Story Archives 2020

We are all too familiar with the term “Road Rage,” an expression used to sugarcoat the inability for drivers to share the road in a safe manner and with common sense without injuring or killing one another. “Road Rage” is a stupid excuse for people with too much “entitlement” issues and not enough accountability being held for people behaving badly.

Now we have “Mask Rage,”  a terminology I personally coined used to define the unnecessary altercations between folks who are taking the precautions seriously in the effort to stop the spread of the deadly COVID virus, versus those who are not being mindful and lack the consideration of others when it comes to slowing down the spread of the respiratory disease. 

There has been a tidal wave of verbal and physical clashes both reported and unreported  between the “masked and unmasked” in the bay area and abroad since the COVID epidemic reared its ugly head. Even I myself had to chastise a few folks for being inconsiderate, similar to the tune of how “Sonny” tongue-lashed the big guy during the dice game scene in the movie “A Bronx Tale” when he said “Stop breathing on me! You’re killing me over here!!” Subsequently,  “Sonny” made the big dude go inside the bathroom in a quarantine-type of way.
 

What doesn’t make the situation any better when it comes down to staying safe and healthy is the fact that president Donald Trump has been saying half-witted things such as how children are basically “immune” to the disease and that the cases of COVID will not increase if we cease or fall back in testing, so to speak. If this way of thinking is coming from the “leader” of this country, who lacks the steady habit of wearing a mask himself then we are in big trouble because how are we to encourage and educate people on the importance of social distancing and wearing masks with Trump making “dum-dum” remarks like the ones mentioned above? 

According to research, in the state of California alone it has been reported that the cases of COVID have risen past the 500,000 mark (over 5+ million nationwide) with over 175,000 deaths (combined) while in other parts of the world, such as the Kingdom of Cambodia for instance there are only 273 cases of COVID with no casualties and in South Africa, the stats so far is 596,000 cases with over 12,000 deaths. 

The combination of folks being cautious, paranoid and the failure to be more consciously aware has created quite a bit of tension amongst the people. We must work harder together, if we are to nip COVID in the bud and lower the cases of infection. It is selfish and unfair of those who have no regard for others and blindly contribute to the rise of COVID due to the attitude of entitlement and ignorance that lead to the closures of more businesses, institutions and the threat of poverty on a more higher and tragic scale. Personally, I (over) do my part in combating the spread of  COVID by wearing not one mask, but two. I also wear two sets of clothing, wash my hands frequently, continue to practice the shelter in place order, going outdoors only for necessities and instead of giving other folks 6 feet of social distancing, I give 8 feet whenever possible amongst the other precautions I take. “Teamwork makes a dream work” as the saying goes and if we all do our part we will soon see positive results instead of pointing the blame at someone else with foolish stereotypes that gets us nowhere in the long run.

Queennandi Xsheba, Staff writer at POOR Magazine and co-founder of The Queen’s Consortium of Humanity

Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Boys, the Central Park 5, and the list goes on. The ramifications of being falsely accused of a crime in America can be, and often has been, deadly for Black people. Since the horrors of the European capitalist-economic enterprise, known as the Atlantic Slave Trade, Black people (primarily Black men) have been lynched, burned alive, castrated and every other form of torture imaginable, and as a result of being falsely accused of a crime. On the surface, these accusations seem to be rooted in fear and ignorance, but when investigated, are proven to be rooted in nothing other than a device on behalf of the dominant capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal culture to maintain a position of power.

Not too long ago, we witnessed an attempt at jeopardizing the life of a Black man in Central Park (just hours before George Floyd was murdered by four Minneapolis police officers) by a white woman, who, not out of fear or ignorance, but due to a boldness provided by her knowledge of how Black men in particular are viewed now and historically in this country. Her attempt on the life of this Black man reveals the ever-present reality of what it means to be Black in America; to live in fear of being hunted. Media outlets immediately noted that things could, and likely would have been drastically different, had the incident not been caught on camera. Protesters and activists throughout the world held up, and continue to hold up signs asking this very question about the latest string of televised crimes against Black people, “How many weren’t caught on camera?” But what about places where there are no cameras?

As an incarcerated person, I immediately began to reflect on my present reality, and what those who are incarcerated know all too well: namely that what occurs in public throughout America has been taking place in the darkness of America’s prison system, since its inception. “The prison is the place where state power is perhaps more forcefully experienced and publicly legitimized without being seen . . .” writes Dan Berger in ”Captive Nation,” He continues, “in other words, the prison is an example of how state power at its most violent extreme, as well as an example of the way that power cloaks itself in invisibility.” The lens through which we have been allowed to look into California’s prison system is of the darkest of opaques. Oftentimes, it takes a major incident for light to be shone on prisons: a riot, stabbing, major contraband bust, etc., anything to slant public opinion against the incarcerated. But when something takes place that puts the integrity of correctional officers, and ultimately the entire system itself into question, silence abounds.

In the aftermath of the violent 3 a.m. raid on approximately 200 incarcerated Black people at Soledad State Prison – if it wasn’t for the tireless effort of my wife, Tasha Williams, whose article in the San Francisco Bay View first alerted the world to what happened here at Soledad, as well as the tireless effort of countless wives, family members, and loved ones sharing her article and the stories of their incarcerated friends and family who were brutalized, the world would, without doubt, still be in the dark about what happened to us. Prison officials, on the other hand, waited an entire week before releasing a statement, and still it was only after, and in response to receiving thousands of phone calls and emails from across the country culminating in protests in front of the prison, that the spokesperson for Soledad State Prison released a statement to the public, a statement that denied the injuries, a statement that denied we were targeted because of our race, and most telling of all, a statement that would not have been released had it not been for the continuous pressure from both inside, and more importantly, outside organizers against a system that thrives in silence. Their silence was an attempt to “cloak itself in invisibility,” and yet their public statement was an attempt to do the same.

