A March To Shut Down Rikers Island

Hey again bloggers or whoever could be reading this blagh. And so along with what seems like the remnants of hurricane Joaquin the other day, in the midst of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and beyond, there was another March to Shut Down Rikers Island that was held rain, hurricane or shine in that city of New York on that Island of Queens, at the foot of the bridge leading to Rikers Island. And I guess those photos and videos from that event that day that find themselves posted above can speak for themselves. And that March to Shut Down Rikers Island Facebook event invite for this event read something like: 

Saturday, October 3rd, join #ResistRikers & friends in a march to shut down Rikers Island. Featuring artwork & props by The People's Puppets of Occupy Wall Street. RAIN OR SHINE.

3pm meet-up in front of the Rikers Island sign, followed by a speak out, march, and more! Bring your voice, banners, friends, and family. All are invited to speak about their experiences. 

Directions: Q100 bus to the Rikers Island sign (right before the bridge) at the intersection of 19 Ave. & Hazen St. in Queens, from one of the following subway stations: (N/Q) Astoria-Ditmars Blvd, (F) 21 St- Queensbridge, (E/M/R) Queens Plaza, or (G) Court Square.

Contact us to get involved with planning and outreach. 
___________________________
WE DEMAND AN END TO TORTURE IN NYC!
Rikers Island is NYC's Abu Ghraib, where individuals in need of care are instead caged, languishing both mentally and physically; a place where those suffering illnesses are tortured not treated, denying them the most basic of human rights.

WE DEMAND AN END TO CRIMINALIZING POVERTY!
Most people incarcerated on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime. They are unable to afford bail and awaiting their next court appearance and/or trial. NYC's Tale of Two Cities forces the poor and innocent to endure a culture of violence, rape, and overall barbarism that no human should be subject to.

WE DEMAND AN END TO DECEPTIVE REFORMS!
Mayor de Blasio shows up for photo shoots in newly renovated portions of the jail complex, while most of it remains in a state of serious disrepair and deterioration. There are frequent sewage backups and water main breaks. The floors and ceilings are crumbling. The heating and ventilation systems don't function properly. There are rotting showers, toilets, and sinks.

WE DEMAND AN END TO OPPRESSION!
NYC Department of Correction and the Correction Officers Benevolent Association have reaped the benefits of inequality and bloodshed for far too long. Too many lives, homes, and hearts have been destroyed so that a morally bankrupt system may flourish.

NO MORE!

#ResistRikers #EyesOnRikers #BlackLivesMatter #PovertyIsNotACrime#KaliefBrowder #JusticeForKalief #SaveOurYouth

And Resist Rikers posted on that March to SHUT DOWN RIKERS ISLAND Facebook event invite, 

"THANK YOU to everyone who trooped it out to this afternoon's march to shut down Rikers!!! Super extra mega thanks to the peeps at Black Lives Matter. NYC Shut It Down: The Grand Central Crew, Copwatch Patrol Unit - CPU", The People's Puppets of Occupy Wall Street, and Millions March NYC. TOGETHER, WE WILL WIN! Only in unity will we put an end to torture in NYC and SHUT DOWN RIKERS!!!"

And there are articles with titles like Rikers Island Jail, New York City: Shut Down This Torture Hellhole!, Queens Councilman Wants to Abolish Rikers Island, and even Department of Justice to Release 6,000 Prisoners calling to shut down Rikers and prison reform. And so The Stop Mass Incarceration Network has created another Facebook event invite #RiseUpOctober: Shut Down Rikers Island and their event invite reads something like:

It's been called "New York's Abu Ghraib," a combination torture chamber & concentration camp. After years of exposure, after lawsuits and decrees, horrors that shock the conscience continue unabated. In the country's largest jail, lives are irreparably damaged every day.
As part of #RiseUpOctober, join in a non-violent direct action and protest to Shut Down Rikers Island. Sign up to be part of the action, or to provide support. Write: addmyvoice@riseupoctober.org

When: Morning; Gathering Location: TBA

And flood the streets on October 24:
https://www.facebook.com/events/767581106685589/

Also, take part in the national October 22 National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation across the country:
https://www.facebook.com/events/767581106685589/

And according to that NAACP photo posted above, "Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people and 25% of the world's prisoners. And Rikers Island is one of the ten worst prisons in America. And New York City is what a police state looks like. And Rikers Island is what a police state looks like. No one is free when others are oppressed. Is another world possible. And what does this have to do with a No Police State.

