[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
Welcome back fellow antifascists!
As always, we have a lot to cover in this column, especially some exciting action reports and important calls for solidarity with antifascists in trouble. With lots to talk about, let’s dive right in!
Area residents and allies helped in identifying a local business owner as the person caught stickering White Lives Matter propaganda in this municipality’s multi-ethnic downtown a month ago.
The neighborhood organization UDTJ reported on its social media accounts that they were able to identify David Miller who has a business, Upper Darby Auto Detailing at 25 Powell Lane, roughly a 5 – 10 minute walk from where he was caught and filmed propagandizing on the opposite side of the street from the 69th Street Transportation Center.
Philadelphia, PA — Around a dozen protesters marched from City Hall in Center City up to 1500 Spring Garden Avenue, the headquarters of privately held Day & Zimmermann corporation on Thursday, March 28. The company says it has more than 43,000 employees and is a “leading provider of munitions,” which includes 120mm tank rounds for Merkava tanks employed by Israel’s occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as 155mm artillery rounds.
The late March protest was called by Extinction Rebellion Philadelphia and supported by Montgomery County-based Montco for Palestine. Protesters briefly held positions blocking the parking lot and main building entrances — in both cases they were threatened with arrest by Philadelphia Police Department Civil Affairs officers wearing plain clothes & body cameras, although no actual arrests or detentions took place. (The city government says that Civil Affairs is supposed to lead protest responses [PDF].) While one of the officers joked to an organizer that it was a small demonstration, the event highlighted that even early on a wet day people are committed to sending a message about the lethal products made by Day & Zimmermann.
John, a retired 40-year union construction worker, told Unicorn Riot,
“It’s offensive to me our tax dollars go to murder people anywhere in the world, especially that our government is funding and arming this genocide in Gaza. It’s reprehensible, and both parties are responsible for this. This is why we need a party of our own and not subservience to Democrats or Republicans. Day and Zimmermann is a construction company but also is in the munitions business. They do business with Israel, with the IDF. They’re a legitimate target for boycott and for targeting as an accomplice of genocide. They should be in the International Court of Justice with every corporation that arms Israel.”
John, Retired union construction worker
Since the environmental group Extinction Rebellion organized the event, we asked them about the ecological fallout of the current conflict. Another participant told Unicorn Riot that “without a doubt” Day & Zimmermann is contributing to ecological problems because of chemicals in the munitions:
“These bombs are dropping and it’s decimating the ecology. The bombs release pollutants into the atmosphere, so it is happening directly in Palestine that the ecology, the environment is being destroyed and a result of that destruction is that we’re having chemicals released into the atmosphere. […] It’s measurable. It’s a statistically significant change that has been measured since this bombing campaign started in October.”
Protest participant
Another organizer told us Day & Zimmermann munitions are contributing to the ecological devastation of the Gaza Strip:
[Day & Zimmermann is] “one of the largest arms suppliers to the US military […], we’re just here to shut down for Palestine. We want to stop the genocide and we want to make sure that we’re targeting companies that are complicit in that in our local communities and Day and Zimmermann is one of them. […] The ecological devastation in Gaza is unimaginable. Environmentalists have said it’s going to take an insurmountable number of years to even be able to rebuild, to even be able to get the land back to the state that was in originally. Obviously, genocide causes mass pollution problems. Their plumbing system has completely been dissolved. There’s raw sewage that has been consistently been dumped into the sea. […] Plus, you also have the aftereffects of all the munitions being dropped. In addition to internationally banned weapons of war, including white phosphorus. […] And they’ve also obviously destroyed all the agriculture, including the animals. It is a largely self-sustaining–was a largely self-sustaining society–through the blockade. So, yeah, a lot of the trees, it’s polluted [in] forests.”
[Day & Zimmermann subsidiary American Ordinance LLC] operates the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP), which has been the source of much of the artillery munitions used by the Israeli military, including 155mm rounds, fired by Israel’s M109 howitzer guns, and 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds, fired by Israel’s Merkava battle tanks.
The factory has been operated by Mason & Hanger since 1951. Between 1998-2007, it was operated by American Ordnance, a joint venture of Mason & Hanger and General Dynamics. Day & Zimmermann acquired Mason & Hanger in 1999, and in 2007 acquired General Dynamics’ stake in American Ordnance.
In November, Israeli tanks fired M830A1 rounds as part of their attack on a U.N. school in Gaza. The serial number on one of the rounds suggests that it was made at IAAP by Mason & Hanger in December 1990.
