Commentary

COMMENTARY: Black Millennial Voices: Stop the Torture of U.S. Prison Inmates

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The disproportionate mass incarceration of people of color in America continues to grow. It is bad enough to be confined and locked up in over-crowded jails and prisons in the United States. But what just went down inside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York was a serious violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

Published

5 years ago

February 9, 2019

Oakland Post

By Malika Elmengad

We are so proud of the thousands of young people who stood for hours and days in blistering cold weather outside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York to raise their fists and voices in protest over the poor treatment of inmates and terrible conditions in the jail. Hundreds of thousands of additional millennials across the nation joined in solidarity with the Brooklyn protesters via social media.

The disproportionate mass incarceration of people of color in America continues to grow. It is bad enough to be confined and locked up in over-crowded jails and prisons in the United States. But what just went down inside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York was a serious violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted by resolution the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on December 10, 1984. The United States officially signed and adopted the Convention against Torture on April 18, 1988.

The U.N. Convention against Torture states in Article 2, “1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. 2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”

MDC’s heat and electricity being off to more than 1,600 inmates caused the facility to become a tortuous below-freezing block of ice during the recent extreme cold weather in New York, forcing inmates inside the detention center to endure sub-freezing polar temperatures.

Family members and young community activists had no choice except to stage daily street demonstrations and rallies to protest this injustice. The Federal Bureau of Prisons that operates the MDC was too slow to respond to the crisis.

In fact, at first the Bureau of Prisons denied that there was an absence of heat crisis inside the jail. After later admitting that there were power problems inside the jail, it still took over a week before full electrical power and heat was restored to the detention center.

Several local lawmakers who were able to tour the jail a week ago said conditions were unacceptable and jail officials are subject to accusation for not understanding the seriousness of the situation. “It is like living in a closet without lights,” said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), whose congressional district includes the MDC.

NY State Senator Julia Salazar (D) has criticized MDC Warden Herman Quay for allegedly denying the freezing inmates adequate medical care during the power outage.

However, the torture of incarcerated and detained persons is not isolated to federal prisons in NY. This is a national problem. In the state of Texas, there is a different form of torture now unfolding away from public view and any organized protest. The torture of children, women and men who are being detained in federal detention facilities in El Paso, TX.

Many of the immigrant detainees have been staging hunger strikes to protest their unjust detention. Local media in El Paso have reported that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been physically force-feeding the immigrant hunger strikers using acts of violence.

Some of the detainees have had liquid food forced into their noses while strapped down to beds as punishment for demanding fair and better treatment from ICE officers. Texas Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar who toured the El Paso Processing Detention Center, emphasized in a letter to ICE, “It is critical that ICE commit to ending this practice.”

African American and Latino American youth will not be silent about these issues. We believe that civil rights and human rights movements have to have a more effective intergenerational involvement of young activists and social visionaries. Our voices count. Our lives matter. Our votes will make the difference in the future elections. Now is the time we believe to speak out more forcefully: “Stop the Torture of U.S. Prisons Inmates and Detainees!”

Malika Elmengad is a college student in Florida, and a member of Black Millennial Voices, a national activist group of young scholars and researchers.

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Commentary

Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran

How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.

Published

50 mins ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Emil Guillermo

After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.

Protesters did the same in 1968.

That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.

The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.

In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.

Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.

But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.

That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.

That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.

“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.

Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.

As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.

“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”

That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.

Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.

Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.

Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”

As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.

“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”