Traduzione e sottotitoli a cura di Calusca City Light Archivio Primo Moroni COX18
Questo documentario contiene materiale duro da vedere.
Il 9 settembre 1971 i detenuti di Attica, a 400km da New York presero il controllo della prigione.
Fu la più grande ribellione nelle carceri della storia degli Stati Uniti.
Giovedi Il primo giorno.
Stava sempre per accadere qualcosa, ad Attica.
La popolazione era stanca.
Stanca delle bugie, delle promesse.
Eravamo stanchi.
Qualcuno ha colpito una guardia..
e quando colpisci una guardia, è finita.
Ma poi si è scatenato l’inferno.
Sono all'infermeria,
e cominciano a suonare le sirene.
“Che diavolo sta succedendo?”
Ero sotto la doccia.
Sono uscito, fradicio,
e il posto stava impazzendo.
All’improvviso,
ho visto aprirsi la porta dell'infermeria aprirsi
e ho visto gente correre ovunque
con grossi tubi e coltelli
E di colpo tutti stavano correndo
E poi si cominciarono a vedere
gente che schiacciava la faccia
attraverso le finestre rotte
gridando: "Prendi le guardie! Prendi le chiavi!"
c'erano guardie che venivano picchiate.
Chiunque del personale ti fosse caduto fra le mani l’avresti picchiato.
Ecco la mia occasione per combattere chi mi ha picchiato,
perché ora sto insieme a un sacco di assassini.
Noi contro di loro.
Mi ci son buttato subito senza pianificare niente.
Non ero il tipo da pensare.
Stavo prendendo a calci la polizia. Mi son sentito bene.
Sarebbe finita lì,
perché erano in un’area confinata, i blocchi lucchettati
la piazzetta (Times Square) era chiusa ma i prigionieri sono tornati indietro
e cominciano a strattonare il cancello
I quattro blocchi si incontrano a Times Square
è il punto d'incontro, per come è fatta la prigione, Times Square è il centro, della prigione
La mattina della rivolta,
mio padre era a Times Square.
Aveva le chiavi di tutte le porte
e sfortunatamente,
i detenuti nel tunnel continuavano a spingere
quella porta, e gridavano
a mio padre: Apri la porta!
E Quinn è saltato su tipo: "oh ma questa è.." e ha azionato l'allarme
il corno che fa così: aahhoo
E hanno cominciato a battere e battere sul cancello.
All’insaputa di tutti
uno dei cardini era stato saldato provvisoriamente
durante le ristrutturazioni degli anni '30
e si è rotto.
Il lucchetto è saltato,
e tutti si son precipitati fuori. Boom.
Quando la porta è caduta, hanno attaccato mio padre e gli han preso le chiavi
e hanno avuto così accesso a tutte le porte di Times square
È stato picchiato molto duramente.
Torno indietro e metto due dita sul collo di Quinn.
Sentivo il battito, ma era molto debole.
Tipo una pulsazione,
e dopo un minuto o due, un'altra pulsazione
Alcuni detenuti conoscevano mio padre,
quattro musulmani han portato un materasso dal blocco A
l'hanno messo sul materasso e l’hanno portato via da Times Square
dicendo di avere una guardia
gravemente ferita e bisognosa di soccorso medico.
A un certo punto è arrivata un’ambulanza.
Nel frattempo, mia madre
era stata informata del ferimento di mio padre.
Presero le chiavi a Quinn,
e hanno aperto tutti e quattro i lati e han detto: “Ce l'abbiamo fatta”.
e gridavano “Ce l'abbiamo in pugno!”
Abbiamo preso ogni blocco del complesso.
L’abbiamo preso,
ma non potevamo tenerlo
Quindi ci siamo ritirati nel blocco D.
Il posto sta esplodendo. Fumo da cinque edifici,
La cappella e la lavanderia sono in fiamme.
Avevamo sotto controllo solo il cortile.
Loro controllavano il sistema, e i cancelli.
e le porte, e i passaggi. Erano sui marciapiedi con le pistole.
da dove possono vederti.
Sto facendo una panoramica del blocco B
riprendendo un gruppo sul tetto del blocco C.
ok
Ora si vede il cortile e il blocco D.
Adesso uso il telescopio del fucile .270.
sono brutti e sono neri,
il più brutto gentiluomo negro che abbia visto in vita mia.
Sapevamo che erano là fuori sulle passerelle.
Posizionati in un certo modo..
Anche se sapevi che erano lì, loro si mettevano in modo
da non farsi vedere.
I prigionieri, perlopiù, si sono travisati
con sciarpe, asciugamani, per nascondere la faccia.
Era un modo per celare
la tua identità,
se gli sbirri fossero entrati, sai, tu eri protetto.
O pensavamo di esserlo.
Ad Attica New York, un migliaio di detenuti di lungo corso
oggi si sono rivoltati e hanno preso il controllo della prigione
Hanno preso in ostaggio 33 guardie e ne hanno ferite altre durante gli scontri.
La polizia ha ripreso il controllo della maggior parte del carcere
ma i guai non sono ancora finiti.
Quando siamo arrivati ad avere degli ostaggi
abbiamo urlato: “Abbiamo degli ostaggi!”.
Un migliaio di persone che lo gridavano.
Avere degli ostaggi impedisce alla polizia di attaccare.
Avere ostaggi è l'unico potere che hai.
Finché avevano gli ostaggi.. non avevano pistole
non avevano niente
ma avevano degli ostaggi.
Uomini tuoi e tu ne sei responsabile.
Hai la responsabilità di proteggere i tuoi
e devi fare il tuo lavoro.
Siediti e negozia.
- Entrando nell'area dove sono tenuti i 21 ostaggi.
- Sono nel gruppo principale. Al centro. Non riusciamo a distinguerli
perché i prigionieri gli han preso i vestiti.
Erano in cerchio, bendati in mezzo al cortile.
Avevano anche delle guardie, guardie carcerate intorno a loro, per proteggerli.
Li vedevamo come prigionieri.
Li abbiamo visti come persone sotto la nostra supervisione.
La nostra supervisione.
Quindi non potevamo far loro del male.
Capisci cos'è l’Islam Non devi fare del male a un prigioniero.
Pertanto, si è deciso
di lasciare che i fratelli musulmani
fossero loro a badarci.
Ero molto incazzato perché non mi lasciavano toccarli
Volevo mettergli le mani addosso
prenderne un paio e conciarli per le feste.
Erano le stesse guardie che mi trattavano male
che mi parlavano sporco, che mi davano ordini
Così gli ho detto: “E adesso, cosa ne pensi di me, eh?"
E per fortuna c’erano quei musulmani perché altrimenti le avrebbero prese. Davvero.
È difficile per qualcuno che
che non sia mai stato in galera capire quanto surreale
sia la situazione in quel dato momento.
Nessuno ci minacciava. Avevamo.. suonerà una cosa da matti
ma quando hai finalmente tanto così di controllo sulla tua vita anche solo per un attimo
E lo sai che lo pagherai. Carissimo.
È stato un momento di esuberanza
in cui potevi fare qualcosa e avere il controllo sulla tua vita.
Appena uscito fuori, era il caos totale
La gente arrivava con
cibo, vestiti. Tiravano su le tende.
Atmosfera di festa.
Eravamo liberi!
Ci siamo ritrovati una comunità.
In quel momento non esistevano
neri, bianchi, ispanici o chissacché.
Siamo compagni di cella
e dobbiamo essere capaci di affrontare ogni cosa, per sopravvivere.
I ragazzi che erano stati in Vietnam,
han detto: “Facciamo le cucce”.
prendevi un bastone
e ci mettevi sopra un lenzuolo
e ho dormito come un bambino.
Quando la gente ha cominciato
ad aver bisogno del gabinetto
Non ce n'era uno che funzionasse
Ii gruppo che era stato in Vietnam, disse:
“Dobbiamo costruire una latrina”
Sapevano cosa fosse una latrina.
Io non lo sapevo.
Fratello.
Dico: fratello. Ed era bianco.
Lo chiamavano Il piccoletto.
ed era come un'infermiera, anche da prima
Hanno sistemato una sezione medica in cortile
Chiunque avesse un problema andava lì e il piccoletto lo curava
E le cure mediche in cortile
in cortile erano molto migliori di quelle mai ricevute prima.
Oh, e ci siamo divertiti.
Facevamo il vino, e cucinavamo all'aperto.
Era come un grande picnic, in una baraccopoli.
Era una scena del tipo di Buffalo Bill
quando c'era Buffalo Bill..
hai mai visto Gunsmoke? il film western?
