USHRN Conference Call on Torture
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US Human Rights Network
September 2010 Training Call: Domestic Torture and Repression in the United States
Friday, September 24, 2010
A combined effort of the Political Prisoner and State Repression Working Group and the Training Committee. Presenters include: Bonnie Kerness and Natsu Taylor Saito.
INTRODUCTION
Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture prohibits policies and practices that âconstitute cruel, inhuman or degrading punishmentâ. The history of international attention to these issues is compelling. In 1995, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that conditions in certain US maximum security prisons were incompatible with international standards. In 1996, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture reported on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in US supermax prisons. In 1998, the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women took testimony in California on the ill treatment of women in US prisons. In 2000 the United Nations Committee on Torture roundly condemned the US for its treatment of prisoners, citing supermax prisons and the use of torture devices, as well as the practice of jailing youth with adults. The use of stun belts and restraints chairs were also cited as violating the UN Convention against Torture. In May of 2006, the same committee concluded that the US should âreview the regimen imposed on detainees in supermaximum prisons, in particular, the practice of prolonged isolationâ.
The United States is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, albeit with the reservation that the US defines torture as cruel and unusual punishment pursuant to the US Constitution. This educational call focuses on outlining systemic practices of torture employed within the US and debunking the spurious claims of the US Government that torture is non-existant within its borders.
When posed with the thought of torture in the United States, the images most likely evoked are of abuses perpetrated by the US military or CIA against âenemy combatantsâ or âsuspected terroristsâ post September 11, 2001. However, the US has a long and disgraceful history of utilizing various forms of torture against individuals and communities within its domestic jurisdiction, including citizens, ("lawful and unlawful") residents, and subjects. Such state sponsored acts include, but are not limited to, prison abuses such as solitary confinement within management control units (also called special housing units and other innocent sounding designations) and the sensory deprivation that they engender, denial of medical care within prisons, severe beatings, indiscriminate use of chemical sprays, violent interrogations and forced confessions by way of torturous physical abuse, sexual exploitation and rapes of female prisoners, and even the milder psychological abuse of incarcerating prisoners hundreds and thousands of miles away from their homes, families, and legal representation. There are individual cases that illustrate these facts such as those of the San Francisco 8, Angola 3, Aaron Patterson, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and Robert Seth Hayes to name a few.
SUPER-MAX PRISONS, SOLITARY CONFINMENT, AND âCONTROL UNITSâ
The United States has been repeatedly questioned and criticized by the UN via the Committee Against Torture for its use of solitary confinement in all of its various forms (particularly in Control Units) and nomenclature. Below is an excerpt from a report filed by Amnesty International to the UN Committee Against Torture to which the US responded with typical semantic fueled denial. Their opening remarks were âU.S. officials from all government agencies are prohibited from engaging in torture, at all times, and in all places. Every U.S. official, wherever he or she may be, is also prohibited from engaging in cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as defined by our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. This is the case even in situations where the law of armed conflict applies.â Read their response here: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/68562.htm.
Thousands of prisoners, many of them mentally ill, continue to be held in long-term isolation in "super-maximum security" facilities, sometimes referred to as Security Housing Units (SHU Units) or Extended Control Units (ECU).(121) At least 30 states and the federal government operate more than 50 such facilities which include entire prisons or units within prisons......Prisoners in the most restrictive units are typically confined for 23-24 hours a day in small, sometimes windowless, solitary cells with solid doors, with no work, training or other programs(122); their out-of-cell time is limited to no more than 3-5 hours a week. The facilities are designed to minimize contact between staff and inmates and prisoners are often subjected to regimes of extreme social isolation and reduced sensory stimulation. The length of time inmates are assigned to such facilities varies, but many spend years, and some their whole sentence, in such units. Many units continue to breach specific standards under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners: for example standards specifying the need for windows, natural light, fresh air and daily outdoor exercise.....Studies have shown that prolonged isolation in conditions of reduced sensory stimulation can cause severe physical and psychological damage.....No court to date has found that long-term super-maximum security confinement per se violates the US Constitution. In general, US courts have given broad leeway to states to impose harsh conditions of segregated custody on security grounds.
