[Ppnews] Suicided - CA Prison deaths

[Political Prisoner News]

Here is an article by Chad Landrum on the recent suicides of hunger strikers.

Suicided

The CDC's shameless attempt to suppress the 
tragic loss of life of three recent hunger strikers has inevitably failed
in the whole, despite the fact that it still 
refuses to knowledge its own complicity with regards to the particular
details surrounding these deaths. The essential 
facts are widely known among the prison masses.

This comes as no surprise for those of us 
familiar with the practices of the CDC. Yet for those naïve to the CDC's
duplicity, there are valuable lesson to be 
learned from all of this. With respect to the three men who needlessly
lost their lives, it is significant that we not 
pass judgment on them prematurely.

The taking of one's own life is a conscious 
decision, and such a decision is as relevant as the surrounding conditions
that gave rise to the decision itself. This 
inseparability between our consciousness and our environmental
conditions is summed up well in Karl Marx’s simple, yet revealing, statement:
“
the ‘ideal’ is nothing more that the material 
world reflected in the human brain and translated into
forms of thought
.”
To speak of these avoidable deaths in the context 
of “suicides" is to legitimize the state's role in creating the
oppressive conditions that resulted in these 
deaths, and thus, exonerates it of responsibility.

To judge the suicides based solely upon the 
“possible” decisions of these three individuals alone is to allow
ourselves to be divided and conquered. We should 
not pass judgment upon the alleged decisions alone, but also
upon the state and the conditions that gave rise to such contemplations.

The state apparatus of various governments, 
including the US government, have a long history of eliminating
opposition to the status quo, and in particular, 
“suiciding" that opposition when they are confined. We must ask,
did these three human beings commit suicide? Or 
were they "suicided" by inconspicuous means? All three of these
deaths have been quite conveniently classified as 
suicides. Yet by all indications these classifications do not
correspond with the actual circumstances.

How do we know that these men intended suicide? 
We don't. But of greater significance, we do know that there
were repeated attempts to call “Man Down", 
kicking on cell doors, etc., which was willfully ignored and neglected
by guards. In parallel circumstances, were not 
state employees involved, anyone else would be charged with either
murder or at the very least manslaughter.

If this concept comes across as unorthodox, this 
is only a demonstration of how effectively we have been
conditioned to think, but the objective reality 
is, these three men were “suicide” even though it was by
inconspicuous means—intentional neglect. It 
requires no great feat of intellect to understand that the state will
rarely prosecute its own. But to ensure that the 
deaths of the three men were for naught, we must do all that we
can to publicize and transform this tragedy into an educational opportunity.

We call on Amnesty International to assist us and 
demand a United Nations investigation into these deaths and the
deplorable conditions of solitary confinement 
throughout the US penal system. We likewise call upon the UN to
appoint an independent and unbiased autopsy of 
these men and any others who may be subjected to a similar
fate.

There is no such thing as prisoner rights, only power struggles.

C. Landrum



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