Matt Dillon era il capo della polizia in Gunsmoke.
manteneva l'ordine
ma qui non non avevamo un Matt Dillon.
Ogni uomo era la propria legge, era lui stesso a farla.
Faceva quello che gli pareva.
Non c'era ordine.
Il redattore capo dice che c'è questo posto chiamato Attica
"C'è stata una rivolta nella prigione e vogliamo che tu vada là a coprirla."
"Non sappiamo i dettagli"
E così sono partito.
Prima a Buffalo e poi ad Attica.
Per ABC news, John Johnson da Attica, New York.
Era una situazione estremamente fluida per così dire
Ed era difficile avere informazioni.
Non potevamo entrare e tutto quello che sapevamo era
che i detenuti volevano parlare.
E che avevano prigionieri.
E questa è una cosa che non era mai successa, nella storia.
Questa enorme istituzione presa dai detenuti.
Ti rendi conto?
Attica, New York. Mai sentita nominare prima. Cos'è un Atika?
Francamente, non sapevo cosa aspettarmi.
Abbiamo parcheggiato davanti alla prigione.
Abbiamo sistemato le attrezzature e cominciato le riprese
delle attività fuori dalla prigione.
Non avevamo idea di cosa stesse succedendo dentro.
Le istruzioni sono che le armi non devono esservi portate via.
Vi opporrete con forza alla forza.
Membri del personale carcerario feriti gravemente sono dentro,
stamattina. E di sicuro non vogliamo vedere nessuno dei buoni farsi male.
Agli agenti della polizia di Stato
sono state distribuite armi
maschere antigas
A me sembrava che fossero pronti ad entrare e riprendersi la prigione.
In quali circostanze, potreste entrare?
Non si sa..
Devo scriverlo.
I detenuti hanno avanzato delle richieste?
Hanno detto che vogliono parlare con il governatore o con me.
Sembrava al momento che ci fosse del buon senso.
Che ci sarebbe stata una negoziazione.
per salvare le vite deglio ostaggi.
Proprio a causa degli ostaggi,
c'era la possibilità che iniziasse una negoziazione.
Stiamo cercando l'uomo
che sta usando un megafono.
Sembra che ci sia una grossa assemblea in quell'area,
anche se non riusciamo a sentire niente.
E i detenuti decisero che eravamo in una situazione,
che richiedeva più attenzione,
un po' più di disciplina.
Ci siamo chiesti: “Da chi volete essere rappresentati?”.
Abbiamo fatto le elezioni.. bla bla bla
È così che abbiamo avuto dei leader
Alcuni ragazzi avevano già del sale in zucca.
Ragazzi che erano dentro da un pezzo
e che gli altri detenuti rispettavano.
Quel che dicevano aveva senso per tutti quelli che stavano nel cortile.
E avevano un piano.
Un piano per cambiare le cose nello stesso sistema carcerario.
Tutto quello che volevamo erano cose di base:
essere trattati come esseri umani
anche se siamo in prigione siamo esseri umani.
I prigionieri in cortile devono aver avuto una radio.
Hanno saputo che ero lì fuori.
Così mi hanno chiesto di entrare.
E dissi: "certo".
Così dissero:
Vogliamo che il deputato Oswald venga fatto entrare.
Qualcuno dei suoi assistenti disse: "Non andare".
Non andare. Non puoi fidarti.
E Oswald disse: "Certo che entrerò".
Eravamo lieti di avere con noi una persona dell'amministrazione.
Di punto in bianco, che veniva dentro.
Da questo momento in poi vedevamo un progresso.
Avevamo un contatto con qualcuno.
Per le negoziazioni qualcuno ci stava ascoltando.
Non avevo mai visto questa cosa prima
una negoziazione con dei detenuti
E ho pensato che questo era un momento storico
della storia americana. L'inizio delle negoziazioni.
verso un'uscita umanitaria decente.
Sembra che ci sia un piccolo equivoco riguardo le ragioni,
questo incidente sia avvenuto qui ad Attica.
In questa dichiarazione spiegheremo le ragioni.
L'intero incidente che si è sviluppato qui ad Attica, è il risultato..
Ci sono città-universitarie, ci sono città-fabbriche ci sono tanti tipi di città in questo Paese.
e questa è Attica, New York.
è una città-prigione.
La maggior parte delle persone che vivono in questo centro abitato,
si guadagna da vivere lavorando nella prigione statale.
Per 40 anni, la maggior parte di loro ha vissuto dentro i muri della prigione,
non hanno mai avuto paura.
Attica era un posto fantastico in cui vivere.
molto tipico,
il classico paesino
dove conosci tutti,
e sei imparentato con metà del villaggio.
Andavamo in bici per la città andavamo al parco
a fare il bagno nella piscina pubblica, passeggiate per i boschi..
Attica è una città-fabbrica (company-town)
La maggior parte delle persone che lavoravano lì
come impiegati civili o come guardie, vivevano qui ad Attica.
Mio nonno lavorava lì.
Mio padre lavorava lì.
E dalle 6 alle 8 case nella nostra via erano abitate da guardie.
o civili con le loro famiglie che lavoravano lì.
Erano gli unici lavori disponibili nell'area
nell'agricoltura e nella prigione.
Esisteva uno scontro culturale che si è condensato ad Attica.
Tutte le guardie erano bianche,
mentre la popolazione prigioniera era del 70% o più nera o di colore.
Cosa potrebbe andare storto?
La reputazione di Attica. Era chiamata: "l'ultima fermata".
Era la prigione più dura dello Stato di New York.
si sapeva.
Lo sapevano tutti, che quando ci arrivavi era finita.
Un posto duro. L'ultimo posto.
Attica era il posto finale.
e dovevi vederla per capire perché
Non c'erano guardie nere ad Attica
Non c'erano guardie ispaniche
Erano tutti bianchi. Gente che veniva dal quartiere vicino
che non sapevano nulla della gente che veniva da Brooklyn
o della gente che viene da Manhattan o dal Bronx.
Non sapevano niente di questa cultura.
La maggior parte di loro non ti rivolgevano neanche la parola.
E te lo dicevano chiaramente:
Non mi parlare! Non parlare con me!
Usavano quel bastone con la punta di metallo,
la punta di metallo
che faceva un rumore e TAP! e cammini..
e quando vogliono che ti fermi facevano: TAP TAP!
Questa era la loro comunicazione.
L'unica cosa giusta da fare era essere bianco e lo dico sinceramente
Nessuno era dell’idea di mescolarsi con altre culture,
alloo scopo di sopravvivere.
Ero bianco, e così avevo i lavori migliori
avevo sempre un po' più di margine dei neri..
potevo avere un pò di cibo extra se volevo perché.. ero un bianco.
Sono bianco, dai. Dammene un po' di più. E lo ottenevo!
Sono sempre stato in grado di manipolare il sistema da dentro la prigione
perché ero un bianco.
Mi vergogno quasi di dirlo che ho tratto dei vantaggi, allora
ma era l'unico modo per sopravvivere.
Sul serio.
Un rotolo di carta igienica
deve durarti un mese.
Devi essere un mago o strappare la carta
dai libri e cose del genere per pulirti il culo.
I ragazzi si lamentavano per cose elementari come il dentifricio,
la carta igienica,
un cambio di lenzuola
più di una volta al mese,
cose tipo il lavaggio dei vestiti da lavoro.
L'igiene personale essere trattati da esseri umani.
Nessun programma scolastico. Attica era…
Non riesco a descriverlo voglio dire
La morte.
Semplicemente la morte.
Non c'era alcuna libertà religiosa, in particolare
per il nascente movimento mussulmano.
Non avevano il diritto di pregare.
Gli davano da mangiare carne di maiale perché la prigione aveva una fattoria
dove si allevavano maiali.
Per nutrirci spendevano 63 centesimi al giorno,
cioè 21 centesimi a pasto.
Come puoi dare da mangiare a qualcuno con 21 centesimi?
Lo giuro su Dio.
Una volta una guardia mi ha rotto la testa,
e sono stato messo in cella d’isolamento.
È venuto il dottore,
sanguinavo dappertutto.
Così gli ho detto: “Ho un… Mi hanno spaccato la testa.
Dice: “Metti la testa qui”.
Nella cella c’era un’apertura per farci passare il cibo.
Quindi ho messo lì la testa e lui ha preso una torcia come…
Giuro su Dio, quello mi ha colpito con quella fottuta torcia,
proprio lì dove c’era il taglio…
… e se n’è andato.
La notte, aspettano che tutti siano chiusi in cella,
e poi vengono a prenderti.
Vengono a prenderti come una squadra di picchiatori.
È la squadretta.
