Spotlight on: Angola

[sumayyah]

Angola: The Last Plantation?

from the Pan-African News Wire: Pan-African News Wire: Inside Angola Prison: Louisiana's Last Slave Plantation


(The entire article was too long to post.)

[s8loud]

That was a very good article. Thanks for sharing.

[Istlota]

I would never have guessed a prison like this still existed in America.

Democracy Now has a video interview with the mother of one of the inmates, Gary Tyler, who has been held there for 33 years -- since he was 17 years old:

Democracy Now! | The Case of Gary Tyler: Despite Witness Recantations and No Physical Evidence, Louisiana Prisoner Remains Jailed After 32 Years

Tyler's crime was that he was a black kid being bussed to an all white school. As so often happened back in those days, an angry gang of white thugs approached the bus Tyler and other black kids were on and began throwing rocks, sticks, and stones. Needless to say, none of those thugs got sent off to prison for 33 years.

But, at some point, somebody fired off a gun and hit a 13 year old white kid who died. The kids on the bus dived to the floor of the bus because it sounded like the shot came from outside the bus. The driver said that the shot came from outside the bus. But, the cops pulled Tyler off the bus, took him to the substation [keep in mind he was a juvenile], and beat him for what Tyler says was several hours. The cops then threatened several other black kids who were on the bus [and their families] until they agreed to testify to whatever the cops wanted them to say.

Four eyewitnesses have since recanted their testimony and all say they said what they did because the cops threatened them and their families.

Tyler's mother came to the substation, HEARD HER SON GROANING WHILE THE COPS WERE BEATING HIM, and was told she could not see him.

As a matter of fact, she nor any other members of Tyler's family were even allowed inside the court room while the all white jury was busy finding Tyler guilty.

Originally, the cops found no weapon. The driver was there when the cops searched the bus and he says the cops found no gun on the bus. But, at some point, the cops came up with a gun which they claimed was found in the seat that Tyler was sitting in. But, then, oops, that gun was traced back to a cop firing range. So, it conveniently disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared.

It is significant, I think, that the cop who originally arrested Tyler off the bus was black. He originally arrested Tyler for disturbing the peace. Apparently, it never occured to the brainwashed brother in blue to also arrest the the white thugs throwing rocks at a bus full of minors for disturbing the peace.

The cops didn't search for the murder weapon amongst the unruly crowd of violent racists who were openly voicing all manner of death threats.

Tyler's lawyer spent all of one hour with him. The jury was, of course, all white. And, the judge, in complete opposition to the law, instructed the all white jury that it was up to Tyler to prove his innocence. Tyler was found guilty and given the death penalty, which was later changed to life when a court ruled Lousiana's death penalty was unconstitutional.

All this is bad enough. But, what is even more barbaric is that, even to this day, after over three decades, not one Governor of Louisiana has had the human decency to step in and correct this miscarriage of justice. So, Gary Tyler remains, as I write this, still a slave on Lousiana's last remaining plantation - the state prison in Angola.

Yet more proof that reparations is the very least that America could do to atone for its treatment of, and state sanctioned terror against, its black citizens.

[Auset32]

These articles remind me of a book I just purchased called
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. blackmon

The author was on book tv on C-span and after his presentation I went to my
computer and ordered the book.
My grandmother who was born 8 yrs after slavery had told of re-enslavement
efforts in the county she lived in. I'm not sure if I really understood back then.

Auset32

[sumayyah]

Originally Posted by Auset32

These articles remind me of a book I just purchased called
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. blackmon

The author was on book tv on C-span and after his presentation I went to my
computer and ordered the book.
My grandmother who was born 8 yrs after slavery had told of re-enslavement
efforts in the county she lived in. I'm not sure if I really understood back then.

Auset32

*copies book title and heads to amazon.com*