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<A HREF="http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/lword.htm">The Latest Word </A>
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HOTEL KALIFORNIA REVISITED
by Wayne Henderson
"Every person, and every class and description of persons, who were at
the time of the
adoption of the Constitution recognized as citizens in the several
States, became also
citizens of this new political body; but none other..."
-Dred Scott v. Sanford 19 How. 393 @405-06 (U.S. 1857)
"We think it as competent and necessary for a state to provide
precautionary measures
against the moral pest of paupers, vagabonds, and possibly convicts, as
it is to guard
against the physical pestilence which may arise from unsound and
infectious articles
imported."
--N.Y. v. Miln 11 Pet. 102 @142 (U.S. 1837)
"The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse
among the
people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of
each of these States,
paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be
entitled to all privileges
and immunities of free citizens in the several states."
--Articles of Confederation, Article IV (1778) [the Articles are
subsumed by the
Constitution, and Constitutional questions are resolved by reference to
the Articles]
It has been nearly a decade since I penned the original Hotel
Kalifornia; the article has seen
three revisions and five reprintings, two of them overseas, and at least
one of the revelations
therein - of guard-instigated gladiatorial contests among prisoners -
has been verified by the
mainstream media, albeit eight years after I first broke the story (& do
I get creditted? No way)
...in the interim, much has happened, most of it bad, and as this
extended visit of mine to the
depths of hell nears the seventeen year mark, I felt it was time for a
bit of an update.
I need hardly pontificate at any length about the psychological
underpinnings of the police
state; Gestapo control of our lives depends upon Gestapo control of our
minds - who controls
the terms of the argument controls the argument itself, and the Gestapo
controls the mental viral
agents ('memes') that act as substitute for actual thought: prisoners
always (falsely) claim to be
innocent, the accused must have done something or he/she wouldn't have
been arrested, there's
only a few bad cops who tarnish the rest unfairly, it's rare that the
innocent are convicted,let alone
executed), and ours is the best of all possible systems of criminal
justice ... these assumptions are,
I assure you, all lies, pathetic emotional shields for a population of
frightened sheep who desperately
cling to illusions of "freedom". I began this update with three quotes
from the 'law of the land',
something quite alien even to the better-educated among us: unless
ancestors were wealthy
landholders/slaveowners in the Colonies, you - yes, YOU - are one of
those damned "paupers and
vagabonds". You have no rights. You are not free.
"Hitler was merely the expression of the tragic-contradiction between
the longing for freedom and
actual fear of freedom."
- Wilhelm Reich
"Our logic is at fault if we ignore the fact that right is founded on
brute force, and even today needs
violence to maintain it."
- Sigmund Freud
The recent release of four more prisoners from Illinois' death row has
received but scant mention in the
mainstream media; they had been locked up about as long as I have, and,
as in my own case they were
convicted on the strength of lies and subterfuge by the prosecutors - a
state of affairs more common
than you could imagine in your worst nightmares. As with them, mine is
an uphill battle: after seventeen
years' incarceration, I am only now in the venue of the Federal courts,
where it is theoretically possible
that I might finally receive some small measure of 'justice'. It is
frightening, indeed, to reflect that - if we
assume a modest, conservative estimate of 5% wrongful conviction a
number far too low, I assure you -
I am but one of roughly 8,000 innocent people incarcerated in Kalifornia
alone.
Kalifornia has recently instituted a "Mentally Disordered Sexual
Predator" law, which purports to give
the state the power to detain pathological rapists and child molesters
beyond their release date, "for the
good of the community". Hardly a law with which a reasonable person
would disagree, right? Except that,
buried deep in the legalese of the text, there is a provision allowing
the state to apply this power to any
prisoner, even those who have never even been charged with a sex
offense. Am I being paranoid? I know,
personally, of one case in which this law has been so used; just six
weeks ago, a friend - on the day he was
to be paroled and return to his family, was taken to the front gate and
gaffled up into a state van, transported
to a state 'hospital' for detention and observation/"treatment", which
detainment, being a 'civil commitment',
is of indefinite duration with no right to have an attorney or file for
writ of habeas corpus; the state has ninety
days to drug him into a stupor before presenting him to a "tame" judge
for a "competency hearing" at which
time his Thorazine-induced incoherence will be 'evidence' that he needs
to be kept in the hospital for his own
good, and that of the community. Worse yet, the state of Kalifornia has
made it illegal for prisoners to have
direct contact with the media (no telling, yet what they'll do with me,
an accredited journalist), so informing the
public of this might just cost me my life ... as the mainstream media
can attest, this state has killed prisoners for
far less. I ask again, am I being paranoid?