Questi tipi arrivano in una decina, pesanti.
Dei tipi davvero grossi
con dei bastoni altrettanto grossi.
Entrano in cella e ti picchiano, poi ti portano in isolamento,
e a volte non fai ritorno.
Attica era…
Paura.
Una prigione retta dalla paura.
Avere paura di loro: era questo il loro modo
di gestire la prigione.
O chiudi la bocca o sei nei guai.
Alcune persone sono morte.
Alcuni erano come paralizzati. Alcuni sono rimasti segnati psicologicamente per sempre.
e...
Era un brutto posto dove stare.
Facevano regnare la paura per instillartela, per farti capire
che avevano il controllo,
anche se sapevano che stavano perdendo il controllo.
Quelli della mia generazione che sono arrivati ad Attica a quel tempo,
Non eravamo scoraggiati In altre parole
In altre parole, non stavamo strascicando i piedi avremmo camminato a testa alta.
Avremmo parlato a modo nostro.
Eravamo ribelli ecco cos'era.
Non avremmo subìto nulla, da nessuno.
Volevamo rispetto.
E tu dovevi darcelo, volente o nolente.
Avevo letto il libro di Eldridge Cleaver “Anima in ghiaccio”
Huey P. Newton e, sai, le Pantere Nere,
come la storia di George Jackson. Avevo letto tutta questa roba.
George Jackson era un rivoluzionario Arrestato per una rapina di pochi dollarii
Una rapina ad un benzinaio
Ha preso l'ergastolo.
È finito nel sistema nella prigione di Soledad.
Lui ci ha mostrato… e intendo a “noi”,
ai ragazzi più giovani entrati ad Attica,
Era giusto dire di no
Che era giusto essere ribelli.
Ci ha fatto capire che potremmo aver avuto delle conseguenze al nostro dire NO
Ma era OK
Ed è stato educativo.
E' stato educativo.
Penso che il razzismo sia un dispositivo di controllo, un meccanismo di controllo.
Crea un’atmosfera in cui ti controllano.
Certo, qui in prigione vediamo la repressione, lo sfruttamento
la vittimizzazione
di persone appartenenti alla classe inferiore.
Un sacco di Pantere Nere stavano entrando in prigione.
Ho iniziato a vedermi con loro, e mi hanno politicizzato.
Il Partito delle Pantere Nere per l’Autodifesa chiama il popolo americano in generale
e i neri in particolare a tenere d’occhio
le agenzie di polizia razziste in tutto il paese che stanno intensificando il terrore
brutalità, omicidi e repressione dei neri.
Certo, ci sono stati i Black Muslims [Musulmani Neri], e il loro messaggio all’uomo nero
ha davvero dato la sveglia a molti ragazzi dentro le prigioni.
Vogliamo una cosa!
Dichiariamo il nostro diritto su questa Terra
di essere uomini, di essere degli essere umani, di essere rispettati in quanto esseri umani
di avere i diritti di un essere umano
in questa società, su questa Terra, in questo giorno,
e che vogliamo realizzare questo nostro diritto con ogni mezzo necessario
Ufficiali del penitenziario californiano di San Quentin
stanno ancora cercando di ricostruire che cosa sia successo e come
in un tentativo di evasione avvenuto ieri
costata la vita a tre detenuti e tre guardie
Uno dei detenuti morti era George Jackson,
dei sedicenti Fratelli di Soledad. Jackson aveva 29 anni.
Le ultime parole di George Jackson sono state: “Non me ne frega più un cazzo.
Ci uccideranno comunque. Non possiamo uscire.
Siamo in una gabbia del cazzo. Come ne usciamo?
Se dobbiamo morire. Moriamo da uomini.
E i fratelli si sono sentiti frustrati.
Andavamo in sala mensa
con una fascia nera al braccio.
e ci sedevamo lì. tQuando entri, prendi un cucchiaio.
Non prendere cibo
Non abbiamo parlato
per tutto il tempo
e non abbiamo preso il cibo.
Questo, credo, ha fatto capire all’istituzione
che eravamo solidali.
Probabilmente non avevano mai visto prima questo tipo di solidarietà.
Si è parlato molto della situazione:
perché i detenuti erano molto agitati,
e lì stavano succedendo delle cose
e c'era una grossa preoccupazione.
Era una bomba pronta ad esplodere e ci vivevamo dentro.
Ogni giorno in casa quando dicevo: "Arrivederci"a mio padre,
sapevo che poteva essere l'ultima volta,
era un argomento di conversazione.
Le cose stavano peggiorando,
e così hanno avuto una riunione, con l'amministrazione
e l'amministrazione ha detto che non c'era di che preoccuparsi.
e li ha rimandati al lavoro. Aggiungendo:
"Pensiamo sia una buona idea che lasciate a casa gli oggetti personali,
come gli anelli nunziali e il portafogli.
E così mio padre sapeva, che qualcosa stava per succedere.
Stavamo facendo colazione,
mi parlava, ed era nervoso.
Mi ha detto: "qualcosa sta per succedere ma non so cosa o quando.
ma penso che andrà tutto bene.
C'è stata una rissa
in cortile, l'otto di Settembre.
e le guardie promisero che non sarebbe successo nulla in conseguenza
perché sentivano la tensione salire.
Poi, la notte stessa, ruppero la promessa.
vennero e ne tirarono fuori dalla cella tre o quattro
e poi..
Se la presero con la scusa che aveva un bicchiere,
o una lattina, o quel che aveva qualcosa che gli dava noia.
Così i detenuti decisero in quel momento Siamo stanchi.
Avevano ucciso già George Jackson
lo facevano da anni.. Siamo Stanchi.
e così non ci sono stati più.
Quel giorno ero a scuola,
e la sirena,
e si sentiva la sirena della prigione.
Ricevemmo una telefonata dalla prigione
che diceva che mio padre era stato: "preso e trattenuto".
E ho avuto paura. per mio padre. Gli volevo bene.
ma non avevamo idea di cosa stesse succedendo.
Sembra esserci un malinteso riguardo il perché,
questo incidente sia successo qui ad Attica.
In questa dichiarazione spieghiamo le ragioni.
Questo incidente, che vi ha portato qui, ad Attica.
Non è il risultato del vile pestaggio subito da due prigionieri
l'otto di settembre 1971
ma è il risultato dell'incessante oppressione.
operata dalla direzione razzista di questo carcere per anni.
Vogliamo che il governa garantisca che non ci saranno rappresaglie.
e vogliamo che ogni sfaccettatura nei media articoli questo concetto.
Avevamo bisogno dei media, perché
avevamo bisogno che il mondo sapesse cosa stava succedendo.
Questo è stato un momento di svolta nell'intera faccenda.
Noi volevamo che la stampa entrasse,
comprese le telecamere della televisione,
e questo ha cambiato tutto.
Perché da questo momento in poi, i prigionieri avevano spettatori in tutto il mondo.
Qualunque cosa stia succedendo qui nella prigione di Attica
Non so come abbiano saputo che c'èra un giornalista nero
e mi volevano parte del gruppo che doveva entrare.
con Oswald. E di colpo sono nel gruppo,
ed entro nella prigione,
con il capo del sistema penitenziario.
Mi ha sorpreso che chiedessero di me
ma credo che abbiano visto i miei notiziari
e le mie notizie erano fattuali.
e non ero di parte.
In tutto ciò.
Entrammo..
ed era completamente surreale,
come entrare in un tunnel, e improvvisamente
ti trovi in quell'enorme cortile.
dove c'erano uomini ovunque un migliaio di uomini.
E mi ricordo
persone che gridavano: "Ehi J.J."
Ho salutato la gente
che conoscevo da Bed-Stuy e Harlem [quartieri di NY]
e che erano qui ad Attica.
Una volta dentro, siamo stati accompagnati per il cortile
con un membro della sicurezza dei detenuti sempre al nostro fianco.
Ci dicevano dove andare,
E ci era permesso di fare riprese solo quando ce lo dicevano.
Le facce dei detenuti erano coperte per mantenere segreta la loro identità.
La nostra prima preoccupazione era sapere come stavano gli ostaggi.
Ho potuto chiedere,
una domanda, prima di essere portato
al tavolo delle negoziazioni.
"Sei stato trattato bene?" Si, per ora sì, non ho lamentele.
"Nessun problema?" No, sono stato trattato molto bene.
Poco dopo, uno dei detenuti,
un giovanotto di nome L.D. Barkley
ha cominciato a leggere
le richieste.
L'intera popolazione della prigione tutti noi qui,
vuole mettere fine per sempre
alla brutalità illegale e al disprezzo per le vite dei prigionieri, qui
e in tutto il resto degli Stati Uniti.
