November
26, 2013
In:
SF Bay View
by
Mutope Duguma
The
system, whether it is in the state of California or Louisiana, has demonstrated
that those of us held in solitary confinement will receive no mercy. The recent
actions surrounding our dear New Afrikan Brother Herman Wallace is a sharp
reminder on how each and every one of us will be treated.
Here you
have a New Afrikan man who gave up his life in order to challenge the systemic
attacks by the powers that be that deliberately target the poor and oppressed
people of this nation. For taking this position, Herman Wallace would find
himself trapped inside the belly of the beast, Angola Prison slave complex,
where he would continue to challenge the system from within, where the
treatment of prisoners is blatantly horrendous.
Herman
Wallace was no criminal. He was a just and righteous human being, one who hated
injustice so much that he sacrificed himself in order to bring about change for
the lot of us. Many need to realize that the commitments and the suffering for
such commitments are very serious and selfless acts on the part of many like
Herman Wallace, when they challenge the injustices against our very humanity,
even at the cost of their/our very own lives.
The
system has no mercy for no one. It’s totally committed to annihilating any and
all resistance, whether violent or non-violent. Solitary confinement is but one
of the many tools used to carry out that very annihilation of anyone who
attempts to challenge its power, and the system uses all means that they deem
necessary.
For 41
years, Herman Wallace was shown no mercy by a system that has never shown any
mercy to anyone it considers its historical or present enemy. Herman Wallace
was made to suffer at the hands of local, state and federal governments. No
matter how bad his situation got, there was not one human being within this
system, or government, who sought to provide Herman Wallace any mercy.
He would
be made to suffer in isolation, solitary confinement. Today’s solitary
confinement uses a more diabolical approach, yet this does not under any
circumstances negate the isolation, sensory deprivation and physical and
psychological torture of being placed in such an environment for an inhumanely
long period of time, during which the torture is magnified.
Forty-one
years is a crime against humanity, and since Herman Wallace was a prisoner of
war and political prisoner (POW PP), this treatment of him was a war crime,
because the system sought to torture Herman Wallace and all similarly situated
prisoners throughout this nation toward their and our extermination.
To use
the most powerful state and federal governments in the world to kill and
neutralize prisoners of war and political prisoners is a direct violation of
national and international laws. Herman Wallace would be murdered by way of a
civil death by the United States government, yet not one of those laws would be
adhered to in respect to Herman Wallace, nor to countless POWs and PPs
throughout Amerika.
Why? Was
not his life and the lives of similarly situated prisoners of any value to the
state and federal governments, who have a responsibility to all their citizens
of judging who falls within the human race? If prisoners are human, why not
show mercy for all fellow human beings?
To have
a man or woman linger inside solitary confinement for 41 years and no local,
state or federal government official – politician – had the human capacity to
show this human being any mercy: That is a government that is a threat to all
mankind.
Our
fight to end long term solitary confinement is one of major urgency, because
allowing human beings to continue to exist under such a merciless system with
such brutality is a direct reflection of the very nature of our humanity! The
very practice of solitary confinement is barbaric.