The following is a detailed first-hand account and contextualizing of what really happened in the early morning hours of 7-20-20 at Soledad CTF, as well as the events that followed. When I was violently snatched out of my sleep and slammed into the wall head first off the top bunk, I thought I was dreaming. I didn’t know what was going on; all I heard was yelling and felt

hands grabbing my arms and legs. With a knee in my back my hands were zip-tied and I was forcefully snatched up by my throat and dragged out of the cell, but not before my eyes were able to adjust enough to glance to the right – hearing my cell mate; a 55-year-old man with degenerative disc disease in his spine, a chronic shoulder injury, and who is a diabetic, crying out that they were hurting his arm – to see what I believe were two men wearing helmets, equipped with night vision, wearing fatigues, and black marks covering their faces entirely, doing to him what had been done to me. I was carried out of the housing unit barefoot, wearing nothing but boxer briefs, forced to walk on a filthy floor down the central corridor, towards the dining hall. 

Along the way I could see and hear the same thing happening in every unit we passed, officers yelling “drag him” referring to people who had already been ripped violently from their sleep. The atmosphere was filled with fear and uncertainty. To my surprise, when we turned into the dining hall there were close to 200 incarcerated people looking as shocked as I was. Shocked that it was so early in the morning, and at the fact that we were raided in a way never before seen at Soledad. Never has a group of people who haven’t been involved in any disruptive activity, and who haven’t even been arrested for committing a crime, been raided the way we were. Even when someone commits a crime they are not raided the way we were raided. I have been in prison going on 19 years and I have never seen or heard of a group of people having been raided the way we were. But walking out of the dark housing unit, into the brightly lit corridor, I noticed patches across officers’ chests that told me this wasn’t a normal raid. This was an inter-agency operation, a joint team or special ops, security squad officers (SSU/IGI) from both Soledad CTF and Salinas Valley State Prison, as well as CDCR Sacramento, Office of Correctional Safety (OCS), and Special Service Unit Gang intel ops (SSU). But even more so than that, we were shocked at the fact that every single person sitting there was Black. Every age group from early 20s to late 70s. Nobody knew anything. Everyone was complaining about their injuries and the way we were raided. Zip-tied, sitting on stainless steel stools, practically naked in a freezing kitchen during the worst pandemic to hit the world in over one hundred years, we soon realized something that was clearly not the concern of whoever was in charge of this operation, we were sitting next to each other without our masks. We immediately began to demand that we be provided face masks, but just like our demands for medical attention, we were ignored.

We sat there in anger, frustration, fear, and possibly more than anything else, confusion. No one could make sense of “why.” Why after the prison’s Black population was congratulated and praised by the warden on institutional television for helping maintain a peaceful and positive program, were we being treated so inhumanely? But the longer we sat there, a troubling picture began to emerge; people spoke to being told by masked officers “Black Lives Don’t Matter.” Listening to everyone’s experiences, I thought to myself, “this can’t be happening!!!” at which point I heard an officer tell one person who was complaining about the fact that we were crammed next to each other without masks that: “I hope you motherfuckers get COVID!!!” The environment was hostile; an officer was in the guntower pointing his rifle at us, which led to an uproar and chant of “Black Lives Matter,” which resulted in Black buddies being carried away. It was around this time that one Brother from my building, Bernard Harris, told me my hands were purple – I was so cold that I couldn’t feel that my hands had lost circulation due to the tightness of the zip-ties. I immediately walked over to an officer named Brown and showed him my hands and he helped another officer, who looked horrified, cut off the zip-tie and replaced them with a looser pair. This was the only relief experienced while sitting in that dining hall and I don’t believe this could be separated from the fact that Brown was the only Black correctional officer present during our entire ordeal in that dining hall. Brown is a regular correctional officer, not as part of the Security Squad (ISU/IGI) or the extraction team, which also included members of the Security Squad, as well as Sacramento’s Special Service Unit Gang Intel Ops (SSU) all of whom were either white or of an ethnicity that possesses an inroad to whiteness.

While there are cries throughout the world of “defund police” and diversify the ranks of police forces, making them more “racially inclusive,” what happened in the early morning hours of July 20, 2020 here at Soledad begs the question; how much more humanely would our Black bodies have been treated had there been more Black officers present?