For a further elaborated outline of the use of MCUs, please see Kiilu Nyasha's article "Americas Super Max prisons do torture", http://sfbayview.com/2009/america%E2%80%99s-supermax-prisons-do-torture/. There are thousands of prisoners confined in these conditions. The use of these Units are often a means of repression against political and politicized prisoners that are adept at organizing and could possibly provide leadership to efforts to resistance this and other inhumane treatment. For instance:
· Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly, H. Rap Brown), who has been in prison since 2000 has remained in isolation, despite the protests of prisoners and demands that he be allowed into general population to function as a religious leader; the State of Georgia, in a bizarre action released him into Federal custody for âsecurity concernsâ. He has been at the Supre Max in Florence, CO since.
· All prisoners at Florence ADX are subjected to these conditions
· The Angola 3 all spent 3 decades in isolation.
· Robert âKingâ Wilkerson was released after 29 years. Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were taken out of isolation after 36 years, but remain in maximum security.
· Hugi âYogiâ Pinell has been in solitary for almost 40 years.
It should also be noted that, in addition to targeting for isolation, political prisoners and POWs are also subjected to perpetual denial of paroles and denial of adequate medical care.
DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE AND EXCESSIVE SENTENCING
These are two typical methods of torture visited upon political prisoners and prisoners of war. The denial of medical care has led to pre-mature deaths in some cases and perpetual suffering in others. Inadequate medical care is not something that is confined to PPs/POWs, but is also experienced by many prisoners in general. In the United States, prisoners are often treated as a sub-human class and are exploited and subjected to all kinds of abuses by unresponsive, or even sadistic and racist, correctional officers.
[For a brief on the right of prisoners to receive medical care, please see http://www.washlaw.org/projects/dcprisoners_rights/medical_care.htm]
Excessive sentencing and the unwarranted denial of parole is also a phenomenon visited upon PPs/POWs and the two examples below (be sure that there are others) are illustrative of these facts. It should be understood that the deduction of excessive sentencing is made in relation to the time that other people generally receive when convicted of similar or lesser crimes. Furthermore, we recognize that excessive sentencing also occures when comparisons are made between the sentences meted out Whites and persons of color. However, those cases do not fit within our focus here, but rather into the work of others within the US Human Rights Network who are working on matters directly related to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention to End Racism and all forms of Discrimination.
· Bashir Hameed
· In April, 1981, Bashir and another member of the BPP â Abdul Majid (fka Anthony LaBorde) - were charged and convicted of the murder and the attempted murder of two police officers in April 1981. This conviction came as a direct result of his political activity. Bashir and Abdul Majid were tried three times. There first trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines. The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jury rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, they were eventually convicted for murder. All of these efforts on the part of the state were clearly results of their determination to eradicate any and all efforts of struggle for self determination and freedom from racism and oppression. Bashir Hameed had already served 27 years on a sentence of 25 years to life when he died on August 30, 2008 of deliberate medical malpractice while in captivity at Great Meadows Correctional Facility, Comstock, New York.
Two months before he died, Bashir had significant/visible blood in the urine and was told by the prison physician assistant at Comstock that he would be sent to a doctor. Bashir, who had a coronary bypass operation about 18 months prior, had also had blood in his stool and was denied the colonoscopy that he was scheduled for. Furthermore, Bashir's niece, Courtney York MD, saw him in June of 2008 and was quite alarmed by the ongoing denial of adequate medical care for him. Efforts had been undertaken to intensify a campaign to secure adequate medical treatment and transfer to a prison where he would receive better care. However, he died before those efforts bore fruit.