Stava dicendo quello che tutti noi volevamo gridare.
ma lo spiegava anche in modo che tutti potessero capire.
stavi seduto nella tua sala da pranzo,
e potevi dire "ma questo è un criminale!" Si, ma
ma sta dicendo qualcosa che..
qualcosa che posso capire.
come diavolo faceva. Stava svegliando l'America.
E lo faceva alla grande.
Siamo uomini!
Non siamo bestie e non intendiamo essere picchiati o trattati come tali
L.D. doveva stare qui solo tre mesi, e poi sarebbe uscito
ma voleva che il mondo fuori sapesse,
che la prigione è inumana.
Quello che sentite qui è il rumore della furia di coloro che sono oppressi
non fare compromessi in nessun modo,
tranne nei termini che decideremo noi.
Questa è una chiamata..
Potevi sentirlo.
E in quel momento,
Io ho sentito e ho visto.
E questo ha riaffermato
il motivo per cui eravamo lì. Perché io ero lì.
C’era la sensazione che fosse qualcosa di grande.
Era grandioso.
L’alto funzionario penitenziario Oswald sostenne
di aver accettato
un bel po’ delle cose
richieste dai detenuti.
Ho rispettato
le diverse cose che avevo promesso.
Ho portato qui la stampa e altri mass media qui dentro,
e ci ascoltano mentre parliamo,
E adesso la mia domanda è, come ho chiesto anche prima:
Quando rilascerete gli ostaggi?
Ora la situazione era cambiata
e noi avevamo il potere.
Quindi quando gli chiediamo qualcosa lo deve concedere.
Perché non ha scelta.
Volevamo qualche garanzia che non ci sarebbero state
vendette o ritorsioni.
Domandammo a Herman Schwartz di andare in tribunale a New York
e ottenere un'ingiunzione
che assicurasse che non ci sarebbero state ritorsioni.
Mi sono seduto e ho scritto un'ingiunzione
che vietava qualsiasi tipo di ritorsione,
Era stato concordato che si sarebbe svolta un’altra riunione il mattino dopo.
Ora sono le otto e dieci.
Stiamo girando questo video da circa due ore. Abbiamo iniziato alle sei.
È quasi buio.
Possiamo vedere le luci accese nelle celle del blocco D.
Il ragazzo di fianco a me Si chiamava Raymond White.
Stava camminando, col naso all’insù.
È buio. E ho detto: “Ehi, Raymond White". Yo Ray,
Disse: “Amico, sono 22 anni che non esco dopo il tramonto, 22 anni”.
E abbiamo parlato, mentre si cantava.. Era una notte di festa.
Mi piaceva. Ed ero fuori.
Amico, ero fuori, di notte, a guardare le stelle.
Ero ubriaco. Ero felice. Ero illuminato.
Mi sono divertito.
Ed era bello. Mi sentivo libero.
Sai, cosa voglio dire, ero in prigione, ma mi sentivo libero.
Non dovevo sentire
il rumore delle porte che si chiudono.
È stata una bella sensazione quella prima notte.
Quando si fece buio,
E tutti parlavano di trovare qualcuno con cui dormire.
Sai, non si dorme da soli.. queste cose qua
Ci sono molti psicopatici e sociopatici
in queste strutture. Quindi, devi proteggerti
anche dai tuoi compagni.
Sapevo che non sarebbe durata per sempre
sapevo che ci sarebbe stata una fine.
Ma solo perché stavamo in prigione,
non voleva dire che fossimo meno che umani.
Qualcuno doveva prendere posizione.
All’alba, quando ancora il fumo degli incendi di ieri indugiava sulle mura della prigione
è stata ottenuta un’ingiunzione federale che vieta le rappresaglie fisiche contro le persone coinvolte nella rivolta
Quando ho portato l’ingiunzione,
se n’è parlato con i prigionieri alle estremità opposte
d’un tunnel piuttosto lungo.
Hanno chiesto: “Dove sono gli amministratori?”.
Ho risposto: “Non lo so".
Io sono qui, ma loro non so dove siano.
Finalmente, alle dieci, Oswald e gli altri si presentano.
I prigionieri erano furiosi.
Erano stati, come dicevano loro "dissed" [mancati di rispetto]
L’incontro avrebbe dovuto svolgersi alle sette o alle otto
ed era molto chiaro..
Il clima era molto teso.
Si è preso posto ai tavoli.
Noi eravamo a un lato.
I detenuti erano dall’altra parte.
E ho dato loro il documento che il giudice aveva firmato.
"Questo non vale niente".
Mi dispiace, ho passato ore a..
e non ho dormito, ho solo problemi..
Ha affermato che c’era la firma d’un giudice federale
su un’ingiunzione in base alla quale non ci sarebbero state rappresaglie.
Ed è entrato sventolando questo documento,
e Jerry l’Ebreo ha domandato: “Dov’è il sigillo?
Non c’è nessun sigillo giudiziario su questo foglio.
Ho ricevuto delle ingiunzioni dal Distretto Meridionale
che recavano i sigilli giudiziari.
Questo pezzo di carta non vale niente!
Jerry l’Ebreo. Era il suo soprannome.
Jerry Rosenberg era un tipo in gamba. Ed era molto rispettato.
Aveva una laurea in Giurisprudenza.
Conosceva la legge e aiutava tutti i detenuti. Era un avvocato in carcere.
Possiamo prendere questo pezzo di carta e stracciarlo,
non serve a proteggere nessuno.
Geoffrey Rosenberg, che Dio lo benedica
dice: “Il giudice non l’ha firmato"
Su questo documento del Tribunale, manca il timbro,
anche se dice che non ci succederà nulla, manca il timbro.
E l’ha stracciato.
Herman, sappiamo che hai delle buone intenzioni,
ma non venire qui con le stronzate, Herm.
Vogliamo un sigillo giudiziario
e un’ordinanza restrittiva valida fino a quando il contenzioso si sarà concluso
senz’alcuna rappresaglia o brutalità contro i detenuti di questo istituto.
Gli avvocati sanno che i sigilli non significano nulla
se c’è la firma.
Avrei potuto prendere a calci in culo Jerry. E avrei dovuto farlo.
Davvero, perché aveva iniziato a fare un comizio.
Sai, si era fatto prendere dal momento.
Benché fosse intelligente e scaltro,
ha avuto una reazione eccessiva, e abbiamo perso un’occasione.
E poi qualcuno ha detto: “Tratteniamoli” Li aggiungiamo agli altri ostaggi”.
I speak everybody here,
I want to to you as well.
When you come in here covering the game,
I know you don't give a fuck about no max that they somehow give a fuck about you.
Nothing I know.
Nothing, you know?
And I'm gonna to leave you.
It seems to me that you are
saying to me that you, you are an artist at pretty rare occasion.
I bear witness to your evil deeds, Mr. Art.
Now I repeat,
as I told you yesterday, we are being lenient with you.
We are negotiating.
We are talking. We shouldn't be.
We should be demanding.
So why?
Because we have 35 lives, not hostages.
And I repeat Mr.
Oswald, a moment's hesitation would cause you delay.
The meeting in the yard got very tense
because Oswald would talk to you from one side of the mouth.
And then when he left the yard and go outside,
he talks from the other side of the mouth
of the inmates made any demands that, you know, there are all kinds
of demands, you know, for the change of change in the whole world.
But what he forgot was that he was being seen on TV.
Come on, how could you do that?
We watch you
and you stated it yesterday on the news media, in a huff, in a panic, you said.
Well, I don't know what they want.
They want the world and what you like.
You walk away from reporters.
Would you reply that the sidewalk?
Yes, I did say that.
Let him finish.
I don't say that.
Can't bullshit a bullshitter.
You can't do that.
The first time he came in, I'm going to do
this, a b, c, d e f g
and people said, All right, going back to business, get it done,
came back in and started talking and you know,
it was going around about hearing around about then this scenario.
Not that the hostages go.
But you be hostage,
whatever, you know, power
and water.
We haven't got that.
We're going to get Mr. Harper for himself.
So we got to.
We're not letting him out of here and keeping him in Austin.
We all we shut that down.
We're not going to be like them.
We're not going to break our word.
And it says, well, inmates would be more honorable than them.
Yes, we were because we gave him my word nothing would happen to him.
Everybody starts
screaming at him, go, let him go.
Don't.
He got out of Dodge.
He never came back.
In New York State,
some 500 inmates of the Attica maximum security prison are still in revolt.
Authorities tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the prisoners
over demands for reforms and to obtain release of more than 30 hostages.
We have a report on what's been happening at Attica from ABC's John Johnson.
