1 00:00:02,030 --> 00:00:06,030 Traduzione e sottotitoli a cura di Calusca/COX18 2 00:00:08,030 --> 00:00:13,000 Questo documentario contiene materiale duro da vedere. 3 00:00:34,430 --> 00:00:44,540 Il 9 settembre 1971 i detenuti di Attica, a 400km da New York presero il controllo della prigione. 4 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:51,200 Fu la più grande ribellione nelle carceri della storia degli Stati Uniti. 5 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Giovedi Il primo giorno. 6 00:01:02,032 --> 00:01:07,190 Qualcosa stava per accadere ad Attica. 7 00:01:08,170 --> 00:01:12,128 La popolazione era stanca. 8 00:01:15,700 --> 00:01:20,224 Stanca delle bugie, delle promesse. 9 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:23,648 Eravamo stanchi. 10 00:01:25,710 --> 00:01:28,338 Qualcuno ha colpito una guardia. 11 00:01:28,379 --> 00:01:30,632 E la cosa poteva finire lì. 12 00:01:30,673 --> 00:01:33,200 Ma poi si è scatenato l’inferno. 13 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:41,810 Sono all'infermeria, 14 00:01:41,851 --> 00:01:43,686 e cominciano a suonare le sirene. 15 00:01:43,728 --> 00:01:45,146 “Che diavolo sta succedendo?” 16 00:01:45,188 --> 00:01:46,410 Ero sotto la doccia. 17 00:01:46,439 --> 00:01:49,275 Sono uscito, fradicio, 18 00:01:49,317 --> 00:01:51,150 e il posto stava impazzendo. 19 00:01:51,361 --> 00:01:53,738 All’improvviso, 20 00:01:53,738 --> 00:01:56,282 ho visto aprirsi la porta dell'infermeria aprirsi 21 00:01:56,282 --> 00:01:58,618 e ho visto gente correre ovunque 22 00:01:58,660 --> 00:02:01,000 con grossi tubi e coltelli 23 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,570 E di colpo tutti stavano correndo 24 00:02:04,620 --> 00:02:06,464 E poi si cominciarono a vedere 25 00:02:06,784 --> 00:02:09,344 gente che schiacciava la faccia 26 00:02:09,380 --> 00:02:11,420 attraverso le finestre rotte 27 00:02:11,420 --> 00:02:15,120 gridando: "Prendi le guardie! Prendi le chiavi!" 28 00:02:15,250 --> 00:02:17,648 c'erano guardie che venivano picchiate. 29 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:23,632 Chiunque del personale ti fosse caduto fra le mani l’avresti picchiato. 30 00:02:23,810 --> 00:02:26,864 Ecco la mia occasione per combattere chi mi ha picchiato, 31 00:02:27,168 --> 00:02:29,720 perché ora sto insieme a un sacco di assassini. 32 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:31,536 Noi contro di loro. 33 00:02:31,660 --> 00:02:34,290 Mi ci son buttato subito senza pianificare niente. 34 00:02:34,352 --> 00:02:35,952 Non ero il tipo da pensare. 35 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,736 Stavo prendendo a calci la polizia. Mi son sentito bene. 36 00:02:38,740 --> 00:02:40,096 Sarebbe finita lì, 37 00:02:40,170 --> 00:02:43,270 perché erano in un’area confinata, i blocchi lucchettati 38 00:02:44,170 --> 00:02:48,208 la piazzetta (Times Square) era chiusa ma i prigionieri sono tornati indietro 39 00:02:48,410 --> 00:02:50,528 e cominciano a strattonare il cancello 40 00:02:51,024 --> 00:02:54,416 I quattro blocchi si incontrano a Times Square 41 00:02:54,510 --> 00:03:03,344 è il punto d'incontro, per come è fatta la prigione, Times Square è il centro, della prigione 42 00:03:06,288 --> 00:03:07,680 La mattina della rivolta, 43 00:03:07,824 --> 00:03:10,220 mio padre era a Times Square. 44 00:03:10,288 --> 00:03:13,424 Aveva le chiavi di tutte le porte 45 00:03:13,648 --> 00:03:16,336 e sfortunatamente, 46 00:03:16,510 --> 00:03:20,512 i detenuti nel tunnel continuavano a spingere 47 00:03:22,256 --> 00:03:27,024 quella porta, e gridavano 48 00:03:27,088 --> 00:03:29,984 a mio padre: Apri la porta! 49 00:03:30,048 --> 00:03:34,896 E Quinn è saltato su tipo: "oh ma questa è.." e ha azionato l'allarme 50 00:03:35,344 --> 00:03:38,464 il corno che fa così: aahhoo 51 00:03:39,264 --> 00:03:43,712 E hanno cominciato a battere e battere sul cancello. 52 00:03:44,016 --> 00:03:45,328 All’insaputa di tutti 53 00:03:45,460 --> 00:03:49,340 uno dei cardini era stato saldato provvisoriamente 54 00:03:49,456 --> 00:03:53,430 durante le ristrutturazioni degli anni '30 55 00:03:53,430 --> 00:03:55,520 e si è rotto. 56 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,300 Il lucchetto è saltato, 57 00:03:57,300 --> 00:03:59,290 e tutti si son precipitati fuori. Boom. 58 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:04,592 Quando la porta è caduta, hanno attaccato mio padre e gli han preso le chiavi 59 00:04:04,690 --> 00:04:08,976 e hanno avuto così accesso a tutte le porte di Times square 60 00:04:09,780 --> 00:04:12,400 È stato picchiato molto duramente. 61 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,904 Torno indietro e metto due dita sul collo di Quinn. 62 00:04:18,060 --> 00:04:20,976 Sentivo il battito, ma era molto debole. 63 00:04:20,990 --> 00:04:22,576 Tipo una pulsazione, 64 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,944 e dopo un minuto o due, un'altra pulsazione 65 00:04:27,008 --> 00:04:30,080 Alcuni detenuti conoscevano mio padre, 66 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,576 quattro musulmani han portato un materasso dal blocco A 67 00:04:34,704 --> 00:04:41,136 l'hanno messo sul materasso e l’hanno portato via da Times Square 68 00:04:41,296 --> 00:04:43,968 dicendo di avere una guardia 69 00:04:44,060 --> 00:04:48,112 gravemente ferita e bisognosa di soccorso medico. 70 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,592 A un certo punto è arrivata un’ambulanza. 71 00:04:53,168 --> 00:04:54,960 Nel frattempo, mia madre 72 00:04:55,210 --> 00:04:58,112 era stata informata del ferimento di mio padre. 73 00:05:00,256 --> 00:05:02,064 Presero le chiavi a Quinn, 74 00:05:02,176 --> 00:05:06,048 e hanno aperto tutti e quattro i lati e han detto: “Ce l'abbiamo fatta”. 75 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,736 “C’abbiamo il manico!” 76 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,584 Abbiamo preso ogni blocco del complesso. 77 00:05:17,590 --> 00:05:18,544 L’abbiamo preso, 78 00:05:18,624 --> 00:05:20,670 ma non potevamo tenerlo 79 00:05:21,744 --> 00:05:25,008 Quindi ci siamo ritirati nel blocco D. 80 00:05:29,504 --> 00:05:34,128 Il posto sta esplodendo. Fumo da cinque edifici, 81 00:05:34,224 --> 00:05:37,408 La cappella e la lavanderia sono in fiamme. 82 00:05:38,224 --> 00:05:40,380 Avevamo sotto controllo solo il cortile. 83 00:05:40,928 --> 00:05:43,936 Loro controllavano il sistema, e i cancelli. 84 00:05:44,192 --> 00:05:48,352 e le porte, e i passaggi. Erano sui marciapiedi con le pistole. 85 00:05:48,512 --> 00:05:50,224 da dove possono vederti. 86 00:05:50,384 --> 00:05:53,920 Sto facendo una panoramica del blocco B 87 00:05:54,448 --> 00:05:58,464 riprendendo un gruppo sul tetto del blocco C. 88 00:05:59,312 --> 00:06:00,960 ok 89 00:06:01,088 --> 00:06:04,384 Ora si vede il cortile e il blocco D. 90 00:06:04,544 --> 00:06:07,408 Adesso uso il telescopio del fucile .270. 91 00:06:08,512 --> 00:06:11,216 sono brutti e sono neri, 92 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:15,424 il più brutto gentiluomo negro che abbia visto in vita mia. 93 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,912 Sapevamo che erano là fuori sulle passerelle. 94 00:06:19,696 --> 00:06:22,620 Posizionati in un certo modo.. 95 00:06:23,888 --> 00:06:27,152 Anche se sapevi che erano lì, loro si mettevano in modo 96 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:28,608 da non farsi vedere. 97 00:06:30,210 --> 00:06:33,904 I prigionieri, perlopiù, si sono travisati 98 00:06:34,032 --> 00:06:37,408 con sciarpe, asciugamani, per nascondere la faccia. 99 00:06:38,368 --> 00:06:40,704 Era un modo per celare 100 00:06:40,740 --> 00:06:42,240 la tua identità, 101 00:06:43,456 --> 00:06:46,672 se gli sbirri fossero entrati, sai, tu eri protetto. 102 00:06:46,816 --> 00:06:48,224 O pensavamo di esserlo. 103 00:06:54,368 --> 00:06:57,610 Ad Attica New York, un migliaio di detenuti di lungo corso 104 00:06:57,610 --> 00:07:00,980 oggi si sono rivoltati e hanno preso il controllo della prigione 105 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,000 Hanno preso in ostaggio 33 guardie e ne hanno ferite altre durante gli scontri. 106 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,216 La polizia ha ripreso il controllo della maggior parte del carcere 107 00:07:09,232 --> 00:07:10,928 ma i guai non sono ancora finiti. 108 00:07:11,936 --> 00:07:15,408 Quando siamo arrivati ad avere degli ostaggi 109 00:07:15,630 --> 00:07:20,800 abbiamo urlato: “Abbiamo degli ostaggi!”. 110 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,140 Un migliaio di persone che lo gridavano. 111 00:07:27,930 --> 00:07:33,600 Avere degli ostaggi impedisce alla polizia di attaccare. 112 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,408 Avere ostaggi è l'unico potere che hai. 113 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:41,400 Finché avevano gli ostaggi.. non avevano pistole 114 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:43,990 non avevano niente 115 00:07:44,950 --> 00:07:47,450 ma avevano degli ostaggi. 116 00:07:47,830 --> 00:07:53,330 Uomini tuoi e tu ne sei responsabile. 117 00:07:53,710 --> 00:07:56,890 Hai la responsabilità di proteggere i tuoi 118 00:07:57,250 --> 00:08:00,420 e devi fare il tuo lavoro. 119 00:08:00,420 --> 00:08:03,840 Siediti e negozia. 120 00:08:04,430 --> 00:08:07,720 - Entrando nell'area dove sono tenuti i 21 ostaggi. 121 00:08:08,970 --> 00:08:14,600 - Sono nel gruppo principale. Al centro. Non riusciamo a distinguerli 122 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,940 perché i prigionieri gli han preso i vestiti. 123 00:08:20,230 --> 00:08:24,928 Erano in cerchio, bendati in mezzo al cortile. 124 00:08:24,976 --> 00:08:30,304 Avevano anche delle guardie, guardie carcerate intorno a loro, per proteggerli. 125 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:33,776 Li vedevamo come prigionieri. 126 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:38,368 Li abbiamo visti come persone sotto la nostra supervisione. 127 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:40,336 La nostra supervisione. 128 00:08:40,550 --> 00:08:43,720 Quindi non potevamo far loro del male. 129 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,390 Capisci cos'è l’Islam Non devi fare del male a un prigioniero. 130 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,680 Pertanto, si è deciso 131 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:55,600 di lasciare che i fratelli musulmani 132 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:57,776 fossero loro a badarci. 133 00:08:57,952 --> 00:09:00,944 Ero incazzato nero perché non mi lasciavano toccarli 134 00:09:01,008 --> 00:09:02,820 Volevo mettergli le mani addosso 135 00:09:02,820 --> 00:09:05,920 prenderne un paio e conciarli per le feste. 136 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,160 Erano le stesse guardie che mi trattavano male 137 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,648 che mi parlavano sporco, che mi davano ordini 138 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:14,912 Così gli ho detto: “E adesso, cosa ne pensi di me, eh?" 139 00:09:14,970 --> 00:09:21,008 E per fortuna c’erano quei musulmani perché altrimenti le avrebbero prese. Davvero. 140 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:24,800 It's hard for somebody that 141 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:30,050 has never been incarcerated to understand how surreal 142 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:35,230 everything is at this point in time. 143 00:09:35,310 --> 00:09:39,440 Nobody threatening us. We had, you know, it sounds crazy, but it was when you had it a little bit, 144 00:09:39,810 --> 00:09:43,610 even this much control over your own life, even for a short period. 145 00:09:43,610 --> 00:09:46,990 You know, it's going to cost you, you know, in spades. 146 00:09:47,740 --> 00:09:51,740 You know, it was a moment of exuberance. Of. 147 00:09:52,740 --> 00:09:57,210 Somehow doing something to have some control over your own life, 148 00:09:57,330 --> 00:10:06,470 you do it up, 149 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:08,630 don't lose. 150 00:10:14,770 --> 00:10:17,480 When you first got out, there was totally just gave it up. 151 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:18,940 Guys are coming up. 152 00:10:18,940 --> 00:10:21,810 Food, clothing, setting up tents. 153 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,280 Oh, it's a festive time. 154 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:27,650 We, we're free. 155 00:10:30,700 --> 00:10:32,950 We came together as a community, 156 00:10:32,950 --> 00:10:35,910 and that's when there was no such thing 157 00:10:35,950 --> 00:10:39,670 as black, white, Hispanic, whatever it was about. 158 00:10:40,170 --> 00:10:41,080 We are inmates 159 00:10:42,250 --> 00:10:42,540 and we 160 00:10:42,540 --> 00:10:45,840 need to be able to survive whatever's going on. 161 00:10:46,590 --> 00:10:48,470 Oh, good. 162 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:53,390 Come on, buddy. 163 00:10:53,470 --> 00:10:55,350 So we're you 164 00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:00,310 to have, you know, what is it 165 00:11:00,310 --> 00:11:02,480 we did about it? 166 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:03,480 We die. 167 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,360 Got we. 168 00:11:08,990 --> 00:11:11,030 The guys that had been to Vietnam, 169 00:11:12,070 --> 00:11:14,700 they said, let's make Hutchins, 170 00:11:14,700 --> 00:11:17,330 who draws of ten kids, 171 00:11:17,330 --> 00:11:20,830 took a stick and put a sheet over all of that, 172 00:11:21,750 --> 00:11:25,460 and I was just sleeping quarters 173 00:11:27,090 --> 00:11:29,760 by the time guys started 174 00:11:31,590 --> 00:11:33,760 having to go to the bathroom. 175 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,180 There was none will work 176 00:11:36,180 --> 00:11:39,770 the crowd that had been to Vietnam and been in the army, they said. 177 00:11:39,770 --> 00:11:41,940 We got to make that a train. 178 00:11:41,940 --> 00:11:43,400 They knew the latrine was. 179 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,400 I don't know what all the training was. 180 00:11:53,070 --> 00:11:54,620 I'll give you a lap. 181 00:11:54,620 --> 00:11:56,080 All right. All right. 182 00:11:56,580 --> 00:11:58,540 Okay. I got to speak. 183 00:11:58,540 --> 00:11:59,200 There was his 184 00:12:00,450 --> 00:12:01,580 brother 185 00:12:02,210 --> 00:12:04,830 and I said, Brother, he was white. 