· Robert Seth Hayes
· Robert 'Seth' Hayes is one of the longest-held political prisoners in the USA. Born in the Bronx in 1948, Seth was imprisoned due to his activity in the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, a fighting formation which grew out of the Black liberation movement of the 1960's.
Drafted into the U.S. Army and sent off to fight in Vietnam, Seth was wounded and awarded a variety of military awards including the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Back in the U.S., when riots exploded across the nation in response to the April 4th, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Seth's troop was ordered to assist in putting down the massive rebellions which took place and spread across the United States. According to Seth, "it was the saddest day of my life, and I could never identify again with the aims of the armed forces or the government." After this, Robert Seth Hayes joined the Black Panther Party, working in the Party's free medical clinics and free breakfast programs. Seth, like many other activists was then forced underground by FBI and police repression of the Panther movement.
In 1973, following a shootout with police, Seth was arrested and convicted of the murder of a New York City police officer, and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Seth has always maintained his innocence. Seth first came up for parole in 1998, but prison officials have refused to release him, and are effectively punishing him for having been a member of the Black Panther Party, and of having remained true to his ideals after 30 years behind bars. Seth has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C and adult onset Diabetes since the year 2000. Unfortunately, despite his repeated requests Seth has not been receiving adequate health care and his condition has steadily deteriorated. Diabetes and Hepatitis C are both dangerous illnesses and potentially fatal if not properly treated; even when not fatal, both typically cause a range of painful and debilitating symptoms.
TORTURED CONFESSIONS
Yet another topic that confronts us when delving into these issues is that of the use of torture to extract confessions. A recent case related to this matter is that of the San Francisco 8. In 2007, eight former Black community activists â Black Panthers and others â were arrested in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973.
Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, and Hank Jones were arrested in California. Francisco Torres was arrested in Queens, New York. Harold Taylor was arrested in Florida. Two men charged â Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim â have been held as political prisoners for over 30 years in New York State prisons. The men were charged with the murder of Sgt. John Young and conspiracy that encompasses numerous acts between 1968 and 1973.
Harold Taylor and John Bowman (recently deceased) as well as Ruben Scott (thought to be a government witness) were first charged in 1975. But a judge tossed out the charges, finding that Taylor and his two co-defendants made statements after police in New Orleans tortured them for several days employing electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation. Such "evidence" is neither credible nor legal.
After 3 years of mass support, including resolutions from the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the Berkeley City Council, and several San Francisco Supervisors, the government's case has unraveled and has almost broken the back of the vindictive prosecution organized by Homeland Security, the FBI, and California Attorney General Jerry Brown. Currently, Francisco Torres is the only one of the eight still facing charges. It should be duly noted, that none of the officials that participated in the torture of these men in 1973 were ever charged or held accountable in any meaningful way.
Another case study in this matter that will be excluded for the sake of brevity and not for lack of importance are the in Chicago, particularly the case of Aaron Patterson. More info can be found on those at http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/chicagotorture/timeline.shtml and http://www.law.northwestern.edu/cwc/exonerations/ilPattersonSummary.html.
PURPOSE OF THE CALL
The purpose of this Educational call is to highlight the ongoing use of torture within the US by its law enforcement and intelligence agencies, particularly against political activists and freedom fighters held as political prisoners and prisoners of war. In addition, we aim to highlight the efforts of activists within the US Human Rights Network to address these human rights violations in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR process). In the spring, activists submitted two reports addressing the plight of political prisoners and the question of domestic repression and torture.
These reports can be accessed utilizing the following links:
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/US_Political_Prisoners_Joint_Report_USA.pdf
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Political_Repression_Joint_Report_USA.pdf
NEXT STEPS
We will outline what you and your organization can do to support the recommendations of these works and help free the political prisoners, prisoners of war, and other victims of state repression, detention, and torture.