Fires were still burning at Attica State Prison,
despite a small army of police and state troopers.
The prisoners continue to call the shots at Attica.
Commissioner Oswald announced that
prison officials were attempting to bring to the prison
those people requested by the prisoners in areas under where the group
was basically people
whom they knew people like Tom Wicker,
who had written a column about prisoners.
Senator John Dunn was chairman
of the Prisons Committee and sympathetic.
He was asked to come.
Bill Kunstler, a lawyer for the Chicago
seven, asked him to come in
and Clarence Jones, publisher of the Amsterdam News.
Have a driver was
driving me up, the ampersand is the driver, says Boss,
they're calling your name on the radio, so what you mean?
Called Rockefeller,
and lo and behold, the governor picked up the phone.
He said, thank you so much.
Mr Jones, we have a major situation.
A number of the inmates
have called your name.
We'll have a car and pick you up.
And taking him to a private airport.
We're a state private
plane is waiting for you.
And there are more.
Atika, you be part of the.
Observers committee.
My wife and I were off on vacation at the time
and we got a call
that they had asked me to come there, and I felt that with my prior experience
and my responsibilities as a chairman of the prison committee ought to be there.
I was optimistic.
I thought.
Give it a shot.
For the rebel prisoners of Attica, the encouraging appearance,
the people, they consider friends.
A 30 man mediation committee, including a congressman for newsmen
and most importantly, lawyer William Kunstler.
Have you heard anything from Governor Rockefeller's office?
I mean, has he put any time limit on these negotiations?
No, but I understand that there is no present
plan to use force in this prison, and I hope that continues.
I just hope that they realize that this is a unique situation
and that it may take time and that if everyone has a good faith,
something will work out.
It was scary, the tension was tremendous.
Eager to cut the air with a knife, it was terrifying.
I remember going into the yard and saying to Mel, Where was I?
Do you have a cigaret?
And he said,
You have one on you, one in your hand, one in your mouth and one in your.
I was scared.
When you see a tower with people with rifles,
I kept thinking
we should stay close to Tom Wicker and Herman Badillo
because they would be the least likely to be shot.
Frank Big Black
Smith was the overall security leader.
He took that job on himself already.
He was the guy.
Here's the big man.
I mean, this is big.
That was responsible to make sure
that the observers that came in.
They the same way they can't manage the same way
they did that, you know, no harm come to them.
He said, Well, we've got to have a security force.
So we were looking for volunteers.
You, you.
Along the way for her,
can't be all black as we need black guys, white guys and Puerto Ricans.
We would line up and create a corridor,
and they would walk down the middle of the corridor with us being a barrier
between general population and the negotiators.
So we would just stand shoulder to shoulder and give them
that safe space to walk through.
We begin to talk with them
about what they wanted, and they had their their
their list of things that they wanted already written.
You know, everybody wanted a voice.
Good, bad.
And it worked out, so nothing went easy, but it went.
We got to a point where we had what we thought might be possible.
Their demands were, you know,
reasonable demands about living conditions.
They wanted medical care.
Decent food,
fair disciplinary hearings.
Basically,
they wanted to be treated like human beings,
prisoners late last night met with a civilian committee
in an attempt to clarify demands ranging from better prison
life conditions to more religious and political freedom.
I injected into the two demands
for some people to go to non imperialistic country.
You have to be frightened flight out.
We thought Cuba was going to come and get us.
You ship troops to Vietnam to stop the men.
Go to all these five countries to press the button.
You can bet why these helicopters in air and ship
on this country.
We didn't seeing people snatch airplanes
and all like dead and go to Cuba and Algiers and all other places.
Why not get out of jail?
An Air France jet was hijacked by Palestinian girls.
17 year old girl hijacked a twb jetliner
I have for years and on a 25 to life sentence.
Why not get out of jail?
Why not?
We all do that.
I wasn't going to happen.
We weren't going to go to
Algeria on the plane.
I knew that everybody in the back of their mind knew that.
But we need it, obviously.
We want the federal
judiciary to guarantee complete amnesty to each and every one of us
has taken part in the struggle here at Attica to ensure that this amnesty
will not be just a groping in the win, but a reality for each and every one of us.
They were not looking to be relieved of the prison sentences
to which they have been sent by the courts after being convicted.
They were looking to be freed from any
prosecution or any penalties
for their engaging in the riot.
Besides the normal beatings and everything else
they're going to do to us, which is, you know, automatic.
We knew that they could also take us and bring us to court and,
you know, and turn us into the monster inmates who took over the prison.
We are not advocating violence.
We all want to live.
All right.
If you get one on dog.
You're treating them better than we have been treated
the last.
They were fiercely
trying to convince prison authorities that they didn't cease
being a human being merely by the fact that they were
incarcerated because they had broken.
A law society, and that's a profound thing.
I am somebody.
I'm not a thing.
You can't treat me like a dog.
I may be a prisoner, but I have dignity.
And that's what they insisted.
I'm getting the.
Power structure of Africa to recognize.
That they continue to be.
Somebody.
All of you have seen
the observers, they all were listening to us.
I feel that they were supporting us.
We see.
And that meant a lot to us.
This is our situation.
Please listen to us. And that's what they were doing.
They were listening.
It felt like they were somebody that believed in us.
It felt that way.
If somebody believe that you know, you did have some rights,
even though you were a convicted felon or whatever.
Would we able to get
a better mailing privileges, better medical privileges?
We tried to nail it down to that, which was realistic and possible over
distinguished from a plane waiting for us
outside the cellblock, flying us to Cuba.
That's what it was like it was it was realism
from fantasy.
We want to be treated as human beings,
we will be treated as human beings.
Yeah, we have come to the conclusion.
That's the study.
After much suffering.
After much consideration.
But if we cannot move
people.
We will at least try.
Today, let me.
That statement was sounded
everywhere.
In that yard,
when he said that a roar went up like no other.
This was this day, and I saw that
I really none of us were going to be observers,
we were going to be mediators , whether we wanted to be mediators or not,
whether we were called up to be mediators.
This prison uprising had to be mediated.
Otherwise it was going to end in disaster.
If you people do not understand.
If you people do not pick what?
If you people can not make the commitment
that we have made here.
We all did.
All right.
We'll take you all
to stand with us.
Not necessarily.
I know you want to
hey, hey, before.
Things were growing on the outside,
don't take.
There were more journalists.
There were more police.
And it was just getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.
People are coming night and day
vans with reporters and police
and things are building up.
Among those keeping a vigil outside
the prison walls, the families of some of the 38 men held hostage.
I was just home watching the TV.
I just kept looking for my husband.
Maybe he'd be killed or brutalized in some way
because the inmates at that time had the power there, you know,
and if they didn't like somebody who who knew
what you were scared to death that, you know,
they'd just kill him or something and they didn't get their way.
Families of the 31 hostages wait for word
as part of the prison remains in control of the inmate.
They were upset.
They were angry and they were scared
standing out there while their loved ones are being held hostage
and they are waiting for any scrap of information
to hear something.
And many of those families
stood vigil day and night out there.
A bunch of people crying,
the wives and brothers and fathers
freaking out to his panic.
People are afraid to talk in the parking lot because they thought
that any reporters or anybody, even they did it on the privacy
because they didn't want the relatives targeted, singled out
by the inmates.
I had sympathy for them.
They were elsewhere, you're going to get a job if you lived in that
area and you had no
training and no understanding
of what it was like to grow up in
a poor black urban area.
You used these were aliens.
These were people from a different world
and your family members.
Maybe you're going to get killed
because of them.
Sure, you were.
Infuriated.
All these dogs up there with
all those rifles are trying to kill us.
Well, we ain't gonna quit the inmates that we're giving microphones.
I'm on TV.
I mean, the very upsetting.
They should have resolved it right away.
It just went on too far.
We all just wanted it to end.
What I what you hear over the radio
and the TV was and it's inspiring to me
because it seemed to me that what I was hearing.
I didn't think
they were doing the right thing.
It just seemed sort of limp to me
and it was frustrating.
You'd hear stuff from people.
That's where it got a little scary too, because you could see how the inmates
were considered like less than human kind of like animals.
There was people saying, You know, don't worry about your dad,
you know, they'll get theirs type thing.
And so that kind of made it even more scary.
You realize how emotionally charged the community is getting.
The tensions got worse and worse. Worse.
Emotions got worse and worse and worse.
Sadly,
I think that the hope was stronger than any doubt because after three days
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
They had came in
we had like 30 demands and most of them what
possible,
and we will still be doing about it.
I've never seen anything like this.
The people in here are treated like dogs.
Not only the Black Lives Matter, white.