186 00:12:04,830 --> 00:12:06,790 They call him tiny. 187 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,510 And he was like a nurse before the article, before you happened 188 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:15,050 to set up a medical section of New York. 189 00:12:15,260 --> 00:12:19,350 For anybody who had any problems to go and in time you would take him 190 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,770 and the medical attention in your eye 191 00:12:23,770 --> 00:12:27,360 was much better than the medical tent you got throughout the years. 192 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:30,980 Oh, and he had a good time. 193 00:12:30,980 --> 00:12:34,700 He was making wine and cooking food outside. 194 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:37,870 It was like a big picnic, like a chanty town. 195 00:12:37,870 --> 00:12:39,540 You know, like that would belong. 196 00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:42,450 When in Buffalo Bill was out there, 197 00:12:42,750 --> 00:12:45,870 have you ever watched Gunsmoke 198 00:12:45,870 --> 00:12:46,540 the West? 199 00:12:46,540 --> 00:12:51,420 Well, Matt, Matt Dillon was the show marshal at the Gunsmoke. 200 00:12:51,710 --> 00:12:53,380 He kept order 201 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:55,760 and we didn't have a map. 202 00:12:57,430 --> 00:13:00,640 Every man was a law unto himself. 203 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:03,600 He did whatever the hell you want to do. 204 00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:07,480 There was no order. 205 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:35,760 The assignment 206 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:40,510 editor says there's this place called Attica and there's 207 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:46,190 some prison riot up there and we want you to go up and do it. 208 00:13:46,310 --> 00:13:49,480 We're not sure about any of what 209 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,440 the details are specifically. 210 00:13:52,940 --> 00:13:56,110 And off I went. 211 00:13:57,070 --> 00:14:00,990 Up to Buffalo and then on to Attica. 212 00:14:07,250 --> 00:14:07,870 This is John 213 00:14:07,870 --> 00:14:10,500 Johnson, ABC News, Attica, New York. 214 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,460 It was just an extremely 215 00:14:15,590 --> 00:14:18,180 fluid situation, to say the least. 216 00:14:18,470 --> 00:14:20,970 And it was hard to get information. 217 00:14:21,180 --> 00:14:25,100 I mean, we couldn't get inside, and all we heard was 218 00:14:25,390 --> 00:14:27,980 these inmates want to talk 219 00:14:28,230 --> 00:14:31,520 and they have prisoners. 220 00:14:31,730 --> 00:14:33,940 And this was something almost 221 00:14:33,940 --> 00:14:36,780 that had never happened in history. 222 00:14:37,030 --> 00:14:41,280 This huge institution where the inmates have taken over. 223 00:14:41,740 --> 00:14:42,740 Oh my goodness. 224 00:14:44,990 --> 00:14:47,410 Atika, New York had never heard of Atika, New York. 225 00:14:47,450 --> 00:14:49,160 What's an etiquette? 226 00:14:49,210 --> 00:14:52,080 Quite frankly, I did not know what to expect 227 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,250 when I got to Atika. 228 00:14:55,670 --> 00:14:57,880 We parked right in front of the prison, 229 00:14:58,170 --> 00:15:02,970 so consequently we just set up and started 230 00:15:02,970 --> 00:15:05,810 filming as much as we possibly could 231 00:15:06,270 --> 00:15:08,930 of the activities outside of the prison 232 00:15:10,230 --> 00:15:12,940 . We had no idea what was happening inside. 233 00:15:13,310 --> 00:15:18,320 Your instructions are that your weapon is not to be taken by you. 234 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,150 To be taken, you're to meet force with force. 235 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,330 There have been some of the prison personnel severely injured here 236 00:15:25,870 --> 00:15:28,830 this morning, and we certainly don't want to see any right 237 00:15:28,870 --> 00:15:29,870 people hurt. 238 00:15:32,170 --> 00:15:34,790 The state police officers 239 00:15:34,790 --> 00:15:38,010 were being handed out weapons. 240 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,510 They were making sure they had gas masks. 241 00:15:42,380 --> 00:15:47,390 It looked to me like they were ready to go in and retake the prison. 242 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,100 The inmates circumstances, might you go inside? 243 00:15:52,100 --> 00:15:52,640 Pardon me. 244 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:54,560 Might you go inside under some circumstances? 245 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,230 Well, one doesn't know. I'll have to fill this out. 246 00:15:57,270 --> 00:15:59,440 The inmates made any demands. one me. 247 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:00,320 I don't know. 248 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,820 They say that they only want to speak with the governor or me. 249 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,200 There seem to be some sense at the time 250 00:16:06,620 --> 00:16:10,290 that we are going to have to negotiate something 251 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:14,290 to save the lives of the hostages 252 00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:18,250 because of the hostages that they have. 253 00:16:18,550 --> 00:16:21,760 There's the possibility that negotiations 254 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:23,380 will begin. 255 00:16:25,260 --> 00:16:29,010 And we're looking at a man 256 00:16:30,810 --> 00:16:34,270 using a loudspeaker on a bullhorn. 257 00:16:37,270 --> 00:16:37,810 Well, 258 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,360 there appears to be a large meeting going on in this area, 259 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,410 although we can't hear anything from that section. 260 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:47,870 That's right. 261 00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:51,160 And inmates 262 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,670 decided that, you know, they're in a situation that, 263 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,090 you know, that required man a little bit more focus, 264 00:16:58,630 --> 00:17:02,760 a little bit more discipline, how to combine the actual population. 265 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,470 Who do you want to represent you? You 266 00:17:06,970 --> 00:17:10,310 mean we had elections, blah blah blah. 267 00:17:11,260 --> 00:17:13,480 That's where we got our leaders from. 268 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:13,980 Hell. 269 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:16,520 Now some guys have some juice in. 270 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:18,020 They already. 271 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,860 The guys that have been there, while 272 00:17:20,860 --> 00:17:23,490 all other inmates respected 273 00:17:24,530 --> 00:17:27,320 what they were saying made sense to most, everybody was in the yard. 274 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:30,740 And they had a plan 275 00:17:30,740 --> 00:17:34,120 and they had a plan about making things different for the prison system itself. 276 00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:40,380 All we want is the basic necessities of being treated like human beings, 277 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,340 even though we're in prison, we're human beings and stuff like that. 278 00:17:46,930 --> 00:17:47,760 The prisoners 279 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,640 in the yard must have had a radio. 280 00:17:50,970 --> 00:17:53,680 They heard I was outside. 281 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,770 So they ask for me to come in. 282 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:58,690 I said, sure. 283 00:17:59,150 --> 00:18:01,360 And they then said 284 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,490 we would like Commissioner Oswald to come in, and 285 00:18:06,450 --> 00:18:08,280 some of his assistant 286 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,200 said, Don't go, don't go that you can't trust them. 287 00:18:13,330 --> 00:18:15,910 And Oswald said, Of course, I'm going to go in. 288 00:18:17,750 --> 00:18:20,170 We are glad to have someone from the administration 289 00:18:20,830 --> 00:18:23,590 point blank coming in and view it as fact, now 290 00:18:24,210 --> 00:18:26,550 we're making some kind of headway beginning here. 291 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:28,430 We got some contact with somebody. 292 00:18:28,430 --> 00:18:30,970 We've got some negotiations for you listening to us. 293 00:18:31,220 --> 00:18:34,810 I've never heard of this before negotiating 294 00:18:35,060 --> 00:18:40,020 with inmates, and I just assume 295 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:46,570 that this was going to be in a landmark moment in American history. 296 00:18:46,610 --> 00:18:50,660 I thought that this was going to be negotiated 297 00:18:50,990 --> 00:18:53,990 to a decent humanitarian end. 298 00:18:55,290 --> 00:18:58,330 It seems to be a little misunderstanding about why. 299 00:18:59,370 --> 00:19:01,540 This incident developed at Attica 300 00:19:01,540 --> 00:19:04,090 in this declaration here will explain the reasons 301 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:10,050 the entire incident that has erupted here, Adam, is not a result. 302 00:19:14,930 --> 00:19:17,100 Well, in college towns and their factory towns, 303 00:19:17,100 --> 00:19:20,560 there's all kinds of towns in this country and this is Attica, New York. 304 00:19:21,190 --> 00:19:23,270 It's a prison town. 305 00:19:24,980 --> 00:19:26,980 Most of the people in the village of Attica 306 00:19:26,980 --> 00:19:29,650 make their living, working at the state prison 307 00:19:31,490 --> 00:19:32,610 for 40 years. 308 00:19:32,610 --> 00:19:35,160 Most have lived within sight of the prison wall. 309 00:19:35,780 --> 00:19:37,990 They have never feared. 310 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:43,460 The village of Attica 311 00:19:43,460 --> 00:19:46,170 was a great place to live was 312 00:19:47,460 --> 00:19:48,550 very typical. 313 00:19:48,550 --> 00:19:50,970 I think small town 314 00:19:50,970 --> 00:19:53,760 where you knew everyone, 315 00:19:54,550 --> 00:19:56,760 you were related to probably half of the town. 316 00:19:59,220 --> 00:20:02,270 We've ride our bikes through town, go to the park, 317 00:20:02,270 --> 00:20:06,980 we go swimming at the public pool, we go hiking up in the woods. 318 00:20:11,190 --> 00:20:13,450 Erica is a company town. 319 00:20:14,740 --> 00:20:18,200 Many of the people who work there and have lived in our town 320 00:20:18,540 --> 00:20:22,830 worked as either civilian employees or corrections officers at Attica. 321 00:20:24,420 --> 00:20:27,920 My grandfather worked there. 322 00:20:28,250 --> 00:20:30,800 My dad worked there. 323 00:20:31,050 --> 00:20:32,590 And between six or 324 00:20:32,590 --> 00:20:36,340 eight of the houses that were on our street had correctional officers 325 00:20:36,390 --> 00:20:39,560 or civilian individuals working in them with their families. 326 00:20:44,350 --> 00:20:46,730 These were the only jobs in the area, 327 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,610 dairy farming and the prisons. 328 00:20:50,610 --> 00:20:54,450 So there was this culture clash that came together to Africa. 329 00:20:54,820 --> 00:20:56,990 You had all white guards. 330 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,990 And a population of prisoners, 331 00:21:00,990 --> 00:21:04,580 there was 70 or more percent black and brown. 332 00:21:06,500 --> 00:21:08,420 What could go wrong? 333 00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:15,590 And the reputation was called the last stop. 334 00:21:16,050 --> 00:21:18,680 This was the most strict prison in the state of New York. 335 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:20,640 It was known the word was dead 336 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,850 that when you got there, you knew where he was in for a hard place. 337 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,230 Last place, the last place, Attica was the last place 338 00:21:28,060 --> 00:21:29,690 that was that was that that was last. 339 00:21:29,690 --> 00:21:32,610 And you've got to really be there to see why 340 00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:35,820 there was no, no black guards in Attica. 341 00:21:36,070 --> 00:21:38,070 There was no Spanish guards. 342 00:21:38,070 --> 00:21:41,990 They were all white people, man that come from the local neighborhoods 343 00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:46,290 that don't know nothing about people who come from broken 344 00:21:46,540 --> 00:21:49,920 people who come from Manhattan, people who come from the Bronx. 345 00:21:50,590 --> 00:21:52,300 They don't know nothing about this culture. 346 00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:55,720 Most of them don't even want to talk to you. 347 00:21:56,090 --> 00:21:57,180 They're giving you just straight. 348 00:21:57,180 --> 00:21:58,800 Don't talk to me. 349 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,100 And it was like that Don't talk to me. 350 00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:03,470 They were hit the state bar. 351 00:22:03,470 --> 00:22:04,770 And this is a metal. 352 00:22:04,770 --> 00:22:07,310 A metal tips that. 353 00:22:07,310 --> 00:22:10,690 And it rings out, but and you walk 354 00:22:11,310 --> 00:22:13,860 and then when they want you to stop, they said. But 355 00:22:14,940 --> 00:22:16,950 that was their communication. 356 00:22:16,950 --> 00:22:19,490 The only thing was right was being right 357 00:22:19,490 --> 00:22:21,700 and I mean it in all sincerity 358 00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:25,330 where everybody was sort of like not so much mixing with other countries 359 00:22:25,330 --> 00:22:27,910 would stand together for the purpose of the. 360 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:31,250 Survival, 361 00:22:31,420 --> 00:22:33,960 I was white, so I got the best jobs. 362 00:22:34,670 --> 00:22:36,970 I was always given a little bit 363 00:22:36,970 --> 00:22:40,720 more leeway than the Blacks. 