On January 29, Israeli tanks fired M830A1 rounds as part of their attack that killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her six family members, and the medics that attempted to rescue her, in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The serial number on an exploded round found inside the ambulance suggests that it was made at IAAP by Mason & Hanger in November 1996.
In December, the U.S. government used emergency measures to approve sending Israel an estimated number of 14,000 M830A1 tank rounds, without congressional review. The transfer, from the existing inventory of the U.S. Army, is worth $106.5 million, funded by U.S. taxpayer’s money.
Day & Zimmermann’s factory in Texarkana, Texas, is the current supplier of M830A1 rounds for the U.S. Army. Between 2017-2021, the U.S. Army’s supplier of these munitions was a Northrop Grumman factory in Plymouth, Minnesota.
In a statement on October 13, 2023, Day & Zimmerman Chair and CEO Hal Yoh said, “Acts of terror, oppression and the loss of innocent lives is tragic and should be condemned. This is not about specific groups, ideology, religion, or politics. We stand with those who work to protect freedom and democracy around the world.”
Israel’s demand for these munitions, particularly artillery shells, has also sapped the supply chain for Ukraine’s military, which has been attempting to fend off the Russian army since the full-scale invasion that commenced in February 2022.
Image gallery: (1) Three observers from the building containing Day & Zimmerman offices; two recorded demonstrators. CBS-3 is co-located in the building and did not cover the demonstration. (2) An observer from inside the building recorded also demonstrators. (3) Three Philadelphia Police Department officers believed to all be from Civil Affairs. The officer at right issued threats to arrest after demonstrators blocked entryways.
SCI Rockview is a prison in central Pennsylvania where incarcerated comrades have been facing repression for demanding justice in the face of impunity by racist COs and following a year of prisoner deaths due to institutional toxicity and guard violence. We speak to an outside supporter about the situation at Rockview, the reactions of administration, inside / outside relationships and solidarity that have flared up. We hope that this conversation contributes to increased and thickened ties between folks on both sides of the walls.
This conversation was conducted via encrypted messages and recorded by a comrade Golem and Ash from the the MolotovNow! Podcast, so a big thanks is due to them.
Announcement
Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel
Jorge has now been held in prison for over a year without a trial, and urgently needs funds to cover legal fees and prison costs (food, water, phone calls, visits, administration fees, service costs, etc).
Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel is a beloved compañero of the punk community, and a long-time participant of the Okupa Che. He was arrested on December 8, 2022 by plainclothes police as he was leaving the campus of the Ciudad Universitaria (of the UNAM university) in Mexico City as part of a campaign of criminalization against the Okupa or squat.
BACKGROUND
On February 24, 2016, an operative was carried out in which plainclothes policemen detained him, “planting” drugs on him in order to fabricate crimes, and accusing him of drug trafficking, as part of a campaign of repression on the squatted auditorium Okupa Che in UNAM (still existing). The whole case was plagued with irregularities. He was transferred to Oaxaca and then to a maximum-security prison in Hermosillo as a strategy to hinder his legal defense by taking him far away from his support networks. Thanks to the solidarity and legal work, he was reclassified from the crime of drug dealing to simple possession of narcotics, and was released on bail in March 2016.
Even though he was no longer in prison, he was not out of danger. Constant threats and journalistic reports did not cease; the press even reported his death and accused him of participating in organized crime. Meanwhile, steps were being taken to frame him once again and re-arrest him for the same fabricated crime.
On December 8, 2022 he was arrested in exactly the same place – a few steps outside Ciudad Universitaria, where the Okupa is located, once again by plainclothes police – with the grounds for this illegal
detention being that the Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision to reclassify the crime.
The compañero’s health is fragile due to an extended hospitalization a couple years back and the toll the prison conditions have taken on him.
CURRENT SITUATION
Jorge is currently incarcerated in the Reclusorio Oriente prison in Mexico City. The legal process is still in the evidence stage. Several hearings have been postponed and Jorge’s process is being delayed and prolonged to keep him in what is called “preventative imprisonment” with no sentence, which is common for cases of political prisoners in Mexico.
Despite the fact that there is no evidence to keep him in prison, the strategy of the State is clearly to drag it out as long as possible, which is a tortuous level of uncertainty for all of us close to Jorge.