A Rally To Shut Down Rikers Island

And on this day finds itself as Occupy Wall Street day one thousand and something, I think.  And Occupy Wall Street and that all things police brutality and beyond movement Black Lives Matter, are still moving fast. And in case you haven't heard, the Calls To Close Down Rikers Island Are Getting Louder to where even government officials are addressing the topic of closing down Rikers Island.  And in case you have been hiding out under a rock or stuck in the stone age and haven't heard again, Rikers Island is this infamous prison, or jail, located in New York City that can be compared to Abu Ghraib, a torture chamber, a concentration camp, a place with no oversight, where you have to worry for your life from the guards more so than the prisoners themselves. And Rikers Island was named after Richard Riker, who sent bounty hunters to the south to collect slaves. And a modern day slave plantation Rikers Island is. And so there has been a March to Shut Down Rikers Island protest, a A Rise Up October Rikers Island Protest and other protests held recently around Shutting Rikers Island Down.  And so just yesterday, Campaign to Shut Down Rikers held a Rally at Mayor de Blasios office to #ShutDownRikers! at New York City Hall to Shut down Rikers.   Justice for Kalief Browder. And that Facebook event invite for this event read something like:

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has called closing Rikers a "good concept" but that we need to "get real"...while he authorizes $1 billion per year to run a racist torture chamber infamous for its culture of violence: Rikers Island jail complex. 

For the 11,000 people locked up on Rikers, "getting real" means an immediate end to solitary confinement, the immediate shutdown of Rikers, and full divestment of the city's $1 billion from mass incarceration. Instead, our campaign demands investments into our communities in the form of community-based social services, mental health care, rehabilitation, and due process protections.

Recent debate among elected officials about shutting Rikers shows—finally—acknowledgment of govt. responsibility for failing practices within the criminal (in)justice system. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito have voiced support for closing Rikers Island, a jail notorious for countless acts of brutality and bloodshed at the hands of correction officers. 90% of people detained on Rikers are Black or Brown, 80% could walk free if they had bail money, and 85% are awaiting trial or their next court appearance, not convicted of any crime. 40% of people held there suffer from mental health issues and need care not cages. Rikers has failed the people of NYC for far too long.
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Join Akeem Browder, brother of Kalief Browder, and the Campaign to Shut Down Rikers:

Tuesday, February 23rd at 9 AM
City Hall - East side entrance at Park Row

Bill de Blasio: There is nothing unrealistic about shutting down Rikers. The time to close the racist torture chamber called Rikers Island is now!

Endorsed by (in aphabetical order): ICE FREE NYC, Incarcerated Nation Corp., International Socialist Organization (NYC), Millions March NYC, New Yorkers Against Bratton, NY Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, NYC Jails Action Coalition, NYC Shut It Down, People's Power Assembly NYC, and more TBA
___
www.ShutDownRikers.org
shutdownrikers@gmail.com
#ShutDownRikers #Justice4Kalief #BlackLivesMatter

And what, if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State.

A Rise Up October Rikers Island Protest

And on this day finds itself as  Occupy Wall Street day one thousand and something. And Occupy Wall Street is still moving fast. And Black Lives Matter, that all things police brutality and beyond movement is still moving fast also. And as I had blaghed about that March to Shut Down Rikers Island the other day, there was another one of those #RiseUpOctober: Shut Down Rikers Island and Resist Rikers protests this past weekend as part of Stop Mass Incarceration Network's #RiseUpOctober. And those Facebook event invites for these events read something like:

#RiseUpOctober: STOP Police Terror & Murder! Which Side Are You On?

11:00 Washington Square Park
1:00 MARCH 
3:00 RALLY Bryant Park, 6th Avenue & 42nd Street

STOP POLICE TERROR! 
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

affiliated actions:
October 22 -- national protests and NYC reading of names of those killed by police:
https://www.facebook.com/events/867605399984510/

October 23 -- non-violent direct action
https://www.facebook.com/events/424613221065195/

People take to the streets in cities all across the country on October 22. People won’t be able to turn their heads and say they didn’t see it. On October 23, when students and clergy alongside and in solidarity with those who feel the lash of this every day, engage in non violent direct action and shut down one of their institutions of misery and terror - that will send a powerful message to all – this movement is serious.