To participate in this call, please register using the following link:
https://www.accuconference.com/customer/Registration/index.aspx?pkRegQG=af167ec4-5b35-43ab-ab8e-fdbf802e4d2f
Presenters
Bonnie Kerness has been an anti-racist activist since she was 14, working at the University Settlement House as a volunteer on issues of housing, neighborhood and gangs. In 1961, at the age of 19, she moved to Tennessee to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. In Memphis she was trained as a community organizer by the NAACP. She continued her work and training at Highlander Training School in Knoxville, where organizers from throughout the Civil Rights movement met for training and brainstorming. Bonnie moved back North in 1970 and became active with welfare rights, tenants rights and anti-war issues. Bonnie gained her Masters in Social Work and has served as a human rights advocate on behalf of prisoners since 1975, working as coordinator of the American Friends Service Committeeâs re-entry services project for over 15 years. Since currently serves as coordinator of AFSCâs Prison Watch Project, which has had the use of isolation and devices of torture in US prisons as aprimary focus. She has served as Associate Director and Acting Director of the AFSC Criminal Justice Program in Newark and the National Coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons. She has helped publish, âOur Childrenâs Houseâ; âTorture in US Prisons â Evidence of US Human Rights Violations; and âThe Prison Inside the Prison: Control Units, Supermax Prisons and Devices of Tortureâ, the Survivorâs Manual and ââInalienable Rightsâ.â Bonnie speaks widely on behalf of men, women and children in prison about US human rights violations of the UN Convention Against Torture. She has been quoted in articles, books and other publications on prison related subjects.
Natsu Taylor Saito (J.D. Yale 1987) is a Professor of Law at Georgia State Universityâs College of Law in Atlanta, where she teaches international law, professional responsibility, and various courses relating to race and human rights law. She is the author of two books, Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law (NYU Press, 2010) and From Chinese Exclusion to Guantánamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State (University Press of Colorado, 2007), as well as numerous law review articles. These have addressed the arbitrary exercise of governmental power over American Indian nations and U.S. colonies such as Puerto Rico, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the treatment of Muslims and Arab Americans in the post-9/11 era. Natsu is co-director of the Human Rights Research Fund and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of American Law Teachers.
September 2010 Training Call: Domestic Torture and Repression in the United States
Friday, September 24, 2010
A combined effort of the Political Prisoner and State Repression Working Group and the Training Committee. Presenters include: Bonnie Kerness and Natsu Taylor Saito.
INTRODUCTION
Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture prohibits policies and practices that âconstitute cruel, inhuman or degrading punishmentâ. The history of international attention to these issues is compelling. In 1995, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that conditions in certain US maximum security prisons were incompatible with international standards. In 1996, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture reported on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in US supermax prisons. In 1998, the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women took testimony in California on the ill treatment of women in US prisons. In 2000 the United Nations Committee on Torture roundly condemned the US for its treatment of prisoners, citing supermax prisons and the use of torture devices, as well as the practice of jailing youth with adults. The use of stun belts and restraints chairs were also cited as violating the UN Convention against Torture. In May of 2006, the same committee concluded that the US should âreview the regimen imposed on detainees in supermaximum prisons, in particular, the practice of prolonged isolationâ.
The United States is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, albeit with the reservation that the US defines torture as cruel and unusual punishment pursuant to the US Constitution. This educational call focuses on outlining systemic practices of torture employed within the US and debunking the spurious claims of the US Government that torture is non-existant within its borders.
When posed with the thought of torture in the United States, the images most likely evoked are of abuses perpetrated by the US military or CIA against âenemy combatantsâ or âsuspected terroristsâ post September 11, 2001. However, the US has a long and disgraceful history of utilizing various forms of torture against individuals and communities within its domestic jurisdiction, including citizens, ("lawful and unlawful") residents, and subjects. Such state sponsored acts include, but are not limited to, prison abuses such as solitary confinement within management control units (also called special housing units and other innocent sounding designations) and the sensory deprivation that they engender, denial of medical care within prisons, severe beatings, indiscriminate use of chemical sprays, violent interrogations and forced confessions by way of torturous physical abuse, sexual exploitation and rapes of female prisoners, and even the milder psychological abuse of incarcerating prisoners hundreds and thousands of miles away from their homes, families, and legal representation. There are individual cases that illustrate these facts such as those of the San Francisco 8, Angola 3, Aaron Patterson, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and Robert Seth Hayes to name a few.