And we're going to get what we planned.
Are we going to die? Try.
But we thought that whatever happened,
we may maybe really walk away with some improvement
in our lives.
Point was, is that whatever happened,
it just had to make a difference.
Change had to happen.
You had to embrace who.
There's a report
that prison officials have yielded to most of the demands
by the rebelling inmates of the Attica state prison in New York,
where more than 30 persons have been held hostage for three days.
As you know, during this ordeal.
I have personally met with inmates
on several occasions in areas under their control,
and they have demonstrated my commitment
to deal with the issues they have raised
by accepting 28
of the three major inmate proposals.
The second is like any time of what's going to happen now.
Well, we hope negotiations will
start this afternoon and continue until they reach a solution.
Huey Newton or Bobby Seale, are they coming?
They were asked.
Or we hope we understood that they were en route.
We had.
Kind of settled in on the demands
we had negotiated with Oswald
for his commitment to 28 of them.
The commissioner and the whole point of Bobby SEALs coming there would be for him
to bless and support and urge the inmates
to accept them.
Bobby
Seale was our hero because he was speaking out
about the brutality that was happening in the prison system.
He was doing what we were trying to leave.
He was a panther.
The second in command.
I really thought it would help us out of everything
we ever demand.
Bobby didn't stay long.
Bobby to stay long, came up to it and go shake table was made a little speech.
You walk around your.
Well, we won't read about the jail.
A lot of times we're going back in time.
It was quite a letdown.
There is no remember me at all, about three minutes.
At that point,
everybody's just sitting around waiting for something to happen.
But then Billy Quinn died.
And that transformed everything
the state prison in Attica, New York, is at the crisis point.
The death of one of the guards as harden the position of prison officials
and there are you don't get amnesty for a murder.
I immediately knew.
That the
process of negotiations
just became far more difficult.
I knew that was.
I was the worst possible thing that could happen.
How could they peacefully negotiate?
With inmates who they held responsible for the death
of a guard.
Prior to his passing on.
There was a hope and even an expectation
because people were listening.
People were coming to understand what we had been living through
and suffering as prisoners there.
We know that it was a new ball
game was depression.
And fear.
And, you know, anxiety and yeah,
everything you can imagine.
We had to drop a lot of issues
and focus on amnesty
as one as the main issue
because we want to be charged
with murder.
We said.
As a group.
That we was going
to stay in solidarity with anyone.
They could not give amnesty to everybody.
Then was not going to leave anyone in the clutch in
to take a towing back on the bus or speak to take this.
We acted together that we understood that this was us,
that if we didn't stand together now, we never would.
And it would.
We would live like dogs for the rest of our lives.
We understood that.
Did I wish that we could somehow back away, but not without amnesty?
How do the inmates feel about the current situation?
I will.
A group of us were in with the inmates.
We met with them.
We had two and a half hours.
Some of the people are here,
but we really have nothing to say about it, except they are firm in their demands.
And that's it.
In other words,
they're not going to let the hostages go until they're granted total amnesty.
That was their last position.
The flag at half staff for the injured guard who had died
the night before set the mood this morning,
it was clear that the troubles of this troubled prison had grown worse.
That Sunday, you had that fall that came over
and it was a certain chill in the air.
Something didn't feel right.
It didn't feel right.
There are strong indications tonight that police will be sent
into the cellblock in an attempt to rescue the rest of the hostages
by force.
Water was cut off.
Food was getting scarce.
Patients were getting shot and people were totally
wondering what is going to be the outcome
of the situation.
There was enormous pressure, and I witnessed
that as I took a breather and went out to the public space
just outside the prison, where a lot of correction
officers, their families, troopers and other officials
were gathered together.
I mean, the news was completely about that.
You know that the state troopers and everybody were poised
on the top looking and
it was all about these rumors
that the prisoners were castrating
the hostages, that they were torturing them.
And it's going to end in bloodshed.
And that was the storyline that was terrifying, people.
Could you turn around this way to the camera?
I think I did a few interviews
and the people were
made it very clear that these are bad people in there and
they shouldn't be doing this.
You know, they should be taken care of.
You know what I mean?
And hang them and
crazy stuff.
I mean, they're just really crazy.
It was a very hostile environment.
And I just
don't I
don't think that Jaime, I'll stick up your hand.
I'm a father of eight children and my boy is the oldest,
and I wouldn't want to see any one of them die.
Whatever he is going to die,
I want that whole damn thing bound right to hell. OK.
And while we're talking went on, the state police
kept reinforcing at least 500 men in and out of the wall.
No indication that any of this force will be used at the police already.
Well, any
time you went in and out of the prison, there was an army
and they were armed with every conceivable type of weapon .
And it really looked like
they wanted to use those weapons.
You had the sense of their anger
and they've been held back and
they wanted to move.
They wanted to to to attack.
Yeah, they were very impatient,
very unhappy.
They were all thrown into a situation in which they are not prepared for
and about which they had basically an animosity.
And I wish to
would any of the men that a lot us off the roof?
Adobe that group is out of here because if you get these shaky guy shooting off
or getting up, and all of a sudden somebody is going to get excited
and then we're all going to say now, this is not a joke.
This is not
some kind of a little tea party we've got here.
And I just hope that the commissioner
and the other people in the committee that they've gathered together
can come up with a solution
to solve these people's problems
and ours.
Thank you very much.
Late Sunday afternoon,
Commissioner Oswald and the officials were prepared
and intended to retaking.
But I pressed Israel to agree
to give them until 7:00 on Monday
morning, by Sunday morning, everything else had failed.
And so the the the final shot
was going to be to try to get the Roc-A-Fella.
And there was there was a committee of people put together to do that.
Good morning.
We wanted four friends of the governor
to call him and please as your friend.
Let me ask you to come to Attica, not to meet with the prisoners,
but to come and lay your hand on approving these measures,
Sergeant Cunningham.
Now, would you give us a message
for Governor Nelson Rockefeller?
I certainly would.
one of the recommendations is and he said, No, I'm dead.
I and some of my fellow members of the Service Committee felt
very strongly that if Governor Rockefeller were to come to and identify
with finding a solution, it might have broken the logjam.
So I placed the call, the governor Rockefeller, somewhere around 3:00.
Governor, what about your personal feelings right now?
On one level, it was a Hail Mary.
On the other level it was more than a Hail Mary.
These were prominent people.
People that you would think Rockefeller respected
making a sincere pitch come up here, you don't have to go in.
You don't have to agree to anything your presence will have mean.
Maybe if he came, that would be an opening
that would have allowed us to negotiate.
Maybe.
Some other
negotiators could be brought in who would help the negotiation,
maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
But no known donor or man.
Death, death, death, death.
Prisoners had been demanding from the very beginning that I come into the yard,
and I frankly felt that the idea of governors
any time there was an uprising or any time there was a prisoner
taken on a prisoner, but a hostage taking being involved in the negotiation,
the next thing would be, we don't want the governor, we want the president,
and we get to a situation with an impossible one for this country.
By the time they spoke to him, he had made up his mind.
He listened carefully, he listened politely.
But by then, he had made up his mind.
We didn't understand the background of us
having consulted on an ongoing basis during those days with the White House,
the administration in Washington encouraged Rockey
to take a strong hard line position,
which was unfortunate.
It was all a part of President Nixon's law and order agenda.
They were putting the pressure yesterday on me all day
to go up there and it up because everything else had failed.
And did you go?
Of course not. Of course not.
But I had the time.
Rockefeller wasn't calling the shots.
Because he was on the phone.
With Richard Nixon.
Rockefeller wanted to be president.
But the word on him was that
he was too soft on crime.
Where was he recommending amnesty?
Oh, yes.
Oh God, I tell you, is
this was the great this is separated the sheep from the goats.
And if he wanted the support of Nixon and the Republican Party, then
he needs to go along.
And so he wouldn't come.
You know, not that Rockefeller
wasn't coming in.
It's like slamming the door on you.
You know, I slammed the door and we were locked in this room
and we didn't know what to do.
You were to a great degree,
despondent that we had no solution to this.
We didn't know what to do.
Made one last chance to convince the inmates
to surrender.
That last night, Cell Block D.
As we were trying to negotiate.
Demands that we thought.
But realistic.
Was. A come to Jesus moment.
This is what you wanted the demands.
This is what we were able to achieve.
This is where we stand now.
I'm not going to mislead you.
And believe that you can get anything better.
I do not believe you can get
anything better.
I think we have to make
a peaceful accommodation.
Ready to be shot down like dogs.
I said this is what we achieved. OK.
And turn around, look,
cellblock, then you see all those guns there, just waiting to kill us.
