Prisons are concentration camps for the poor
Millions of people have seen Robert Brooks beaten to death by prison guards in upstate New York on Dec. 9 last year. The 43-year-old Black man was killed at the Marcy Correctional Facility, located about seven miles from Utica, New York.
Cameras recorded the lynching committed by 13 correctional officers while a nurse looked on. Three of the guards had already been sued for previous assaults on inmates. Yet none were suspended, much less prosecuted for their brutality.Ā
“This Marcy Correctional Facility is run by a mob,ā said Frederick Williams, an inmate who told CNN how he was beaten.
The December 12th Movement has taken the lead in demanding justice for Robert Brooks, the father of a son. On Dec. 30, they held a press conference in front of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s New York City office.
Among the speakers demanding justice for Robert Brooks was State Senator Jabari Brisport, who represents the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
“We are prepared to shut New York City down,” declared the human rights attorney Roger Wareham, a member of the December 12th Movement’s International Secretariat. “We will organize a general strike for justice.”
In its news release, D12 said that “we understand what happened to Robert Brooks is not an aberration but an extreme example of what inmates of color face on a daily basis in the New York State prison system. Its goal, as it was on slave plantations, is to instill fear of and submission to authority in the minds of prisoners. ā¦
“Gov. Hochul and NYS Attorney General James, have spouted rhetoric about the firing and prosecution of the 13 corrections officers and one nurse involved but to date, nothing has happened. No arrests. No dismissals.”
Racist vigilante goes free
The killing of Richard Brooks followed the acquittal of the white vigilante Daniel Penny, who strangled to death the Black homeless man Jordan Neely on May Day, 2023. Neely’s death, committed by the martial arts expert Penny on a New York City subway car, was also recorded on film.
The killer Penny became a hero for white supremacists across the United States and was the guest of fascist Trump at the Army-Navy football game.Ā
As the December 12th statement pointed out, “after a jury acquitted Daniel Penny of his son’s murder, Andre Zachary, the father of Jordan Neely, said ‘We have to do something.’ The question facing the Black community is simple: What are we going to do?”Ā Ā
The killers of Robert Brooks remain free. In contrast, the Black teenager Kalief Browder endured three years of hell in New York City’s Rikers Island jail because his family couldn’t afford $900 for bail. Browder’s charges were dropped, but he was so traumatized that he hanged himself in 2015.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul wants to roll back bail reform so more poor people can be locked up without even being convicted.
The disgraced Andy Cuomo put Kathy Hochul on his ticket as Lieutenant Governor in order to appeal to anti-immigrant bigots.Ā
As Erie County clerk in Buffalo, Hochul refused to issue drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants despite a state law authorizing it. Hochul can’t be trusted to get justice for Robert Brooks and his family.
Neither can New York Attorney General Letitia James. She recused her department from prosecuting Brooks’ killers because it is defending three of them against earlier brutality claims.
James appointed Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick to do so instead. Fitzpatrick had refused to prosecute the Syracuse, New York, cop who slammed the handcuffed Edward Jones into a police car in 2011. This was despite video evidence:
Don’t let them cover up this lynching!
On Jan. 8, people are urged to call District Attorney Fitzpatrick at 315-435-2470 and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at 518-474-8390 to demand justice for Robert Brooks.
The December 12th Movement held an emergency town hall meeting on Jan. 4 about the lynching of Robert Brooks. Sistas’ Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant was packed with activists, including former prisoners.
A Town Hall meeting will be held on Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. at Bedford Central Presbyterian Church, 1200 Dean St., Brooklyn. Topics will include Justice for Robert Brooks and the closing of the Marcy Correctional Facility.
D12 has called a demonstration on Monday, Jan. 20 ā the day when Trump’s inauguration desecrates Dr. King’s holiday ā on Harriet Tubman Way (Fulton Street) in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The Marcy Correctional Facility, where Robert Brooks was beaten to death, was constructed while Andy Cuomo’s daddy, the liberal saint Mario Cuomo, was governor.
The elder Cuomo built more prisons ā a total of 30 ā than any other New York governor. He obscenely used billions that were supposed to build affordable housing under legislation that honored Dr. Martin Luther King and built penitentiaries instead.
The two million prisoners locked up across the United States are members of the working class. Prisons are concentration camps for the poor. Donald Trump and Elon Musk should be locked up instead.
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