JANUARY 17: SCHOOLS NOT JAILS ORGANIZERS WILL RETURN TO SITE, DESPITE ARRESTS

Organizers of today’s Schools Not Jails Occupation kickoff rally and action say that they have no plans to cancel the program of events planned to take place at the proposed site of the juvenile detention center in East Baltimore this week, despite arrests and an aggressive police presence earlier today. Tuesday’s program of events begins with breakfast at the site at 8AM, and ends with a 6PM dinner and a teach-in on Youth and the Prison Industrial Complex with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle at 7PM. All are invited to attend.

The Schools Not Jails Occupation, in collaboration with Occupy Baltimore and the Baltimore Algebra Project, is a five-day action designed to call into question the budgeting priorities of the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore by highlighting the unnecessary allocation of $100 million in state funds for the construction of a 180-bed youth detention facility–an amount that would cover the annual budget shortfall that threatens to close or privatize the Baltimore City Recreation Centers for 333 years.

Earlier on January 16, after a boisterous rally at the corner of Fallsway and Madison, in front of Central Booking, over 150 people marched to 600 E. Monument, where six organizers entered the enclosure and proceeded to erect a large wooden schoolhouse on the proposed site of the youth jail, and a Baltimore City high school teacher gave a lesson on Frederick Douglass. Earlier in the day, Wendell France, Commissioner of Pretrial Detention & Services at the Maryland Department of Public Safety, had told organizers that they would not be allowed onto the site of the proposed youth jail, stating safety concerns, but said that the State of Maryland’s jurisdiction ended there, and stated that he had no problem with protestors on the sidewalk outside of the site’s chain-link boundary. Baltimore City Police, however, did seem to have a problem with the Occupation’s use of the sidewalk, and brought dozens of police officers in full riot gear to create a barrier between activists and their military tent, erected on the sidewalk to provide shelter for those planning to remain at the site through the night. Police forced members of the press to leave the site, and then tore down the tent, which was taken away in a city sanitation truck. State Police then proceeded to tear down the schoolhouse that had been constructed inside the chain-link fence around the youth jail site.

Organizers say that, despite the six arrests and the loss of the tent, the first day of the action achieved their ultimate goal: calling attention to the planned construction of the youth jail, and demonstrating to the city and state governments that the residents of Baltimore City have different priorities for public spending and want to have a say in how public funds are dispersed. Organizers plan to spend the week discussing alternatives to the problems in Baltimore that the jail is intended to address, and bring proposals to the mayor’s participatory budget hearing at Cylburn Arboretum on January 21.

Video of the day’s events, as well as images, may be found at the Schools Not Jails website shortly: http://schoolsnotjails.wordpress.com | For specific photo requests, especially from the period when press were blocked from the site, please email schoolsnotjails@gmail.com.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact the Schools Not Jails Media Team: (410) 849-9626 | schoolsnotjails@gmail.com

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Mr. Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Mr. Marshall “Eddie” Conway is a true servant of his community. Imprisoned for more than four decades for the crime of murdering a Baltimore City Police Officer – a crime for which he maintains his innocence – Mr. Conway has not allowed the prison cell to suppress his spirit and will to organize his community.

The former Baltimore-based, Black Panther Party Leader, has been a stabilizing and healing force in Maryland prisons. Mentoring young prisoners, co-creating violence prevention dramatic presentations, and speaking to the world through his writings – telling his story of growing up in Baltimore so that others might be helped.

I am so thankful that members of my church and I have connected with Friend of a Friend Mentoring Program – an effort that Mr. Conway cofounded that focuses on conflict resolution, communication, and coping skills inside three of Maryland’s correctional institutions.

On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, there will be a parole board hearing for Mr. Conway. Supporters are asking that all people of Faith and Conscience would consider faxing a letter to the Board requesting that Mr. Conway be granted parole. He has been a tremendous blessing to so many individuals and families while behind prison bars; there’s no telling the positive impact he would have on the community as a physically free man. Please consider editing the letter below and given the deadline PLEASE PRINT OUT AND FAX THE LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER TODAY: 410-764-4355

Please comment below to let me know that you’ve faxed the letter if you feel led to do so. You’ll be joining more than 200 others who have already extended themselves in support of Mr. Conway. Thank you.

Honorable Members of the Maryland Parole Board
6776 Reisterstown Road
Suite 307
Baltimore, Maryland 21215

RE: Marshall Eddie Conway, # 116469

Dear Honorable Parole Board Members,

Support for the release of Marshall Eddie Conway has been previously and persistently expressed by thousands of Maryland tax payers and community citizens throughout the nation and abroad. This petition respectfully reiterates the sentiments of those who support the parole of Marshall Eddie Conway.