No matter how paranoid I am, I'm afraid I'll never be paranoid enough.
Consider: of all the criminal convictions overturned - generally at the
Federal level - for criminal misconduct
by the police & prosecution, just how often are these reversals followed
by prosecutions of the police/
prosecutors responsible?
Consider: a partial list of those who will never be allowed to serve on
a jury in a criminal trial includes
the likes of Rodney King, Abner Louima, Geronimo Pratt, and myself. Why
is it that any person who might
see the Gestapo for what they are - an occupying army - is automatically
excluded from jury duty by the
prosecution - or the judge, if the prosecutor doesn't notice in time?
Consider: if just 5% - a measely 5% - of all convictions, nationwide,
are tainted, then the United States
currently has at least 75,000 innocent people incarcerated. You do the
math. I've lived in thriving communities
with smaller populations. In the face of such a national disgrace, why
is it that no one so much as raises an
eyebrow, yet the entire country can be paralyzed by the thought that
Bill Clinton got a blowjob in the oval
office?
Consider: the powers-that-be are currently involved in a feverish effort
to draft legally-binding new statutes
that would allow the Gestapo to take (by force, if necessary) DNA
samples from everyone who is merely arrested
(even if the 'charges' are dismissed the next day) and to catalog all
these DNA samples into a national database,
ostensibly to be used as "a tool to fight crime"... of course, much as
with fingerprints, once the Gestapo have this
information on file, they and their tame crimelabs can "prove" our
involvement in any crime, any time, may it please
the court. And remember, frightened parents practically trample each
other to have their children fingerprinted and
sampled, without a second thought. I hardly need illustrate the
connection to the fact that our "Miranda rights" are
no longer mandatory. You'll find this happening everywhere, but most
particularly in Kalifornia, where an ignorant
population (50th in adult literacy in the U.S., which now ranks a
pathetic 47th worldwide) provides the perfect crucible
for tests in social engineering, to see if fascistic new laws can be
made to 'fly'. And yet, with such blatant assaults
against our few remaining protections, why is it that the most spirited
debate in the media in recent weeks involve
Monica Lewinsky's lipstck?
It's not one damned thing after another; it's the same damned thing over
and over and over again ...
Consider: John & Patsy Ramsey sexually abuse and murder their own
daughter, and may dictate to the Gestapo
the conditions under which they might be willing to answer a few,
unthreatening questions - but not before they return
from their vacation in Spain and have a chance to move across the
country. Matthew Eappen's parents can abuse
the poor infant - leaving many telltale injuries - and generally neglect
him (what sort of parent won't feed their child,
or even change the baby's diaper, before handing him off to an au pair?)
- and then, when the poor tyke finally
succumbs to his injuries, they have the full cooperation of the Gestapo
& the prosecutor's office in blaming the
tiny English slave they brought over to do their scutwork. John DuPont
can murder a former national amateur
wrestling champion on a whim, & is such a good friend to the
Philadelphia area Gestapo that, in the face of public
outcry, the worst they can think to do to him is confine him to a cushy
private insane asylum, just until the heat
blows over & people are focussed on another scandal-of-the-week. And
yet, yours truly - able to prove that I was
not even in the state of kalifornia when the crime occurred, am
summarily arrested on the perjured affidavit of a
pathological liar (excuse me, a brave & noble member of the Gestapo),
not allowed to even present a defense,
convicted & nearly sentenced to death (it was very, very close) & must
spend seventeen years fighting my way
upstream to prove my innocence; not only this, but when I present
evidence of the crimes of the Gestapo &
prosecutors to the court, I'm summarily dismissed as one of those
'frivolous prisoner lawsuits' - let the editor
of Steamshovel Press be my Judge; a cop of said "frivolous lawsuit" is
in his possession. Do I seem
bitter? A whiner, a complainer? I have reason - as do the other 75,000
innocents incarcerated in the Fascist
States of Amerika.