When I returned to where I was seated, almost every other individual in that dining hall had to have their zip-tie cut off due to loss of circulation. We sat in that cold dining hall shivering for six hours, some of us zip-tied the entire time. When we raised hell to use the bathroom we were walked to the back of the kitchen to a secluded part of the prison one at a time, forced to walk barefoot in the officers spit, on an already urine-covered bathroom floor, I was forced to strip naked and when I complained I was told, “you shouldn’t have been Black.” Every time I tried to get a glimpse of an officer’s name tag, there was none, only patches that read “CTR/SVSP” and “police.” One officer, who came over to where we were waiting to go to the bathroom however, was recognizable as 3rd Watch Building officer Martinez, a known racist with multiple complaints against him for making racist comments and attempting to incite hostilities between the Black and Latinx populations. It still remains unclear as to why he, a regular correctional officer, was there dressed as a member of the extraction team. Had he been one of the officers who violently extracted incarcerated people (while sleeping) from their beds in the very building he’s responsible for managing five days a week? Is this why they covered their faces and wore no name tags? But Martinez wanted to be seen. Like a sadistic predator circling back to see its victim, he couldn’t help but show his face. However, his presence raises another question: during a pandemic that has forced CDCR officers and officials to take a 10 percent pay cut due to the governor’s budget, and be prohibited from working overtime, per their agreement, how is it that he was able to work overtime coming to work during non-work hours to play “Army”? This wasn’t just my experience alone. Every other Black person in that dining hall early that morning had a similar, and some an even worse experience. One person who was victimized (Erwin Harris #T25610) was pulled violently off his top bunk, dragged out of his cell, zip-tied, and pushed down a flight of stairs. He had to be taken to medical in a wheelchair.

Another person victimized (Eric Frazier #C62189) also had to be taken to medical in a wheelchair, having been dragged violently out of his cell despite telling his captors he had a pre-existing back and hip injury. He was met with racial slurs while his seemingly lifeless body (according to one eye-witness who wishes to remain anonymous) was dragged to the corridor when finally a wheelchair was requested. Another person victimized (Ronald J. Smallwood #C15171) wrote, “At approximately 3:39 am, I was awakened by several individuals which I later found out were IGI, ISU and OCS. I was snatched out of my cell in my underwear and NOTHING else. I was then handcuffed with zip-ties and escorted to the chow hall. I sat there for five hours in zip-ties.” Another person victimized (Derrick Porter #A88849) wrote: “On 7-20-20 at 3:30 am my cell door was pulled open while me and my cellie were asleep. We were attacked and assaulted by ISU Squad members. I was violently snatched off the top bunk by masked CDCR employees. I injured my arm, head, neck, and hip. Several officers jumped on my back and legs, while one put his knee on the side of my head. I was cuffed in, zip-tied and dragged out the cell. Not one ISU/OCS Task Unit officer had an identification name tag. I was put in dining hall #1 with no socks, no shoes, no shirt, and no mask. It was over 100 Black inmates, all zip-tied, and in almost no clothes without masks. We were placed side-by-side and the wall was lined with CDCR employees who wore ISU black patches with CTF/SVSP logos and no name tags. These un-named officers were coughing and sneezing in the dining hall with us in it. SVSP staff came from a prison that has a COVID outbreak amongst staff and inmates. I was scared.” Another person victimized (Marcelle Franklin #J65015) wrote, “At 3:30 am on 7-20-20, I was awakened by unknown individuals wearing helmets and face masks, later identified as CTF/SVSP ISU IGI and OCS. I was forcefully slammed to the ground, zip-tied, and dragged out of my cell by multiple ISU officers, then placed in dining hall #1 without a mask, in nothing by my underwear for over five hours.”

And lastly, in direct contradiction to what the warden said in an email the following day attempting to distance himself from having knowledge of our condition, Marcus Harris #O09716 wrote, “On 7-20-20 at about 3:00 am, I was awakened by my cell door being slammed open and being physically snatched out of bed by some unknown persons. I was taken down to the Central Facility dining hall, handcuffed, with nothing on except underwear, and was made to sit on metal stools with no jacket, shoes, t-shirt, or mask for about five and a half hours. When I asked to see a doctor, I was told “No.” After about five hours, the warden came in and started to give officers “high fives,” telling them “Good job!!!” I stood up and said, “How are you going to give them high fives and tell them good job for messing over a bunch of innocent Black People?” But it wasn’t over. We were then escorted out of the dining hall, still virtually naked, once again down the central corridor, still zip-tied, officers and free staff now clocking in to work looking at us as if we were animals. We were led one by one into what used to be the counselor’s office at the end of the west corridor, where we were interrogated by plain clothed OCS officers. When we get near the entrance, an OCS officer asked my name and CDCR number before handing the officer escorting me a packet that had my picture, in red letters was the word “Target,” below which was a paragraph of which I was only able to read the first line, which said, “his father is Milton Hayes, a validated associate of the Black Guerilla Family . . .” If you know me or have read my most recent blog post “Crying Out From Soledad: An Open Letter to a Lawyer,” then you know that this is an issue about which I already have two pending lawsuits for retaliation, racial and religious discrimination against CDCR officers and officials for harassing me since 2011 for being in contact with my father, as well as my writing and journalism against this racist system, particularly my article in the San Francisco Bay View entitled, “Soledad prison guards refuse to wear safety masks amidst COVID-19 pandemic” for which I was raided less than a week after it was published, and more specifically my last book, “Soledad Uncensored, ”the forward of which was published as a series of articles, also in the San Francisco Bay View entitled, “Soledad Uncensored: Racism and the Hyper-policing of Black Bodies,” the entirety of which speaks directly against what was happening to us these early morning hours of July 20, 2020. Had my writings contributed to my being included in this roundup?