Thanks to the solidarity of individuals, collectives and networks, it has been possible to cover Jorge’s expenses inside the prison, which have been very high due to the corruption that reigns in Mexican prisons. We are raising funds to support his legal costs and basic needs to be able to survive in this unjust incarceration, and to re-join the community on the outside as soon as possible. We call upon the solidarity of our friends and compañerxs around the world to help us in supporting our compañero Yorch.
“Beautiful Boxer (2004), directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, is the biopic of Muay Thai boxer Parinya Charoenphol, who pursued the sport to pay for her gender reassignment surgery.”
“In this episode, we speak with the Spouses of incarcerated organizers who exposed SCI Rockview’s attempts to cover up anti-Black racism in their prison. In November 2023, guards hung two nooses in the bubble in view of incarcerated people. Listen to how incarcerated people and their accomplices have been demanding accountability from the prison.”
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.
David Elmakayes 77782-066
FCI McKean
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, PA 16701
Anthony Smith
14813-509
FCI Fort Dix
Federal Correctional Institution
Satellite Camp
P.O. Box 2000
Joint Base MDL, NJ 08640
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mumia is an award winning journalist and was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia, PA. He has struggled for justice and human rights for people of color since he was at least 14 years old; the age when he joined the Party. In December of 1982, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving a taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the melee, a police officer was shot and killed. Despite the fact that many people saw someone else shoot and then runaway from the scene, Mumia, in what could only be called a kangaroo court, was convicted and sentenced to death. During the summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed by Governor Tom Ridge, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. Since that time, Mumia has had his death sentence overturned, but still has a life sentence with no opportunity for parole.
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going toconnectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility,” choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,” going into the “messaging” service, and then adding Mumia as a contact by searching his name or “AM8335.”
Birthday: April 24
Address:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335
SCI Mahanoy
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733
Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going toconnectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility,” choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,” going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NU0423.”
In November 2023, Stomp Out NJ, a NJ hardcore show and event planning project run by Jay Baluski, announced it would be hosting a show on April 20, 2024 featuring nationalist punk band Condemned84.
A screenshot from Stomp Out NJ’s Instagram page, which depicts a number of different metal and punk shows, including the Condemned84 show (bottom left corner).
Jay Baluski’s advertising of the show on his personal Facebook page.
The event flier for the ill-fated Spring 2024 Condemned84 show. Note the coded swastika, depicted on the center of the flier by way of a nationalist punk and lightning.
Baluski/Stomp Out NJ played dumb and tried to shrug off people’s legitimate concerns like Condemned84’s nationalist and racist history, the date of the show overlapping with Hitler’s birthday (a well known and celebrated ‘holiday’ among national socialists), the event flier having a coded swastika on it, and the location of the show being a secret.
Baluski playing dumb on the Stomp Out NJ Instagram page.
While Baluski tried to play coy about the show and offered half-assed excuses to avoid any heat, the NJ hardcore scene and antifascists started to apply pressure to get the show cancelled. With consistent public pressure applied to Baluski/Stomp Out NJ, information about the scheduled April 20, 2024 show went dark for several months. In March 2024, Baluski made a public announcement on his social media that he had cancelled the Condemned84 show and was refunding ticket sales.
The official announcement from Baluski/Stomp Out NJ about the cancellation of the Condemned84 show.
Baluski/Stomp Out NJ posted further details about ticket sales being refunded.
The cancellation of the Condemned84 show can be attributed to the collective effort between the NJ hardcore scene and NJ antifascists, who created an inhospitable environment for racist nazi bullshit. Baluski/Stomp Out NJ do not currently have plans to reschedule the show or host future national socialist shows but both should be regarded with extreme caution. Nazi sympathizers and their ilk have no place in NJ.
Benner Township, PA.- On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke. By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates” and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance over two months later by February 5, 2024 under the guise that it was “being investigated.” However, the sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions for this racist act.
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison. Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility’s virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent’s assistant and “grievance coordinator” informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong. When family and friends of prisoners in the facility called en mass between March 18th and 25th to voice their concern, Paul was flippant, dishonest, and dismissive to nearly every caller. Several family members of prisoners felt incredibly disrespected by the behavior of Paul and other staff who answered their calls. In the process of calling in, it also became known that Paul holds several other titles within the prison, including “staff officer,” “lieutenant’s assistant,” and “community liaison.” Samuel Condo, a PA-DOC official responsible for overseeing SCI Rockview, was called over a dozen of times to no avail. When contact was finally made with Condo, he simply would redirect calls back to Nicki Paul whose multiple roles on the prison staff create severe conflicts of interest.