364 00:22:41,340 --> 00:22:45,020 I can get an extra meal if I want to one because I was a white guy. 365 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,270 I'm a I'm a white guy, you know, give me a little extra. 366 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:50,810 And I got it. 367 00:22:50,810 --> 00:22:54,570 I always was able to manipulate the system 368 00:22:54,570 --> 00:22:57,110 inside the prison because I was a white guy. 369 00:22:57,690 --> 00:23:01,450 I'm almost ashamed to say that I took advantage of that back then, 370 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,950 but it was the only way to survive. 371 00:23:04,950 --> 00:23:07,330 It really, really was. 372 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:17,670 A roll of toilet 373 00:23:17,670 --> 00:23:20,050 paper would have to last you a month. 374 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,970 You have to be a magician or tear up papers 375 00:23:23,970 --> 00:23:27,270 out of the books and stuff like that to wipe your behind and stuff like that. 376 00:23:27,310 --> 00:23:30,100 Guys were complaining about basically things like toothpaste. 377 00:23:31,230 --> 00:23:32,810 Toilet paper. 378 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,360 A change of sheets. 379 00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:37,320 More than once a month. 380 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,400 Things like digging clothes being cleaned. 381 00:23:40,490 --> 00:23:43,160 Personal hygiene, things being treated like human beings. 382 00:23:45,830 --> 00:23:49,120 No school program, Atika, was. 383 00:23:49,330 --> 00:23:51,830 I can't describe it to me. 384 00:23:52,290 --> 00:23:53,500 It was dead. 385 00:23:53,580 --> 00:23:55,250 It was just dead. 386 00:23:58,630 --> 00:24:01,300 There was no religious freedom, particularly 387 00:24:01,300 --> 00:24:03,930 for the burgeoning Muslim movement. 388 00:24:04,090 --> 00:24:07,560 They were denied the right to worship. 389 00:24:08,140 --> 00:24:12,770 They were fed pork because the prison also had a farm where they raised pigs. 390 00:24:12,770 --> 00:24:15,810 So that's what you god. 391 00:24:15,810 --> 00:24:18,110 If it isn't $0.60 a day, 392 00:24:18,110 --> 00:24:20,780 so that's $0.24 a meal. 393 00:24:20,780 --> 00:24:24,320 If saw money on $0.21. 394 00:24:25,990 --> 00:24:26,740 I swear to God, 395 00:24:26,740 --> 00:24:29,660 one time I got my head opened up by God 396 00:24:30,330 --> 00:24:32,620 and I was put into a segregation cell. 397 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:35,880 And a doctor came, you know, 398 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,920 just out of I was bleeding all over. 399 00:24:39,050 --> 00:24:42,380 So it's like they cracked my head wide open. 400 00:24:43,380 --> 00:24:47,010 Put it over here, but they had a feeding hole in the cell. 401 00:24:48,180 --> 00:24:49,640 And so I put it that he put a 402 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,270 flashlight like, I swear to God, he hit me with the flashlight. 403 00:24:54,020 --> 00:24:57,310 Right, right where the cut was. 404 00:24:58,110 --> 00:24:59,860 And walked away. 405 00:25:04,570 --> 00:25:06,950 They wait until everybody is locked up at night 406 00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:09,870 and then they come for you, come for you as a goose. 407 00:25:12,910 --> 00:25:15,960 These are the beat up police. 408 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,210 These two guys, they come nine, ten. 409 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:21,250 Real big guys 410 00:25:21,250 --> 00:25:25,630 with real big sticks when they come in and they beat you up in your show 411 00:25:25,630 --> 00:25:29,050 and then they take, you say, gation and sometimes you don't come back. 412 00:25:29,390 --> 00:25:30,930 Attica was. 413 00:25:34,020 --> 00:25:34,770 It's. 414 00:25:37,100 --> 00:25:40,650 Fear they they ran the prison would fear. 415 00:25:42,110 --> 00:25:44,570 Being scared of them were their means 416 00:25:44,570 --> 00:25:47,280 of running a prison. 417 00:25:50,530 --> 00:25:53,200 You either shut your mouth or you were in big trouble. 418 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,370 Some people died. 419 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,670 Somewhat crippled, somewhat psychologically damaged 420 00:26:01,670 --> 00:26:05,630 for life. And. 421 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,300 It was a bad place to be. 422 00:26:15,850 --> 00:26:17,890 They wanted to to institute 423 00:26:17,890 --> 00:26:20,650 and instill that fear and that they were in control, 424 00:26:21,900 --> 00:26:24,320 even though they knew they were losing control. 425 00:26:26,740 --> 00:26:27,740 My generation 426 00:26:27,740 --> 00:26:30,240 that came into Annika at that time, 427 00:26:31,070 --> 00:26:34,240 we felt that we was in broken Malabar as we wasn't 428 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,460 shuffling our feet, we would walk with our heads up high. 429 00:26:37,870 --> 00:26:39,920 We would talk in our own lingo. 430 00:26:40,330 --> 00:26:41,250 Who's your daddy? 431 00:26:41,250 --> 00:26:43,000 That's what we were going to take. 432 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,920 Nothing from nobody. 433 00:26:45,170 --> 00:26:47,340 We want to respect. 434 00:26:48,510 --> 00:26:50,680 You had to give it to us, would you want to do or not? 435 00:26:51,890 --> 00:26:54,220 I'd read Algiers Cleaver Soul on Ice. 436 00:26:54,510 --> 00:26:59,390 Huey Newton and, you know, the path of Piety and George Jackson story. 437 00:26:59,390 --> 00:27:00,810 I read all that stuff. 438 00:27:00,810 --> 00:27:02,480 George Jackson was revolutionary. 439 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:07,820 He's got to get busted for a ten dollar on gas station robbery and gang life. 440 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,780 He ended up in the system in the soul of the prison. 441 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,330 He showed us. And I mean us. 442 00:27:15,490 --> 00:27:17,620 The younger guys that came into Attica 443 00:27:18,370 --> 00:27:21,540 there was OK to say no. 444 00:27:21,540 --> 00:27:24,170 It was OK to be rebellious. 445 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,630 Understand they may be consequences to saying no. 446 00:27:30,050 --> 00:27:31,970 But it was OK 447 00:27:31,970 --> 00:27:35,010 and it was uplifting, it was uplifting. 448 00:27:35,970 --> 00:27:39,430 I think racism is a controlled of control would 449 00:27:40,690 --> 00:27:43,020 create an atmosphere whereby then 450 00:27:43,020 --> 00:27:48,280 petroleum, of course, here in prison we see the repression 451 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,570 and the exploitation, 452 00:27:50,570 --> 00:27:53,530 the victimization of. 453 00:27:53,660 --> 00:27:56,490 Lower class people's. 454 00:27:56,660 --> 00:27:59,660 A lot of Black Panthers were coming to prison. 455 00:27:59,950 --> 00:28:03,170 I started hanging out with them and they politicized me. 456 00:28:03,630 --> 00:28:07,340 The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general 457 00:28:07,550 --> 00:28:11,510 and the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist. 458 00:28:11,510 --> 00:28:15,220 Police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, 459 00:28:15,430 --> 00:28:18,470 brutality, murder and repression of black people. 460 00:28:18,510 --> 00:28:23,810 Of course, you had black Muslims and his message to a black man really? 461 00:28:24,100 --> 00:28:27,320 Well, a lot of guys that were in jail. 462 00:28:27,610 --> 00:28:29,190 You want one thing? 463 00:28:29,190 --> 00:28:31,860 We declare our right on this word 464 00:28:32,450 --> 00:28:36,160 to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected, 465 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,330 every human being, to be given the rights of a human being 466 00:28:39,660 --> 00:28:44,000 in this society, on this Earth, and this day what we intend 467 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,130 to bring into existence by any means in the city. 468 00:28:53,090 --> 00:28:53,720 Officials at 469 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,970 California's San Quentin Prison still are trying to piece together 470 00:28:56,970 --> 00:29:00,680 exactly what happened and how inmate attempted prison break yesterday, 471 00:29:00,970 --> 00:29:03,520 in which three convicts and three guards died. 472 00:29:04,230 --> 00:29:07,480 one of the dead convicts was George Jackson of the self-styled 473 00:29:07,610 --> 00:29:10,190 Soledad Brothers. Jackson was 29. 474 00:29:10,820 --> 00:29:12,820 Joy Jackson was that final straw? 475 00:29:12,820 --> 00:29:14,200 I don't give a fuck no more. 476 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:15,530 You're going to kill us anyway. 477 00:29:15,530 --> 00:29:17,740 We can't get out when it's fucking cage. 478 00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:18,950 So where we're going. 479 00:29:18,950 --> 00:29:21,660 So if we're going to die, let's die as men. 480 00:29:21,870 --> 00:29:25,540 And brother just got frustrated. 481 00:29:27,170 --> 00:29:29,290 We'd go into the mess hall 482 00:29:29,290 --> 00:29:31,880 with a black band on Iran. 483 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,550 And just sit there, take a spoon when you come in. 484 00:29:35,260 --> 00:29:36,880 Take no food. 485 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:38,430 We didn't speak. 486 00:29:39,350 --> 00:29:42,390 During the whole time, we didn't pick up any food. 487 00:29:44,430 --> 00:29:46,440 That I think kind of alerted 488 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,940 the institution that we are in solidarity. 489 00:29:50,730 --> 00:29:52,190 They're probably seen that type 490 00:29:52,190 --> 00:29:55,030 of solidarity before. 491 00:30:01,700 --> 00:30:03,790 There was a lot of talk 492 00:30:03,790 --> 00:30:05,960 discussing the situation 493 00:30:06,210 --> 00:30:10,130 because the inmates were very upset 494 00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:12,750 and things were happening here 495 00:30:13,130 --> 00:30:15,510 and there was great concern. 496 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,930 It was a time bomb ready to blow, and we live with it 497 00:30:19,930 --> 00:30:23,640 every day in my house and every day I say goodbye to my dad. 498 00:30:23,890 --> 00:30:26,230 And I knew it might be the last day I saw him. 499 00:30:26,270 --> 00:30:29,900 It was open conversation. 500 00:30:32,730 --> 00:30:34,320 Things were getting worse, 501 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,690 and so they had a meeting with the administration 502 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,240 in the administration, essentially dismissed their concerns 503 00:30:40,870 --> 00:30:43,120 and said everybody back to work. 504 00:30:43,740 --> 00:30:46,040 However, we think maybe it's a good idea if you left 505 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,420 your personal belongings at home like wedding rings, wallets, et cetera. 506 00:30:49,830 --> 00:30:52,960 So my father absolutely knew that something was going on. 507 00:30:53,380 --> 00:30:56,760 I was having breakfast with him and he was talking to me, 508 00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:58,380 and I knew he was nervous. 509 00:30:58,380 --> 00:31:01,890 When he said something's going to happen, he said, I just don't know what or when, 510 00:31:02,550 --> 00:31:03,810 but I think I'll be OK. 511 00:31:08,390 --> 00:31:09,350 There was a fight 512 00:31:09,350 --> 00:31:12,560 in a yard on September eighth, 513 00:31:13,230 --> 00:31:15,820 and the guards promised nothing would happen as a result of this 514 00:31:15,820 --> 00:31:18,780 because they could feel the tension building up. 515 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,530 Then that night, they broke that promise. 516 00:31:21,780 --> 00:31:26,410 They came and pulled them out of cells and about three or four of them. 517 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,370 And then. 518 00:31:30,410 --> 00:31:32,540 He was thought to embarrass Barroso would have a glass. 519 00:31:32,710 --> 00:31:37,170 May have had or cans or whatever they may had, and it was a disturbance that dear. 520 00:31:37,590 --> 00:31:42,300 So the inmates decided at that moment, Man, this is a man we tied. 521 00:31:42,550 --> 00:31:44,050 I mean, they killed Josh Jackson. 522 00:31:44,050 --> 00:31:45,680 They did this throughout the years. 523 00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,390 We tie, you know, and they they went off. 524 00:31:58,780 --> 00:32:01,110 I was in school that day. 525 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,240 And the whistle 526 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,240 from the prison just kept going, and we could hear it. 527 00:32:06,950 --> 00:32:09,620 We got calls from somebody from the prison 528 00:32:09,620 --> 00:32:12,160 saying that your dad, you know, is definitely being held. 529 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:14,960 You know, I was scared, I was worried for my dad. 530 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:19,260 I love my dad, but we didn't really know what was going on. 531 00:32:22,170 --> 00:32:25,010 Understanding about what? 532 00:32:25,010 --> 00:32:29,140 This incident developing it added in this declaration here will explain 533 00:32:29,140 --> 00:32:34,190 the reasons for the entire incident that has erupted here at Attica 534 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,820 is not a result of the dastardly bushwhacking of the two prisoners. 535 00:32:38,980 --> 00:32:44,660 September eighth of 1970 11 of the unmitigated oppression wrought 536 00:32:44,660 --> 00:32:48,450 by the racist administrative network of this prison throughout the years. 537 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:53,120 We want the government to guarantee that there will be no reprisals 538 00:32:53,410 --> 00:32:57,380 and we want all facets of the media to articulate this. 539 00:32:58,290 --> 00:33:00,960 We needed the media in there because we needed 540 00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,260 to let the world know what was happening. 