workshop. Sometimes it can be difficult to find the right words. Join us to gain some guidance on writing to captured Freedom Fighters like Kamau Sadiki. Together we will be in and build community as we learn about Kamau Sadiki, the efforts to bring him home, and the fight for all US Held Political Prisoners.

Register at: tinyurl.com/womengather4kamau

Here’s the latest compilation of every other week updates:
https://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/updates-22-mar-2022-1.pdf

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support
crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of
war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner,
please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to
have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies
sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady
contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC

Dear friends,

Last month on February 4th guards at FCI Memphis allowed our friend Patrick Rogers to die. Sources in here tell me that he had regularly medical emergencies, falling down unconscious frequently. The staff became agitated with having to respond to these emergencies and the new Captain here accused him of faking and spread the rumor that he was faking medical emergencies and gave instructions to not respond to these incidents. As a result his medical ailments went untreated for a long period of time. I have been told that he was hit by a truck before coming to this prison and had multiple medical conditions as a result. After falling down yet again he was taken to the Special Housing unit. Guards said this was because he “mouthed off to a guard” while witnesses claim he was taken away because he could not walk.

Shortly after being taken to the SHU the entire prison went on lockdown. On Friday the 4th of February, he died. His neighbors in Tennessee Unit A say that he was allowed to die by staff because they were concerned that he had a legitimate case for a lawsuit and they were legally vulnerable to legal action. Lt. King came into the unit after he died and callously remarked, “Well, I guess he wasn’t faking!” He was asked if he thought this was funny and unconvincingly replied no, that it was a potential lawsuit. Legal vulnerability and a fear of taking responsibility trumped this Lieutenant’s sense of what a human life is worth. I won’t speak of his sense of humor. Understandably this upset Big Pat’s friends, not to mention his family. I heard about this exchange from one of his friends in the chow hall today as the lockdown was lifted and lost my appetite. As fellow captives of the prison industrial complex we are all outraged within these walls.

Efforts to spread the word about this deadly medical negligence, deliberate indiference and fatal targeted harrassment have been hampered by staff refusing to sell us paper, stationary and stamps during this lockdown. Thanks to sympathetic guards and our constitutional right to contact family the word has already gotten out. My defense committee has been notified and asked to contact Mr. Rogers’ family while raising awareness on various social medias, spreading pamhplets, articles and writting essays. That ball is already rolling. The cops reading this message may try to censor it, but that would be a useless gesture as the cat is already out of the bag. Any attempt to censor journalism and destroy evidence leaves government employees vulnerable to civil action. As a community we have the resources, the solidarity and the ability to take legal action and win. We will. I request everyone reading this to look into the situation and #RememberPat. Contact the American Civil Liberties Union, Prison Legal News and any other groups who you think can be helpful. We need to spread the word about the conditions here before anyone else dies. This can happen to any of us at any time. The current political climate is such that the prison industrial complex wants to incarcerate everyone in the U.$. To be clear their goal is that all Amerikkkans go to jail or prison at some point in their lives. As more laws are invented more and more people’s existances are criminalized and subject to abduction and extortion at the hands of authoritatrian forces. On a long enough time frame more people will have been oppressed by unjust laws and dirty cops than people who have no criminal record. In this was the death of Patrick Rogers and people like him affect all of us. The political is personal. Don’t let them tell you that “that’s just how it is, that life is tough, that it’s just buisiness”.

Take it personally whenever any authority figure makes policies that harm you, your loved ones, your neighbors and your friends. Because it is personal. The gears of justice grind slowly and the creatures of power who have money and power are not ground under these machines, they slide out of under them with a laugh, waving to us as we are destroyed. This machine does not serve us, it serves them.

They say we are faking it when we tell them that they are killing us. They say we are faking it when we tell them to get off our necks. They say we are faking it when we tell them that climate change is genocide for those too poor to migrate. They say we are faking it when we tell them an old prisoner is dying of preventable conditions as prisons are converted into eugenic hospice centers for the elderly poor. Fuck that, fuck them. Please help us raise awareness about these conditions.