Then on Oct 24, we, all of us, will march in from Grant Homes and Strivers’ Row in Harlem, from Washington Heights and Jackson Heights, from Bed-Stuy and Hunt’s Point and from Jamaica and Staten Island. There will be students from CUNY, Columbia and dozens of other campuses from this area, people from Newark and Paterson and Hartford, numbering in the thousands and thousands. We will be joined by thousands and thousands more from Atlanta and Chicago, from Detroit and Cleveland, from New Orleans and Mississippi and many other places. Millions of people all across the country and around the world will hear our powerful cry - WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Millions more are gonna say, okay, I gotta choose sides and many of them will decide they have to be with the ones trying to STOP this.

We will change history. We will inspire thousands and yes millions, who are tired of being treated like criminals and tired of seeing cops patrolling their communities like occupying armies, to see that they don’t have to take this, to see that it’s their fault. And they will stand up and act to stop this. We will rally to their side thousands of people from other sections of society who refuse to stand aside while horrors are inflicted on people because of the color of their skin. We will open the eyes of those who don’t suffer these horrors, challenging them to quit swallowing the lying justifications the authorities give for continuing to give a green light to killer cops, challenging them to get off the sidelines – Which Side Are You On? Are you on the side of acting to STOP these horrors? Or are you on the side of continuing to let them go down? There’s no middle ground, no neutrality, on this. You gotta choose a side. And I don’t mean just giving us your sympathy. I mean actively joining in the resistance and mobilizing others to resist too. You gotta join with this effort to make Oct 24 as powerful as possible. You gotta listen when somebody here tonight tells you what you can do and who you can hook up with to be part of#RiseUpOctober, or and let me be real – if you and people like you don’t throw in on this - it ain’t gonna happen.

And it HAS to happen.
(from http://stopmassincarceration.net/4528-2/)

#RiseUpOctober: Shut Down Rikers Island

It's been called "New York's Abu Ghraib," a combination torture chamber & concentration camp. After years of exposure, after lawsuits and decrees, horrors that shock the conscience continue unabated. In the country's largest jail, lives are irreparably damaged every day.

19th Avenue and Hazen Street
To join the action or provide support: AddMyVoice@RiseUpOctober.org
(By bus: Take MTA Q101. The first bus stop is the route is on 2nd Avenue between 60th and 61st streets. It is on the West side of the street.
From wherever you live, make plans to get to the Q101 bus stop at 8:00. The closest trains are the F train to
63rd & Lexington, or the 4,5,6,N,Q, R trains to 59th and Lexington.
The Q101 bus comes every 12 minutes (or so) and takes approximately 45 minutes to get to the Queens entrance to Rikers Island. Relax, sit back, you can’t get lost. You are taking this bus to the last stop. You will be dropped off within eyesight of the big “Welcome to Rikers” sign that is at the intersection of Hazen Street and 19th Avenue.
We will be gathering one block up on Hazen street (away from the bridge) at a little corner just
up the street. Look for the people with the big enlargements of people’s faces. These are the
faces of people who were killed by medical neglect or guard brutality at Rikers. MORE DETAILED DIRECTION SHEET POSTED BELOW)

As part of #RiseUpOctober, join in a non-violent direct action and protest to Shut Down Rikers Island. Sign up to be part of the action, or to provide support. Write: addmyvoice@riseupoctober.org

And flood the streets on October 24:
https://www.facebook.com/events/767581106685589/

Also, take part in the national October 22 National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation across the country:
https://www.facebook.com/events/767581106685589/

Resist Rikers

March to SHUT DOWN RIKERS ISLAND

It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love and support one another.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.

And according to that pix11.com Petition launched to change name of Rikers Island amid slavery connection article that has something to do with Rikers being named after Richard Riker who used bounty hunters to collect slaves from the south, Rikers Island still has the name Rikers. And short of LaGuardia airport shutting down Rikers and expanding it's runways into the Bronx, Rikers Island Correctional Facility still seems to be open for business. And there were articles with titles like:  Videos: 11 People Arrested During "Rise Up October" Protest Against Police Brutality, PBA president calls for boycott of Quentin Tarantino movies after he joins ‘Rise Up October’ protests, Arrests made during Rikers Island protest, Protesters SHUT DOWN Rikers Island Prison and more.  And going near the displaced visitors at that Shut Down Rikers Island protest, was the scariest part of it all. #visitsarecancelledfortheday.  And whether or not there'll be another one of those #shutdownrikersisland protests, or #RiseUpOctober protests against police brutality remains to be seen. And according to that NAACP photo posted above, "Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people and 25% of the world's prisoners. And Rikers Island is one of the ten worst prisons in America. And New York City is what a police state looks like. And Rikers Island is what a police state looks like. No one is free when others are oppressed. Is another world possible. And what does this have to do with a No Police State.