I was led to a room where two OCS officers, one white, one Black, were waiting. They told me to face the wall while they cut off my zip-ties and honestly I thought they were going to beat me, or worse. I was so nervous my mouth instantly became dry. But frustrated that I was once again – based on what I was able to read from the description below my picture – being harassed because of my father’s past, I asked, “What the hell is going on; this is how you guys are getting down now?!! Snatching people out of bed at 3:00 in the morning?!! You have been harassing me since 2011 because of my father !!!” That is when the white officer asked “Why would you say we were harassing you because of your father?”. “Because that’s what is says on the paper you just set aside,” I responded, noticing the look on his face change when the Black officer chimed in saying, “We’re not harassing you. We just want to ask you some questions about Black Lives Matter. How do you feel about what happened to George Floyd? I know what the one cop did was wrong and he deserves to go to jail, but all cops aren’t bad,” which is ironic, considering the fact that here we were, having this conversation about police brutality rooted in racial biases, after approximately 200 Black men were violently snatched from their beds while sleeping – by police. The premise upon which they sought to base the conversation was disrespectful. We had the whole “a few bad apples” conversation before I got tired and asked them, “So you mean to tell me y’all did all this to ask us about George Floyd and Black Lives Matter?!!” when again the Black officer said, “Honestly you have some tattoos on you that indicate you’re BGF!!!” to which I shot back, “I’m not BFG, like I said when I first came in. Y’all have been harassing me since 2011 for being in contact with my father who, according to you, is a validated associate of the Black Guerilla Family. To me he’s simply my father who went to prison in ’89 and had been out of my life until my sister found him still incarcerated in 2005. I have every letter he’s ever written me and not one of them is criminal in nature. They are letters from a father trying to mend a broken bond with his son. And about the tattoo you guys have been harassing me about since 2011, everything about it is Islamic,” turning around to show them my back tattoo which is a dragon with a huge crescent moon and star in the center of it flanked by the sword and staff of the prophet Muhammed, with a verse from the Qur’an over it in Arabic script. “What about the dragon is Islamic?” they ask. At which point I give them a detailed explanation of a hadith mentioned in S.V Mr. Ahmed Ali’ commentary to chapter 96, verse 6-7 of the Holy Qur’an about an enemy of the prophet Muhammed attempting to harm him while he (Muhammed) was praying, but turning back in fear because he saw that the prophet Muhammed was being protected by a dragon.

After explaining my tattoos for the 20th time, as well as explaining to them how racist it is to assume that a Black person in prison with a tattoo of a dragon (or a gorilla or snake, for that matter), is a member of a prison gang that have used such symbols – I further explained my point by saying that “if I was Asian and had a dragon tattoo it wouldn’t be an issue!!!” to which they replied, “but you’re not!!!” and when I asked affirmatively, “So it’s because I’m Black?” They, to my surprise said, “Yes.” After they “apologized” regarding the misunderstanding of my tattoo saying “We hope you can get that cleared up about your tattoo” they told me I could go. When I returned to my cell, still confused as to why we were kidnapped in the middle of the night just to be questioned about Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and a prison gang from the 70s, I was shocked even further by the way they trashed the cell. Everything was thrown all over the place. My cellmate, who had returned to the cell before me, was busy separating his remaining property from mine when I noticed that every single piece of paperwork, writing paper, envelopes, every letter, picture, photo album, phone book, and book was gone. In the midst of my remaining property was a “Security Squad Receipt” that said the only thing taken was “paperwork.”

Later that morning, when everyone was let out of their cells to set up like we do every morning for “cell reading,” everyone was shocked that we weren’t on “scheduled program,” which is the normal protocol when there is a threat, especially one that necessitates a raid. The first step of a “modified program” due to a threat, is for the officers to conduct a “threat assessment” by interviewing everyone in the prison one-by-one, voluntarily. The fact that they weren’t conducting a threat assessment didn’t make sense. Obviously something wasn’t right. In the process of cleaning up and preparing for breakfast, someone found paper tags presumed to be place markers used during the raid. One had the words “property team,” “tag 1, receipts” and “Charlie” printed over a watermark on the SSU seal. The other has the words, “Charlie wing” which is the unit where the tags were found, as well as the unit I’m housed in. At the top of this particular tag however, were words that would explain everything: “Operation Akili” The name of this operation was a Swahili word that means “intelligence” which comes from the Arabic word “Agli” having the same meaning they were on a fishing expedition, a dragnet – intelligence gathering, which explains why the only thing they took was paperwork, letters, books, pictures, and phone books. There was no threat. Not only did the name of their operation indicate that there was no threat, but the raid itself turned up no weapons, no notes referring to any type of threat or STG activity. The reality is, there has been no Black STG activity here at Soledad whatsoever. In fact, ask CDCR and Soledad CTF officials to release a report stating how many weapons Black incarcerated people have been found in possession of, and how many STG related incidents in the last 10 years have Black incarcerated people been involved in, and I guarantee the answer will shock you. 

I was able to obtain every single Program Status Report (PSR) from 2017 to 2020 and not one single report refers to a single STG activity involving the population of incarcerated Black people, not even in the days surrounding the raid. But herein lies the reason why: CDCR officials can’t wrap their heads around the fact that incarcerated Black people throughout the entire state of California aren’t involved in any STG gang activity. As I’ve been highlighting in my writing these past couple of years, the criminal mentality of old that most people have been conditioned to associate with prison, does not exist. Incarcerated people throughout California realize that the days of languishing in prison until one is useless and unable to contribute to society are over. Even people who entered the prison system as gang members no longer glorify gang culture or the culture of violence. Not only are “self-help” groups being created by incarcerated people themselves to challenge ideas of toxic masculinity and the culture of violence, such as “success stories,” which was recognized by the California Legislature, but law are being passed that have taken into consideration the work that we are in here doing, which gives incarcerated people hope like we’ve never had before. And with the passing of “Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 186” introduced by Assemblymember Kamlager, that “the Legislature recognizes the need for statutory changes to end extreme sentencing,” which disproportionately subjects Black people by saying, “the Black community is disproportionately subjected to extreme sentences, representing less than 15 percent of the national population, but comprising 48.3 percent of people serving life sentences, 55 percent of people serving virtual life sentences, and 56.4 percent of people serving life sentences without the possibility of parole . . .” and that “research has shown that long sentences do not deter future crimes and that there is no reliable evidence showing that any deterrent effect is “sufficiently large to justify the cost of long prison sentences . . .” and . . . in 2018, only 2.9 percent of people serving life sentences were released and only 0.3 percent of people serving third-strike were released, and . . . out of 988 people convicted of murder were released from California prisons over a 20-year period, only 1 percent were arrested for new crimes. None of the 988 people were rearrested for murder and none of them went back to prison over the 2 0-year period examined.” 