541 00:33:04,380 --> 00:33:08,390 We know this is one of the turning points 542 00:33:08,390 --> 00:33:10,350 in the whole thing. 543 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,560 We would like the press to come in, 544 00:33:15,230 --> 00:33:17,560 including the television cameras 545 00:33:20,150 --> 00:33:23,030 that transformed everything. 546 00:33:24,950 --> 00:33:28,820 Because now the prisoners had a worldwide audience. 547 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,620 Whatever happens here at Attica State Prison, 548 00:33:33,830 --> 00:33:39,000 I'm not sure how they heard that there was a black journalist outside 549 00:33:39,380 --> 00:33:42,420 that they wanted me to be 550 00:33:42,420 --> 00:33:45,550 on the group that went in with us. 551 00:33:46,340 --> 00:33:48,550 Suddenly, I'm on in this group 552 00:33:49,260 --> 00:33:52,430 going into the prison with this. 553 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:55,430 Head of the prison system. 554 00:33:55,430 --> 00:33:58,480 I was surprised that they had asked for me. 555 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,320 But I guess because of the fact that they had watched 556 00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:07,410 the news, my reports were factual 557 00:34:08,070 --> 00:34:11,870 and I was not taking anybody's side 558 00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:14,290 in the whole thing. 559 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:17,540 We went in 560 00:34:17,870 --> 00:34:21,920 and it was completely surreal, 561 00:34:22,420 --> 00:34:26,340 like, you're walking down a tunnel and suddenly 562 00:34:26,550 --> 00:34:29,090 you walk into this huge yard 563 00:34:29,470 --> 00:34:34,680 where there are men everywhere like thousands of men. 564 00:34:35,310 --> 00:34:37,560 And I remember 565 00:34:38,060 --> 00:34:40,310 some people yelling, Hey, J.J.. 566 00:34:41,190 --> 00:34:43,320 I said hello to people 567 00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,150 that I knew from Bed-Stuy and Harlem, 568 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,490 and they were in Attica. 569 00:34:52,950 --> 00:34:55,490 Once inside, we were brought along through the yard 570 00:34:55,490 --> 00:34:59,040 with a member of the inmate security force constantly at our side. 571 00:34:59,870 --> 00:35:02,250 We were allowed to go where they told us to go. 572 00:35:03,090 --> 00:35:04,380 We were all allowed to film. 573 00:35:04,380 --> 00:35:06,510 Only one of the prisoners told us we could. 574 00:35:07,090 --> 00:35:10,180 Inmates faces were covered so as to keep their identities secret. 575 00:35:11,090 --> 00:35:14,680 Our first concern on entering was to learn how the hostages 576 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,730 were going to see the hostages, but 577 00:35:17,980 --> 00:35:20,190 I was able to ask. 578 00:35:21,230 --> 00:35:24,150 one question before I was moved 579 00:35:24,610 --> 00:35:28,150 to the negotiation table to read it, all right. 580 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,450 Yes, I have so far, but very no, no complaints, but 581 00:35:31,910 --> 00:35:34,660 no problem solver so far and treat it very good. 582 00:35:35,910 --> 00:35:38,580 Shortly thereafter, one of the inmates, 583 00:35:39,290 --> 00:35:42,080 a young man by the name of l.D. 584 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,670 Barclay, started to read 585 00:35:45,710 --> 00:35:48,460 the demands of the entire prison population. 586 00:35:48,550 --> 00:35:54,050 That means each and every one of us here have set forth to change forever. 587 00:35:54,300 --> 00:35:57,350 The ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives 588 00:35:57,350 --> 00:36:00,310 of the prisoners here and throughout the United States. 589 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,020 He was saying, What we all want you to scream. 590 00:36:03,650 --> 00:36:07,150 But he was explaining it so that everybody could understand 591 00:36:07,570 --> 00:36:10,150 so that when you were sitting in your living room, 592 00:36:10,150 --> 00:36:12,400 you could say, Well, the guy's a criminal. 593 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:13,570 Yeah, but. 594 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:15,240 He is saying something that's. 595 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:15,660 That's 596 00:36:17,740 --> 00:36:19,370 that I understand that. 597 00:36:19,370 --> 00:36:22,370 How could we do that, you know, he was waking up America. 598 00:36:23,290 --> 00:36:25,630 And he was the best one to do it. 599 00:36:25,630 --> 00:36:27,590 We are men. 600 00:36:27,590 --> 00:36:31,760 We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven effort. 601 00:36:31,970 --> 00:36:34,840 Audi is only going to be here for 90 days, 602 00:36:34,890 --> 00:36:38,310 he'll be getting out, but he wanted to the outside world and noted. 603 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:42,850 The prison is inhumane. 604 00:36:42,850 --> 00:36:45,400 What has happened here is but the sound of 605 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,070 for the fury of those who are oppressed, 606 00:36:48,650 --> 00:36:51,280 we will not compromise on any terms 607 00:36:51,530 --> 00:36:54,610 except those terms that are agreeable to us. 608 00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:56,700 We call. 609 00:37:01,410 --> 00:37:03,910 You felt it. 610 00:37:05,790 --> 00:37:07,130 And at that moment, 611 00:37:07,130 --> 00:37:09,880 I heard it and I seen it. 612 00:37:10,550 --> 00:37:13,340 And that reaffirmed 613 00:37:13,340 --> 00:37:16,300 why we was data, why I was there. 614 00:37:20,180 --> 00:37:22,430 It was a feeling that this was big. 615 00:37:23,180 --> 00:37:25,390 This was huge. 616 00:37:28,770 --> 00:37:32,280 Corrections Commissioner Oswald maintained 617 00:37:32,860 --> 00:37:35,070 that he had done 618 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,910 quite a bit of the things 619 00:37:38,910 --> 00:37:41,910 that the inmates had requested. 620 00:37:42,410 --> 00:37:43,500 I've, 621 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,170 uh, complied 622 00:37:46,170 --> 00:37:50,340 with the several things I said I would do as my part. 623 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:54,550 I brought the press and other media 624 00:37:54,550 --> 00:37:57,760 in here to listen as we talk. 625 00:37:58,010 --> 00:38:01,760 And now my question is I asked earlier, 626 00:38:03,220 --> 00:38:06,230 when will you release the hostages? 627 00:38:07,350 --> 00:38:09,480 Now the table was turned 628 00:38:10,270 --> 00:38:13,030 and we had the power, 629 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,070 so when we asked him for something, 630 00:38:15,070 --> 00:38:18,070 he had to give it to us because he had no choice. 631 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,160 We wanted some assurance that we weren't 632 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:23,450 going to be retaliated against. 633 00:38:24,500 --> 00:38:26,660 So we ask Herman Schwartz 634 00:38:26,660 --> 00:38:28,870 to go to District Court in New York. 635 00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:33,050 And I get an injunction 636 00:38:33,670 --> 00:38:37,340 that would assure us that we wouldn't be retaliated against. 637 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,090 I sat down and wrote an injunction. 638 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,180 Which barred any kind of retaliation. 639 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,560 It had been agreed that there would be 640 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,560 another meeting the next morning. 641 00:38:52,730 --> 00:38:55,070 The time is now ten minutes late. 642 00:38:55,070 --> 00:38:58,360 We've been shooting this tape for approximately two hours. 643 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,030 We started about 6:00 p.m.. 644 00:39:02,490 --> 00:39:04,540 Light is almost gone now 645 00:39:04,540 --> 00:39:07,910 we can see lights in cell block D. 646 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:18,130 Oh. The guy next to me 647 00:39:18,670 --> 00:39:20,970 was named Raymond Wei. 648 00:39:22,050 --> 00:39:25,060 You open up in the air. 649 00:39:25,060 --> 00:39:28,230 Gardner still remain way, your way, 650 00:39:28,930 --> 00:39:31,270 your smear 651 00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:34,690 ain't been out at the dog and 22 years. 652 00:39:37,740 --> 00:39:38,690 And we was talking 653 00:39:38,690 --> 00:39:40,950 singing songs, it was it was a festive night. 654 00:39:41,950 --> 00:39:42,950 I loved it. I loved it. 655 00:39:42,950 --> 00:39:46,580 Then I was out in the nighttime looking at the stars. 656 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,250 I was drunk. I was happy. I was. I liked it. 657 00:39:49,250 --> 00:39:52,290 Yeah, I was having a good time and it was good. 658 00:39:52,710 --> 00:39:54,380 I feel free. 659 00:39:54,380 --> 00:39:58,010 You know, I mean, prison was dead, but you know, I felt free. 660 00:39:58,210 --> 00:40:00,260 And you had to hear 661 00:40:01,260 --> 00:40:03,640 the doors not locking. 662 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:07,350 And if and if it was a good feeling that that first night 663 00:40:08,890 --> 00:40:10,810 when it got dark 664 00:40:11,190 --> 00:40:13,480 and everybody was talking about finding somewhere to sleep with, 665 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,610 you know, don't sleep alone and you know, that type of thing. 666 00:40:16,900 --> 00:40:19,740 There's a lot of psychopaths and sociopaths 667 00:40:19,740 --> 00:40:23,280 in those facilities, so you know you had to protect yourself from 668 00:40:24,410 --> 00:40:26,910 from your peers, even. 669 00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,790 Well, I knew this was going to last forever. 670 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:37,960 I knew they would. 671 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,090 It would be an end this. 672 00:40:41,090 --> 00:40:42,720 But just because he was incarcerated 673 00:40:42,720 --> 00:40:44,800 didn't mean that we were less than human. 674 00:40:47,810 --> 00:40:50,520 Somebody had to take the stand. 675 00:40:59,690 --> 00:41:00,360 At dawn, 676 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,910 a smoke from yesterday's fires lingered over prison walls, a federal injunction 677 00:41:04,910 --> 00:41:09,580 was obtained prohibiting physical reprisal against those involved in the riot. 678 00:41:11,290 --> 00:41:13,660 When I brought in the injunction, 679 00:41:14,370 --> 00:41:18,290 we talked to the prisoners at opposite ends 680 00:41:18,540 --> 00:41:21,300 of a rather long tunnel. 681 00:41:22,340 --> 00:41:24,760 They said where where the administrators. 682 00:41:25,300 --> 00:41:26,590 I don't know. 683 00:41:26,590 --> 00:41:28,890 I'm here about know where they are. 684 00:41:28,890 --> 00:41:31,680 Finally, at 10:00, Oswald 685 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,020 and the others show up. 686 00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:37,310 The prisoners were furious. 687 00:41:37,310 --> 00:41:41,440 They had been, as they would put it, dissed. 688 00:41:42,030 --> 00:41:44,700 They're supposed to meet at seven or 8:00 and. 689 00:41:45,950 --> 00:41:48,030 It was very clear 690 00:41:48,030 --> 00:41:51,200 the air was very tense. 691 00:41:51,620 --> 00:41:54,870 You had the table spread out. 692 00:41:55,500 --> 00:41:58,460 We were on one side. 693 00:41:58,460 --> 00:42:00,710 The inmates were on the other. 694 00:42:02,340 --> 00:42:03,960 And I gave the document 695 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:06,340 that the judge had signed this. 696 00:42:07,590 --> 00:42:08,800 It's nothing. 697 00:42:09,140 --> 00:42:11,680 I'm sorry, I spent hours of 698 00:42:12,100 --> 00:42:14,730 of and got no sleep and trouble 699 00:42:15,390 --> 00:42:19,350 declaring that a federal judge has signed off on an injunction 700 00:42:19,650 --> 00:42:23,440 saying that there would be no reprisals, anything that can. 701 00:42:24,900 --> 00:42:26,820 Waving that at us 702 00:42:26,820 --> 00:42:29,240 and they're free to do so was the same. 703 00:42:29,620 --> 00:42:32,160 There was no judicial seal on it. 704 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,830 I have received injunctions from the Southern District, 705 00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,000 which are judicial fields. 706 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,000 This paper is an empty gesture. 707 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:41,080 Jerry, did you? 708 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:42,750 That was his nickname. 709 00:42:42,750 --> 00:42:47,260 Jerry Rosenberg was a hell of a guy and he was well respected. 710 00:42:47,510 --> 00:42:48,470 He had a law degree. 711 00:42:49,890 --> 00:42:51,850 Any new law he would help 712 00:42:51,850 --> 00:42:54,140 all the inmates, she was a jailhouse lawyer. 713 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:58,440 You can take this piece of paper and throw it away 714 00:42:58,690 --> 00:43:00,150 because this is no protection. 715 00:43:00,150 --> 00:43:03,190 Geoffrey Rosenberg God bless him, sir. 716 00:43:04,150 --> 00:43:06,360 Charging scientists. 717 00:43:06,610 --> 00:43:09,660 There's no there's no lost in district court 718 00:43:09,660 --> 00:43:13,830 stamp on this document saying that, you know what? 719 00:43:13,830 --> 00:43:17,250 Nothing will happen to worse and torn up. 720 00:43:18,790 --> 00:43:20,750 You know, we know you mean well, 721 00:43:20,750 --> 00:43:23,130 but don't come with the bullshit here. 722 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,630 We want a judicial seal and a continuing 723 00:43:26,630 --> 00:43:30,010 restraining order until the litigation is finally ended 724 00:43:30,300 --> 00:43:33,800 without any reprisal or brutality against any inmate 725 00:43:34,010 --> 00:43:36,060 of this institution. 726 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,190 Well, lawyers know 727 00:43:47,190 --> 00:43:50,030 that seals don't mean anything 728 00:43:51,820 --> 00:43:55,030 so long as the signature is there. 