Dre’s back in the day room, F day room this time, and he is refusing to leave. Gabriel hollered at me and told me a few minutes ago, so I woke up and grabbed my pen. I can only see the entrance to F day room but I can hear what is going on. It will take a while for the ER Team to get here...
On October 17th, I purposely got put on disciplinary status to move into a strategic position for protesting, but instead of housing me with everyone else on disciplinary status on E-pod, Warden Hirsch and Major Nelson had me moved to the entire other end of the building on A-pod in the ‘security management’ cell. That cell is designed to house a person who has an execution date and becomes violent. I DID NOT and DO NOT have an execution date and I AM NOT a violent person. They put me in A-83 in an attempt to silence my voice of dissent and undermine the protest. (The snitches around here told the staff about the protest before we kicked it off.) I stayed secluded – but steadily engaged in direct-actions on A pod from October 17th until last Tuesday, January 3rd.
Now I'm on E-pod with everyone else on disciplinary status. I miss being by Tony Ford, but I’m glad I’m now by everyone else protesting. The Supreme Court should be reviewing Tony’s case today, and I hope he gets a stay of execution. Please pray for Tony and for his family.
The guys from general population that got put in segregations because of the riot have been screaming, yelling, and frantically beating on their doors all night and all day. There’s a dramatic difference between general population and death row/segregation. In general population, they have basketball, handball, exercise equipment, decent hot meals, cold drinks, church services, contact visits, clean clothes, televisions, arts and craft supplies, educational services (for some), open law library access, and a thousand hustles.
Back here on the death row/segregation building, we don’t get ANY OF THAT. We get NOTHING. When guys from general population get segregated, at first most go half crazy screaming and yelling until they pass out. Sometimes, this can last for days, weeks, or years, and with some it lasts decades or a lifetime. Others slip into a state of learned helplessness and complacency and some become completely catatonic, never speaking or showering and rarely eating. Very few remain sane and relentlessly fight for prisoners rights and stay active in the social justice struggle.
Speaking of which —–the ER Team just stomped on the pod...Damn! It sounds like they emptied an entire can of crown control gas on Dre in one burst...OK, I heard the gate pop and now I heard a cell door close so Dre’s back in his cell. I couldn’t hear exactly what Dre was saying, but he was certainly giving a protest speech! Oppression and suffering are part of the Struggle; we cannot expect change without the former or the latter.
If our civil disobedience was met with only shoulder shrugs and indifference by the staff, then we would know that our efforts were not being effective. We prefer to be a thorn in the palm of the hand of oppression, a wrench in the machinery of death, and we much prefer riot gas and beatings to complacency, and restrictions and suffering to inaction!
From the Texas Gulag,
With Strength and Love:
Robert Will – #999402
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