Understanding this, incarcerated people know that it is counter-productive to commit acts that justify one’s incarceration. Not only are incarcerated people politically aware of the effects of violence, but thanks to Black resistance authors such as Bell Hooks, we are aware of the effects of violence in a more holistic way to where non-violence becomes a lifestyle as well as a rock to be used against a system that bases its very existence on our disfunction. It is incarcerated people who promote non-violence that make prisons obsolete. 

CDCR officials are aware of this as well. Budgets are already being cut. Prisons are being scheduled to shut down, and employees of these institutions are going to have to find new jobs. However, a certain segment of CDCR have become so accustomed to this sadistic enterprise that they cannot imagine a world without it. They will go to imperceivable lengths to ensure its continued existence, and since they can no longer use the “violent criminal” as a justification, they have resorted to criminalizing the very existence of incarcerated people. This becomes even more troubling when racism enters into the equation. We know the effects of systemic racism in the police departments and judicial systems, but what many people aren’t aware of, by design, are the effects of systemic racism inside the prison system. Guns don’t exist in prison (except in strategically placed guntowers) so you aren’t going to have “officer involved shootings” of unarmed Black and Latinx people. 

Prison is a different kind of monster; the weapon of choice in prison is, and always has been “documentation.” Michael Foucault wrote in his famous “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prisons” that, “It must be possible to hold the prisoner under permanent observation; every report that can be made about him must be recorded and compared” He continues, “no detail is unimportant, but not so much for the meaning that it conceals within it as for the hold it provides for the power that wishes to seize it . . .” Departments of “Correction” aren’t concerned with the accuracy of the information about you more than they are concerned with how they can use that information to control every aspect of your existence in order to maintain its position of dominance. Their sole concern is to create, on paper, a perpetual criminal, thereby justifying the perpetual existence of prison.

Just two days after the raid, we received our property back. Well, almost all of it. Almost everyone who was raided got a receipt notifying them of certain items not returned “pending investigation.” Guess what these items were? Books, newspapers, pictures and quotes from Black historical figures. DOCUMENTATION. They kept my book “Soledad Uncensored,” quotes from George Jackson used for research on my book, a picture of Dr. Angela Davis and Johnathon Jackson protesting in front of Soledad in the 70s (also used for my book), and a letter to a journalist about COVID-19 and Anti-Black racism in prison. Their reason for keeping these items, written on the receipt was: “The aforementioned items will be retained for further investigation into your suspected involvement with the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) Security Threat Group-1 (STG-1).” Everyone else who received a receipt had had the same exact words written on it. Items taken from them include newspaper articles about George Jackson, pictures of the San Quentin-6, and even sheets of paper with book titles written on them: “Blood in My Eye,” “The Spook Who Sat By the Door.” This is what we’re dealing with, and it can’t be described as anything other than racist. Every facet of existence of incarcerated people is criminalized, especially if you’re Black. Everything from the books we read to our hairstyles are criminalized. Hairstyles aren’t seen as an attempt to express our individuality in an environment whose intent is to strip us of anything unique, or that points to our being individuals in any way. Instead, our hairstyles are seen by certain elements within CDCR as expressions of “gang culture,” despite the fact that in the history of American street gangs, there has never been a single hairstyle associated with an expression as ones’ affiliation. Even still, young Black men are harassed, and even chased down, to be given “verbal warnings” for having designs shaved into their heads.

Don’t get “caught” with a book by Angela Davis, Marcus Garvey, or Malcom X, and you damn sure better not get “caught” with a book by George Jackson – all of which aren’t on any official list of prohibited books, and are all allowed into the prison through order from Amazon Prime, or any other bookseller – but once an officer sees you with one, you will (if you’re Black) immediately be under investigation as a member of the Black Guerilla Family, an organization formed in the 70s in prison that today, in 2020, is virtually non existent, except in the minds of correctional officers intent on living in the past. So what you end up with is young Black men who are afraid to study their history for fear of being labeled, while those who muster up the courage – being dedicated and committed to non-violence – seeking to understand the pitfalls of the past in order to contribute to a society they once took part in destroying, by preventing others from treading the course of violence, through knowledge, they are criminalized.

