[Ppnews] Raleigh: Anarchists, Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation Join Up to Protest NC Prisons

[Political Prisoner News]

Raleigh: Anarchists, Almighty Latin King and 
Queen Nation Join Up to Protest NC Prisons

November 5, 2011
by prisonbookscollective
http://prisonbooks.info/2011/11/05/raleigh-anarchists-almighty-latin-king-and-queen-nation-join-up-to-protest-nc-prisons/

(from anarchistnews.org)

<http://prisonbookscollective.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_00901.jpg>
[]

Roughly 60 protesters gathered yesterday in the 
freezing cold rain at the headquarters of the NC 
Division of Prisons in Raleigh to show our anger 
and resentment towards the prison system, and 
solidarity with prisoners struggling on the 
inside. The crowd represented folks from multiple 
cities, and in addition to anarchists and 
anti-prison activists was co-organized with and 
brought out about 25 members of the Almighty 
Latin King and Queen Nation, a street 
organization with several members on the inside in NC.

Due to the harassment and recent segregation of 
these members, as well as the constant targeting 
of politically active NC prisoners and the recent 
hunger strike in CA, the demo particularly 
focused on solitary confinement. Folks carried 
banners like, “Against Solitary – Love for All 
Prison Rebels,” “Solitary is Torture,” and 
“Against Prisons,” and shouted ALKQN chants and 
slogans against cops and prisons.

Needless to say, cops arrived quickly on the 
scene and appeared increasingly nervous as the 
afternoon went on. A delegation of anarchists and 
ALKQN attempted to go in the building, but were 
prevented from doing so by armed guards and a terrified-looking Director.

After an hour and a half of drumming and 
screaming, we decided to march down the street so 
as to be in view of the rear half of Central 
Prison, the largest prison in the triangle-area. 
Though prevented from marching to the fence by a 
line of police cars, prisoners apparently could 
see us well enough to gather at the windows in 
the corridors of the facility, banging on the glass and pointing.

 From there we marched back to our cars, taking 
the opportunity to take a group picture behind a 
beautiful black banner depicting a golden crown 
and the initials “ADR* – ACAB.” All in all we 
made a bunch of new friends yesterday, and will 
continue to organize with them into the future.

Though the Occupy movement has captured much 
attention as of late nationally, and elements of 
it such as Oakland’s general strike and building 
reclamation have inspired us, the struggle 
against prisons and policing in our state 
continues to be a major focus. We’d be lying if 
we did not say that this demo, as relatively tame 
as it was, felt like a breath of fresh air in 
contrast to the endless conversations by a 
recently disenfranchised middle-class about 
nonviolence and the “99%” which have surrounded 
us at various “occupations” in the triangle-area. 
Hopefully these struggles can intersect in a 
meaningful way, but it does seem that the 
“issues” of police and prisons will continue to 
be a major line in the sand relative to the 
racial and class topography of the Occupy movement.

Until Every Cage is Empty,

some NC anarchists against prisons

* ADR stands for Amor De Rey, a chant and slogan of the ALKQN.

**A brief news story and interview can be seen 
at: 
<http://triangle.news14.com/content/top_stories/649140/family--friends-rally-for-inmates-in-solitary-confinement>http://triangle.news14.com/content/top_stories/649140/family–friends-rally-for-inmates-in-solitary-confinement

*** For a more exhaustive reflection on 
anti-prison efforts in NC, check out: 
<http://anarchistnews.org/node/15511>http://anarchistnews.org/node/1551

**** Below is the text from a handbill given out 
to media and passersby at the demo:

AGAINST PRISONS (and the world that creates them)

We are here to protest solitary confinement in NC 
prisons, and its use against politically active 
prisoners. The conditions are unbearable and 
amount to torture: years on end in a tiny cell 
with little to no stimulation 23 hours a day, 
unsanitary and inadequate food, no educational 
resources, completely inadequate “healthcare,” 
the consistent targeting of Black and Latino and 
politically conscious prisoners, a grievance 
procedure that amounts to a kangaroo court.

This protest comes on the back of the historic 
prisoners’ hunger strike against solitary 
confinement in California, which spread to over 
11 facilities this summer, and inspired 
solidarity strikes in places as far away as 
Canada and Palestine. Prisoners in NC have been 
active for the last year as well, organizing 
radical study groups, staging a yard occupation 
in Windsor, hunger strikes in Taylorsville and 
Polkton, and speaking out against the beating of 
a handcuffed prisoner at Central Prison in Raleigh.

We are the family, friends, and supporters of 
those on the inside, both in general population 
as well as the “prison within a prison” that is 
solitary confinement. These people are our loved 
ones and comrades, stolen from us, from our 
families, crews, and neighborhoods, by the police 
and courts and this very Department of “Corrections.”

We do not accept this. We reject this modern-day 
plantation system. We will not sit by while our 
friends and family are tortured, while the prison 
walls continue to expand until all of society – 
work, school, the neighborhood, the city – 
resembles prison. We encourage everyone who has 
ever had a friend or brother or sister or parent 
behind bars, who has ever experienced the 
arrogant authority of a judge or cop, to join our 
protest in whatever way you can. If the whole 
world is like a prison, prison rebellion can happen anywhere.

­-

Two days ago, in the midst of a massive general 
strike which shut down the city of Oakland, CA, 
hundreds of occupiers took over a vacant building 
which had housed the homeless before it was 
foreclosed upon by bankers. In the windows of 
that building they stretched a massive banner 
which declared, “Occupy Everything.”

We are answering their call.

OCCUPY – NC D.O.C.




Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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