Inmate Conway, whose parole is scheduled for November 1, 2011, has been incarcerated in the Maryland state penal system for over four decades. Throughout that period, inmate Conway has utilized and continues to utilize his time to resolve conflict, build peace, and improve life outcomes for fellow prisoners and at-risk youth. The information below highlights ways in which Marshall Eddie Conway has been of invaluable service to the prison and Maryland community.

• Founded Friend of a Friend (2007), a peace building program that has trained 200 plus inmates per year to be mentors and peacemakers

• Collaborated with WombWorks Productions to produce “The Birth of Peace”, a play about finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts between street organizations in poor communities

• Worked to secure a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help improve the literacy skills of Maryland inmates

• Created a counseling program for youth at risk of imprisonment that operated for 12 consecutive years

While incarcerated, Mr. Conway has exhibited extraordinary character and personal commitment to peace building and positively impacting society. Maryland residents, including those representing the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland General Assembly support Mr. Conway’s release and re-integration into the Maryland community. In light of these factors, I respectfully ask this Honorable board to grant parole. Marshall Eddie Conway has proved himself a model inmate and will undoubtedly prove a model citizen.

Respectfully submitted,

[Your name]

Rev. Heber Brown, III with Former Black Panther, Kathleen Cleaver

The first time I met Kathleen Cleaver was a November 2007 Black Panther Rank & File Symposium that the Maryland Institute College of Art put on. As my blog article from that day reveals; I was touched by the continuing flame of Cleaver’s passion for the same issues she put her body on the line for back in the Panther’s heyday.

Which is why I’m excited that she’s on her way to Baltimore once more. This time to talk about Cointelpro – the U.S. Government’s covert and illegal assault upon those individuals and groups that it deemed were a threat to national security. (sound familiar?)

There will also be a viewing and discussion of COINTELPRO 101 – an educational film about the FBI program.

This is a timely event and viewing given that Clint Eastwood is preparing to release a film about J. Edgar Hoover – the man who directed COINTELPRO and has federal buildings named after him today -authorized the harassment and in some cases outright assassination of Black people in this country.

If you’re in the Baltimore area, you don’t want to miss this event:

SOURCE: David Shankbone

If all goes as planned. Today – October, 4, 2011 – will be a day that is remembered and perhaps even recorded in the “People’s History of Baltimore City.”

For the past couple of years a committed group of activists have been challenging Maryland state plans to build a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore – in a community that is already saturated with prisons and jails. While initial activism around the issue was met with strong resistance from political and agency leaders; some of them are beginning to become more vocal opponents of the youth jail citing stats that reveal that crime among youth in Baltimore is decreasing (following a national trend related to crime in general) and fiscal restraints are forcing political power brokers to consider other options.

Last year, this month, community leaders and grassroots activists hosted Youth Justice Sunday which brought a crowd of a few hundred to the neighborhood and site of where the construction of the youth jail is planned in East Baltimore. Today, youth leaders are joined by nonprofit professionals and their allies to once again march and raise awareness about the community’s continued disagreement with this youth jail project – demanding instead that dedicated operating and capital monies be redirected to schools, recreation centers, jobs, and other critical services that residents desire.

Today also marks the start of #OccupyBaltimore – an outgrowth of the #OccupyWallStreet effort that’s been going on for two weeks now in New York. The New York effort – which is a logistically impressive and passionate protest – has gained much attention in people-owned media and communication media, but just recently began grabbing the attention of corporation-owned media after NY police officers pepper-sprayed female protesters. (Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the #OccupyWallstreet camp knew that crying White females on television in America gets the national TV cameras there quick!)  The #OccupyWallStreet narrative continued to develop with what protestors call the “Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

200 people show up for inaugural meeting of #OccupyBaltimore

#OccupyBaltimore, which was started by the actions of those inspired by the NY-action, organized rapidly – largely on social networking sites and google. Remarkably, approximately 200 people attended the first meeting of the group (Sunday at 9PM!), more than 400 people have joined the Google group, and nearly 1,000 people have said on Facebook that they will join the group as they will begin “occupying” (that word has heavy negative baggage, but I get it.) downtown Baltimore at the corner of Pratt and Light Street – in the heart of Baltimore’s corporate and tourist district. Interestingly enough, the Baltimore police have already begun “monitoring” and likely infiltrating #OccupyBaltimore according to the Baltimore Sun:

“Baltimore police were monitoring social media and news reports for updates on the Inner Harbor protest, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.”

Stay tuned for up to the minute details regarding Baltimore’s Day of Protest. We’ll have pictures, video, and livestream of protestors and reactions.

“Jim Crow” referred to the laws and social norms that not only gave legitimacy to racism/white supremacy, but openly ensured it by law and statute. Substandard schools, housing, employment opportunities, etc were just some of the outcomes of this apartheid system. It’s a part of the American myth that somewhere after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Jim Crow ended. Perhaps the argument could be made that “Jim Crow” died on paper, but in practice it is as alive today – and in some instances more virulent as it has ever been.

