David J. Annarelli 1853637 A-137
PSCC P.o. Box 518
Pocahontas VA 24635
The growing spread of fascism, globally as well as here in the United States, is being at least noted by most main stream media outlets. It is the age old “hidden in plain sight“ fascism here in the United States that should be of grave concern to any citizen who values freedom. Prisons, and the prison industrial complex, are a beach head for that fascism. They are what has allowed a police state to expand exponentially. We have had a moment as a society where, the idea of voting and then legislating real and actionable change, is at best laughable. At worst it is dangerously naïve. Virginia prisons are specific examples of what will shortly be imposed in your own backyard. The Rubicon has been crossed.
Currently the best example of this lockdown of American citizens is the First Amendment, which is clearly under assault from every angle across the country. In the Virginia Department of Corrections, a well-known slaver cabal and bastion of fascism, the First Amendment has been all but banned. It is widespread and seemingly nondescript. From books about Star Wars, random role-playing games and computer magazines; to outgoing and incoming mail – including legal mail – and too often based solely on the whim of a mail room worker. All political and religious texts are under heavy assault. Those of a political nature are being falsely labeled as “personal correspondence“ then quickly denied for being “too many pages“. The religious texts are essentially anything not Protestant Asatru, both of which tend to be cover groups for white nationalism. The Muslim community seems to be able to hold the line, but they have numbers, and their members know some thing about creating and maintaining a unified front. At Pocahontas State Corruption Center, Virginia’s most reviled concentration camp, the open assault upon the First Amendment is in full swing with regular verbal abuses against other religions and mass violations of both the spoken and printed word.
This becomes even more pronounced if you are a member of a religious group that has small numbers, Messianic Judaism or Indigenous community groups for example. I was able to speak with a member from each of these groups, starting with Daniel Buchanan who is honored as Chief by members of the Indigenous community at Pocahontas State Corruption Center. His group — and himself – are regularly targeted for enhanced First Amendment violations and other abuses. From the denial of proper and unfettered access to spiritual practices, to targeted banning of any publications that promote Indigenous beliefs and ideas, they’re a community once more under the boot of a US government and its agents.
“It is clear that the same people who having been acting this way towards us for centuries have still not learned respect for others. They continue to take from us, ignore their own treaties and laws, all as if they are somehow entitled to their endless greed. Even our sovereignty is again being challenged,“ Dan explains to me in a calm clear voice.
Who are “they“ I ask him?
“They are napitewum. You call them fascist, and they are. Really they are the same old
takers. They have no respect for others and no respect for themselves. They have no respect for our beliefs, or our mother earth, or for us as a people or even the simple basic respect given from one human to another. But how could they when they have no respect for themselves or their own families or their own laws? This is the whole system, ‘left and right’, so called, from the local prison guard scum to that political scum that has managed to float to the top of the cesspool . The whole system.“
Given what can be seen in this prison and prisons across the US as well as the general situation here and abroad of looming conflict – both civil and global – what real options do we have I wonder? It is a historical fact that those who are in power never willingly step down. Even here in the US, where it is such an integral part of the show, the so- called “peaceful transfer of power” is realized as an illusion. Clearly, with only two parties and a scant few thousand people, all from essentially the same club, all sharing various levels of the same power being passed around the room, the idea of “power being transferred“ becomes ludicrous at best.
The US Supreme Court, which seems no more legitimate than any other court in this day and age, has stated and upheld: “There is no Iron Curtain drawn between the Constitution and the prisons of this country.“ (Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 US 539, 555–56, 94 S.CT.2963 (1974)). This same US Supreme Court has also stated, explicitly, that the First Amendment “does not end at the prison gates. It is ABSOLUTE.“ Yet every day of every year and in every prison (41 total in Virginia) the onslaught of constitutional violations does barrage the captives. Some of these violations are so heinous, so egregious, as to leave one staggered in disbelief, all senses of humanity reeling in profound and traumatized horror. Prisons, it would seem from the anecdotes and evidence, have become the proving grounds for not only the level of constitutional (and human) rights that our countries lowest authorities are able to impose and get away with (often in plain view of the security cameras and witnesses); but also those rights violations that become the permanent casualties, as every home and store and street becomes a prison to hold every citizen as captive and in thrall.
