Thursday, July 14, 2011
Liberate Leonard Peltier
Circulated on behalf of the LPDOC:
On June 27, the 66-year-old Leonard Peltier was thrown in "The
Hole" at USP-Lewisburg where he purportedly will stay for the
next six months. According to what is currently known, Leonard's
cell was searched that day. A guard allegedly was shocked by a
wire attached to an overhead light socket, a wire placed there a
long while ago by one of Leonard's former cellmates. The guard
claimed "assault" (apparently he didn't know better than to touch
an electrical wire). Leonard wasn't present during the search,
having already been removed to "The Hole".
The BOP's disciplinary procedures do not allow for legal
representation for an accused prisoner. A prisoner is tried,
convicted, and sentenced without due process. Prison authorities
claim that thorough, professional investigations are conducted in
such instances, but the cards are stacked against a prisoner when a
guard is involved because the statement of a guard is always given
more weight.
Further, the culture inside is one of collective or group punishment.
Every prisoner, that is, is deemed responsible for the actions of
another prisoner.
Leonard is no stranger to "The Hole." In the 1980s, at USP-Marion,
Leonard and others protested their ill treatment by prison
authorities, including infringement of Native prisoners' religious
rights. This led to the infamous lock down of the prison that
persists to this day. Sadly, Marion has become a model within
the federal prison system despite these conditions being widely
considered inhumane: life in a six by eight foot cell for 23 to
24 hours a day and no human contact allowed. Leonard served 18
months in "The Hole" at Marion and was often severely beaten.
The isolation alone was torture. Leonard wrote his name on the
cell floor during those dark days so that when the cell door was
opened and a shaft of light filled the cell, he could read what he
had written and remember who he was.
Leonard was imprisoned at USP-Leavenworth when a riot occurred
there on July 5, 1992. A race-related incident, Leonard and other
Indigenous prisoners were trapped in the auditorium where the
riot occurred. At Leonard's direction, the Indigenous prisoners
gathered together away from the melee and didn't participate in the
resulting violence. He was thrown in "The Hole," then too--falsely
accused of having participated in and perhaps instigating the riot.
Ironically, on this day in 1789, Parisians liberated an infamous
French prison known as the Bastille. The fortress-prison often
held people jailed on the basis of arbitrary royal indictments and
had been known for holding political prisoners whose writings had
displeased the royal government.
Friends and supporters, in the spirit of Bastille Day and the
promise of justice for all, we must liberate Leonard Peltier.
Call the BOP to protest the prison's actions against Peltier.
Please send e-mails, write letters and call BOP every single day.
Solitary confinement is torture. Tell the BOP that the world is
watching and we're horrified by its inhumane treatment of prisoners,
in general, and Leonard Peltier, in particular.
Make reference to Leonard Peltier #89637-132 and contact:
Thomas Kane, Acting Director (Dr. Kane is also the Assistant
Director)
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
E-Mail: info@bop.gov
Phone:
(202) 307-3250 (Director)
(202) 307-3123 (Assistant Director)
(202) 307-3198 (Switchboard)
Fax: (202) 514-6620
Mailing Address:
320 1st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20534
Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
Friends of Peltier
http://www.FreePeltierNow.org
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