Occupy 4 Prisoners
By Phineas Azcuy
The Occupy movement spread to the Lincoln Correctional Facility on February 20th, taking the shape of a solidarity march organized by Occupy 4 Prisoners.
Association Pro Inmates Rights whose slogan is “Inmates Are Human Too!” joined in, along with other protest groups, such as OWS Prisoner Solidarity Subcommittee and the OWS Immigration Working Group. Many former prisoners were also present.
Protesters denounced the “prison industrial complex” as racist and unfair.
After their signature mic check, the protesters began comparing the “prison industrial complex” to “modern-day lynching” and “white settler colonization,” offering statistics on different prisoner demographics, primarily that of African-Americans and Latinos.
Several hundreds showed up, with a minimal police presence. NYPD officers did not appear to be anticipating any kind of confrontation. Instead they looked relax, occasionally looking at their smart phones.
The crowd was a wide cross-section of New Yorkers, a trademark of the Occupy movement.
A woman protests the incarceration of prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is serving a life sentence for the 1981 killing of a police office in Philadelphia.
The presence of the NYPD was minimal.
The crowd grew to around 300 people.
Protesters expressed frustration with the growing number of incarcerated Americans and the disproportionate percentage of minorities in prison.
WNYC Radio conducts an interview.
The information and literature booth.
An anonymous protester.
A protester addresses the crowd.
A protester
A protester complains about the “prison industrial complex” spending taxpayer money every year.