729 00:43:55,030 --> 00:43:58,410 I could have kicked Jerry's ass, and I should have 730 00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:00,500 read because 731 00:44:00,500 --> 00:44:03,290 he he just started to grandstand. 732 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,380 You know, he was caught up in the moment. 733 00:44:08,300 --> 00:44:10,340 Good, smart as he is 734 00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:14,090 and a shrewd as he is, he over reacted. 735 00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,310 And we lost an opportunity there. 736 00:44:17,310 --> 00:44:20,680 And then somebody said, let's hold them. 737 00:44:21,060 --> 00:44:23,060 Let's add to the hostage Cal. 738 00:44:26,020 --> 00:44:29,570 I speak everybody here, 739 00:44:29,570 --> 00:44:31,900 I want to to you as well. 740 00:44:31,900 --> 00:44:33,990 When you come in here covering the game, 741 00:44:34,820 --> 00:44:39,620 I know you don't give a fuck about no max that they somehow give a fuck about you. 742 00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:42,080 Nothing I know. 743 00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,670 Nothing, you know? 744 00:44:44,670 --> 00:44:46,880 And I'm gonna to leave you. 745 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,550 It seems to me that you are 746 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,220 saying to me that you, you are an artist at pretty rare occasion. 747 00:44:55,050 --> 00:44:57,510 I bear witness to your evil deeds, Mr. Art. 748 00:44:58,470 --> 00:44:59,970 Now I repeat, 749 00:44:59,970 --> 00:45:03,390 as I told you yesterday, we are being lenient with you. 750 00:45:04,350 --> 00:45:05,940 We are negotiating. 751 00:45:05,940 --> 00:45:08,400 We are talking. We shouldn't be. 752 00:45:08,900 --> 00:45:10,530 We should be demanding. 753 00:45:10,530 --> 00:45:11,530 So why? 754 00:45:11,530 --> 00:45:15,200 Because we have 35 lives, not hostages. 755 00:45:15,860 --> 00:45:16,870 And I repeat Mr. 756 00:45:16,870 --> 00:45:20,950 Oswald, a moment's hesitation would cause you delay. 757 00:45:21,330 --> 00:45:23,830 The meeting in the yard got very tense 758 00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:28,880 because Oswald would talk to you from one side of the mouth. 759 00:45:29,170 --> 00:45:31,550 And then when he left the yard and go outside, 760 00:45:31,550 --> 00:45:33,970 he talks from the other side of the mouth 761 00:45:33,970 --> 00:45:37,050 of the inmates made any demands that, you know, there are all kinds 762 00:45:37,050 --> 00:45:40,760 of demands, you know, for the change of change in the whole world. 763 00:45:40,890 --> 00:45:44,560 But what he forgot was that he was being seen on TV. 764 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:47,440 Come on, how could you do that? 765 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,020 We watch you 766 00:45:50,020 --> 00:45:54,700 and you stated it yesterday on the news media, in a huff, in a panic, you said. 767 00:45:54,820 --> 00:45:56,410 Well, I don't know what they want. 768 00:45:56,410 --> 00:45:58,530 They want the world and what you like. 769 00:45:58,530 --> 00:45:59,740 You walk away from reporters. 770 00:45:59,740 --> 00:46:01,830 Would you reply that the sidewalk? 771 00:46:01,830 --> 00:46:04,160 Yes, I did say that. 772 00:46:04,870 --> 00:46:05,580 Let him finish. 773 00:46:05,580 --> 00:46:06,620 I don't say that. 774 00:46:06,620 --> 00:46:09,210 Can't bullshit a bullshitter. 775 00:46:09,210 --> 00:46:10,630 You can't do that. 776 00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:13,090 The first time he came in, I'm going to do 777 00:46:13,090 --> 00:46:15,220 this, a b, c, d e f g 778 00:46:16,340 --> 00:46:18,760 and people said, All right, going back to business, get it done, 779 00:46:19,180 --> 00:46:21,510 came back in and started talking and you know, 780 00:46:22,390 --> 00:46:26,100 it was going around about hearing around about then this scenario. 781 00:46:26,140 --> 00:46:28,190 Not that the hostages go. 782 00:46:28,690 --> 00:46:30,980 But you be hostage, 783 00:46:31,570 --> 00:46:33,020 whatever, you know, power 784 00:46:33,980 --> 00:46:34,780 and water. 785 00:46:34,780 --> 00:46:35,740 We haven't got that. 786 00:46:35,740 --> 00:46:38,860 We're going to get Mr. Harper for himself. 787 00:46:39,070 --> 00:46:40,370 So we got to. 788 00:46:42,830 --> 00:46:45,330 We're not letting him out of here and keeping him in Austin. 789 00:46:46,330 --> 00:46:47,960 We all we shut that down. 790 00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:49,750 We're not going to be like them. 791 00:46:49,750 --> 00:46:50,920 We're not going to break our word. 792 00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,920 And it says, well, inmates would be more honorable than them. 793 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,800 Yes, we were because we gave him my word nothing would happen to him. 794 00:47:06,810 --> 00:47:07,850 Everybody starts 795 00:47:07,850 --> 00:47:10,440 screaming at him, go, let him go. 796 00:47:12,110 --> 00:47:12,360 Don't. 797 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:18,900 He got out of Dodge. 798 00:47:18,900 --> 00:47:21,240 He never came back. 799 00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:26,200 In New York State, 800 00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:30,580 some 500 inmates of the Attica maximum security prison are still in revolt. 801 00:47:30,830 --> 00:47:34,000 Authorities tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the prisoners 802 00:47:34,290 --> 00:47:38,300 over demands for reforms and to obtain release of more than 30 hostages. 803 00:47:38,670 --> 00:47:42,340 We have a report on what's been happening at Attica from ABC's John Johnson. 804 00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,390 Fires were still burning at Attica State Prison, 805 00:47:45,810 --> 00:47:48,680 despite a small army of police and state troopers. 806 00:47:48,850 --> 00:47:51,480 The prisoners continue to call the shots at Attica. 807 00:47:52,190 --> 00:47:54,610 Commissioner Oswald announced that 808 00:47:54,610 --> 00:47:57,570 prison officials were attempting to bring to the prison 809 00:47:57,730 --> 00:48:02,530 those people requested by the prisoners in areas under where the group 810 00:48:03,030 --> 00:48:05,490 was basically people 811 00:48:06,410 --> 00:48:10,040 whom they knew people like Tom Wicker, 812 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,790 who had written a column about prisoners. 813 00:48:13,670 --> 00:48:16,000 Senator John Dunn was chairman 814 00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,590 of the Prisons Committee and sympathetic. 815 00:48:19,210 --> 00:48:21,170 He was asked to come. 816 00:48:21,170 --> 00:48:24,550 Bill Kunstler, a lawyer for the Chicago 817 00:48:24,550 --> 00:48:27,140 seven, asked him to come in 818 00:48:27,890 --> 00:48:32,350 and Clarence Jones, publisher of the Amsterdam News. 819 00:48:37,190 --> 00:48:38,020 Have a driver was 820 00:48:38,020 --> 00:48:41,490 driving me up, the ampersand is the driver, says Boss, 821 00:48:41,860 --> 00:48:43,990 they're calling your name on the radio, so what you mean? 822 00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,200 Called Rockefeller, 823 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,000 and lo and behold, the governor picked up the phone. 824 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,080 He said, thank you so much. 825 00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:55,500 Mr Jones, we have a major situation. 826 00:48:57,210 --> 00:48:58,500 A number of the inmates 827 00:48:58,500 --> 00:49:00,590 have called your name. 828 00:49:02,630 --> 00:49:04,630 We'll have a car and pick you up. 829 00:49:04,630 --> 00:49:07,010 And taking him to a private airport. 830 00:49:08,970 --> 00:49:10,100 We're a state private 831 00:49:10,100 --> 00:49:12,270 plane is waiting for you. 832 00:49:13,980 --> 00:49:16,020 And there are more. 833 00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:18,900 Atika, you be part of the. 834 00:49:20,230 --> 00:49:21,990 Observers committee. 835 00:49:23,570 --> 00:49:26,450 My wife and I were off on vacation at the time 836 00:49:26,820 --> 00:49:27,870 and we got a call 837 00:49:27,870 --> 00:49:31,790 that they had asked me to come there, and I felt that with my prior experience 838 00:49:31,790 --> 00:49:35,670 and my responsibilities as a chairman of the prison committee ought to be there. 839 00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:39,750 I was optimistic. 840 00:49:39,750 --> 00:49:40,550 I thought. 841 00:49:41,090 --> 00:49:42,340 Give it a shot. 842 00:49:43,010 --> 00:49:45,760 For the rebel prisoners of Attica, the encouraging appearance, 843 00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,680 the people, they consider friends. 844 00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,220 A 30 man mediation committee, including a congressman for newsmen 845 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,230 and most importantly, lawyer William Kunstler. 846 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:56,900 Have you heard anything from Governor Rockefeller's office? 847 00:49:56,900 --> 00:50:00,110 I mean, has he put any time limit on these negotiations? 848 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:03,400 No, but I understand that there is no present 849 00:50:03,650 --> 00:50:07,030 plan to use force in this prison, and I hope that continues. 850 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,910 I just hope that they realize that this is a unique situation 851 00:50:10,910 --> 00:50:15,000 and that it may take time and that if everyone has a good faith, 852 00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:17,080 something will work out. 853 00:50:18,750 --> 00:50:21,630 It was scary, the tension was tremendous. 854 00:50:21,630 --> 00:50:25,470 Eager to cut the air with a knife, it was terrifying. 855 00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,890 I remember going into the yard and saying to Mel, Where was I? 856 00:50:29,090 --> 00:50:30,050 Do you have a cigaret? 857 00:50:30,050 --> 00:50:30,470 And he said, 858 00:50:30,470 --> 00:50:33,770 You have one on you, one in your hand, one in your mouth and one in your. 859 00:50:35,100 --> 00:50:36,600 I was scared. 860 00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:39,770 When you see a tower with people with rifles, 861 00:50:41,150 --> 00:50:43,020 I kept thinking 862 00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:45,990 we should stay close to Tom Wicker and Herman Badillo 863 00:50:45,990 --> 00:50:48,530 because they would be the least likely to be shot. 864 00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:52,620 Frank Big Black 865 00:50:52,620 --> 00:50:56,540 Smith was the overall security leader. 866 00:50:57,410 --> 00:50:59,670 He took that job on himself already. 867 00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,000 He was the guy. 868 00:51:02,340 --> 00:51:04,170 Here's the big man. 869 00:51:04,250 --> 00:51:06,840 I mean, this is big. 870 00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:08,680 That was responsible to make sure 871 00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:11,680 that the observers that came in. 872 00:51:13,260 --> 00:51:15,890 They the same way they can't manage the same way 873 00:51:15,890 --> 00:51:19,480 they did that, you know, no harm come to them. 874 00:51:19,940 --> 00:51:23,060 He said, Well, we've got to have a security force. 875 00:51:23,770 --> 00:51:26,610 So we were looking for volunteers. 876 00:51:26,610 --> 00:51:27,570 You, you. 877 00:51:28,530 --> 00:51:30,610 Along the way for her, 878 00:51:30,610 --> 00:51:35,330 can't be all black as we need black guys, white guys and Puerto Ricans. 879 00:51:38,620 --> 00:51:41,420 We would line up and create a corridor, 880 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:45,840 and they would walk down the middle of the corridor with us being a barrier 881 00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:49,630 between general population and the negotiators. 882 00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:53,680 So we would just stand shoulder to shoulder and give them 883 00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,010 that safe space to walk through. 884 00:52:00,310 --> 00:52:01,730 We begin to talk with them 885 00:52:01,730 --> 00:52:06,690 about what they wanted, and they had their their 886 00:52:06,780 --> 00:52:10,700 their list of things that they wanted already written. 887 00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:13,950 You know, everybody wanted a voice. 888 00:52:13,950 --> 00:52:14,660 Good, bad. 889 00:52:14,660 --> 00:52:19,000 And it worked out, so nothing went easy, but it went. 890 00:52:19,500 --> 00:52:24,920 We got to a point where we had what we thought might be possible. 891 00:52:25,380 --> 00:52:27,670 Their demands were, you know, 892 00:52:28,130 --> 00:52:31,260 reasonable demands about living conditions. 893 00:52:31,630 --> 00:52:34,090 They wanted medical care. 894 00:52:36,140 --> 00:52:38,430 Decent food, 895 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:41,850 fair disciplinary hearings. 896 00:52:45,020 --> 00:52:46,440 Basically, 897 00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:50,400 they wanted to be treated like human beings, 898 00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,820 prisoners late last night met with a civilian committee 899 00:52:54,820 --> 00:52:58,160 in an attempt to clarify demands ranging from better prison 900 00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,910 life conditions to more religious and political freedom. 901 00:53:01,540 --> 00:53:03,920 I injected into the two demands 902 00:53:04,670 --> 00:53:08,170 for some people to go to non imperialistic country. 903 00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:10,880 You have to be frightened flight out. 904 00:53:11,210 --> 00:53:12,920 We thought Cuba was going to come and get us. 905 00:53:14,180 --> 00:53:17,800 You ship troops to Vietnam to stop the men. 906 00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:20,810 Go to all these five countries to press the button. 907 00:53:21,020 --> 00:53:23,850 You can bet why these helicopters in air and ship 908 00:53:24,100 --> 00:53:26,230 on this country. 