NYC Prison Strike Solidarity at Brooklyn MDC

Submitted to It’s Going Down
By Peter Soeller

While prisoners were striking across the United States, IWOC NYC organized a noise demo outside the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City. A motley crowd of anarchists, abolitionists, and anti-police protesters came together in a show of solidarity for those imprisoned in the Brooklyn jail. Specifically, New York abolitionists came in support of the Bronx 120.

On Apil 27, 2016 the NYPD and DHS conducted a sweeping “gang” raid in Eastchester Gardens Houses in the Bronx. With 120 men kidnapped from their homes, this raid was the largest in New York history. The NYPD accused the arrested of drug trafficking and violence based on these men’s “gang association.” Many community members didn’t buy the narrative spun in the media. Residents of Eastchester Gardens said their area hasn’t seen that level of violence in 20 years. In order to create the illusion of fighting crime where there is none, the cops used vague gang association statutes to grab as many people as possible. Crews of friends with no criminal history ended up being lumped into the gang definition by the NYPD and subsequently stolen from their families.

Comrades banged pots, chairs, metal doors, and basically anything that made noise. Despite numerous calls from police to disperse, the crowd remained in front of the prison without incident. Mothers of the Bronx 120 decried the injustice done to their children and demanded their immediate release. In response, MDC prisoners waved in their windows and flickered their lights as acknowledgement that people were on the outside fighting for them.

https://twitter.com/SoellerPower/status/774397661566861312

Johanna Fernandez from the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home spoke on how the need to end incarceration and go after the real cause of our social ills:

“I wish we could bring these people home. We know the majority of people who are in prison in the United States are in prison for victimless crimes. And as we know, the real criminals in this society are the cops, the real criminals in this society are people on Wall Street, the real criminals in this society are politicians. And whether the people in this facility are quote “guilty” or not, they are guilty of crimes of survival. They are guilty of being poor and nothing else.”

The noise demo became a march as people moved from the MDC into the streets shutting down traffic up 3rd avenue. NYPD’s protest specific SRG unit quickly came upon the demonstration but failed at containing it to either side of the street. As more police responded, marchers made the snap decision to shut down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, storming up an on-ramp.

#prisonstrike supporters enter the onramp to the Bklyn-Queens Expwy in #NY. Police entourage behind. Arrests likely. pic.twitter.com/iSenzL7gsY

— Tardigrade (@StopMotionsolo) September 10, 2016

A white shirt cop pleaded with protesters on the highway to come back. The march soldiered through oncoming traffic, the police unable to follow by car. After crossing the Gowanus Canal, people figured the police would close in sooner or later and marched off the next exit. While the police arrived at the exit in minutes, marchers disbanded and deblocked disappearing in the streets of Carroll Gardens.

Overall, participants considered the action a success. Not only did protestors get rowdy with prisoners at a city detention center, but they also blocked traffic on a major highway on a busy Friday night with no arrests. New York has seen some action this summer with protests, shutdowns and disruptions of all sort. Comrades here hope the new networks established between all these concurring social movements can pave the way to building a real coalition of resistance in the city.