Before recent events, I thought this targeting was simply because correctional officers didn’t understand Black culture, but like the white lady in Central Park, correctional officers aren’t acting out of ignorance, but in fact are tapping into the very anti-Black racist ideas that underpin American society. They know we are not members of the Black Guerilla Family, but they also know that in a society so deeply connected to racist ideas concerning prison, that incarcerated Black men are seen as perpetually criminal, and thus labeling us as BGF places a stigma on us that will last throughout the duration of our incarceration, and becomes a barrier in the way of our release. These are the lengths they will go to. Two days after we received our property, people began to receive “validation packets” (a process to becoming validated by CDCR as a member of a Security Threat Group). It was only after this point that the spokesperson for Soledad CTR released his statement to the public that the people who were raided were members of a Security Threat Group. They were trying to cover their asses. People were being labeled everything from “chief financial officer for BGF” to “BGF foot soldier.” I told a friend of mine, “Watch these fools say I have something to do with education,” when lo and behold! That same day I received my validation packet saying that I was “the Minister of Education for BGF,” but that was only the beginning. They said the pictures of George Jackson on my Instagram page managed by my family to advertise my writings, was “BGF propaganda.” They even went as far as saying about my crescent moon and star tattoo, that: “It (the star) contains five outer-pointed and five inner-pointed, with each point representing one point of the 10-point party platform of the Black Panther Party (BPP), which is part of the BGF constitution.” But if you thought it couldn’t get worse, they had the nerve to say that the Arabic verse from the Qur’an (79.14) on my back “translated into English as ‘Assaulter, attacker with alertness’ . . .” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The officer who wrote it was B. Barron. He wrote: “While conducting photographs of his tattoos (on 4-27-20) specifically on Williams upper back above and below the black dragon, I discovered Arabic writing. I was unable to translate the Arabic writing, therefore, I questioned Williams on the meaning of the tattoos. Williams became defensive and stated, “You can figure that out, do your job.” Based on my training and experience, I know Williams becoming defensive about his tattoos means they are indicative of gang membership. Upon discovering the Arabic writing, I contacted the OCS, Correctional Intelligence Task Force (CITF) and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Terrorism Task Forces (CT2) to translate the Arabic writing discovered on Williams’ tattoos. Upon receiving the translation from OCS, the Arabic writing translated to English as “Assaulter, attacker with alertness” and “Tajdeed” This Arabic writing is significant to the BGF also meaning he will conduct assaults on behalf of the BGF. The Arabic writing is also indicative to the membership of the Radical Islamic Group “Tajdeed UL-Islam (TUI) . . .”

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. “Tajdid,” which is on my lower back, is a concept in Islam that refers to returning back to the original humanistic teachings of Islam, popularly known as Surism. To associate such a term with “Radicalism” is disrespectful. They gave me 72 hours to respond to the allegations in writing, and since they were trying to validate me as a member of BGF that’s what I focused on, saving everything else for the lawsuit. What I wrote in response to the allegations mentioned above (in part) was: “I find it strange that B. Barron only pointed out the star attempting to link it with BGF via the Black Panther Party. When pictures were taken of my back tattoo between 2015-2019, 1 st Lt. Officer Pearson(?) immediately recognized the crescent moon and star. B. Barron’s failure to recognize the crescent moon shows that he had his mind set on associating me with BGF. When I said to B. Barron, concerning the Arabic writing on my back, “You can figure it out. Do your job.” I said that out of frustration having already explained my tattoos at least 5 times before, and not because of B. Barron said, “They are indicative of gang membership.” The Arabic writing across my back is Verse 14 of chapter 79 of the Holy Qur’an that translates into English as, “Then behold they will be upon a wide expanse.” Which is a reference to a scene on the Day of Judgment when humanity will be standing “upon a wide expanse” of earth, awaiting God’s judgment. Whoever was responsible for the OCS Correctional Intelligence’s Task Force (CITF) needs to be re-trained. B. Barron stated that he “contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Terrorism Task Force (CT-2) to translate the Arabic writing.” but only used “the translation from OCS,” which according to them “translated to English as Assaulter, attacker with alertness . . .” according to B. Barron, “this Arabic writing is significant to the BGF also meaning he will conduct assaults on behalf of BGF.” The reason B. Barron omitted the translation from the FBI is because they told him it was a verse from the Qur’an, and therefore didn’t fit his narrative, just like the huge crescent moon and star didn’t fit his narrative, so he omitted mentioning the moon. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. What I believe is that B. Barron never sent a picture of my tattoo to the OCS or the FBI, but that he himself “translated” the Arabic, and therefore must be investigated for falsifying documents, because there is no way that an expert would have come up with that translation.” 

This is what racism looks like inside Soledad State Prison. You will be raided in the middle of the night and assaulted by officers, and when media attention is placed on the officers’ actions, those same officers will falsify documents in order to cover their asses. And because we live in a society where incarcerated people are viewed as perpetually criminal, who knows how far into the future, and to what lengths, officers will carry these allegations. Will our families be targeted next?

#BLACKINCARCERATEDLIVESMATTER

#FREETHEMALL

#FREETALIB 

With the deadly COVID 19 disease running out of control in the United States and no viable cure in sight, millions of Americans are faced with an uncertain future as poverty steadily rises at an exodus rate.  Due to pay cuts or income loss altogether it is difficult for the struggling majority to cover expenses necessary to accommodate the quality of life. Families are forced to either live in cars or tents and in a lot of cases, Cruel landlords taunt those who are faced with hard times instead of advocating to the powers that be the importance of keeping their tenants housed.  While president Trump claims that the economy is “improving”, the majority of the people say otherwise and the masses of people living in tents in the bay area shows otherwise also.

While the politicians are at a standstill trying to figure out a “bill” that doesn’t include allowing folks to starve to death, people are actually suffering and waiting in vain for the ruling countrymen and women to take a vote on much needed assistance. So far earlier in the year, “we the people” have received a stimulus payment for $1200 along with a $500 child credit that some parents to this day still did not receive. Many folks that I had spoken with in regards to the stimulus package had said that the $1200 payment barely covered a month’s worth of bills and almost immediately, they were right back in the hole again.