909 00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,440 We didn't seeing people snatch airplanes 910 00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,940 and all like dead and go to Cuba and Algiers and all other places. 911 00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:34,950 Why not get out of jail? 912 00:53:34,950 --> 00:53:38,120 An Air France jet was hijacked by Palestinian girls. 913 00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,830 17 year old girl hijacked a twb jetliner 914 00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,580 I have for years and on a 25 to life sentence. 915 00:53:44,580 --> 00:53:46,960 Why not get out of jail? 916 00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:48,040 Why not? 917 00:53:49,290 --> 00:53:50,590 We all do that. 918 00:53:50,590 --> 00:53:52,010 I wasn't going to happen. 919 00:53:52,010 --> 00:53:54,260 We weren't going to go to 920 00:53:54,340 --> 00:53:55,840 Algeria on the plane. 921 00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:58,680 I knew that everybody in the back of their mind knew that. 922 00:53:59,850 --> 00:54:01,010 But we need it, obviously. 923 00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:04,480 We want the federal 924 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:08,560 judiciary to guarantee complete amnesty to each and every one of us 925 00:54:08,770 --> 00:54:13,940 has taken part in the struggle here at Attica to ensure that this amnesty 926 00:54:13,940 --> 00:54:19,120 will not be just a groping in the win, but a reality for each and every one of us. 927 00:54:20,030 --> 00:54:23,620 They were not looking to be relieved of the prison sentences 928 00:54:23,620 --> 00:54:27,080 to which they have been sent by the courts after being convicted. 929 00:54:27,420 --> 00:54:30,500 They were looking to be freed from any 930 00:54:30,500 --> 00:54:32,880 prosecution or any penalties 931 00:54:33,300 --> 00:54:35,340 for their engaging in the riot. 932 00:54:38,470 --> 00:54:41,260 Besides the normal beatings and everything else 933 00:54:41,300 --> 00:54:45,350 they're going to do to us, which is, you know, automatic. 934 00:54:46,230 --> 00:54:49,940 We knew that they could also take us and bring us to court and, 935 00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:55,690 you know, and turn us into the monster inmates who took over the prison. 936 00:54:56,530 --> 00:54:59,110 We are not advocating violence. 937 00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,200 We all want to live. 938 00:55:04,990 --> 00:55:07,290 All right. 939 00:55:07,290 --> 00:55:09,290 If you get one on dog. 940 00:55:11,500 --> 00:55:14,420 You're treating them better than we have been treated 941 00:55:15,130 --> 00:55:15,880 the last. 942 00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:21,220 They were fiercely 943 00:55:21,220 --> 00:55:25,520 trying to convince prison authorities that they didn't cease 944 00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:29,100 being a human being merely by the fact that they were 945 00:55:30,020 --> 00:55:32,400 incarcerated because they had broken. 946 00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:36,860 A law society, and that's a profound thing. 947 00:55:37,780 --> 00:55:40,570 I am somebody. 948 00:55:40,570 --> 00:55:42,700 I'm not a thing. 949 00:55:42,990 --> 00:55:46,290 You can't treat me like a dog. 950 00:55:46,290 --> 00:55:48,580 I may be a prisoner, but I have dignity. 951 00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:52,040 And that's what they insisted. 952 00:55:53,500 --> 00:55:55,250 I'm getting the. 953 00:55:56,380 --> 00:55:59,420 Power structure of Africa to recognize. 954 00:56:00,590 --> 00:56:03,550 That they continue to be. 955 00:56:03,550 --> 00:56:04,930 Somebody. 956 00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:07,140 All of you have seen 957 00:56:07,220 --> 00:56:10,390 the observers, they all were listening to us. 958 00:56:10,810 --> 00:56:13,600 I feel that they were supporting us. 959 00:56:14,980 --> 00:56:15,730 We see. 960 00:56:15,730 --> 00:56:17,900 And that meant a lot to us. 961 00:56:19,990 --> 00:56:21,280 This is our situation. 962 00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,740 Please listen to us. And that's what they were doing. 963 00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:25,030 They were listening. 964 00:56:25,030 --> 00:56:27,410 It felt like they were somebody that believed in us. 965 00:56:27,540 --> 00:56:29,160 It felt that way. 966 00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:32,080 If somebody believe that you know, you did have some rights, 967 00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:34,420 even though you were a convicted felon or whatever. 968 00:56:36,460 --> 00:56:37,920 Would we able to get 969 00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:41,340 a better mailing privileges, better medical privileges? 970 00:56:41,670 --> 00:56:47,390 We tried to nail it down to that, which was realistic and possible over 971 00:56:47,430 --> 00:56:50,100 distinguished from a plane waiting for us 972 00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,730 outside the cellblock, flying us to Cuba. 973 00:56:54,770 --> 00:56:57,690 That's what it was like it was it was realism 974 00:56:58,190 --> 00:57:01,570 from fantasy. 975 00:57:01,780 --> 00:57:05,370 We want to be treated as human beings, 976 00:57:05,370 --> 00:57:08,280 we will be treated as human beings. 977 00:57:08,870 --> 00:57:11,290 Yeah, we have come to the conclusion. 978 00:57:13,540 --> 00:57:15,120 That's the study. 979 00:57:16,540 --> 00:57:19,920 After much suffering. 980 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,090 After much consideration. 981 00:57:23,090 --> 00:57:25,890 But if we cannot move 982 00:57:26,090 --> 00:57:27,180 people. 983 00:57:28,390 --> 00:57:30,680 We will at least try. 984 00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:32,980 Today, let me. 985 00:57:36,100 --> 00:57:38,190 That statement was sounded 986 00:57:39,650 --> 00:57:41,070 everywhere. 987 00:57:45,990 --> 00:57:46,820 In that yard, 988 00:57:46,820 --> 00:57:50,790 when he said that a roar went up like no other. 989 00:57:51,700 --> 00:57:54,580 This was this day, and I saw that 990 00:57:55,330 --> 00:57:58,540 I really none of us were going to be observers, 991 00:57:58,540 --> 00:58:03,300 we were going to be mediators , whether we wanted to be mediators or not, 992 00:58:03,300 --> 00:58:06,010 whether we were called up to be mediators. 993 00:58:07,010 --> 00:58:11,510 This prison uprising had to be mediated. 994 00:58:11,510 --> 00:58:14,680 Otherwise it was going to end in disaster. 995 00:58:16,270 --> 00:58:19,020 If you people do not understand. 996 00:58:20,020 --> 00:58:22,150 If you people do not pick what? 997 00:58:23,650 --> 00:58:25,900 If you people can not make the commitment 998 00:58:25,900 --> 00:58:28,360 that we have made here. 999 00:58:29,910 --> 00:58:31,740 We all did. 1000 00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:32,990 All right. 1001 00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:34,870 We'll take you all 1002 00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:37,750 to stand with us. 1003 00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:42,170 Not necessarily. 1004 00:58:42,380 --> 00:58:45,210 I know you want to 1005 00:58:45,210 --> 00:58:48,090 hey, hey, before. 1006 00:59:12,030 --> 00:59:14,950 Things were growing on the outside, 1007 00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:17,370 don't take. 1008 00:59:20,210 --> 00:59:22,380 There were more journalists. 1009 00:59:22,380 --> 00:59:25,210 There were more police. 1010 00:59:25,210 --> 00:59:27,510 And it was just getting bigger 1011 00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:30,260 and bigger and bigger. 1012 00:59:31,930 --> 00:59:34,350 People are coming night and day 1013 00:59:34,640 --> 00:59:37,680 vans with reporters and police 1014 00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:41,310 and things are building up. 1015 00:59:42,900 --> 00:59:44,730 Among those keeping a vigil outside 1016 00:59:44,730 --> 00:59:48,530 the prison walls, the families of some of the 38 men held hostage. 1017 00:59:48,690 --> 00:59:51,700 I was just home watching the TV. 1018 00:59:51,990 --> 00:59:54,910 I just kept looking for my husband. 1019 00:59:55,330 --> 00:59:58,410 Maybe he'd be killed or brutalized in some way 1020 00:59:58,660 --> 01:00:02,170 because the inmates at that time had the power there, you know, 1021 01:00:02,790 --> 01:00:05,500 and if they didn't like somebody who who knew 1022 01:00:05,500 --> 01:00:08,920 what you were scared to death that, you know, 1023 01:00:08,920 --> 01:00:12,300 they'd just kill him or something and they didn't get their way. 1024 01:00:14,050 --> 01:00:16,810 Families of the 31 hostages wait for word 1025 01:00:16,810 --> 01:00:19,480 as part of the prison remains in control of the inmate. 1026 01:00:26,570 --> 01:00:27,860 They were upset. 1027 01:00:27,860 --> 01:00:29,940 They were angry and they were scared 1028 01:00:30,570 --> 01:00:35,030 standing out there while their loved ones are being held hostage 1029 01:00:36,030 --> 01:00:39,790 and they are waiting for any scrap of information 1030 01:00:41,330 --> 01:00:44,830 to hear something. 1031 01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,250 And many of those families 1032 01:00:47,250 --> 01:00:50,970 stood vigil day and night out there. 1033 01:00:52,510 --> 01:00:54,340 A bunch of people crying, 1034 01:00:54,340 --> 01:00:57,220 the wives and brothers and fathers 1035 01:00:57,680 --> 01:01:00,430 freaking out to his panic. 1036 01:01:01,180 --> 01:01:04,850 People are afraid to talk in the parking lot because they thought 1037 01:01:04,850 --> 01:01:10,280 that any reporters or anybody, even they did it on the privacy 1038 01:01:10,570 --> 01:01:13,780 because they didn't want the relatives targeted, singled out 1039 01:01:13,780 --> 01:01:15,780 by the inmates. 1040 01:01:26,630 --> 01:01:28,290 I had sympathy for them. 1041 01:01:28,290 --> 01:01:32,800 They were elsewhere, you're going to get a job if you lived in that 1042 01:01:34,180 --> 01:01:36,430 area and you had no 1043 01:01:37,180 --> 01:01:41,180 training and no understanding 1044 01:01:41,180 --> 01:01:44,310 of what it was like to grow up in 1045 01:01:45,390 --> 01:01:48,270 a poor black urban area. 1046 01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:52,690 You used these were aliens. 1047 01:01:52,690 --> 01:01:56,070 These were people from a different world 1048 01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:01,410 and your family members. 1049 01:02:01,580 --> 01:02:04,410 Maybe you're going to get killed 1050 01:02:04,410 --> 01:02:06,330 because of them. 1051 01:02:06,330 --> 01:02:08,670 Sure, you were. 1052 01:02:08,670 --> 01:02:10,880 Infuriated. 1053 01:02:12,050 --> 01:02:13,590 All these dogs up there with 1054 01:02:13,590 --> 01:02:15,800 all those rifles are trying to kill us. 1055 01:02:16,760 --> 01:02:20,510 Well, we ain't gonna quit the inmates that we're giving microphones. 1056 01:02:20,510 --> 01:02:21,560 I'm on TV. 1057 01:02:21,560 --> 01:02:23,810 I mean, the very upsetting. 1058 01:02:25,060 --> 01:02:26,730 They should have resolved it right away. 1059 01:02:26,730 --> 01:02:28,730 It just went on too far. 1060 01:02:28,730 --> 01:02:31,440 We all just wanted it to end. 1061 01:02:32,320 --> 01:02:36,320 What I what you hear over the radio 1062 01:02:36,990 --> 01:02:40,320 and the TV was and it's inspiring to me 1063 01:02:41,030 --> 01:02:43,870 because it seemed to me that what I was hearing. 1064 01:02:44,910 --> 01:02:47,540 I didn't think 1065 01:02:48,370 --> 01:02:50,670 they were doing the right thing. 1066 01:02:50,670 --> 01:02:52,840 It just seemed sort of limp to me 1067 01:02:53,670 --> 01:02:56,510 and it was frustrating. 1068 01:02:57,300 --> 01:02:59,180 You'd hear stuff from people. 1069 01:02:59,180 --> 01:03:03,140 That's where it got a little scary too, because you could see how the inmates 1070 01:03:03,140 --> 01:03:07,310 were considered like less than human kind of like animals. 1071 01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:10,900 There was people saying, You know, don't worry about your dad, 1072 01:03:11,150 --> 01:03:14,020 you know, they'll get theirs type thing. 1073 01:03:14,020 --> 01:03:16,990 And so that kind of made it even more scary. 1074 01:03:17,030 --> 01:03:20,700 You realize how emotionally charged the community is getting. 1075 01:03:21,620 --> 01:03:23,660 The tensions got worse and worse. Worse. 1076 01:03:23,660 --> 01:03:25,750 Emotions got worse and worse and worse. 1077 01:03:35,760 --> 01:03:36,710 Sadly, 1078 01:03:36,710 --> 01:03:42,180 I think that the hope was stronger than any doubt because after three days 1079 01:03:42,430 --> 01:03:45,390 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 1080 01:03:45,970 --> 01:03:47,520 They had came in 1081 01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:50,980 we had like 30 demands and most of them what 1082 01:03:52,560 --> 01:03:53,940 possible, 1083 01:03:53,940 --> 01:03:56,530 and we will still be doing about it. 1084 01:03:57,150 --> 01:03:59,860 I've never seen anything like this. 1085 01:03:59,860 --> 01:04:02,160 The people in here are treated like dogs. 1086 01:04:02,160 --> 01:04:04,240 Not only the Black Lives Matter, white. 1087 01:04:04,950 --> 01:04:06,740 And we're going to get what we planned. 1088 01:04:06,740 --> 01:04:08,790 Are we going to die? Try. 1089 01:04:08,790 --> 01:04:12,370 But we thought that whatever happened, 1090 01:04:12,370 --> 01:04:15,710 we may maybe really walk away with some improvement 1091 01:04:15,710 --> 01:04:17,170 in our lives. 1092 01:04:19,130 --> 01:04:21,760 Point was, is that whatever happened, 1093 01:04:22,300 --> 01:04:24,890 it just had to make a difference. 1094 01:04:25,180 --> 01:04:26,970 Change had to happen. 1095 01:04:26,970 --> 01:04:29,020 You had to embrace who. 1096 01:04:34,020 --> 01:04:34,690 There's a report 1097 01:04:34,690 --> 01:04:37,730 that prison officials have yielded to most of the demands 1098 01:04:37,730 --> 01:04:40,860 by the rebelling inmates of the Attica state prison in New York, 1099 01:04:41,150 --> 01:04:44,490 where more than 30 persons have been held hostage for three days. 1100 01:04:45,740 --> 01:04:48,490 As you know, during this ordeal. 