CONVIICT LIVES MATTER

Prison inmates start protest movement in wake of David Sweat shooting with white, black and Hispanic inmates united

By Ima Schmuck

The shooting of unarmed New York prison escapee David Sweat by a state trooper has riled up prison inmates across the U.S. White, black and Hispanic prison inmates have set aside their fierce rivalry to unite and form a ‘Convict Lives Matter’ protest movement.

Terry “Big Terry” Blake, a general in the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) prison gang, was incensed over the Sweat shooting. Big Terry, who is in custody on federal racketeering charges, told reporters that correctional officers and cops are always shooting unarmed prison inmates who are only trying to get out of the “hell holes” they’ve been confined in.

“If them niggers can protest and riot when cops shoot one of them spooks,” Big Terry said, “then us convicts ought to be able to protest and riot too when one of our unarmed brothers gets shot by the bulls or the cops. I hate to join up with them niggers and wetbacks, but when it comes to us cons getting shot, we all gotta stick together.”

Donna Lieberman , executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU is supporting the rights of convicts to demonstrate, but she stopped short of supporting their right to riot. “We always support the right of any group to demonstrate peacefully,” she said, emphasizing the word ‘peacefully.’

Lieberman is also concerned that an unarmed Sweat was shot in the back by a New York state trooper while running away. She compared the Sweat shooting to that of 50-year-old Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who was shot in the back last April by Michael Slager, a North Charleston, South Carolina cop. As a result, Slager has been indicted for murder.

Prison officials are bracing for the possibility of rioting and are considering lockdowns in those prisons where the “Convict Lives Matter’ movement appears to gaining some traction.

Marshall L. Fisher, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said “We ain’t about to let a bunch of criminals demonstrate for any reason or cause, Our correctional officers have been instructed to deal harshly with the leaders of the ‘Convict Lives Matter’ movement in our state prison system.”

Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana’s Angola state penitentiary, said he was not worried about any demonstrations at his prison. “Here at Angola,” he said, “our inmates are well behaved because they know how we deal with troublemakers. I ain’t worried about no ‘Convict Lives Matter’ demonstrations. They ain’t about to happen here at Angola.”

As for the Sweat shooting, Amnesty International general secretary Salil Shetty summed it up in his London office by saying, “The shooting of Mr. Sweat is just one more example of cowboy cops in America.”