I also spoke with David Wood, a practitioner and devout member of the Messianic Judaism community. David has been for years the focus of horrific antisemitic verbal abuse and targeted acts by far too many staff members. It becomes all too obvious when you see just how many staff – all of whom are from the same small town, deep mountain area, and many of whom are family by blood or marriage – are engaged in the same sorts of behaviors based on shared sentiments, that there is a geographical bias. We are only a couple of hours from where the “Unite the White“ rally happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. This state as a whole is not well known for its history of tolerance and acceptance. Given the long running traditions of racism – openly and proudly to this very day – it is a little surprised to find antisemitism just as widespread. I myself, while walking laps on the recreation yard, had occasion to witness one of the guards stop David and begin to berate and harass him, including not so subtle threats of actual physical harm.
I have also witnessed both David and Daniel properly addressing these issues through the prison grievance system. Not a single reprimand, and certainly not a single guard fired or at least transferred. There is something VERY WRONG here. These people claim to be working in “law enforcement“ and yet daily they are openly working to undermine and subvert the constitutional rights of citizens. One of the reasons for this is that, historically and statistically, certain personality types tend to be drawn to this profession. Sociopathic and abuse tend to be the results of proper psychology tests regarding this matter. A lack of a good education tends to be another one. Apparently, history has taught us nothing, because the worst moments of human history are repeating themselves. They seem to be spreading along with every other form of pestilence, and prisons are very much the foundation from which they begin.
It is easy to point out that a few thousand guards and other assorted prisons staff are openly and willingly pushing fascism to spread beyond the prison walls and into their local communities. They have chosen a side, and that side is with those enemies of justice, truth, freedom and goodness, those ideologies that embrace equality and equanimity. Not so easy is to get those citizens of the US, and indeed the world, to take actionable responsibility for enforcing the rights of humanity. Certainly citizens will protest or vote, complain online; they might even write essays, from within their cells – metaphorical or rather real – but none of that rises to the level of “actionable“ that is now required, and of a growing urgency and immediacy.
I am of the opinion that it also calls into question many of the modern day activist groups: Antifa, Anonymous, Black Lives Matter, By Any Means, etc. all of whom espouse such lofty ideals of freedom and equality. They cannot be so blind as to miss their own ineffectuality. Why are these groups not openly, and with some level of regularity, targeting every state Department of Corrections as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP)? There could be, and there should be, a very deliberate targeting, from as many angles as can be made, to cause as much disruption as possible. Seriously, how are state DOCs still operating and why is it being allowed?
Where are all of the hackers and hacktivist groups? These groups could, with relative ease, not only expose all of the internal workings and horrors of prisons around the country, but could in all likelihood render them in operable. Along the same lines of thought, and because “the enemy of my enemy“ is possibly a useful tool (I am very careful about those I call “friend“) why has R-Evil not been coerced or lured or antagonized into targeting state DOCs? R-Evil has shown itself to be fully capable of spreading misinformation and the occasional ransomware attack, supposedly threatening our “oh so sacred democracy“. I would have expected them to be targeting those institutions which hold captive some 2 -3 million people who have no love for the US system of slavery. I would also suggest they target those state DOCs that are routinely among the worst, as Virginia regularly is. What a great way to undermine the system, expose it’s very ugly and corrupt hypocrisy.
The continued adherence to the idea and practice of voting then watching whichever politician fulfill not a single stated goal, allowing for over a century of worsening circumstances to go on unabated, is clearly not an option. Insurrection is ALWAYS an option, but I would not recommend doing so then being partially successful, only to stop and pose for selfies that the enemy will later use to imprison you…. Have a follow up plan…. Depending on an ineffectual “hearts and minds“ campaign has frankly only served to set things on a backwards trajectory, with 2-3 million captives in this country and exactly no sign of that number dropping dramatically anytime soon. It seems that another essay illustrating the wasted talent is all but pointless. In a world wrapped up and chained to technology, there has been no visible effects from those resistant fighters and abolitionists in the cyber world. They could have a DEVASTATING impact if they choose to.
Where does all of this leave us aside with a dwindling power of the written and spoken word? Nowhere good it would seem, and with no real solid ground upon which to stand and foster hope. As a captive the status quo and nothing changing is often a good thing, but as an activist it is now very unacceptable and even more so for someone fighting for abolition. Action is needed.
Resist & Disrupt
Dave Annarelli
@davznothereyo
Mongoose Distro 