{"id":497,"date":"2019-03-01T16:42:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T16:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/?p=497"},"modified":"2019-03-02T21:12:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T21:12:13","slug":"racist-jailers-watch-as-prisoner-burns-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/2019\/03\/01\/racist-jailers-watch-as-prisoner-burns-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist Jailers Watch as Prisoner Burns Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a letter from a prisoner who witnessed a gruesome, preventable death. He would like all the help he can get in seeking justice:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 29, 2018 prisoner Freddie Pickett lost his life here at North Carolina’s Supermax Facility Polk Correctional, due to the deliberate indifference shown daily by the miscreants who patrol these concrete fields. Prisoner Freddie Pickett’s death was documented and reported as a suicide, not as a murder. Mr. Pickett was murdered by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) representatives. Mr. Pickett who had an extensive history of mental health disorders, set a fire in his cell. Once the fire began to burn it activated the smoke detector, which the \u201cthen\u201d got the attention of the block officer (Gardner). From my time being held captive here at this razor-wire plantation, I\u2019ve noticed that officer is a racist sadist who has no regard for a prisoner’s life and wears his neo-nazi pride as a badge of honor for the world to see. Once officer Gardner visually noticed the smoke and fire in Mr. Pickett\u2019s cell, he then left at a unhurried pace. Gardner returned with assistant unit manager Harriss who looked in Mr. Pickett’s cell window and stated to her subordinates who by this time gathered around, \u201cto not go in and get him until he is unresponsive.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several officers from units throughout\nthe facility had made their way to A-Hall of Polk’s Supermax unit to\nwatch a man be burnt alive. The same type of gatherings took place in\nSpringfield, IL when there were anti-black riots in 1908 where New\nAfrikans were tied up and burnt alive while neo-nazi men, women, and\neven police officials stood by to watch.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These miscreants stood by and watched\nMr. Pickett bang on his cell window and beg that they take him out\nthe smoke filled cell. These sadists’ only response was \u201conce\nyou’re unresponsive we will come in and get you\u201d. The same officers\nwho took an oath to serve and protect stood by and watched Mr.\nPickett be burnt to death. It was a full thirty minutes before the\nofficers went into the cell and \u201cpulled\u201d Mr. Pickett’s\n\u201cunresponsive\u201d body out. By this time it was too late, the smoke,\nthe fire, and the disregard for human life took the life of Mr.\nPickett, who had been incarcerated almost 20 years and was to be\nreleased within the next year. He was documented as a prisoner who\ncommitted suicide.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could enlarge on the details of this\nmurder but I want to get to the question I’m sure several of you\nhave. Why would a prisoner set their cell on fire knowing that it\ncould be the cause of their death? These fires are being set \u201cto\nget the attention of the block officer.\u201d I’ve been to many of these\nplantations here in NC and even the oldest have emergency\ncall-buttons in the cells. These are buttons placed in each cell,\nthat when pushed alerts the officer in the control booth, who then\nshould notify the floor officers that the emergency cell-button has\nbeen pushed and the prisoner of that cell is requesting the officers\nassistance. Here at Polk’s Supermax Facility there are no emergency\ncall-buttons in any of the 96 cells. The majority of these cells\nhouse mentally ill prisoners or prisoners with health disorders.\nThere being no cell-buttons isn’t due to complications because when\nthis Supermax Facility was built it was equipped with emergency\ncall-buttons in each cell. But over time maintenance was given the\norder by administration to disconnect all the call-buttons in the\ncells. This was done because of the complaints of the officers in the\nbooth claiming it was aggravating but not only is this a health\nhazard, more importantly it also violates the building codes required\nby the state contractors that must pass this inspection before the\nfacility can be open. That is why this facility was equipped with\ncall-buttons that were later disconnected.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being that there aren’t any\ncall-buttons, prisoners are compelled to bang on the window of their\ncell for long periods of time to get the attention of these sadist\noverseers. To drown out the noise of us beating on our cell windows\nthese miscreants plug up four industrial sized fans. So when\nprisoners grow tired of beating the windows they set fires, which\nthen activates the smoke detectors that\u2019s in the cell, and then\nhigher ranking officers such as Sgt.s, unit managers, etc…are\nnotified.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are being murdered, brutally\nbeaten, denied adequate medical care, housed in cells that are not\nproperly heated, given no phone calls, given no outside recreation\nand treated similar to the prisoners of war at WWII. The (NCDPS)\npolicy and procedures and the 8th<\/sup> amendment are supposed\nto protect us from these violent acts. But neither the policy nor the\n8th<\/sup> amendment are regarded without care or respect.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many of us have to die at the\nhands of these miscreants, be brutally beaten or tortured before\nthese tyrants are demanded to cease these on-going atrocities and be\nheld accountable. We don’t have call-buttons, we don\u2019t have any\nphones to call authorities to help us. Many of these prisoners don\u2019t\nhave families to care about their well being. But I care about these\nprisoners, I care about these prisoners with mental health disorders\nand I vow to continue to fight this oppressive, exploitative,\nmurderous system. But I’m only one man, I need the assistance of\nthose of y\u2019all in society who can protest outside of these\nrazor-wire plantations, who can call the administrators and question\nthese atrocities.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Stewart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PO BOX 2500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butner, NC 27509<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a letter from a prisoner who witnessed a gruesome, preventable death. He would like all the help he can get in seeking justice: On June 29, 2018 prisoner Freddie Pickett lost his life here at North Carolina’s Supermax Facility Polk Correctional, due to the deliberate indifference shown daily by the miscreants who patrol … Continue reading Racist Jailers Watch as Prisoner Burns Alive<\/span> »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,40,14,43,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-from-prisoners","category-north-carolina","category-prison-conditions","category-prisoner-death","category-violence-by-guards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atlblackcross.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}