This is the claim that Michelle Alexander makes in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 

Serendipitously, I received a free copy this week at an Anne E. Casey Foundation event after a church member recommended it to me last week. I look forward to inhaling this 248-page book in the next week or two and will promptly post a review. (Anybody interested in reading it with me?)

In the meantime, enjoy this video of Michelle Alexander as she speaks more about her book and how the prison industrial complex openly serves the interest of Jim Crow in this “post racial” [insert: sarcasm] America.

One of the most poignant comments captured for me from that day didn’t come from anyone on the stage. It actually came from Brenda Pridgen. Here’s the clip from The Baltimore Sun:

Brenda Pridgen, a 59-year-old Baltimore resident, said she is not particularly enthusiastic about O’Malley but came to the Obama rally to “restore my understanding that the whole country has not gone crazy.” She said she plans to vote for O’Malley reluctantly. “When you have two devils to choose from, you might as well pick the one who is more progressive,” Pridgen said.

When someone shows up to an event organized in your honor with the first president of color there championing your cause and onlookers who are holding your signs still call you a “devil”, you’ve got to believe that your campaign is in trouble with this demographic. The sentiment of Pridgen’s words can be heard all over the city and some are now openly questioning the futility of voting for either candidate. The voting strategy of supporting the “lesser of two evils” just has not worked for Baltimore’s Black community. We know that now.

We also now know that three separate reports have revealed that Baltimore does NOT need new prisons and/or that an adjustment of policies is preferred over an exorbitant capital budget project that will cost the state $104 Million. (THREE REPORTS: Just Kids Partnership, Justice Policy Institute, National Council on Crime & Delinquency) We need new policies to address the issues of over-crowding, treatment, diversion programs, and justice.

Despite this, Governor O’Malley refuses to open his eyes to the recommendations of the reports and refuses to open his ears to objections of the Black Community – the same community that has the power to deny him a return trip Maryland’s State House.

The question at this juncture, however, is what will the Black Community do. Will we allow our voices to be ignored or will we make demands that will determine the future of our community.

Only time and our children will tell. In the meantime…..

“BLACK PEOPLE WHAT YA’LL GOIN DO?!”

It’s a message that resonates well within the American Afrikan community of Baltimore. We have long understood and experienced the minority community’s strategy as it relates to “public safety.” Their strategy has primarily focused on incarceration and the criminalization of Black people. The majority community experienced this most recently under the regime of former Baltimore mayor, Martin O’Malley. His “zero-tolerance” policy saw thousands of people illegally arrested in Baltimore. Thanks to the courageous leadership of Delegate Jill P. Carter (D-41), Dr. Marvin Cheatham (former president of the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP), and others, advocates won an illegal arrest lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department earlier this year.

However, Martin O’Malley’s push for more incarceration of Baltimore’s majority community continues. Currently, he is preparing to build a $104 million dollar prison for Baltimore’s Afrikan youth with construction slated to begin on Friday, October 1, 2010; just two weeks after primary elections in Maryland. (He is counting on the Afrikan community in Baltimore to march around in Irish green and vote for him anyway despite the fact that he wishes to lock up their children!)

To many in Baltimore’s American Afrikan community, Gregg Bernstein represents a continuation and extension of O’Malley’s reach in the city. With a Bernstein win, O’Malley would have another ally to add to his Baltimore political machine – already having the unconditional support of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The fact that Gregg Bernstein’s wife, Sheryl Bernstein, is the Director of Criminal Justice in the Baltimore Mayor’s Office is just another disconcerting feature of this election race. [SOURCE: Jewish Times] A Governor who has the Mayor, many city council members, members of the Mayor’s Office, many of the city’s pastors, and the City’s State’s Attorney all in his pocket spells more bad news for Baltimore’s Black community.

Instead of addressing the root causes of crime in Baltimore as Jessamy recommends; Bernstein would be another arrow in the quiver of Martin O’Malley’s “lock ‘em all up” strategy.

The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Baltimore & Vicinity is expected to endorse Patricia Jessamy for Baltimore City State’s Attorney and will join many others in encouraging Baltimore’s Black community in particular to do the same.

June 16, 2010

Dear Ms. Bezold:

Thank you for your request on behalf of Mr. Marshall Conway regarding his attending the funeral service of his mother. As you know, Mr. Conway is housed at the Jessup Correctional Institution and has requested permission to attend. I understand the service will be on June 17, 2010 at March’s Funeral Home in Baltimore, Maryland.