SUPER-MAX PRISONS, SOLITARY CONFINMENT, AND âCONTROL UNITSâ
The United States has been repeatedly questioned and criticized by the UN via the Committee Against Torture for its use of solitary confinement in all of its various forms (particularly in Control Units) and nomenclature. Below is an excerpt from a report filed by Amnesty International to the UN Committee Against Torture to which the US responded with typical semantic fueled denial. Their opening remarks were âU.S. officials from all government agencies are prohibited from engaging in torture, at all times, and in all places. Every U.S. official, wherever he or she may be, is also prohibited from engaging in cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as defined by our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. This is the case even in situations where the law of armed conflict applies.â Read their response here: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/68562.htm.
Thousands of prisoners, many of them mentally ill, continue to be held in long-term isolation in "super-maximum security" facilities, sometimes referred to as Security Housing Units (SHU Units) or Extended Control Units (ECU).(121) At least 30 states and the federal government operate more than 50 such facilities which include entire prisons or units within prisons......Prisoners in the most restrictive units are typically confined for 23-24 hours a day in small, sometimes windowless, solitary cells with solid doors, with no work, training or other programs(122); their out-of-cell time is limited to no more than 3-5 hours a week. The facilities are designed to minimize contact between staff and inmates and prisoners are often subjected to regimes of extreme social isolation and reduced sensory stimulation. The length of time inmates are assigned to such facilities varies, but many spend years, and some their whole sentence, in such units. Many units continue to breach specific standards under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners: for example standards specifying the need for windows, natural light, fresh air and daily outdoor exercise.....Studies have shown that prolonged isolation in conditions of reduced sensory stimulation can cause severe physical and psychological damage.....No court to date has found that long-term super-maximum security confinement per se violates the US Constitution. In general, US courts have given broad leeway to states to impose harsh conditions of segregated custody on security grounds.
For a further elaborated outline of the use of MCUs, please see Kiilu Nyasha's article "Americas Super Max prisons do torture", http://sfbayview.com/2009/america%E2%80%99s-supermax-prisons-do-torture/. There are thousands of prisoners confined in these conditions. The use of these Units are often a means of repression against political and politicized prisoners that are adept at organizing and could possibly provide leadership to efforts to resistance this and other inhumane treatment. For instance:
· Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly, H. Rap Brown), who has been in prison since 2000 has remained in isolation, despite the protests of prisoners and demands that he be allowed into general population to function as a religious leader; the State of Georgia, in a bizarre action released him into Federal custody for âsecurity concernsâ. He has been at the Supre Max in Florence, CO since.
· All prisoners at Florence ADX are subjected to these conditions
· The Angola 3 all spent 3 decades in isolation.
· Robert âKingâ Wilkerson was released after 29 years. Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were taken out of isolation after 36 years, but remain in maximum security.
· Hugi âYogiâ Pinell has been in solitary for almost 40 years.
It should also be noted that, in addition to targeting for isolation, political prisoners and POWs are also subjected to perpetual denial of paroles and denial of adequate medical care.
DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE AND EXCESSIVE SENTENCING
These are two typical methods of torture visited upon political prisoners and prisoners of war. The denial of medical care has led to pre-mature deaths in some cases and perpetual suffering in others. Inadequate medical care is not something that is confined to PPs/POWs, but is also experienced by many prisoners in general. In the United States, prisoners are often treated as a sub-human class and are exploited and subjected to all kinds of abuses by unresponsive, or even sadistic and racist, correctional officers.
