June 11th reportback

This event ended up being a rather intimate and informal gathering. About ten of us got together, discussed police, safe space, community accountability and long term political prisoners. We had a great dinner in the beautiful backyard of the king house and had a lot of fun with the staged reading of Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Tim Dechristopher showed up as the play was wrapping up, so we got a chance to meet and chat with him. Its unfortunate that our event was overshadowed by a multitude of other things (graduation parties, concerts, naked bike ride) if you couldn't make it, you definitely missed out on a good time. But you don't need to miss out on most of the reasons we got together, because you can still get involved in them.


The discussion circle involved a lot of sharing of personal experiences, and led to the following action plan: we'll all commit to having intentional conversations with our roommates, close friends, neighbors and organizations we work with or volunteer for. We want these conversations to go beyond just "we don't call the cops" and really understand potential situations and how to deal with them ourselves. We also committed to meeting once every three months for an informal check-in where we share those experiences, learn from each other, and begin to understand and acquire the skills we most need to replace the dysfunctional police and state aparatus in our lives. Anyone who would like to share those commitments with us, please contact us at redbirdprisonabolition@gmail.com so we can include you in the scheduling of the next check-in. Hopefully this will lead to a propagation of those skills to an ever broader group of people, empowering us all to protect and care for each other. Maybe we'll find new and better names for these skills, but for now the kind of things we're talking about could range from conflict mediation and crisis intervention, to accountability and counselling, to self-defense and first-aid.

The second part of the event was about raising awareness of and support for four individuals.

1. Marie Mason, who is currently serving over 20 years for alleged acts of arson and sabotage against earth-destroying businesses. The feds used snitch testimony from Marie's husband to put her behind bars. She has spent a lot of her time inside in the very restrictive CMU (communications management unit). Read more here. 
2. Eric McDavid, who is also serving over 20 years for "thoughtcrime". He was entrapped by an FBI informant in a false plot. He is vegan and has gone on hunger strike to demand healthy food repeatedly during his imprisonment. Read more here. The June 11th day of solidarity organizers are looking for sustaining donors who will help provide a more consistent and reliable support for these two. If you'd like to help out, give $5 a month or so, contact me and i'll help you get in touch with them.
3. Jerome White-Bey who is an anarchist prison activist. He set up the Missouri Prison Labour Union to fight slave labour in prisons. The prison administration has punished him for these actions by repeatedly putting him in solitary and refusing to meet his medical needs. Read more here.
4. Amelia Nichol was arrested at a recent anti-police terror march in Denver. Someone threw a firecracker at the cops. They grabbed Amelia, accused her of throwing it, dragged her to jail and charged her with a slew of felonies, including attempted murder. They set her bail at $50,000, threatened her with 90 years imprisonment, and told the media that she threw a molitov cocktail or "improvised explosive device". Amelia requested not to be bonded out or to have the state or any associated body to profit from her imprisonment. Two days ago most of the charges against Amelia were thrown out by a judge. She is still facing trial for one felony and three misdemeanors. Her bail is set at $5,000. We raised funds to help make that bail and prepare for Amelia's trial at the event. Given the low turn out we came up with less than $100. I'm going to see if I can't rustle up a little bit more in the next few days, so if you see me around, expect to be asked for money. If you want your donation to be matched by Insurgent Theatre, get it to me ASAP. If you want to donate directly, follow instructions here.