I would first like to express my sincere condolences regarding Mr. Conway’s loss. I know that this is a difficult time for his family, friends and loved ones. However, at this time I am unable to approve Mr. Conway’s request as Maryland state law prohibits the temporary release of inmates who are not classified within the Maryland Pre-Release System. Although Mr. Conway is highly respected among his peers and has been a model inmate during his time within our State correctional facility, it is not possible for me to approve this request as he is classified as medium security.

However, in an effort to accommodate the family, Gary Hornbaker, Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Correction, has approved a special visit for Mr. Conway and his family at the Jessup Correctional Institution. Warden John Wolfe and the Chaplain at JCI will be in contact with Mr. Conway to facilitate a private visit.

I hope you find this a suitable alternative. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me, Warden John Wolfe or Assistant Commissioner Gary Hornbaker.

Sincerely,

Gary D. Maynard
Secretary

Erez Crossing at the Gaza Strip

What if a military force came to your neighborhood built walls all around your block and refused to allow you to go and come as you please. How would you feel about that? What if they decided to attack your walled-in neighborhood from the sky and sent troops in to kill people too. How would you feel?

Those are two of the questions that I had to wrestle with while standing at the walls of one of the world’s biggest prisons. It’s called the Gaza Strip and has 1.5 million Palestinians as its prisoners. In the name of security, the Israeli Government decides who comes and who goes. It decides what is allowed in and what is not.

This is not something that I just heard about – I’ve seen the Gaza Strip with my own eyes. It was almost unbelievable to think that this could be happening in our world today. We claim to be so progressive as a global community. When certain natural tragedies strike, there is often quick and worldwide response. But this day, I stood at the walls of an unnatural tragedy – a government sponsored, world “leader” endorsed tragedy. 1.5 million Palestines in the largest open air prison on earth!

Our group got off the bus at the Erez Crossing which is a tightly controlled entry/exit point for the Gaza Strip. Only Palestinians with Israeli issued ID cards are allowed to enter and leave and even then there’s no guarantee. The guards at the gates saw us coming and began to gather – noticeably irritated by our presence. Some Palestinian taxi drivers were sitting nearby and some of us went to speak with them. Mustering up more courage, some others of our group walked right up to the gate to speak with the “security” officials and demand entry.

There were people locked up behind those walls. The world’s governments know it. President Obama knows it. But they won’t do anything of substance about it. Forget everything you hear them say. They are all lying and should be tried – all of these “world leaders” for crimes against humanity. You may read that and say I’m being harsh, but if your eyes had seen what my eyes saw this day, you would completely understand. To collectively punish and imprison human beings – HUMAN BEINGS! – behind “security” walls and restrict the flow of food, fuel, medicine,etc. is a crime. History will look back in shame at a world community that allowed this to happen.

The Israeli Apartheid Wall

Today was an extremely full day that started bright and early at 8AM. Well, for me the day started at 5:00AM. After going to bed at about 11PM the night before, I found myself lying in bed staring at the ceiling at 5. I tried to force myself back to sleep, but I couldn’t do it. After showering and getting dressed, I made my way to the roof of the hostel. And in the pre-dawn hours of a beautiful Jerusalem morning I shared in conversation with a fellow delegate and we watched the sunrise in this beautiful place.

The beauty of the sunrise, however, was quickly eclipsed by the facts on the ground which we learned about during a tour with a amazing guide named Miya from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. She’s an extremely passionate 20-something Israeli female who gave us a crash course on the modern history of this complex conflict. After sharing stats, facts, and maps from Jeff Halper’s lastest book, Obstacles to Peace, we left the lecture hall and piled up in our bus to take a tour of East Jerusalem.

It was a tour that was almost surreal. I’ve blogged about the blatant racism, discrimination, and oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli Government over the years, but being up close and personal is a whole different story. We toured East Jerusalem – the Palestinian side of Jerusalem (with pretty big caveats called Jewish settlements) and saw how they were being forced to live in utter squalor within what Jeff Halper calls a “matrix of control.” It’s much deeper and complex than I can go into right now, but to give those who are unfamiliar a picture of what the situation is like here, think about Jim Crow laws, Black Codes, segregation, racism, and lynching of people of African descent in the states. I propose that when you can put that mental image in your mind, you are very close to envisioning what I’m seeing here right now.

I have to leave now, but real quick – the picture above is a photograph of a wall that has at least two names. The Israeli Government calls it the “security fence” and the many Palestinians and their allies call it the “Apartheid Wall.” We saw this wall today and learned about how it is used to intentionally make life unbearable for Palestinians in the West Bank – separating family members, making employment difficult if not impossible, making freedom of movement impossible, and by way of its placement – snatching even more land from the Palestinians. Many would conclude that the Israeli Government is trying to ethnically cleanse the land of all Palestinians and if that’s so – this wall is an integral part of that plan. It sounds like “Apartheid Wall” fits better.

That’s all I have time for tonight, but stay tuned. More updates are on the way.

Salaam.