[For a brief on the right of prisoners to receive medical care, please see http://www.washlaw.org/projects/dcprisoners_rights/medical_care.htm]
Excessive sentencing and the unwarranted denial of parole is also a phenomenon visited upon PPs/POWs and the two examples below (be sure that there are others) are illustrative of these facts. It should be understood that the deduction of excessive sentencing is made in relation to the time that other people generally receive when convicted of similar or lesser crimes. Furthermore, we recognize that excessive sentencing also occures when comparisons are made between the sentences meted out Whites and persons of color. However, those cases do not fit within our focus here, but rather into the work of others within the US Human Rights Network who are working on matters directly related to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention to End Racism and all forms of Discrimination.
· Bashir Hameed
· In April, 1981, Bashir and another member of the BPP â Abdul Majid (fka Anthony LaBorde) - were charged and convicted of the murder and the attempted murder of two police officers in April 1981. This conviction came as a direct result of his political activity. Bashir and Abdul Majid were tried three times. There first trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines. The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jury rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, they were eventually convicted for murder. All of these efforts on the part of the state were clearly results of their determination to eradicate any and all efforts of struggle for self determination and freedom from racism and oppression. Bashir Hameed had already served 27 years on a sentence of 25 years to life when he died on August 30, 2008 of deliberate medical malpractice while in captivity at Great Meadows Correctional Facility, Comstock, New York.
Two months before he died, Bashir had significant/visible blood in the urine and was told by the prison physician assistant at Comstock that he would be sent to a doctor. Bashir, who had a coronary bypass operation about 18 months prior, had also had blood in his stool and was denied the colonoscopy that he was scheduled for. Furthermore, Bashir's niece, Courtney York MD, saw him in June of 2008 and was quite alarmed by the ongoing denial of adequate medical care for him. Efforts had been undertaken to intensify a campaign to secure adequate medical treatment and transfer to a prison where he would receive better care. However, he died before those efforts bore fruit.
· Robert Seth Hayes
· Robert 'Seth' Hayes is one of the longest-held political prisoners in the USA. Born in the Bronx in 1948, Seth was imprisoned due to his activity in the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, a fighting formation which grew out of the Black liberation movement of the 1960's.
Drafted into the U.S. Army and sent off to fight in Vietnam, Seth was wounded and awarded a variety of military awards including the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Back in the U.S., when riots exploded across the nation in response to the April 4th, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Seth's troop was ordered to assist in putting down the massive rebellions which took place and spread across the United States. According to Seth, "it was the saddest day of my life, and I could never identify again with the aims of the armed forces or the government." After this, Robert Seth Hayes joined the Black Panther Party, working in the Party's free medical clinics and free breakfast programs. Seth, like many other activists was then forced underground by FBI and police repression of the Panther movement.
In 1973, following a shootout with police, Seth was arrested and convicted of the murder of a New York City police officer, and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Seth has always maintained his innocence. Seth first came up for parole in 1998, but prison officials have refused to release him, and are effectively punishing him for having been a member of the Black Panther Party, and of having remained true to his ideals after 30 years behind bars. Seth has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C and adult onset Diabetes since the year 2000. Unfortunately, despite his repeated requests Seth has not been receiving adequate health care and his condition has steadily deteriorated. Diabetes and Hepatitis C are both dangerous illnesses and potentially fatal if not properly treated; even when not fatal, both typically cause a range of painful and debilitating symptoms.
TORTURED CONFESSIONS
Yet another topic that confronts us when delving into these issues is that of the use of torture to extract confessions. A recent case related to this matter is that of the San Francisco 8. In 2007, eight former Black community activists â Black Panthers and others â were arrested in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973.
Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, and Hank Jones were arrested in California. Francisco Torres was arrested in Queens, New York. Harold Taylor was arrested in Florida. Two men charged â Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim â have been held as political prisoners for over 30 years in New York State prisons. The men were charged with the murder of Sgt. John Young and conspiracy that encompasses numerous acts between 1968 and 1973.