Thank you.
Dan Baker
aka Alishare
P.S. The following additional note was written by a friend of Patrick’s:

“Pat Injured himself around Oct-Nov 2021- was unsure what- lower spine (disc) or right hip. Asked to be taken out to see Hospital Doctors- *pain became unbearable over a few days period.
-He could no longer walk to the chow hall due to pain.
-He continued to ask health service for help and all they did was order him an x-ray sometime in the months ahead. As time went on he was in more and more pain. The C.O.’s on the unit would no longer call the food service and order him meals for one of us inmates to bring back for him.
Health service began to tell all the officers that Pat was “faking” and that he had been “seen” and was to await his x-ray appointment. I brought him food back from chow as there was no way Pat could go due to pain.
-Pat requested the use of a wheelchair just to go to get meals and was denied every time by the people at health service from the order of M. Law. He said Pat was “faking” and just being lazy. Pat filed a BP-8 and BP-9 and was working on the BP-10 just to get the use of a wheelchair.
He became very depressed and his health deteriorated quickly.
– A group of Lt.’s and Dr.’s came to the unit one day to tell him he was “faking” and if he called them again they would put him in the S.H.U.. This was spearheaded by M. Law and the Captain.
He eventually became incontinent and was placed in the S.H.U. where he died from an embolism. The FCI was grossly negligent and could have easily prevented Pat’s death.”

Write Daniel Baker:
Daniel Baker, 25765-509
FCI MEMPHIS 
P.O, BOX 34550
MEMPHIS, TN  38184

Join CLDC on Thursday, March 24th at 6:00pm  EST to learn about supporting movement participants through incarceration, release, and transition back home from people who have lived it. Former political prisoners will share their experiences of support as well as how they continue to support people held behind the walls.

Panelists will include Daniel McGowan, Michael “Rattler” Markus, Linda Evans, Ray Luc Levasseur and  Luke O’Donovan.

You can register for the event at https://cldc.org/event/032422

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2022

Contacts:

Lauren Regan, Executive Director & Senior Staff Attorney
Sarah Alvarez, Staff Attorney
(541) 687-9180
[email protected]

Denver, CO — On March –, a jury acquitted anti-racist and anti-fascist political prisoner Eric King on the count of “assaulting” an officer. CLDC is overjoyed at the return of a not guilty verdict from the jury. After hearing hours of compelling testimony from King himself, the jurors were rightly convinced of his constitutionally protected rights to defend himself against threat of death or bodily injury, even when that threat came from a corrections officer at the Bureau of Prisons. 

This victory belongs not only to King, but to his family, community of supporters, and most importantly to all those who have fallen victim to the horrific abuses and torture the Bureau of Prisons metes out on a daily basis in facilities across the country.

CLDC executive director, Lauren Regan was thrilled with the verdict, stating “on behalf of the entire CLDC team, we are thankful for the trust and friendship that Eric King shared with us and we feel fortunate for the privilege to defend him and to work with his family and community in order to bring justice to light within the confines of the federal Bureau of Prisons. This was a long and arduous battle against State power, and we are appreciative for the jury’s earnest deliberation.”

“When Eric made the decision to fight back against these trumped-up charges of assault brought against him, he made the choice to extend the same values of anti-racism and anti-fascism that moved him to act in 2014 in solidarity with the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri,” said Josh Davidson, a member of the Eric King Support Committee. This case was fought not only with the goal of returning King home to his family without any additional years of his life being stolen away, but with the goal of holding the BOP accountable in order to make that place survivable for others by at least shedding light on the secretive system of racism and abuse that has been running rampant within the BOP.

This outcome is even more momentous given the government’s fierce opposition to King’s courageous efforts to tell the world about his plight and that of others held in custody.

Despite this victory, the obstacles he continues to face are immense. The BOP and the U.S. Government continue to hold him in some of the most inhumane conditions throughout the system, with only 40 federal prisoners held in solitary confinement for more than a year (Eric King has been held in solitary for more than three years).