They want to kill us.
Do you understand that they want to show
that they have the power from the barrel of a gun?
That's what they want to do.
Oh God, I don't know what's happening to me.
We were warned by the observers
that if we didn't settle, even without the amnesty,
they were going to come in and it could get very bad.
And of course, we talked among ourselves, and we just couldn't
go without the amnesty because it would have been literally
sending all our leaders.
To the dogs to be
tortured, murdered.
Convicted of crimes and
who knows what else, we had observed
the organization and preparation of the troopers to enter.
Hundreds of them with their shotguns
just outside the immediate area of the yard.
We witness the stationing of sharpshooters on one of the ledges
looking down into DAAD.
Fear overtook the observers committee.
It seemed like they felt something was going to happen.
They were more.
Hesitant to leave, they left with a solemn mood.
He left us with a solemn like.
But is this better, just take care.
I remember seeing them leave, and,
you know, it was a scary moment to see them leaving,
you know, knowing that there wasn't coming back.
I remember
Big Black saying, I want to thank you for what you guys tried to do.
We really appreciate it. So there was a lot of that.
When we went out of
that yard that night.
There were tears.
Tears.
And I think all of us were hoping
that something happened at the last minute.
Stop it.
I felt complete failure,
a failure that I had let them down.
one of the most painful things.
As inmates begin to.
Hand me written notes, the telephone number.
Of their of their
next of kin.
In case they didn't make it OK.
They wanted me.
They they I mean, a couple of them looked me in the eye with tears
for the Jones, but I don't make it.
You're going to call right.
I said, You have my word.
I will call you
any way optimistic that this thing could be settled by tomorrow.
I think I'm much too tired to be either optimistic or pessimistic at this moment.
I'm kind of just freaked out.
Randall, I know
it didn't stop ran until about
six in the morning.
Cold Mountain, right?
And we were not prepared for those little hunches that we had the
that people had built a yard up
in every day, all alone started collapsing.
And you had to get on
solid ground concrete and huddled together
because everybody was shivering and everything else.
It was a miserable night, one of the miserable nights
I ever spent in my life.
I could feel the tension in the air, the tension was so strong
that I could just basically grab it and hold on to it
. Am I going to make it?
Am I going to to this?
And that tension was so strong I could touch it, I could cut improperly in my hand.
There was an air.
We've been out there for about four days.
Wake up that morning and it's
wet and dreary out there,
and you could always smell the fumes
of Guy's body in that trench that we dug in the yard.
You use the bathroom.
Right there in front of You Breathe initiative nowadays,
so you want out.
What was really bad?
People's moods was that way, and
it was crowded.
It started to rain a little bit.
You know, it was dog.
The sky was dark gray.
We heard that
we would be part of a medical evacuation.
And early on Monday morning,
we loaded into trucks and headed for Attica prison.
In the three years that I was in the National Guard,
I had not seen any kind of action in which violence was involved.
But we had a sense of dread,
and we had a wish that we could kind of not go.
And there was the hope, even at the last minute, that
by some miracle, maybe
Rockefeller would intervene.
His refusal to come
here is a monstrosity, because what he is saying is kill these men.
I have no concern.
All I want to do is assault, law and order,
and I think that's a rotten in exchange for life.
And we got to the prison
and saw the lines of state troopers and deputies
with their raincoats on and their weapons in hand.
They looked exhausted.
They had been there, many of them for a couple of days at least,
and they really didn't look up to the task that was given to them.
He was coming in, you could tell.
You can see them starting to get more people I wasn't able to count on.
What I saw was.
We got another matches to put up on that table committee, there's
going to be rubber bullets and I say that's what that's
what the word was.
I thought they were going to be a real old fashioned game for you.
David, you want to call it, you know them versus us.
They've got the crowd.
We've got a few bats and stuff in here, so we're going to
best guy win.
We started making preparations
and putting Vaseline on every part of our body
that could be exposed to gas and get burnt and stuff like that
padding ourselves with clothes.
Somebody saying
if they come in here, then that's good because I know my sheik.
It became apparent to me
that the situation was seriously deteriorating
and that the inmates, many of whom are confined to this maximum
security facility under light and long sentences.
We're not going to participate in a reasonable negotiation.
Tensions within the walls
have steadily increased.
The action now underway
was initiated with extreme reluctance
only after all, attempts to achieve
a peaceful solution failed.
We were told that our mission was protection
for the medical battalion during the commander's briefing.
We were told that to our knowledge,
the inmates had no guns.
They had Spears.
They had some knives.
They had pipes that they were using as clubs.
But that was the extent of the threat.
So we knew that going in for,
you know, 5:00 a.m.
September 13, we're on the roof of a block
waiting for the assault to begin.
This is a team of 270 rifle shooters.
The center of our pictures, men distributing
baseball bats to the other prisoners.
We had no guns. We had no real weapons.
We had bullshit pieces of stick or a piece of iron
or shank that somebody made up on the sidewalk.
It was. It was pathetic.
Just four days, almost to the minute after the convict insurrection started,
state police reinforced by sheriff's deputies, National Guardsmen
and correctional officers moving in on the prison time is 150 5:00 p.m.
We're on the roof of C Block looking at a detail of 270 marksmen
with instructions to clear the catwalks upon command.
They took some of the
hostages on top of the catwalks, which is on top of the hallways,
and some of the inmates held knives to the to their neck as a result.
In an effort to try to stop the assault,
the hostages are armed with knives with their throats.
It was all just to show.
The try to get them to say, Oh, wait a minute, it's my cousin, my brother.
All he's got.
We were hopeful that if they saw this, they would back off
and try to renegotiate so they could protect their own people.
The notion of sending
in correctional officers
who didn't love the prisoners to begin with
and state police who were stressed out was a serious miscalculation,
somebody should have said, wait a second, wait a second, these people are on edge.
There is hostility
and it's going to get out of control.
We know that now, did we know that
in real time?
I guess not.
I seen this as a glorious fight.
They would come in with batons
and stuff like that, and we would be fighting the brave battle
with baseball bats and stuff like that, I.
I did.
I just never expected.
The the coverage through what actually happened,
I'm sorry.
Helicopter, two helicopters and a.
We're talking now going overhead
and over the wall into the prison.
It just disquieted, and Sky was getting dark,
and then we heard the helicopters does a dance.
This is fucking strange.
The helicopter comes up over the wall
and it's hovering over the yard.
I seen this.
I thought it was a monster.
It was a helicopter, a green helicopter.
It was flying low.
You see this.
It's like a sickly green gas with.
Sparkly stuff, minute coming down.
It tightens your chest.
Where you can hardly breathe.
That gas knocked me down.
Oh, what that was.
And they had me so weak I could not.
Your eyes are just all burning,
your nose is burning, your mouth is burning.
I mean,
we are.
And you got on the microphone, everybody in D-Block, yeah.
Put your hands in the air.
And you are not behind.
Go to the nearest police officer and you will not be home.
You would not be home. We will not be.
You would not be here for that was.
Do just ended up
doing this to get blown away.
They blew his head off and then.
Has all of a sudden there was all this popping all around us
and all these little pops
all around us were actually bullets.
Oh, and you could really see because the CO2 public first heard
you blah, that you can hear the boom going by your ear.
The hostages can't be seen in any.
I'm trying to stay on the ground as long as possible,
just like they were shooting down the barrel
and they started shooting point blank range, blowing guys away .
I got shot in the arm up there right through the back macroeconomist on.
I I felt something.
Go to my head, it must go, and it was burning,
no was shot.
I felt something hit my arm
and we're all numb and realized needed.
I got shot in the arm about two inches from my heart
and also a one to a football helmet on Spanish food.
Now the guard is up on the catwalk.
He jumps out with a hammer and throws it up and it hits the catwalk.
And you can hear the sound clip and all of them turn looked at him,
and all of them turn their guns on a brutal dashboard body.
I'm assuming that you guys got anywhere
from 20 to 50 shots because his body was doing like that.
I'd never seen no shit like that.
Not as a nasty shoot in the street.
I'd never seen them. I did.
I mean.
This was a holiday for the.
We got no guns to shoot back.
You know what?
It is a shoe store man and it's a shoe, but that's just a holiday
slow motion and all it was
that was save money.
That's what they will follow to each other.
I was scared.
I've done bad things, but I never did this bad.
As no.
These guys are real fucking cold blooded
killers and shit.
Until that moment came,
what is killing really started, and I realize that
you're not that fucking bad guy, no more, man, there's more power with his words
new, every bullet that missed by me,
if he could move.
Close to me, I winced,
then all of a sudden, it just stopped.