Harold Taylor and John Bowman (recently deceased) as well as Ruben Scott (thought to be a government witness) were first charged in 1975. But a judge tossed out the charges, finding that Taylor and his two co-defendants made statements after police in New Orleans tortured them for several days employing electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation. Such "evidence" is neither credible nor legal.
After 3 years of mass support, including resolutions from the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the Berkeley City Council, and several San Francisco Supervisors, the government's case has unraveled and has almost broken the back of the vindictive prosecution organized by Homeland Security, the FBI, and California Attorney General Jerry Brown. Currently, Francisco Torres is the only one of the eight still facing charges. It should be duly noted, that none of the officials that participated in the torture of these men in 1973 were ever charged or held accountable in any meaningful way.
Another case study in this matter that will be excluded for the sake of brevity and not for lack of importance are the in Chicago, particularly the case of Aaron Patterson. More info can be found on those at http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/chicagotorture/timeline.shtml and http://www.law.northwestern.edu/cwc/exonerations/ilPattersonSummary.html.
PURPOSE OF THE CALL
The purpose of this Educational call is to highlight the ongoing use of torture within the US by its law enforcement and intelligence agencies, particularly against political activists and freedom fighters held as political prisoners and prisoners of war. In addition, we aim to highlight the efforts of activists within the US Human Rights Network to address these human rights violations in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR process). In the spring, activists submitted two reports addressing the plight of political prisoners and the question of domestic repression and torture.
These reports can be accessed utilizing the following links:
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/US_Political_Prisoners_Joint_Report_USA.pdf
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Political_Repression_Joint_Report_USA.pdf
NEXT STEPS
We will outline what you and your organization can do to support the recommendations of these works and help free the political prisoners, prisoners of war, and other victims of state repression, detention, and torture.
To participate in this call, please register using the following link:
https://www.accuconference.com/customer/Registration/index.aspx?pkRegQG=af167ec4-5b35-43ab-ab8e-fdbf802e4d2f
Presenters
Bonnie Kerness has been an anti-racist activist since she was 14, working at the University Settlement House as a volunteer on issues of housing, neighborhood and gangs. In 1961, at the age of 19, she moved to Tennessee to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. In Memphis she was trained as a community organizer by the NAACP. She continued her work and training at Highlander Training School in Knoxville, where organizers from throughout the Civil Rights movement met for training and brainstorming. Bonnie moved back North in 1970 and became active with welfare rights, tenants rights and anti-war issues. Bonnie gained her Masters in Social Work and has served as a human rights advocate on behalf of prisoners since 1975, working as coordinator of the American Friends Service Committeeâs re-entry services project for over 15 years. Since currently serves as coordinator of AFSCâs Prison Watch Project, which has had the use of isolation and devices of torture in US prisons as aprimary focus. She has served as Associate Director and Acting Director of the AFSC Criminal Justice Program in Newark and the National Coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons. She has helped publish, âOur Childrenâs Houseâ; âTorture in US Prisons â Evidence of US Human Rights Violations; and âThe Prison Inside the Prison: Control Units, Supermax Prisons and Devices of Tortureâ, the Survivorâs Manual and ââInalienable Rightsâ.â Bonnie speaks widely on behalf of men, women and children in prison about US human rights violations of the UN Convention Against Torture. She has been quoted in articles, books and other publications on prison related subjects.
Natsu Taylor Saito (J.D. Yale 1987) is a Professor of Law at Georgia State Universityâs College of Law in Atlanta, where she teaches international law, professional responsibility, and various courses relating to race and human rights law. She is the author of two books, Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law (NYU Press, 2010) and From Chinese Exclusion to Guantánamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State (University Press of Colorado, 2007), as well as numerous law review articles. These have addressed the arbitrary exercise of governmental power over American Indian nations and U.S. colonies such as Puerto Rico, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the treatment of Muslims and Arab Americans in the post-9/11 era. Natsu is co-director of the Human Rights Research Fund and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of American Law Teachers.
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