Paul admits that SCI Rockview does indeed have video footage, yet the reasons why they refuse to make this footage public has not been given any reasonable justification. As of the week of March 18th, SCI Rockview has closed the internal investigation, choosing to protect the guards who did this hateful and racist act over the safety and well-being of the prisoners. In the meantime, the administration removed two prisoners from general population who brought the situation to public light. One was transferred out of the prison, and the other one is still in administrative custody, aka “the hole” under accusations of “encouraging group activity.”
This incident is coming after a year that saw 11 prisoners die in custody. Seven people died amidst an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in administrative custody (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight and severely limited communication access). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death and racist discriminatory practices (including beatings and verbal harassment) at SCI Rockview.
There is a resistance campaign that has emerged from the persistent actions of prisoners and outside supporters, who together are demanding an external investigation of the facility & its staff for the cover-up of hanging the nooses. The severity of retaliation for speaking out must also be considered a central object of investigation. We believe the inaction of officials at this facility is symptomatic of a deeper condition of antiBlackness, white supremacy, and class warfare that PA-DOC legally sanctions and politically condones. On both sides of the wall, people most impacted by the racism of SCI Rockview continue to uplift the demands of prisoners to investigate the noose incident as a hate crime, to terminate Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard, and to require mandatory therapy for CO Kirchner. While a grassroots campaign is indeed growing, and as PA-DOC slides further into dissonant inaction, the call for popular resistance to SCI Rockview’s lethal conditions rings louder by the day.
What is happening right now at SCI Rockview is an autonomous campaign to get two guards fired and for one to received mandated therapy as an act of “mercy.” An autonomous campaign means that it is open to all for participation, using tactics according to their own abilities and needs. It means it is decentralized and not led by a single party, non-profit, or institutionalized entity. It is a type of campaign that anyone who is impacted by the violence of PA-DOC can join in, anonymously or as their full legal selves. It means a diversity of tactics and direct action are on the table always. It is a type of campaign that has no registration form or membership fees. It simply means that if you are moved by or can relate to the unfolding struggle of prisoners at Rockview, then you are qualified to participate. The situation is becoming more dire by the day in this facility, with the staff initiating a backlash that has put multiple people in the hole (solitary) and even transferred one prisoner out of state.
One specific need that potentially can be fulfilled is further research into specific highly responsible prison officials, which is information available in the phone zap scripts and press releases. This information can be circulated somewhere where people familiar with this kind of research can encounter it, like Scenes from the Atlanta Forest or Philadelphia Anti-Capitalist.
“Are people within prisons/jail/detention the only ones who are expected to engage in material disruption? To take risks? Are we just vessels of emotional solidarity?”
“Where are the vulnerabilities to prison management’s morale and how does one remove the will of guards to endure?”
Security guards protect property. They help the police put people in prisons, they are part of the prison industrial complex. As people attack property private security acts as the auxiliary of the prison and police state. With this in mind as well as reading about the conditions at SCI Rockview we slashed the tires of a Securitas van. This was a small, easy, and replicate-able action that you can do with a friend. We agree with the comrade at SCI Rockview that “an assault on both fronts” is necessary, targets are everywhere. In the amerikkkan hellscape our lives are deeply embedded in the infrastructure of confinement. This is why we chose to attack the security van. Small actions like these can build capacity to be able to break down the prison walls.
Destroy PA-DOC
Fuck security guards
Fire to the prisons
There are some dire questions that non-imprisoned abolitionists keep asking, of what solidarity with collective action inside entails. Central among them is: How do we embolden our comrades in prison or jail to feel protected enough, seen enough, and empowered enough to take action when they desire to?
Yet what is less discussed is the question posed in self-reflection: How can we embolden our comrades on the outside (who are willing to take physical risks) to provide forms solidarity that actually give inside demands a little more teeth?
What does autonomous direct action in solidarity with collective action inside look like for abolitionists on the outside, and where are the targets that would be most decisive for attack?
How can we better develop collective capacity for decisive attacks on PA-DOC from the outside, in conjunction with demands on the inside?
What targets can we choose on the outside that do not exacerbate repression for the comrades situated on the inside? Or is this simply part of the equation that we must equip and be prepared for?
How, then, can inside and outside move at once? And in this context, how do aboveground formations move horizontally with an underground to fill in the gaps in work that one another is unable to do?