[Steamshovel Debris: Copies of the legal case, clearly establishing the
author's innocence, are
available through Steamshovel Press at cost.]
QUOD LICET JOVI, NON LICET BOVI
[what is permitted to gods, is not permitted to oxen]
[As a consequence of criminal conviction, the defendant has] not only
forfeited his liberty,
but all his personal rights, except those which the law in its humanity
accords to him. He is,
for the time being, the slave of the state.
-Ruffin v. Commonwealth 21 Gratt. 790 (Va. 1871)
due
process of law..."
-Amendment 14, U.S. Constitution; slavery is nowhere prohibited,
only conditionally subject to "due process of law"
As stated in "Hotel Kalifornia," (Steamshovel Press #4; anthologized in
Popular Alienation)
amerikan prisons are the new plantation. Even with the lame, tame
"unions" that spout pleasing
rhetoric about protecting worker's rights from their warm, comfy
position in the bosses' beds, imperial
kapital demands that the 'wetware' - the drones - be less expensive,
more cost-effective. Hence NAFTA,
hence the rolling thunder of jobs stampeding to Third-World countries;
but what about the smaller oppressors,
the young, up-and-coming kapitalists? Those whose companies are not yet
big enough to afford the move
to friendly dictatorships where little brown people work in big brown
factories? There is the domestic Third-
World country the plantation: amerikan prisons. A prisoner assembles,
and packages, computer components
(you probably have several in your PC at work, if not at home); the
bullet-resistant riot gear that the Gestapo
wear when beating peaceful, unarmed protestors to a bloody pulp are made
in Federal prisons by UNICOR;
prisoners take your airline reservations over the phone & do
telemarketing; and just recently here in kalifornia,
several prisoners were transferred to the SHU at Pelican Bay - the
"House Of Pain" - for revealing that they were
being forced to sew "MADE IN USA" labels into sportswear trucked up from
factories in Mexico. The state
has no interest in "Justice"; the state's overriding interest is in
profits - and prison slave labor is profitable for
those who invest. Just ask former kalifornia governor Pete Wilson,
part-owner in the company that provided
the concrete that helped to build all the prisons he approved for
construction; or ask his wife, co-owner of the
company that holds the contract for producing the cheap, flimsy clothing
that prisoners in this state must wear.
Is it any wonder that, during a period when state workers' wages were
frozen, if not declining, the powerful prison
guards' union (CCPOA) was able to get juicy raises for the guards?
Perhaps those millions the CCPOA donated
to Wilson's political campaigns...
The horrors of which I speak are in evidence nationwide, but all stem
from kalifornia, the crucible of such
experiments in social conditioning & control. From the COINTELPRO
experiments that produced the Manson
Family, the Zebra killers, & Cinque DeFreeze of the SLA, to the social
conditioning that has created the spate
of gangs & serial rapists/murderers that now make up a
statistically-relevant percentage of the population,
kalifornia has proven to be the 'Behavioral Sink' of Skinner's theories
& Calhoun's experiments; if you want
to see your future, look no farther than Watts, South Central, or the
gang turfs of Bakersfield and Frisco,
Oakland, Fresno, and San Diego ... immense, filthy cities filled with
frightened, psychotic people - all kept in
their place by your friendly local Gestapo, cheerfully serving the
interests of Fascism, Kapitalism, and the
Amerikan Way.
Arbeit Macht Frei. Kalifornia Uber Alles.
I'm not just spouting theory, here, people; for the past seventeen
years, I've been living in this hell, observing
from the inside; I know the pattern of the hobnails on their boots,
because I have seen their boots from underneath.
