Thursday, August 18, 2011

Raleigh Stages Anti-Prison Demo

August 16, 2011 by prisonbookscollective


At 2:30pm on Sunday August 14th, over 30 people gathered in front of the
huge max-security men’s Central Prison in Raleigh, NC to stand in
solidarity with the the thousands of California prisoners on hunger
strike. We we were also there to express our continued support for our
brutalized and arrested comrades in Seattle, the victims of the recent
spate of killings by police in California, local prison resisters such as
the 10-15 death row inmates who staged a cafeteria protest on July 14th
inside Central Prison to condemn the beating of fellow death row inmate
William Bowie by prison guard Sergeant Soucier, and James Graham, a
Lanesboro, NC prisoner who succeeded in getting most of his demands met
after a week-long hunger strike last month. We timed this demonstration to
coincide with the latest block of visiting-hours for that day, so that
prisoners’ friends and loved ones might see us and relay our messages to
the inside.

A number of passing motorists honked, waved, yelled in support and shot us
thumbs-up as we held banners, banged on drums, chanted and darted into the
street to distribute handbills through open car windows. After about 45
minutes we migrated to a side of the property that lay a bit closer and
within clearer sight of the prison’s housing units, came up to the metal
fence and for about 2 minutes yelled and beat on drums and cookware as
loud as we could while facing our banners and signs toward the prison’s
windows, hoping that prisoners could briefly see or at least hear us in
those last few moments.

Out of all the locations in NC’s capital city that sustain the functioning
of the prison-industrial complex, we chose this particular correctional
facility to demonstrate in front of for its proximity to a major boulevard
and thus, high visibility to passing traffic, and its particularly
loathsome status as the state of North Carolina’s “execution prison,”
currently housing over 150 death row inmates set to be murdered by the
State within those very walls.

This demonstration followed on the heels of similar events held in front
of the Guilford County Jail in downtown Greensboro on Sunday July 24th,
and Sunday August 7th in front of the downtown Durham jail.

As a climate of nationwide and international resistance against
correctional systems and law enforcement continues to develop, we will
maintain our support for all prisoners and victims of police violence and
harassment, to demonstrate affinity with those trapped behind bars, and to
lend solidarity to those who disrupt business-as-usual in the prison
system.

-some NC anarchists against prisons

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