These are questions that shift conversations about strategy from mere activism toward insurgency. As a comrade who was at SCI Rockview last summer writes:
“As prisoners, we can riot & take control of the prison at any time, but that won’t relieve us of this living death. We need our comrades in the world to take the fight out of the halls of legislation & to the prison walls themselves. Only then can we actually end this war. An assault on both fronts would make the difference between us banging on the walls & us breaking them down. When the world sees this, it will show that the facade of invincibility that the system has cultivated over generations of slavery is just that: an illusion.”
To compliment this ask from the inside, we believe it is equally important to attack & disrupt the everyday operations of structures and relations that compose PA-DOC’s instiutional form in ways that strategically compliment inside collective action.
For autonomous attack as abolitionist prisoner support to be decisive and effective, it first means decentering (not ignoring but thinking beyond) the “reified” site/scene of the prison facility itself in our ideas of the terrain of struggle and attack. A prison facility, such as SCI Rockview, is one among many other sites and nodes in a web of structures and social relations that make up PA-DOC’s institutional form. The targets of insurgent outside solidarity through sabotage therefore consist of everythingand anything that upholds the reproduction of the prison facility itself or a DOC system from without.
Some questions we may want to ask ourselves in outside support circles include:
What are the institutions, contractors, buildings, and other structures that enable PA-DOC to function in the first place?
If it is a prison “industrial complex” what is the constellation of sites that allow it to function, that give it coherence and life?
One way abolitionists can support people on the inside during a strike is to initiate (and sustain) conflict w/ the state & capital. To either disrupt its logistical operations and/or weaken the regime’s resolve.
One example that comes to mind is during the 2016 nationwide prison strike, which saw sporadic instances solidarity actions that did not abide by codes of non-conflictual demonstration.
For example, ABC Chicago in 2017 writes:
“In the context of prison struggle, a recent example of solid praxis that comes to mind was in Pittsburgh at Allegheny County Jail. About eighty prisoners began a work refusal and released a list of demands that included more case workers, better medical services, and a legitimate grievance procedure. After those on the outside heard of this sit-in, they took to the jail in masks, smashed windows of the jail, a security camera, and several police vehicles. Similar models of solidarity occurred around the September 9th prison strike where people all over the US and even other continents took action in solidarity with those on the inside rising up. This took the form of noise demos and marches, as well as direct attacks on prisons and those who profit off prison… This is a type of solidarity that can produce results.”
Some more questions to consider are as follows:
If the prison regime is upheld by numerous institutional connections & centers of gravity — that exist far beyond the “reified” site/scene of “the prison” itself — then where are the most impactful targets to attack in solidarity w/ prisoners taking collective action?
For abolitionists who are not inside the prison itself, what does disruption in solidarity with collective prisoner action look like beyond (only) non-conflictual protest?
Are people within prisons/jail/detention the only ones who are expected to engage in material disruption? To take risks? Are we just vessels of emotional solidarity?
Where then, would the targets be, for outside abolitionists to exert greater pressure? How might this change perspectives of strategy? How might thinking more expansively about the terrain of engagement illumine new tactical horizons?
Or maybe the objective of pressuring the state to meet a specific demand from inside is the wrong way to practice attack and direct action altogether?
Yet strikes typically have demands. So what then do we do with our bodies, our (relative) mobility and access to information/resources/tools that are foreclosed to people who take collection action for particular goals while locked up?
Where are the logistical chokepoints? What are targets of attack and sites of disruption that don’t result in severe backlash to comrades struggling on the inside? Where are the vulnerabilities to prison management’s morale and how does one remove the will of guards to endure?
What is the relationship between a local-to-state government, the internal fiefdoms of prisons & jails, & the contractors whose fate is tethered to the regime’s institutional reproduction? How can tensions or antagonisms between such entities be exacerbated by outside sabotage?
To bring this strategy to life we not only need comrades who are up for the task of directly attacking in solidarity with inside collective action, but we also need a range of people to take up this cause at the level of research, propagation, and expanding capacity for regional anti-repression work and community care.
We need people who can map the institutional form of PA-DOC. We need people to map the digital communications infrastructure. We need people that understand how the nodes of institutions that make up PA-DOC within Pennsylvania branch out to every corner of the US settler colonial territory, with offices, remote workers, contractors, etc… all within reach of someone who is willing to take action, yet simply needs a map to take part. We also need a more focused effort of people who are not involved in combative actions directly to participate in defending the fire of revolt as it spreads. This can be done by simply organizing letter writing nights to support people in the case that they catch charges for the risks they take. This can also be done by focusing in on building or strengthening networks that provide care and mutual aid within your local spheres of movement and community.