CLDC will continue to fight alongside Eric King for justice for himself and others. In May 2021 we filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on King’s behalf under Bivens v. Six Unnamed Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act, against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and numerous correctional officers and BOP staff. The complaint alleges that BOP officers have collaborated with each other, and with white supremacist prisoners, to target, harass, and assault King.

“The truth prevailed today,” said Lauren Regan.

We are heartened by the continued resilience and strength of King’s certitude. He is scheduled for release in 2023 and will continue to rely upon outside supporters to make it through. You can learn more about ways to directly support him during his remaining sentence by visiting supportericking.org

via https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/bop-blames-bird-for-eric-kings-property-destruction-during-federal-trial/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 18th, 2022

Contacts: 

Eric King Support Committee [[email protected]]

Josh Davidson [[email protected]; 443.235.1567, Signal preferred]

Political Prisoner Eric King Faces Retaliation and Bullying from Bureau of Prisons as He Takes the Stand to Defend Himself Against BOP Allegations

Denver — On day three of the trial of political prisoner Eric King, it came to light that the cell he is being held in at FCI Englewood was flooded, destroying his personal property and legal documents. Attorney Sarah Alvarez, a member of King’s legal defense team, relayed to presiding Judge Martinez that the corrections officers at the facility communicated to Mr. King that they had observed a bird fly into his cell, a guard had to chase it, and somehow toilet paper ended up in the slightly leaking sink, causing the flood damage. Judge Martinez made a statement to the court that he had never seen such issues in all his years on the bench and that it is far reaching to say it was not intentional on the part of the Bureau. “Now a bird is being blamed? The BOP is setting itself up for a civil lawsuit,” Judge Martinez noted.

When questioned by Judge Martinez, Zachary Huffman, attorney for the Bureau of Prisons, attempted to insinuate that Mr. King himself had flooded his cell, destroying his own property. 

The story of modern-day prison abuse is exemplified in the case of Eric King. King is 5’6’, a father and a husband serving a ten-year sentence in federal custody. Two years ago, in FCI Florence, a federal prison in Colorado, a guard took King to a storage closet, alone, and beat him with closed fists. Even though this prison guard’s violence was not video-recorded and only King and the guard were present during the altercation, other prison employees fell in line to try and undermine King’s self-defense claim.

Today, March 17, 2022, King is now facing a federal assault trial with the possibility of a 20-year sentence. King has been in solitary confinement since that incident in 2018 and is one of 42 people to be held for over a year in solitary confinement within the federal system. “For Eric King, a video recording of this incident would have sealed the deal for his self-defense claim, and potentially acted as a deterrent for this bully guard, keeping both King and the guard uninjured,” said Josh Davidson, a member of the Eric King Support Committee.

In 2021, Senator Ossoff introduced bi-partisan legislation to install such cameras in the BOP as a response to widespread criminality and violence within the corrections officers employed by the Bureau. 

This is not the first time that this Florence prison facility has experienced disturbing guard abuses and cover-ups. The AP recently reported that “more than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden indicted for sexual abuse, an associate warden charged with murder, guards taking cash to smuggle drugs and weapons, and supervisors stealing property such as tires and tractors.” In fact, a bipartisan Senate working group was launched last month to “scrutinize conditions within the Bureau of Prisons following reporting by The Associated Press that uncovered widespread corruption and abuse in federal prisons.”

Former political prisoner and whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, offered her support to King by speaking out against the violent culture of corrections officers:

“The most awful and violent and dangerous interactions I’ve ever seen have come, with impunity, from prison staff. The only common denominator in every single jail, every single civilian and military prison, at every security level, was just the awful brutality of prison staff towards inmates. The worst people in jail or prison are staff, time and time again, and this was across the board no matter where I went.”

Davidson added that “the events occurring amidst trial are a clear extension of the corruption and violent culture BOP staff are ensnared in and that all prisoners are forced to suffer. Eric is taking the Bureau head on and refusing to allow this agency to continue to bully and harm people inside, and they are trying to make him pay for it.” 

Closing statements have been made in the case and the jury has been sent for deliberations.

