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pink_distro's review against another edition
4.0
this book is small in length and scope but it was still quite impactful. it basically details the main sources of amerika's political prisoners from the 60s to now, going through major incidents and explaining some of the processes and charges that were used to incarcerate people.
seeing the reality just laid out like that teaches you a lot that everyone should know about the so-called criminal justice system. across the hundreds of defendants throughout this book, the courts, the FBI, and prosecutors did the following:
— lock people up for decades based only on witness testimony by paid FBI informants
— convict people for executing plans (or sometimes only helping plan actions) that were made almost entirely by paid FBI agents
— denied people their attorney of choice
— denied people their right to defend themself
— removed defendants from the courtroom
— tried and convicted people "in absentia" aka without the defendant anywhere near the courtroom
— torture defendants
— convict people who didn't do anything illegal but did hang out with people who did, for "conspiracy"
— continue to imprison people for years past their mandatory release date
— trial judges, prosecutors, and witnesses all meeting together to plan convictions
— charge people for providing medical care to 'fugitives'
— attempt to get defendants to cooperate by kidnapping the defendants' children and not disclosing their kids' location for multiple months
— place car bombs that detonated in organizers' cars harming the oeganizers, and then charge those organizers for it
— convict people for events that happened 30 years ago, despite the fact that charges were originally not brought due to lack of evidence, and they had found no new evidence in the interim
— much, much more
this evil and nonsense^^ is only what happened during trial and other legal administrative processes, it's not even close to the full scope of repression. HUNDREDS of radical organizers were flat out killed by cops and FBI, both thru individual assassinations, and in huge militarized operations with bombs and hundreds of cops in broad daylight.
and the craziest thing? despite the state doing literally anything to get a conviction, defendants were often still acquitted!! sometimes thats because the charges were totally made up, but sometimes the defendants probably did the thing they were accused of, yet they made political defenses or demonstrated FBI misconduct that got them acquitted by the jury. it really shows how the revolutionary climate + excellent consciousness raising by liberation movements of the 60s and 70s had fundamentally damaged the state's legitimacy in the eyes of so many people.
while the state often couldn't get convictions, it still needs to incarcerate and demobilize revolutionary movements, so it invents new ways of locking people up. the biggest one i learned about in this text was how "grand juries" are used. this strange federal tool was used against tons of movements and continues to be used today. most often, the state would call a grand jury to investigate a movement for some action, and then call tons of radicals to come testify before it (and incriminate their comrades). obviously they wouldn't cooperate, so then the state holds them in contempt of court and jails them for over a year because of it. the right to remain silent doesn't apply to grand juries because ... the state says so. this way they incarcerated whole swaths of organizations (often the leadership) without having to prove shit.
anyways im going on way too long. i also learned a little bit about: the Puerto Rican independence movement, confrontational but nonviolent antiwar actions, and the use of grand juries + other mechanisms after 9/11 to lock up Muslims and to criminalize Palestinian solidarity organizing. cant wait to research more into those subjects! good short book and great liberal usage of art from political prisoners & movement photos.
seeing the reality just laid out like that teaches you a lot that everyone should know about the so-called criminal justice system. across the hundreds of defendants throughout this book, the courts, the FBI, and prosecutors did the following:
— lock people up for decades based only on witness testimony by paid FBI informants
— convict people for executing plans (or sometimes only helping plan actions) that were made almost entirely by paid FBI agents
— denied people their attorney of choice
— denied people their right to defend themself
— removed defendants from the courtroom
— tried and convicted people "in absentia" aka without the defendant anywhere near the courtroom
— torture defendants
— convict people who didn't do anything illegal but did hang out with people who did, for "conspiracy"
— continue to imprison people for years past their mandatory release date
— trial judges, prosecutors, and witnesses all meeting together to plan convictions
— charge people for providing medical care to 'fugitives'
— attempt to get defendants to cooperate by kidnapping the defendants' children and not disclosing their kids' location for multiple months
— place car bombs that detonated in organizers' cars harming the oeganizers, and then charge those organizers for it
— convict people for events that happened 30 years ago, despite the fact that charges were originally not brought due to lack of evidence, and they had found no new evidence in the interim
— much, much more
this evil and nonsense^^ is only what happened during trial and other legal administrative processes, it's not even close to the full scope of repression. HUNDREDS of radical organizers were flat out killed by cops and FBI, both thru individual assassinations, and in huge militarized operations with bombs and hundreds of cops in broad daylight.
and the craziest thing? despite the state doing literally anything to get a conviction, defendants were often still acquitted!! sometimes thats because the charges were totally made up, but sometimes the defendants probably did the thing they were accused of, yet they made political defenses or demonstrated FBI misconduct that got them acquitted by the jury. it really shows how the revolutionary climate + excellent consciousness raising by liberation movements of the 60s and 70s had fundamentally damaged the state's legitimacy in the eyes of so many people.
while the state often couldn't get convictions, it still needs to incarcerate and demobilize revolutionary movements, so it invents new ways of locking people up. the biggest one i learned about in this text was how "grand juries" are used. this strange federal tool was used against tons of movements and continues to be used today. most often, the state would call a grand jury to investigate a movement for some action, and then call tons of radicals to come testify before it (and incriminate their comrades). obviously they wouldn't cooperate, so then the state holds them in contempt of court and jails them for over a year because of it. the right to remain silent doesn't apply to grand juries because ... the state says so. this way they incarcerated whole swaths of organizations (often the leadership) without having to prove shit.
anyways im going on way too long. i also learned a little bit about: the Puerto Rican independence movement, confrontational but nonviolent antiwar actions, and the use of grand juries + other mechanisms after 9/11 to lock up Muslims and to criminalize Palestinian solidarity organizing. cant wait to research more into those subjects! good short book and great liberal usage of art from political prisoners & movement photos.
honeyvoiced's review
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality and Confinement
Minor: Torture, Cancer, and Murder
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