#OccupyICEPDX & J20 Updates
This week, we’re featuring two interviews. The first was an an interview from the IGDcast with someone affiliated with #OccupyIcePDX blocking the immigration detention center in Portland, OR. The second was a chat we had with a supporter of the J20 arrestees, from among the 230 people rounded up during the Inauguration protests of January 20th, 2017, in Washington, DC and still facing over 60 years in prison each.
Updates from #OccupyICEPDX blockade in Portland, OR
The first is an interview that our friends over at the IGD podcast, #ThisIsAmerica from the June 28th episode, number 14. It features a person involved in the occupation of the entry way of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon against the deportations of migrants by ICE agents that have grabbed headlines for ripping families apart across the country and throwing children into cages. The interviewee shares experiences of ICE and Homeland Security invasions of the space and the importance of opposing this imposition of borders on free humans. More about resistance to the ICE raids can be found at https://itsgoingdown.org and subscribing to their podcast is as easy as clicking here!
It’s worth noting that on Saturday the 30th of July, fascist street forces attacked the anti-ICE encampment with weapons, passing through a police line as a phalanx to do it, and the police stood by and let it happen. The police acted to protect the fascist Proud Boys, Patriot Prayers, ultra-right Nationalists and Nazi’s and only pushed back against antifascists when it was clear that our side was winning. Check out IDGcast #15 for Rose City Antifa talking about prep to resist the fash in Portland and keep an ear out for reportbacks on that medium and their website. Also, this good writeup available at crimethinc.com. Keep safe out there, wherever you are, and remember that the cops and Klan go hand in hand. Here’s a fundraiser for costs and charges related to resisting Patriot Prayer on June 30th.
Updates on the J20 Inauguration Arrest cases
Next up, I spoke with a supporter of the J20 Inauguration arrestees about how the case has been progressing (basically the prosecutors are getting their patookus’ handed to themselves), the pressures of facing felony charges and types of support folks can offer and other hijinks, including discussion of jury nullification. Don’t know what that is? Enter it as a search term in your favorite search engine. More info on the case can be found through the regular and on point twitter feed of Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) and as well as the handles @defendj20 and @dropj20 on twitter or at the website https://defendj20resistance.org.
Please stay tuned to the end of the episode for a couple of anarchist podcast suggestions from William Goodenuff plus some news about streaming services, the dangerous incarceration of political prisoner “Comrade Malik Washington”, & the Halifax Anarchist Bookfair.
Announcements:
The Final Straw Radio is now streaming on the internet station, Anon Global Radio.
Halifax (A) Bookfair
And here’s an announcement about the upcoming Halifax Anarchist Bookfair in Nova Scotia, so-called Canada
Brother Haroun in ATL needs support!
Black community activist named Brother Haroun Walik, the founder and CEO of the Streets Groomers group in Atlanta, Georgia, had his house ransacked by police and FBI while he was in hospital for a recurring condition. The police are following a claim of assault which Haroun claims is untrue and is being acted on in retaliation for doing street-level organizing against gentrification and attempting to divert youth away from gang membership and patrol the streets against police intimidation with his org. You can find out more about Street Groomers at their website, http://streetgroomers.org, you can donate to his bond and legal costs at https://gofundme.com/6f87oc/ and you can keep up to date on the harassment of Haroun Walik in the updates section of that site as well as the @the_streetgroomers instagram.
All Hands on Deck: Get Malik Washington out of Ad-Seg!
Several weeks ago, friends and supporters of incarcerated freedom fighter Comrade Malik Washington were overjoyed to hear that he was getting released, finally, from Administrative Segregation (solitary confinement) at Eastham Unit in Texas–until TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) pulled a fast one, falsely claiming that Malik refused the Ad-Seg Transition Program to get him released from solitary back to general population.
This is a complete lie, as well as patently absurd: Malik has been fighting to get out of Ad-Seg from the moment he was thrown in there two years ago on a bogus riot charge (which was, itself, retaliation for prison strike organizing and agitating against inhumane and discriminatory prison conditions).
Here’s what actually happened: Malik arrived his new unit, Ramsey I, on June 21, only to discover that he was being assigned to a top bunk, which is prohibited by his medical restrictions as a seizure patient. Then it got worse: TDCJ had failed to transfer his medical restrictions records, or had erased them, and were now claiming no record of these restrictions, which have been on file and in place for the past ten years. Malik wrote a detailed statement requesting to be placed on a lower bunk in order to avoid injury; later that night, he was abruptly transferred out of Ramsey, and was told that staff there said he refused the transition program!
This is blatant targeting of a prison rebel whose resistance has inconvenienced and embarrassed TDCJ time and time again; it is a continuation of the pattern of targeted harassment and retaliation Malik has experienced from TDCJ every step of the way.
Malik’s supporters are extremely concerned for his safety, and we urgently need the help of everyone hearing or reading this!
1. Please write to Malik at his new address — every letter he receives tells prison staff that Malik has people looking out for him, which is important protection.
Keith H. Washington
#1487958
McConnell Unit
3100 South Emily Drive
Beeville, TX 78103
2. Call Senior Warden Phillip Sifuentes at Malik’s current facility (McConnell) and tell them Keith Washington (#1487958) should not be in Ad-Seg!
Phone #: (361) 362-2300 (**048) 00 — ask to be connected to the senior warden’s office/receptionist–try to talk to someone, but also can leave a message.
Script:
Hello, I’m calling because I’m concerned about Keith H. Washington (#1487958) who was recently transferred to your facility. I understand he was transferred there from Ramsey Unit, because he supposedly refused to participate in the transition program there, but this is not the case. He never refused to be part of the program, and he needs to be transferred back to Ramsey and admitted to the transition program immediately!
Please let us know how your call goes atblueridgeABC@riseup.net
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