1101 01:04:48,490 --> 01:04:51,000 I have personally met with inmates 1102 01:04:51,460 --> 01:04:54,830 on several occasions in areas under their control, 1103 01:04:55,670 --> 01:04:58,340 and they have demonstrated my commitment 1104 01:04:58,340 --> 01:05:00,760 to deal with the issues they have raised 1105 01:05:01,510 --> 01:05:04,050 by accepting 28 1106 01:05:04,050 --> 01:05:06,930 of the three major inmate proposals. 1107 01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:09,850 The second is like any time of what's going to happen now. 1108 01:05:10,520 --> 01:05:12,810 Well, we hope negotiations will 1109 01:05:13,350 --> 01:05:16,310 start this afternoon and continue until they reach a solution. 1110 01:05:16,650 --> 01:05:19,650 Huey Newton or Bobby Seale, are they coming? 1111 01:05:19,650 --> 01:05:20,190 They were asked. 1112 01:05:20,190 --> 01:05:23,150 Or we hope we understood that they were en route. 1113 01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:23,860 We had. 1114 01:05:25,030 --> 01:05:27,530 Kind of settled in on the demands 1115 01:05:28,200 --> 01:05:30,950 we had negotiated with Oswald 1116 01:05:30,950 --> 01:05:33,960 for his commitment to 28 of them. 1117 01:05:35,370 --> 01:05:39,880 The commissioner and the whole point of Bobby SEALs coming there would be for him 1118 01:05:39,880 --> 01:05:43,420 to bless and support and urge the inmates 1119 01:05:43,420 --> 01:05:45,130 to accept them. 1120 01:05:50,310 --> 01:05:50,600 Bobby 1121 01:05:50,600 --> 01:05:53,600 Seale was our hero because he was speaking out 1122 01:05:53,600 --> 01:05:55,810 about the brutality that was happening in the prison system. 1123 01:05:56,940 --> 01:05:59,730 He was doing what we were trying to leave. 1124 01:05:59,730 --> 01:06:00,980 He was a panther. 1125 01:06:00,980 --> 01:06:02,820 The second in command. 1126 01:06:02,820 --> 01:06:05,780 I really thought it would help us out of everything 1127 01:06:05,820 --> 01:06:08,240 we ever demand. 1128 01:06:10,660 --> 01:06:12,750 Bobby didn't stay long. 1129 01:06:12,750 --> 01:06:17,540 Bobby to stay long, came up to it and go shake table was made a little speech. 1130 01:06:17,710 --> 01:06:19,750 You walk around your. 1131 01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:23,630 Well, we won't read about the jail. 1132 01:06:23,630 --> 01:06:26,050 A lot of times we're going back in time. 1133 01:06:26,090 --> 01:06:28,340 It was quite a letdown. 1134 01:06:28,340 --> 01:06:32,390 There is no remember me at all, about three minutes. 1135 01:06:35,350 --> 01:06:37,100 At that point, 1136 01:06:37,100 --> 01:06:40,440 everybody's just sitting around waiting for something to happen. 1137 01:06:44,990 --> 01:06:47,780 But then Billy Quinn died. 1138 01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:51,700 And that transformed everything 1139 01:06:51,700 --> 01:06:54,660 the state prison in Attica, New York, is at the crisis point. 1140 01:06:55,000 --> 01:06:58,710 The death of one of the guards as harden the position of prison officials 1141 01:06:59,040 --> 01:07:01,710 and there are you don't get amnesty for a murder. 1142 01:07:01,960 --> 01:07:04,460 I immediately knew. 1143 01:07:07,470 --> 01:07:08,840 That the 1144 01:07:10,010 --> 01:07:11,510 process of negotiations 1145 01:07:11,510 --> 01:07:13,970 just became far more difficult. 1146 01:07:15,060 --> 01:07:16,680 I knew that was. 1147 01:07:17,520 --> 01:07:20,730 I was the worst possible thing that could happen. 1148 01:07:20,730 --> 01:07:23,440 How could they peacefully negotiate? 1149 01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:28,700 With inmates who they held responsible for the death 1150 01:07:28,700 --> 01:07:29,660 of a guard. 1151 01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:36,830 Prior to his passing on. 1152 01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:40,210 There was a hope and even an expectation 1153 01:07:41,170 --> 01:07:43,710 because people were listening. 1154 01:07:43,710 --> 01:07:46,420 People were coming to understand what we had been living through 1155 01:07:48,090 --> 01:07:50,340 and suffering as prisoners there. 1156 01:07:52,300 --> 01:07:54,350 We know that it was a new ball 1157 01:07:54,350 --> 01:07:57,430 game was depression. 1158 01:07:57,430 --> 01:07:58,810 And fear. 1159 01:07:59,810 --> 01:08:02,770 And, you know, anxiety and yeah, 1160 01:08:04,230 --> 01:08:05,940 everything you can imagine. 1161 01:08:05,940 --> 01:08:08,990 We had to drop a lot of issues 1162 01:08:08,990 --> 01:08:11,030 and focus on amnesty 1163 01:08:11,030 --> 01:08:13,740 as one as the main issue 1164 01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:16,910 because we want to be charged 1165 01:08:18,120 --> 01:08:19,250 with murder. 1166 01:08:19,250 --> 01:08:20,660 We said. 1167 01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:22,540 As a group. 1168 01:08:24,630 --> 01:08:26,000 That we was going 1169 01:08:26,000 --> 01:08:28,170 to stay in solidarity with anyone. 1170 01:08:30,550 --> 01:08:32,630 They could not give amnesty to everybody. 1171 01:08:32,970 --> 01:08:36,140 Then was not going to leave anyone in the clutch in 1172 01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:39,980 to take a towing back on the bus or speak to take this. 1173 01:08:40,140 --> 01:08:45,190 We acted together that we understood that this was us, 1174 01:08:46,020 --> 01:08:48,780 that if we didn't stand together now, we never would. 1175 01:08:48,780 --> 01:08:49,820 And it would. 1176 01:08:49,820 --> 01:08:52,910 We would live like dogs for the rest of our lives. 1177 01:08:55,490 --> 01:08:57,580 We understood that. 1178 01:08:57,580 --> 01:09:02,460 Did I wish that we could somehow back away, but not without amnesty? 1179 01:09:02,500 --> 01:09:04,500 How do the inmates feel about the current situation? 1180 01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:06,210 I will. 1181 01:09:06,210 --> 01:09:08,880 A group of us were in with the inmates. 1182 01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:10,670 We met with them. 1183 01:09:10,670 --> 01:09:13,220 We had two and a half hours. 1184 01:09:13,220 --> 01:09:14,590 Some of the people are here, 1185 01:09:14,590 --> 01:09:18,100 but we really have nothing to say about it, except they are firm in their demands. 1186 01:09:18,430 --> 01:09:19,680 And that's it. 1187 01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:20,270 In other words, 1188 01:09:20,270 --> 01:09:23,390 they're not going to let the hostages go until they're granted total amnesty. 1189 01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,650 That was their last position. 1190 01:09:31,110 --> 01:09:33,820 The flag at half staff for the injured guard who had died 1191 01:09:33,820 --> 01:09:35,910 the night before set the mood this morning, 1192 01:09:36,120 --> 01:09:38,910 it was clear that the troubles of this troubled prison had grown worse. 1193 01:09:39,030 --> 01:09:42,120 That Sunday, you had that fall that came over 1194 01:09:42,700 --> 01:09:44,750 and it was a certain chill in the air. 1195 01:09:46,250 --> 01:09:47,750 Something didn't feel right. 1196 01:09:47,750 --> 01:09:49,710 It didn't feel right. 1197 01:09:49,710 --> 01:09:52,550 There are strong indications tonight that police will be sent 1198 01:09:52,550 --> 01:09:56,140 into the cellblock in an attempt to rescue the rest of the hostages 1199 01:09:56,140 --> 01:09:57,260 by force. 1200 01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:03,480 Water was cut off. 1201 01:10:03,480 --> 01:10:05,810 Food was getting scarce. 1202 01:10:05,810 --> 01:10:09,060 Patients were getting shot and people were totally 1203 01:10:10,190 --> 01:10:12,280 wondering what is going to be the outcome 1204 01:10:13,110 --> 01:10:15,030 of the situation. 1205 01:10:22,370 --> 01:10:24,960 There was enormous pressure, and I witnessed 1206 01:10:24,960 --> 01:10:29,710 that as I took a breather and went out to the public space 1207 01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:34,300 just outside the prison, where a lot of correction 1208 01:10:34,300 --> 01:10:37,720 officers, their families, troopers and other officials 1209 01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:39,640 were gathered together. 1210 01:10:40,930 --> 01:10:43,470 I mean, the news was completely about that. 1211 01:10:43,770 --> 01:10:46,640 You know that the state troopers and everybody were poised 1212 01:10:46,640 --> 01:10:49,560 on the top looking and 1213 01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:52,480 it was all about these rumors 1214 01:10:52,650 --> 01:10:56,950 that the prisoners were castrating 1215 01:10:56,950 --> 01:11:01,450 the hostages, that they were torturing them. 1216 01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:04,540 And it's going to end in bloodshed. 1217 01:11:04,540 --> 01:11:08,960 And that was the storyline that was terrifying, people. 1218 01:11:09,670 --> 01:11:11,170 Could you turn around this way to the camera? 1219 01:11:11,170 --> 01:11:13,710 I think I did a few interviews 1220 01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:16,170 and the people were 1221 01:11:16,170 --> 01:11:20,760 made it very clear that these are bad people in there and 1222 01:11:21,850 --> 01:11:23,430 they shouldn't be doing this. 1223 01:11:23,430 --> 01:11:25,600 You know, they should be taken care of. 1224 01:11:25,680 --> 01:11:26,850 You know what I mean? 1225 01:11:26,850 --> 01:11:28,770 And hang them and 1226 01:11:28,810 --> 01:11:29,940 crazy stuff. 1227 01:11:29,940 --> 01:11:32,310 I mean, they're just really crazy. 1228 01:11:32,690 --> 01:11:35,190 It was a very hostile environment. 1229 01:11:35,230 --> 01:11:36,400 And I just 1230 01:11:36,820 --> 01:11:39,110 don't I 1231 01:11:40,530 --> 01:11:42,990 don't think that Jaime, I'll stick up your hand. 1232 01:11:43,870 --> 01:11:47,080 I'm a father of eight children and my boy is the oldest, 1233 01:11:47,450 --> 01:11:50,580 and I wouldn't want to see any one of them die. 1234 01:11:50,580 --> 01:11:52,580 Whatever he is going to die, 1235 01:11:52,580 --> 01:11:55,840 I want that whole damn thing bound right to hell. OK. 1236 01:11:57,010 --> 01:12:00,510 And while we're talking went on, the state police 1237 01:12:00,510 --> 01:12:04,050 kept reinforcing at least 500 men in and out of the wall. 1238 01:12:04,470 --> 01:12:08,100 No indication that any of this force will be used at the police already. 1239 01:12:09,390 --> 01:12:09,940 Well, any 1240 01:12:09,940 --> 01:12:15,230 time you went in and out of the prison, there was an army 1241 01:12:15,690 --> 01:12:21,780 and they were armed with every conceivable type of weapon . 1242 01:12:21,780 --> 01:12:25,120 And it really looked like 1243 01:12:25,950 --> 01:12:28,370 they wanted to use those weapons. 1244 01:12:28,410 --> 01:12:31,540 You had the sense of their anger 1245 01:12:31,540 --> 01:12:33,580 and they've been held back and 1246 01:12:37,670 --> 01:12:39,090 they wanted to move. 1247 01:12:39,090 --> 01:12:42,760 They wanted to to to attack. 1248 01:12:47,220 --> 01:12:49,890 Yeah, they were very impatient, 1249 01:12:49,890 --> 01:12:51,440 very unhappy. 1250 01:12:52,390 --> 01:12:56,940 They were all thrown into a situation in which they are not prepared for 1251 01:12:57,440 --> 01:13:01,450 and about which they had basically an animosity. 1252 01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:06,160 And I wish to 1253 01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:09,040 would any of the men that a lot us off the roof? 1254 01:13:09,410 --> 01:13:14,210 Adobe that group is out of here because if you get these shaky guy shooting off 1255 01:13:14,210 --> 01:13:18,340 or getting up, and all of a sudden somebody is going to get excited 1256 01:13:18,750 --> 01:13:21,720 and then we're all going to say now, this is not a joke. 1257 01:13:22,420 --> 01:13:23,130 This is not 1258 01:13:24,470 --> 01:13:26,760 some kind of a little tea party we've got here. 1259 01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:29,350 And I just hope that the commissioner 1260 01:13:29,810 --> 01:13:32,480 and the other people in the committee that they've gathered together 1261 01:13:34,190 --> 01:13:36,980 can come up with a solution 1262 01:13:36,980 --> 01:13:39,860 to solve these people's problems 1263 01:13:39,860 --> 01:13:40,820 and ours. 1264 01:13:41,070 --> 01:13:42,690 Thank you very much. 1265 01:13:46,370 --> 01:13:49,700 Late Sunday afternoon, 1266 01:13:49,790 --> 01:13:53,290 Commissioner Oswald and the officials were prepared 1267 01:13:53,620 --> 01:13:57,040 and intended to retaking. 1268 01:13:57,670 --> 01:14:00,340 But I pressed Israel to agree 1269 01:14:01,130 --> 01:14:03,590 to give them until 7:00 on Monday 1270 01:14:03,590 --> 01:14:05,970 morning, by Sunday morning, everything else had failed. 1271 01:14:07,390 --> 01:14:12,640 And so the the the final shot 1272 01:14:13,060 --> 01:14:15,850 was going to be to try to get the Roc-A-Fella. 1273 01:14:17,060 --> 01:14:21,230 And there was there was a committee of people put together to do that. 1274 01:14:21,940 --> 01:14:22,610 Good morning. 1275 01:14:24,150 --> 01:14:26,780 We wanted four friends of the governor 1276 01:14:27,030 --> 01:14:29,450 to call him and please as your friend. 1277 01:14:29,950 --> 01:14:33,950 Let me ask you to come to Attica, not to meet with the prisoners, 1278 01:14:33,950 --> 01:14:37,960 but to come and lay your hand on approving these measures, 1279 01:14:38,920 --> 01:14:40,460 Sergeant Cunningham. 1280 01:14:40,460 --> 01:14:42,550 Now, would you give us a message 1281 01:14:42,800 --> 01:14:45,130 for Governor Nelson Rockefeller? 1282 01:14:46,340 --> 01:14:47,590 I certainly would. 1283 01:14:47,590 --> 01:14:51,100 one of the recommendations is and he said, No, I'm dead. 1284 01:14:51,680 --> 01:14:55,310 I and some of my fellow members of the Service Committee felt 1285 01:14:55,310 --> 01:15:00,440 very strongly that if Governor Rockefeller were to come to and identify 1286 01:15:00,650 --> 01:15:04,400 with finding a solution, it might have broken the logjam. 1287 01:15:05,490 --> 01:15:09,200 So I placed the call, the governor Rockefeller, somewhere around 3:00. 1288 01:15:09,530 --> 01:15:13,030 Governor, what about your personal feelings right now? 1289 01:15:13,330 --> 01:15:15,790 On one level, it was a Hail Mary. 1290 01:15:15,790 --> 01:15:18,790 On the other level it was more than a Hail Mary. 1291 01:15:18,790 --> 01:15:21,130 These were prominent people. 1292 01:15:23,090 --> 01:15:27,970 People that you would think Rockefeller respected 1293 01:15:28,430 --> 01:15:33,050 making a sincere pitch come up here, you don't have to go in. 1294 01:15:33,510 --> 01:15:37,270 You don't have to agree to anything your presence will have mean. 1295 01:15:38,190 --> 01:15:41,310 Maybe if he came, that would be an opening 1296 01:15:41,310 --> 01:15:45,030 that would have allowed us to negotiate. 