There are
people throwing off their smoke gear.
They ran out screaming niggers, niggers, niggers
and two of them pointed their guns at me.
Negative niggers.
And I said, Don't shoot, don't shoot.
Don't shoot.
Well, I'm coughing with all the gas.
I've been gassed.
It's an awful thing.
William Kunstler
has said that people are dying in there.
And I agree with that.
But that people are dying and then a shooting went on forever
and then it was like the shooting subsided
and then I heard some.
After the shooting subsided, I heard some single shot
bang and bang.
After they took over the prison,
all those books that had been speaking to the cameras
were all targeted and tortured.
So yes, yes, yes, yes, they were targeted.
Andy Barclay.
They were calling his name.
Going to that, Bob, looking for him
and threatening him with what they were going to do to him.
When they when they found him and they found him,
he was yelling.
No, no, but it's too fucking late.
They had him do acting, actually dragging him towards a
block far yard over there.
He's Holland new agreement and the acuity.
You can see because the gas is so thick,
but all of a sudden a puff of wind comes
and disperses the gas.
And then I could see.
And what I saw was fright.
Hundreds of bodies just laying there.
Some were moaning, some wasn't moving.
Blood was everywhere.
We were given stretchers and told to go into the prison.
It was really an unthinkable scene.
It was dead and wounded and simply
starting to carry them out.
It was far beyond anything
I had imagined when they said we would be doing medical evacuation.
We were basically civilians
put into a situation where state troopers
and correctional officers had created a war zone.
There was a pile of bodies, maybe eight or ten people,
and the man on top, it had his eyes shot out.
Right below us,
there was a huge pool of rainwater
and it was blood red.
And I looked down on down at it
and they said, Those are false teeth down there, aren't they?
And somebody said, Yeah.
The attitude of the people
who should have been concerned
about what had happened was simply that they were
pleased with what had happened
and had no qualms or second thoughts
or anything but satisfaction
with Walker wants to go back to.
Why white power weight,
right, right?
They had control.
And once they had control, you would think
that things would have stopped.
They didn't.
It was clear that at that point it was all about revenge.
It was all about reestablishing who was in charge.
And the most violent ways possible.
Everybody had to crawl through shit,
human waste.
But what do you do?
Do you live to tell your story
like I'm doing today or do you fucking die?
I made a choice.
I want to live.
Chrome nickel chrome
for like a dog.
If you look up, nigga, I'll blow your motherfucking brains out.
What the fuck they care about calling you a nigger?
That was your name.
They had us marching
around the yard with our with our hands
interlocked like this on top of our heads,
abject surrender.
When I saw these naked bodies
lined up, snaked around the area, it reminded me
of portrayals of of African-Americans being heard it on the slave ships.
That was just horrendous, just horrible,
horrible.
We're next in the middle of fucking yard.
God's going around with like baby bats.
It was seven remote guys as I'm laying here and I'm hoping
they don't come my way.
Frank Schmidt, Big Black, was put on a table
with the football under his throat.
People stood up above him on the catwalk,
aiming their guns down at him, throwing cigars and cigaret butts on him
. And
it said, Do said football falls, nigger, we're going to shoot you.
He was told to get to his feet.
He tried, he stumbled, he fell.
He was hit with clubs
on his back between his legs.
And he was crying out.
You know, don't do this. Don't do this.
And then you could hear him screaming as
he went up to the prison.
It felt good that I had survived this shit.
And now I got a look out
because some motion is coming.
The inmates were entering
these corridors off of the yard
and the guards were like
five or six feet apart with their clubs
and they would hit them against the wall and there was just this
dull drum like sound.
And then they were hitting the inmates as they ran a gantlet.
We could hear the screams coming out
so that we knew they were being tortured
and that we were somehow part of this unthinkable scene
that there was no escaping from but was completely wrong.
They had guards on both sides, and they would be hitting you
as you were running through beating you
with hoses and batons and whatever they had in their hands.
I'm ducking, trying to get through,
protecting my head, so I hit all of my all the elbows.
My knees still hurt, beating you and they're making you run
through the gantlet with it,
took all the glass out the fucking windows and put it in the middle of the floor.
So you had to run through grass with bare feet.
Nobody came out of that yard.
What with picking without having to pick a shot of your feet for four weeks?
Couldn't walk, nobody could walk anymore.
But we had to run because if you didn't run,
they just kept beating you with these clubs.
The families of the hostages, a lot of them waited
just outside the prison wall.
Then news began to filter out of Attica.
Names of freed hostages were called out to the loved one
by Curtis Lieutenant Colonel
Robert
Elder.
Some didn't see their men come out.
All they learned was the name of the hospital
where the survivors were being treated.
There were no time to wait.
They ran off to see their man.
People couldn't seem to run fast enough.
My mom came home and she was with her sister,
and my mom was crying, obviously upset.
I was outside sitting on the front porch,
you know, praying and worrying, and where's dad?
I respect him to show up, you know, and.
I again, my mom was dead.
What's what's why are you crying, what's going on?
Well, my mother came back in the house and, you know, he
she said, nobody to play with me now, are you?
I mean, you know, because I didn't want to believe it.
And she finally said, I saw him.
I saw him.
Finally,
she blurted out, Your father's dead.
So it ran.
We're in for a while, and I came back
and I was sitting on the front porch trying to be strong and not cry.
And I could hear everybody in the house crying
and I was trying to be so tough and.
All right.
Yeah, right.
The National Guardsmen were told to get back in their trucks,
and we did that and were taken out to the parking area.
And the colonel then addressed the battalion, maybe several hundred men,
and he said, essentially you saw things
that were excessive and wrong today.
And I have to ask you not to speak of this to anyone
because the world will not understand what happened here today.
The most violent rebellion in modern American penal history
came to an end today at the maximum security prison in New York.
In the final hours of the revolt, led primarily by blacks,
the inmates murdered nine of their white hostages.
28 convicts were killed
by state troopers, and sheriff's deputies will regain control of the prison.
The storming of the prison had the full approval of New York's governor,
Rockefeller, who earlier had rejected a prisoner demand for complete clemency.
The White House said that after the prison was retaken, President Nixon telephoned
the governor to express his approval of Rockefeller's action.
We went in we couldn't tell whether all 39
hostages would be killed and maybe two or 300 prisoners.
So we were able to pick off
either from the wall or as our men went in.
The man who had the
knives at the throat of the hostages
and they did a fabulous job.
I mean, this is this
are these primarily blacks?
Know, and the whole thing was led by the black cabinet,
are all the All Blacks?
I haven't got that report, but I have to admit I just out.
Yeah, yeah, we've got to have any.
We just not tolerate this kind of
anarchy.
Yesterday, officials at the prison said
eight of the hostages had had their throats cut.
But today, the Monroe County medical examiner,
having looked at the bodies, said no throats were cut at all.
The medical examiner says the hostages were apparently killed by a large caliber
ammunition and shotgun blasts from a distance,
which immediately raised the possibility that some of the hostages may
in fact have been shot down by the lawmen who broke in to rescue them.
Some of the hostages were actually shot
running towards the state troopers thinking,
I'm saved, I'm saved.
And the hostages were dressed
the same way the inmates were.
Anything that inmate garb on it.
They just started shooting at.
What Rockefeller had done was treat.
The hostages
as no more real live
human beings who deserve to be respected than the prisoners.
And so you kill them all and you restore order
and you make me into a major
figure who believes in law and order
at a time when that concept is beginning
to really take hold.
We should have entered
in a negotiated settlement.
No, they were they were interested in that, they were interested in showing.
The naked fist of power law and order.
The national mindset of the nation was law and order.
And law and order does not permit.
Any challenge?
To his authority whatsoever.
God willing, a few more months in January will be 90 years old.
I will never, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever.
We get Atika.
Ever.
It didn't have to be that way.
All eight cases.
Died of gunshot wounds.
There was no evidence of slash throats.
We're sure
your. The.
I have never received an apology.
I've never received an apology, and for me,
that's a pretty big deal.
What is money
do when you don't have your dad
or your brother or your uncle who?
How does that replace anything?
And I think it was the state's way of saying,
we're going to give you this money and we want you to go away and.
This is my.
True.
Well, she.
He threw
for nearly 30 years, former Attica inmates have waited for justice.
Today, it finally came in the form of a 12
million dollar settlement.
Be. There's no justice.
All we got was money
and money wasn't enough.
Then you can't justify all the killings that happened in Attica.
You can't justify that.
So there's no justice.
There is no justice.
We shall.
Be. And.
They might.
True.
Well, I'm sure.
Me, too,
do so.
And. Be.
You. Some
foolish. Oh.