Trigger warning: Mentions racist violence by guards at SCI Rockview
About
In November 2023, a group of guards hung two nooses in the office (bubble) at SCI Rockview – a location visible to roughly a hundred prisoners. Prisoners who witnessed the nooses have been outraged by this disturbing racist act, and have since demanded that these guards face consequences. In January we launched a two week phone zap campaign that forced PA-DOC main offices to contact the warden. While many Black prisoners remain tormented by this racist act, the guards responsible have enjoyed impunity, with officials in the facility even making attempts to silence anyone on the inside who speaks out. One captive comrade was actually transferred out of state because of their agitation around this issue, while another captive comrade’s grievances have been outright rejected by the administration.
We have little reason to believe an internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:
Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take their impact seriously
Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner
SCI Rockview has seen 11 deaths (that we know of) in 2023 and a severe pattern of racist discriminatory practices. Please join us in calling PA-DOC offices and officials, to further expose this incident and amplify the demands of our captive comrades.
Script for Calling
I am calling on behalf of a community of people who are distressed by a recent incident of antiBlack harassment by a group of CO’s at SCI Rockview, who have faced no consequences for their racist actions. On 11/24/23, prisoners at SCI Rockview found two nooses made from extension cords hung by guards in the office (bubble). Two internal grievances have been submitted by prisoners who witnessed the incident, and prison officials have rejected both. We would like to make you aware that the facility admin has rejected both internal grievances, submitted by prisoners through the proper channels. The guards have faced no consequences. We have little reason to believe an internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:
Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take its impact seriously
Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner
The hanging of two nooses is understood by many people imprisoned at SCI Rockview to be a hostile act and deeply offensive. Some are disclosing how these acts are part of a larger pattern of discriminatory practices used by correctional officers at this specific facility. If this was any other workplace, the act of hanging nooses would lead to severe consequences. The admin at SCi Rockview have not only displayed indifference to the racist act, but some even have made efforts to silence prisoners in distress by the incident. We urge PA-DOC officials to recognize the significance of the prisoner demands, which are derived from the exhausted grievances.
Updates
Calls began this morning, reports include:
-called the pa doc for laurel harry and it went to voicemail, left a message with the script
-called a US attorney’s office #, but they said they’re federal and to instead call State attorney general 717-787-3391 (Harrisburg)
-“I called PA-DOC Eastern: Morris Houser, Acting Deputy Secretary Eastern Region 717.728.4122 – a secretary picked up. i left a message with her and she forwarded me to Samuel Condo, Staff Assistant 717.728.4747 of PADOC eastern? I left a message with reading the script”
-“Ppl have contacted all PA-DOC main offices this morning now. We could use a few more ppl tapping in. All of them went to voicemail or secretary seny us to Samuel Condo’s voicemail (who won’t pick up). Kept emphasizing how we have no faith in the internal investigation process.”
Re: Correctional Officers Hang Nooses and SCI Rockview Does Nothing
Bellefonte, Pa. – On November 24, 2023, prisoners at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hanging there, they were told it was a joke. By December 4, pris- oners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates” and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” (For perspective: Rockview’s pris- oner population is 45% black.) In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richards be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Cap- tain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance over two months later by February 5, 2024 under the guise that it was “being investigated”. However, the sergeant and Cos are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions except getting moved to another block.
As of March 10, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending copies of the grievance. Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, which continue to be dismissed by the administration at Rockview.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, the staff and administration at SCI Rockview continue to dodge public accountability. In fact, the prison has a history of fostering systemic racism, like in 2013 when admin blocked a Muslim prisoner from wearing religious garb. Kerry X. Marshall, then incarcerated at SCI Rockview, sued and six years later the courts determined that the prison had violated his religious freedom.
This incident is coming at a time when in 2023, 11 prisoners died in custody. Seven people died amid an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in the RHU (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death at SCI Rockview. Most well known is an incident in 2012, when COs killed the prisoner John Carter during a “cell extraction” while he was in the RHU, in what other prisoners described as “turning his cell into a gas chamber” using ‘non-lethal’ weapon OC pepper spray. Carter’s family never received justice for what the prison did to him, and PA DOC never acknowledged or reprimanded the guards who killed him.
In short, prisoner demands to investigate the hanging of nooses as a hate crime, terminate Sgt. Mosser and CO Richards, and mandatory therapy for CO Kirchner, need be taken seriously.
