Asheville, NC: Report on NYE Noise Demo Outside of Buncombe County Detention Facility

Report back from noise demo on New Year’s Eve in so-called Asheville, NC.

Asheville, with the help of some Charlotte comrades, turned the fuck up and took to the streets for a noise demo on New Year’s Eve.

The sentiments: “YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THEIR WALLS”, “NEW YEAR, NO JAILS” and “WE SEE YOU, WE LOVE YOU” were projected onto the side of the Buncombe County Detention Facility, as dozens stood outside, chanting and banging pots, pans, drums, cymbals, buckets, street signs, anything we could get our filthy abolitionist hands on. We danced and sung messages of love and solidarity to those currently being held for ransom inside the jail.

Our calls were heard and cell lights from all over the building flickered on and off, some ecstatically, others to the beat of our music.

There are a few reasons we put on a noise demo on New Years Eve. What inmates experience is intentionally devoid of all things nourishing, and we want to uplift their spirits. We want to let them know they are not alone and they are not forgotten.

We also show the fuck up to remind the cops, sheriffs, courts and city of Asheville that WE ARE WATCHING AND WE WILL NOT REST UNTIL EVERY LAST PERSON IS OUT. Fuck all jails, fuck all prisons, fuck ICE detention centers, fuck courts, fuck Asheville and fuck the USA.

#Asheville was out in the streets for #NewYears, making noise outside of the Buncombe County Detention Facility, while those on the inside flashed lights in response. pic.twitter.com/aQaEiZZwnL

— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) January 3, 2021

 

 

Being in a city burdened by gentrification and inundated with putrescent tourists, we also want to disrupt the pleasant, respectable experience tourists expect when visiting Asheville. Your white, bougie comfort should never be centered, especially when there are human beings, mostly Black, Brown and Indigenous, often homeless, often trans, often disabled, being held hostage a few blocks away. DISRUPT THE TOURIST INDUSTRY AND MAKE TOURISTS UNCOMFORTABLE.

Today, we say goodbye to 2020 and ring in the New Year with a promise to keep on fighting until every prison facility that maintains the status quo is nothing but dust. Until we are all free.