Other countries have opted to provide monthly assistance to the people residing within, for instance, Canada was consistent in assisting those in need by providing a monthly $1400 to people living there while Costa Rica provided a little over $200 (USD) a month. Bailout programs for employees in other countries have their wages covered up to 90 percent and 100 percent to those earning minimum wage in the event that the workers’ hours were cut or they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

If the people living in the US were assisted with monthly support payments it would help to get the economy back on track in the long run and minimize the demonization of people and families who are forced to live in tents and automobiles.  Since the COVID outbreak city services have  been coming up short such as street cleaning, garbage and other obligations to help with the maintenance of the city. However traffic enforcement and utilities such as phone, internet, cable  and even convenience stores particularly in low-income neighborhoods have no boundaries when it comes to leniency during a pandemic and in many cases, businesses such as those mentioned above have inflated their prices capitalizing off the people’s hardship. 

Another tragic fact is that while there are complaints of the “blight” contributed by houseless folks there is no immediate housing available for many who are forced to live in the streets. One suggestion would be for homeless people to be compensated for the upkeep of any area they are “camped out” on, instead of power washing poor folks to the next street over. A percentage of what is earned can be set aside to tend to housing, mental health and substance abuse services. This suggestion that crossed my mind personally can help to motivate those living out on the street to utilize a fault that would help them to help themselves. 

What also proved to be helpful as a “temporarily band-aid” is that the owners of private parking lots and other slices of unused land have allowed for people who are forced to live in tents to “set up camps” on the space. There are security guards, porta potties and wash basins on the sites to accommodate the folks living there temporarily. Reports of violence, drug use and unsightly filth was very low due to the accommodations and the “camp sites” are cleaner because the “tenters”, formally “renters” have access to water, cleaning and hygiene products. Like I had mentioned before, those going through this hellish hardship deserve to have those who rule over this “richest country in the world” assist in helping us misfortunates get back on our feet without waiting hopelessly on the “votes” of the powerful to do the right thing by the people without “Taking a break from Capitol Hill” because while the politricksters are “breaking” real people are suffering and dying and when it comes to lives and folks’ livelihood that should be “non negotiable”...

Queennandi Xsheba PNN KEXU -2020

In 1865, slavery was offically abolished in the United States. Abraham Lincoln single-handedly destroyed one of its biggest money making industries. Most of the people who led that industry ran the country, and influenced the passing of the bill that outlawed slavery, the 13th amendment, by adding things to it. They added that slavery wouldn’t take place “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This in turn created a whole new money making system for this country, the prison industrial system. People who are imprisoned work in slave-like conditions for the country, and in doing so create substantial revenue for it. Production of clothing, food development, recycling, and furniture production are a few modern factories that are run in prisons, but in California, a state known for its wildfires, the main prison occupation is firefighting.

California has been very good at its firefighting business, due to the fact that 60% of its firefighters are paid at most 1.15 USD an hour, and are bound by the prison system. Given the same training and stricter supervision than official firefighters, detained firefighters work for years for slave-like profits to get time off their sentences. After they are released, because of the criminal charge on their record, fire stations don't take them in and they are left with years of experience going to waste. In a time when forest fires are stronger than ever, California needed to make a change.

“CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform. Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter. Today, I signed #AB2147 that will fix that.” Those were the words of California's Governor Gavin Newsom, on the new bill he signed. Many people believe this is a step in the right direction, however, many more know that he has the power to completely dismantle the prison slave labor system in California, and is only putting this law into place because of necessity. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many different people in different ways. In the case of the prisons, hundreds of inmates are dying because of improper management of these incarceration systems. Because of this, most prison inmates cannot fight fire on the front lines, and fires have raged in California further and less controlled than in recent years. One of the things that bother me about this, among the many civil and human rights violations, is the handling of COVID-19 in prison systems. I’m no genius, but I feel that with this whole outbreak, the prison systems could have improved drastically the way they handled COVID-19 in their penitentiaries.

In the constitution, declared by the 13th amendment, slavery was never officially abolished in the United States. For the past 100+ years the loophole of slavery being allowed in our prison system has served companies and the country in general very well. However, once a virus that doesn't allow them to use these slaves to the utmost breaks out, they need to pass a law giving those slaves and former slaves rights. The government of California is clearing the records of many reformed and most often not even guilty individuals who have put in years of work, but not paying them for the work they did. They are treating this small gift as an unbelievable act of kindness and not something that should have never needed to be done in the first place.    

In the year 2020, we have been experiencing the terror of these recent forest fires. The United states has so many firefighters engaging the heat but they now have become stretched thin. With these new fires our government has introduced new incarcerated fire fighters, and have now gotten backlash for their compensation of these new firefighters, some saying it is a new form of slavery.

Another problem is how most of these incarcerated fire fighters when they are released, most because of their rap-sheet cannot get a job as a firefighter. Brandon Smith, a formerly incarcerated firefighter, says he was making $57 a month, while the average firefighter was making $37,000 a year.

On January 31, 1865 the thirteenth amendment was made in order to abolish slavery, under this act slavery could only be used as a form of punishment to a person if they did a crime. Though you can see this amendment does not age well especially for these inmates who are trying to survive the fires themselves, same as regular fire fighters, with very little payoff.