“Now a bird is being blamed? The BOP is setting itself up for a civil lawsuit after this.” – Judge Martinez

The morning began with a worrying description of the conditions that defense attorneys Alvarez and Freeman heard of upon arrival at the prison to visit Eric following yesterday’s court session. Alvarez told the Judge that Eric returned from court to find his cell was flooded, his personal property damaged, and his legal papers covered in spilled coffee. When pressed, a corrections officer told Eric that a bird flew into the cell and knocked over the coffee. The Judge expressed his frustration with these bullying tactics stating that never in his entire career had such things occurred during the course of trial and it was becoming difficult to believe the BOPs excuses any longer. He then requested that the BOP provide surveillance video of the range where Eric is being held in segregation.

Eric was cross examined by US Attorney Teitelbaum, who attempted to impeach Eric by publishing several pictures, a drawing, and a letter written to his wife prior to the alleged assault. The defense repeatedly objected to these exhibits and had to remind the Government of the rules of the court’s order on the motions in limine. After several sidebars adding to the length of cross examination, Teitelbaum ended his questioning and the defense did not redirect.

The defense called FBI Special Agent Cronan as their next witness. After lengthy back and forth with the Judge and the Government about the purpose of calling this witness, the defense declined to call the agent and rested.

At this point in the day, jurors were brought back to the courtroom for closing arguments and jury instructions.

The Government began its closing argument with the assertion that Eric is guilty. He went on to assert that Mr. Wilcox is trustworthy because of his nervousness that went on to become more comfortable over 3-hours of testimony, also that he openly admitted what he could and could not remember. He asserted that there are two types of people in this world, the ones you can rely on and the ones who seem to have an answer for everything and always believe they are right. In a strange flip of the script the Government seemed to argue that inconsistency made their witnesses against Eric more credible. Teitelbaum completes his closing after 45-minutes.

Lauren Regan, Executive Director of CLDC and lead attorney for Eric’s legal team, made the closing argument. In a response to a strange analogy to a wedding made in the Government’s closing argument, Regan began by saying that 08/17/18 was not a wedding. Not for Eric, who was assaulted. Not for the guards. Not for anyone. Eric’s memory is clear, he was assaulted by Mr. Wilcox in a storage closet. This was not normal. She then reminded the jurors of their duties to uphold Eric’s constitutionally protected rights and his presumption of innocence, underscoring that burden of proof lies with the Government and not with Eric. Unfortunately for the Government, the proof just isn’t there. Because the assault occurred intentionally out of the view of cameras and witnesses, in a room that was clearly not the appropriate venue. She went on to remind jurors that inconsistencies in testimony should cast a shadow of doubt on the credibility of the evidence against Eric. The BOP witnesses repeatedly attempted to obfuscate the clear and simple truth. Wrapping up her argument, Regan reminded the jurors that there are nearly 2 million people imprisoned in this country, prisons are violent places, and cover-ups at the hands of the people holding others captive are real.

Because the burden of proof rests at the feet of the Government, they are given the opportunity to give a rebuttal after the defense closes. US Attorney Spencer stepped in to finalize their case. She began by relaying something she was told by her mother, that “words matter.” Speaking in an agitated tone, Spencer said that we don’t call correctional officers captors, we don’t call prisons a business, and we don’t lie and call a medium security prison “notorious,” in a clear response to Lauren Regan’s closing. She asked if the BOP guards were attempting to make up a story, wouldn’t they all align? Asserting her point, she said there is nothing sneaking happening. She repeated that words matter and ended her rebuttal.

Following the closing arguments, the Judge gave further instructions to the jurors and sent home the alternate.

The jurors did not return a verdict today and will return to court tomorrow, March 18^th, at 8:45AM MT.

We will share on our social media accounts as soon as we receive word that the jury may have a verdict. The public access telephone number is: 877-336-1828 and access code 9449909# 

Read details about the trial and the trial decorum order at https://cldc.org/king-trial-decorum

The Civil Liberties Defense Center is representing Eric pro-bono & there are significant costs associated with bringing a case to trial. Please donate at https://cldc.org/donate/ and put ‘For Eric King Legal Defense’ in the notes.