JANUARY 14, 2000 – The film Hurricane has highlighted, again, the racism and injustice that permeates the US prison system.
January 4, that history of racism came to the surface again, when New York state agreed to pay $8-million to 1,280 inmates caught in the middle of the Attica prison uprising in 1971.[1]
The uprising was an explosion of rage against racism and brutality. It was inspired by the civil rights and black power movements which were turning American society upside down.
New York state police crushed the uprising with the utmost brutality. On September 13, 1971, they invaded the prison – which had been occupied by the inmates for five days – and in six minutes, fired over 2,000 rounds of ammunition. They killed 32 prisoners and 11 corrections officers. Hundreds more were wounded.
Frank Smith, who helped lead the revolt, said that after the massacre, he was forced to lie on a table while officers beat and burned him.
Saladin Hadid was one of hundreds of inmates forced to run naked through a gauntlet of police who hit them with clubs and nightsticks.
“They beat you to your knees, called you degrading things,” he said.
The original lawsuit filed in 1974 called for $100-million in damages. In today’s dollars, that would amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars. The out of court settlement is only a tiny portion of what the inmates originally demanded.
And as one of their lawyers told the press, “no settlement compensates people for what really happened.”
But at least we have $8-million as evidence of the racism and brutality of the American prison system.
Attica lives.
For a gripping account of the Attica uprising, rent Attica: The Movie. It is hard to find, but well worth the effort.
© 2000 Paul Kellogg. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Notes
[1] Quotations and facts in this article are taken from Associated Press, “Court Awards Attica Rioters $8-Million,” The Globe and Mail, January 5, 2000, sec. International News.
Attica lives!
Published January 14, 2000 by Paul Kellogg
JANUARY 14, 2000 – The film Hurricane has highlighted, again, the racism and injustice that permeates the US prison system.
January 4, that history of racism came to the surface again, when New York state agreed to pay $8-million to 1,280 inmates caught in the middle of the Attica prison uprising in 1971.[1]
The uprising was an explosion of rage against racism and brutality. It was inspired by the civil rights and black power movements which were turning American society upside down.
New York state police crushed the uprising with the utmost brutality. On September 13, 1971, they invaded the prison – which had been occupied by the inmates for five days – and in six minutes, fired over 2,000 rounds of ammunition. They killed 32 prisoners and 11 corrections officers. Hundreds more were wounded.
Frank Smith, who helped lead the revolt, said that after the massacre, he was forced to lie on a table while officers beat and burned him.
Saladin Hadid was one of hundreds of inmates forced to run naked through a gauntlet of police who hit them with clubs and nightsticks.
“They beat you to your knees, called you degrading things,” he said.
The original lawsuit filed in 1974 called for $100-million in damages. In today’s dollars, that would amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars. The out of court settlement is only a tiny portion of what the inmates originally demanded.
And as one of their lawyers told the press, “no settlement compensates people for what really happened.”
But at least we have $8-million as evidence of the racism and brutality of the American prison system.
Attica lives.
For a gripping account of the Attica uprising, rent Attica: The Movie. It is hard to find, but well worth the effort.
© 2000 Paul Kellogg. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Notes
[1] Quotations and facts in this article are taken from Associated Press, “Court Awards Attica Rioters $8-Million,” The Globe and Mail, January 5, 2000, sec. International News.
Published in Archive