Recently Gavin Newsom Governor of California has approved of a new law that will help incarcerated firefighters get a job in the world. This law is called AB 2147, and it is meant to help incarcerated firefighters by expunging them of their criminal records. Meaning they will wipe the slate clean from these people’s plates so they could get another meal for themselves and their families.

For me these people are my heroes. People that did something now trying to do something good. But while most of these inmates have the intentions of doing their job in good will, the corporations like the penitentiary institutions systems are trying to make as much money as possible off of people's heads. If giving a payout of only 57 cents an hour is a strategy, they’ll take it.

Oakland Implements Apartheid for Unhoused Residents 

At yesterdays Oakland city council meeting the extremely dangerous Encampment Management Policy was unanimously approved, which will result in the forced removal, further criminalization, poLicing and even death of hundreds of unhoused residents from safe places to rest, sleep and live.

"This is the implementation of apartheid for the poorest Oakland residents, the violent war ON our poor bodies continues, and has now become more deadly, "said Tiny Garcia, formelry houseless co-founder of Homefulness. "From Shannon Marie Bigley to Desireee Quintero when our unhoused bodies are removed from safe places to rest we face death," Tiny concluded.

In addition as reported and witnessed by houseless RoofLESS radio reporters in Oakland, " This ban was being implemented before it was voted on, we have already been swept from most streets in Oakland " said Joh Rogers Jr, a houseless, long-time Oakland resident.

"The people voting on this evil law have never felt poverty, hunger, struggle, or they wouldnt be voting to approve this," said Aunti Frances Moore, co-founder of the Self-Help Hunger Program and Homefulness.

All of the houseless and formerly houseless, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled youth, families and elders that comprise the liberated villages of Homefulness, POOR Magazine and Deecolonize Academy  hereby demands the immediate release of hundreds of acres of hoarded and stolen land in the City of Oakland be granted to homeless Oakland residents, majority of whom are long-time Oakland residents who lost their homes through gentrification, poltrickster, colonial policies, eviction, speculation, police predation, harassment and ongoing attacks on poor Black, Brown, Disabled and Indigenous Oaklanders. We are demanding these immediate land grants so houseless peoples can build their own self-determined solutions to homelessness like Wood Street Collective, Homefulness and the Self-Help Hunger Program 

"Ban capitalism!!! How the fuck they think encampments started. My people lived in “encampments “ before colonization, they were called villages! Homelessness was not a concept in our territories 200 yrs ago and they call this progress?! If they’re going to outlaw them then house everyone!", said Corrina Gould, Lisjan/Ohlone land liberator, co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust and co-founder of Homefulness

"With Oaklands new Encampment Management Policy, we are going to see the same things happen as they have in the history of the Bay Area, continuing the forceful removal of people who have nowhere else to go and are just trying to survive..." said Tiburcio ,17 year old, formerly houseless youth resident of Homefulness and student at Deecolonize Academy

"These encampments weren't here before because people had their homes, but now we have all been gentrified and the city is trying to get rid off all homeless people, that not the solution they should get homeless people homes so folks can get some rest also for the children and elders shoudn;t be on the streets. " sais Amir Cornish, 17 year old formerly houseless student at Deecolonzie Academy.

This new policy is the redlining of homeless people and will put people in danger of more arrests and criminalization. These policies have always been around it’s just this time we have a name to call it and certainly nothing under the sun , said Kimo Umu, 17 year old formerly houseless student of Deecolonzie Academy

"This new policy is another attack to people already in struggle. Policies and Laws clearly aren't made to help they just solidify the power that the colonizers already have. One has to create their own solutions like we have manifested at Homefulness," said Akil Carrillo, 17, youth poverty skola at Deecolonize Academy

I dream of the days where I will be writing about all the good news that is yet to come. When the headlines are “Poverty has ended!” “Racism is no More!” But here I am writing about another policy passed to oppress the poor even more. This new policy is called “Encampment Management Policy.” The policy bans tents from being within 150 feet of schools and 50 feet from homes, businesses, playgrounds, parks and other recreation areas. 

City Councilman Noel Gallo said that he is frustrated by the camps, tents and trash. His solution to it is to move it all out of sight. This doesn't really solve anything; it just allows more sweeps and restrictions to homelessness  Dale from the United Front Against Displacement said this about the new policy “It doesn't actually do anything to address the needs people have Because that's not what it's intended to do.”

Deecolonize Academy went to visit an encampment at Wood Street in Oakland. This lot has been receiving lots of harassment, officially and unofficially. They've gotten eviction notices and also secret police raids. The lot is owned by wealth hoarder Fred B. Craves who got lotsa of his money by finding new ways to produce fish oil. He had said that he wants to turn the lot into a safe rv lot but after watching the construction workers mark the floor and some research, it turns out he wants to turn it into a research facility. The marks the construction workers had done were marks that implied a whole building was gonna be built instead of just providing resources for a rv lot.

RV lots aren't a solution anyway, there is a RV lot close to this encampment at 34th and wood st and it's not any better. People there get served spoiled food, porta potties are not maintained, they have restrictions in what they can bring and they have a curfew. The gate is locked between 4pm-10am making the rv lot a cage.

This new policy is another attack on people in struggle. Laws won't be on our side as long as colonizers, wealth hoarders, politricksters and Klan members rule this system. We aren't represented in this system and it's something that has to change. Policies and Laws clearly aren't made to help they just solidify the power that the colonizers already have. One has to create their own solutions, not wait for others to give them to you.