To me, the Gestapo and their machinations are all too real, ,all too
personal. My petition for writ of habeas
corpus [for those who are interested, Henderson v. Newland, docket
#C.98-4837 :CW[PR], U.S. District Court,
Northern District of Kalifornia and related criminal complaint against
the Gestapo & prosecutors (a copy of which
I've presented to Steamshovel Press) are currently winding their
laborious way through the "criminal
justice" system, the chips fall wheresoever they may; if there is any
luck or injustice coming to me, I might find
myself released sometime later this year. I will probably get to be the
"scandal-of-the-week", albeit briefly, and then the
majority of the population will change the channel stuff a few more
potato chips in their mouths, and go back to their
normal intellectual pursuits: Great Minds discuss ideas, admirable minds
discuss events, lesser minds discuss other
people, and most of the population is discussing Hulk Hogan's run for
the presidency, but only during the commercials
that interrupt the Jerry Springer show. The tabloidization of the
Amerikan mind continues apace.
It would be nice if, just for once, the suffering of those of us who
endure incarceration for crimes we didn't commit
would be an impetus for broad social action, if not real change; but I
will be happy to sue the state of kalifornia for
everything I can get, a little something to add to my "freedom" (such as
it) after seventeen years in hell. An acquaintance
of mine, a fellow named Pitterman, won just such a release from
incarceration; he filed suit, and the next anyone heard of
him, the Gestapo "discovered" his body in an alley, a single gunshot
wound to the back of his head. Naturally, the Gestapo
ruled his death an "apparent suicide" (this is in San Mateo County,
which is famous for such "suicides") and have closed the
case, refusing to even put on a convincing show of further
investigation. Not surprising in a state where prison guards can set
up gladiatorial combat between prisoners, and use prisoners for target
practice, with impunity.
Too many die for nothing. And of course, "it's just a few bad cops that
unfairly tarnish the rest" - never mind that
the rest know full well what's happening, & refuse to break the code of
silence. I sometimes wonder if our species, so
lacking in survival instincts, let alone enlightened self-interest,
wouldn't perhaps be better off extinct; some other order
of mammal could then move into our niche, and it's a safe bet that they
couldn't do a worse than we have.
The most beautiful thing about us is that we are a bridge, not goal; the
most frightening thing about us is that
we are a bridge, not a goal. A bridge to where? I wonder; and of what
shoddy manufacture? We cannot, as a
species, believe that we should treat one another this way; and yet, we
do ...
I hate to end an article on a negative note; so, as a personal aside to
you, my gentle readers, I'd like to share: my
current "job" here in prison is on what is called the "yard crew",
picking up sputum-soaked cigarette butts
& drippy used nosewipes without protective gear (rubber gloves are only
available to staff, due to "budget
constraints"), when not actively involved in the administration's
laughable idea of 'landscaping' (have you ever
seen Cool Hand Luke? It's not fiction). My current assignment,
courtesy of a particularly ignorant
and overbearing facility captain, is to kill all the grass growing in a
small, out-of-the-way spot, about the size of a
boxing ring, near the prisoners' entrance to the visiting room. No
chemical defoliants (thankfully!) just a hoe, a
rake, a shovel, & me. Naturally, no matter what I do, the grass keeps
coming back, greener & more luxurious each
time. Life will not be denied; Mother Nature will find a way. The
facility captain, of course, is apoplectic, and has
not the intellect to perceive the futility of this campaign against the
conquering grass; I am the slave of the state, no
better (in the captain's eyes) than the offensive greenery, and so dig I
must. The grass, as grass will, merely takes a
deep breath and returns, as glorious as ever. I feel a kinship with the
grass, a deep, blood-level bond to this defiant
patch of green. It mocks all efforts at eradication; I am proud to call
the grass my sister, my hero. And to the
aforementioned facility captain, my message is: long after the last of
your descendants to remember your name is dust,
long after your bloodlines have diluted and your genes have scattered to
the winds, long after the last of your children's
children's children are forgotten, their very existence not even a rumor
in the musty corridors of time, long after the
corrupt system you serve with such zeal has fallen, its ruins
rediscovered by the farmer's spade and analyzed-by
archaeologists who speak a tongue as yet unborn, long after all this has
come to pass, captain, this grass will dance
on your grave.
The grass laughs at you, captain, and frankly so do I.
You can muffle the drum, and you can cut the strings of the lyre,
but you cannot command the mockingbird not to sing.
- Kahlil Gibran
Wayne Henderson 15 March 1999
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Steamshovel!
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Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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