1297 01:15:45,030 --> 01:15:45,690 Maybe. 1298 01:15:47,030 --> 01:15:47,900 Some other 1299 01:15:47,900 --> 01:15:52,410 negotiators could be brought in who would help the negotiation, 1300 01:15:52,410 --> 01:15:55,080 maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. 1301 01:15:55,740 --> 01:15:58,960 But no known donor or man. 1302 01:15:59,000 --> 01:16:01,040 Death, death, death, death. 1303 01:16:01,790 --> 01:16:05,130 Prisoners had been demanding from the very beginning that I come into the yard, 1304 01:16:05,710 --> 01:16:09,090 and I frankly felt that the idea of governors 1305 01:16:10,090 --> 01:16:14,010 any time there was an uprising or any time there was a prisoner 1306 01:16:14,010 --> 01:16:18,640 taken on a prisoner, but a hostage taking being involved in the negotiation, 1307 01:16:18,640 --> 01:16:21,140 the next thing would be, we don't want the governor, we want the president, 1308 01:16:21,850 --> 01:16:24,900 and we get to a situation with an impossible one for this country. 1309 01:16:24,980 --> 01:16:28,190 By the time they spoke to him, he had made up his mind. 1310 01:16:29,190 --> 01:16:31,990 He listened carefully, he listened politely. 1311 01:16:32,950 --> 01:16:35,120 But by then, he had made up his mind. 1312 01:16:37,160 --> 01:16:39,750 We didn't understand the background of us 1313 01:16:39,750 --> 01:16:44,960 having consulted on an ongoing basis during those days with the White House, 1314 01:16:45,630 --> 01:16:49,170 the administration in Washington encouraged Rockey 1315 01:16:49,170 --> 01:16:51,590 to take a strong hard line position, 1316 01:16:52,340 --> 01:16:54,550 which was unfortunate. 1317 01:16:54,640 --> 01:16:58,220 It was all a part of President Nixon's law and order agenda. 1318 01:16:58,810 --> 01:17:01,480 They were putting the pressure yesterday on me all day 1319 01:17:01,480 --> 01:17:05,270 to go up there and it up because everything else had failed. 1320 01:17:05,270 --> 01:17:06,480 And did you go? 1321 01:17:06,480 --> 01:17:08,530 Of course not. Of course not. 1322 01:17:08,530 --> 01:17:09,480 But I had the time. 1323 01:17:09,480 --> 01:17:11,860 Rockefeller wasn't calling the shots. 1324 01:17:12,900 --> 01:17:14,950 Because he was on the phone. 1325 01:17:16,410 --> 01:17:19,290 With Richard Nixon. 1326 01:17:20,750 --> 01:17:24,290 Rockefeller wanted to be president. 1327 01:17:24,290 --> 01:17:26,130 But the word on him was that 1328 01:17:26,130 --> 01:17:28,300 he was too soft on crime. 1329 01:17:29,590 --> 01:17:31,420 Where was he recommending amnesty? 1330 01:17:31,420 --> 01:17:32,090 Oh, yes. 1331 01:17:32,130 --> 01:17:35,760 Oh God, I tell you, is 1332 01:17:35,760 --> 01:17:38,970 this was the great this is separated the sheep from the goats. 1333 01:17:39,430 --> 01:17:46,310 And if he wanted the support of Nixon and the Republican Party, then 1334 01:17:47,610 --> 01:17:49,820 he needs to go along. 1335 01:17:49,900 --> 01:17:52,440 And so he wouldn't come. 1336 01:17:57,780 --> 01:17:59,120 You know, not that Rockefeller 1337 01:17:59,120 --> 01:18:01,330 wasn't coming in. 1338 01:18:03,290 --> 01:18:05,080 It's like slamming the door on you. 1339 01:18:05,080 --> 01:18:08,790 You know, I slammed the door and we were locked in this room 1340 01:18:08,790 --> 01:18:10,800 and we didn't know what to do. 1341 01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:13,720 You were to a great degree, 1342 01:18:13,720 --> 01:18:17,550 despondent that we had no solution to this. 1343 01:18:17,590 --> 01:18:20,310 We didn't know what to do. 1344 01:18:20,310 --> 01:18:23,640 Made one last chance to convince the inmates 1345 01:18:23,640 --> 01:18:25,350 to surrender. 1346 01:18:30,610 --> 01:18:33,070 That last night, Cell Block D. 1347 01:18:35,200 --> 01:18:37,200 As we were trying to negotiate. 1348 01:18:38,870 --> 01:18:41,490 Demands that we thought. 1349 01:18:42,410 --> 01:18:44,200 But realistic. 1350 01:18:47,080 --> 01:18:50,960 Was. A come to Jesus moment. 1351 01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:55,300 This is what you wanted the demands. 1352 01:18:56,130 --> 01:18:58,550 This is what we were able to achieve. 1353 01:18:58,550 --> 01:19:01,300 This is where we stand now. 1354 01:19:03,890 --> 01:19:06,390 I'm not going to mislead you. 1355 01:19:06,390 --> 01:19:08,600 And believe that you can get anything better. 1356 01:19:09,650 --> 01:19:11,560 I do not believe you can get 1357 01:19:11,560 --> 01:19:13,150 anything better. 1358 01:19:14,980 --> 01:19:16,280 I think we have to make 1359 01:19:16,280 --> 01:19:18,820 a peaceful accommodation. 1360 01:19:20,740 --> 01:19:24,490 Ready to be shot down like dogs. 1361 01:19:25,250 --> 01:19:28,540 I said this is what we achieved. OK. 1362 01:19:30,250 --> 01:19:32,420 And turn around, look, 1363 01:19:32,420 --> 01:19:36,550 cellblock, then you see all those guns there, just waiting to kill us. 1364 01:19:36,550 --> 01:19:38,050 They want to kill us. 1365 01:19:38,050 --> 01:19:41,050 Do you understand that they want to show 1366 01:19:41,220 --> 01:19:44,010 that they have the power from the barrel of a gun? 1367 01:19:44,060 --> 01:19:45,520 That's what they want to do. 1368 01:19:45,520 --> 01:19:48,270 Oh God, I don't know what's happening to me. 1369 01:19:48,520 --> 01:19:51,310 We were warned by the observers 1370 01:19:51,310 --> 01:19:55,230 that if we didn't settle, even without the amnesty, 1371 01:19:55,780 --> 01:19:59,200 they were going to come in and it could get very bad. 1372 01:20:00,990 --> 01:20:05,660 And of course, we talked among ourselves, and we just couldn't 1373 01:20:06,410 --> 01:20:09,460 go without the amnesty because it would have been literally 1374 01:20:10,250 --> 01:20:11,670 sending all our leaders. 1375 01:20:13,540 --> 01:20:15,960 To the dogs to be 1376 01:20:15,960 --> 01:20:18,720 tortured, murdered. 1377 01:20:19,550 --> 01:20:21,930 Convicted of crimes and 1378 01:20:21,930 --> 01:20:23,970 who knows what else, we had observed 1379 01:20:24,550 --> 01:20:28,850 the organization and preparation of the troopers to enter. 1380 01:20:29,020 --> 01:20:31,850 Hundreds of them with their shotguns 1381 01:20:31,850 --> 01:20:35,610 just outside the immediate area of the yard. 1382 01:20:36,190 --> 01:20:40,820 We witness the stationing of sharpshooters on one of the ledges 1383 01:20:41,320 --> 01:20:44,320 looking down into DAAD. 1384 01:20:44,320 --> 01:20:47,740 Fear overtook the observers committee. 1385 01:20:51,790 --> 01:20:54,170 It seemed like they felt something was going to happen. 1386 01:20:54,830 --> 01:20:56,340 They were more. 1387 01:20:57,500 --> 01:21:00,300 Hesitant to leave, they left with a solemn mood. 1388 01:21:00,340 --> 01:21:02,510 He left us with a solemn like. 1389 01:21:04,180 --> 01:21:07,600 But is this better, just take care. 1390 01:21:10,140 --> 01:21:12,480 I remember seeing them leave, and, 1391 01:21:12,480 --> 01:21:16,400 you know, it was a scary moment to see them leaving, 1392 01:21:16,770 --> 01:21:18,980 you know, knowing that there wasn't coming back. 1393 01:21:22,570 --> 01:21:23,400 I remember 1394 01:21:23,400 --> 01:21:27,910 Big Black saying, I want to thank you for what you guys tried to do. 1395 01:21:27,950 --> 01:21:30,790 We really appreciate it. So there was a lot of that. 1396 01:21:32,080 --> 01:21:33,290 When we went out of 1397 01:21:33,290 --> 01:21:36,670 that yard that night. 1398 01:21:37,090 --> 01:21:38,500 There were tears. 1399 01:21:39,300 --> 01:21:40,420 Tears. 1400 01:21:42,470 --> 01:21:45,010 And I think all of us were hoping 1401 01:21:45,010 --> 01:21:47,140 that something happened at the last minute. 1402 01:21:48,430 --> 01:21:49,430 Stop it. 1403 01:21:51,720 --> 01:21:55,270 I felt complete failure, 1404 01:21:55,270 --> 01:21:57,650 a failure that I had let them down. 1405 01:21:59,730 --> 01:22:03,110 one of the most painful things. 1406 01:22:03,190 --> 01:22:06,160 As inmates begin to. 1407 01:22:06,160 --> 01:22:09,450 Hand me written notes, the telephone number. 1408 01:22:10,910 --> 01:22:14,080 Of their of their 1409 01:22:14,080 --> 01:22:15,540 next of kin. 1410 01:22:16,460 --> 01:22:18,790 In case they didn't make it OK. 1411 01:22:19,380 --> 01:22:21,090 They wanted me. 1412 01:22:21,090 --> 01:22:24,050 They they I mean, a couple of them looked me in the eye with tears 1413 01:22:25,300 --> 01:22:27,300 for the Jones, but I don't make it. 1414 01:22:28,050 --> 01:22:28,930 You're going to call right. 1415 01:22:28,930 --> 01:22:31,260 I said, You have my word. 1416 01:22:31,970 --> 01:22:34,350 I will call you 1417 01:22:35,390 --> 01:22:38,690 any way optimistic that this thing could be settled by tomorrow. 1418 01:22:38,980 --> 01:22:42,530 I think I'm much too tired to be either optimistic or pessimistic at this moment. 1419 01:22:42,530 --> 01:22:44,860 I'm kind of just freaked out. 1420 01:22:56,540 --> 01:22:58,290 Randall, I know 1421 01:22:58,370 --> 01:23:00,920 it didn't stop ran until about 1422 01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:02,960 six in the morning. 1423 01:23:03,500 --> 01:23:06,760 Cold Mountain, right? 1424 01:23:06,800 --> 01:23:12,390 And we were not prepared for those little hunches that we had the 1425 01:23:13,060 --> 01:23:15,600 that people had built a yard up 1426 01:23:15,600 --> 01:23:18,020 in every day, all alone started collapsing. 1427 01:23:18,900 --> 01:23:21,060 And you had to get on 1428 01:23:21,730 --> 01:23:25,820 solid ground concrete and huddled together 1429 01:23:26,110 --> 01:23:29,200 because everybody was shivering and everything else. 1430 01:23:29,700 --> 01:23:32,830 It was a miserable night, one of the miserable nights 1431 01:23:32,830 --> 01:23:35,040 I ever spent in my life. 1432 01:23:37,620 --> 01:23:40,920 I could feel the tension in the air, the tension was so strong 1433 01:23:41,170 --> 01:23:43,880 that I could just basically grab it and hold on to it 1434 01:23:45,050 --> 01:23:46,170 . Am I going to make it? 1435 01:23:46,170 --> 01:23:48,630 Am I going to to this? 1436 01:23:48,630 --> 01:23:53,760 And that tension was so strong I could touch it, I could cut improperly in my hand. 1437 01:23:56,850 --> 01:23:59,310 There was an air. 1438 01:24:03,770 --> 01:24:06,110 We've been out there for about four days. 1439 01:24:06,110 --> 01:24:08,610 Wake up that morning and it's 1440 01:24:08,610 --> 01:24:11,070 wet and dreary out there, 1441 01:24:11,070 --> 01:24:14,450 and you could always smell the fumes 1442 01:24:15,200 --> 01:24:18,200 of Guy's body in that trench that we dug in the yard. 1443 01:24:18,410 --> 01:24:20,250 You use the bathroom. 1444 01:24:20,870 --> 01:24:22,960 Right there in front of You Breathe initiative nowadays, 1445 01:24:22,960 --> 01:24:25,960 so you want out. 1446 01:24:28,380 --> 01:24:30,260 What was really bad? 1447 01:24:30,260 --> 01:24:33,260 People's moods was that way, and 1448 01:24:33,720 --> 01:24:34,510 it was crowded. 1449 01:24:34,510 --> 01:24:37,020 It started to rain a little bit. 1450 01:24:37,020 --> 01:24:38,140 You know, it was dog. 1451 01:24:38,140 --> 01:24:40,850 The sky was dark gray. 1452 01:24:44,020 --> 01:24:44,650 We heard that 1453 01:24:44,650 --> 01:24:46,770 we would be part of a medical evacuation. 1454 01:24:48,440 --> 01:24:50,530 And early on Monday morning, 1455 01:24:50,530 --> 01:24:52,950 we loaded into trucks and headed for Attica prison. 1456 01:24:56,370 --> 01:24:58,450 In the three years that I was in the National Guard, 1457 01:24:58,450 --> 01:25:02,580 I had not seen any kind of action in which violence was involved. 1458 01:25:03,540 --> 01:25:05,500 But we had a sense of dread, 1459 01:25:05,500 --> 01:25:08,210 and we had a wish that we could kind of not go. 1460 01:25:09,460 --> 01:25:12,760 And there was the hope, even at the last minute, that 1461 01:25:13,470 --> 01:25:15,970 by some miracle, maybe 1462 01:25:16,300 --> 01:25:19,390 Rockefeller would intervene. 1463 01:25:20,560 --> 01:25:21,730 His refusal to come 1464 01:25:21,730 --> 01:25:25,860 here is a monstrosity, because what he is saying is kill these men. 1465 01:25:26,110 --> 01:25:27,940 I have no concern. 1466 01:25:27,940 --> 01:25:31,240 All I want to do is assault, law and order, 1467 01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:33,990 and I think that's a rotten in exchange for life. 1468 01:25:35,570 --> 01:25:37,580 And we got to the prison 1469 01:25:37,580 --> 01:25:41,830 and saw the lines of state troopers and deputies 1470 01:25:41,830 --> 01:25:45,540 with their raincoats on and their weapons in hand. 1471 01:25:46,880 --> 01:25:47,920 They looked exhausted. 1472 01:25:47,920 --> 01:25:51,300 They had been there, many of them for a couple of days at least, 1473 01:25:51,960 --> 01:25:55,260 and they really didn't look up to the task that was given to them. 1474 01:26:03,310 --> 01:26:05,350 He was coming in, you could tell. 1475 01:26:05,350 --> 01:26:08,270 You can see them starting to get more people I wasn't able to count on. 1476 01:26:10,480 --> 01:26:11,730 What I saw was. 1477 01:26:15,820 --> 01:26:18,870 We got another matches to put up on that table committee, there's 1478 01:26:18,870 --> 01:26:22,750 going to be rubber bullets and I say that's what that's 1479 01:26:22,750 --> 01:26:24,960 what the word was. 1480 01:26:27,460 --> 01:26:29,960 I thought they were going to be a real old fashioned game for you. 1481 01:26:29,960 --> 01:26:32,380 David, you want to call it, you know them versus us. 1482 01:26:32,630 --> 01:26:33,800 They've got the crowd. 1483 01:26:33,800 --> 01:26:36,680 We've got a few bats and stuff in here, so we're going to 1484 01:26:37,760 --> 01:26:39,640 best guy win. 1485 01:26:41,760 --> 01:26:44,350 We started making preparations 1486 01:26:44,350 --> 01:26:47,350 and putting Vaseline on every part of our body 1487 01:26:47,350 --> 01:26:50,570 that could be exposed to gas and get burnt and stuff like that 1488 01:26:51,730 --> 01:26:53,900 padding ourselves with clothes. 1489 01:26:57,820 --> 01:26:58,780 Somebody saying 1490 01:26:58,780 --> 01:27:01,410 if they come in here, then that's good because I know my sheik. 1491 01:27:04,040 --> 01:27:06,120 It became apparent to me 1492 01:27:06,120 --> 01:27:08,540 that the situation was seriously deteriorating 1493 01:27:09,380 --> 01:27:13,250 and that the inmates, many of whom are confined to this maximum 1494 01:27:13,250 --> 01:27:17,220 security facility under light and long sentences. 1495 01:27:18,050 --> 01:27:21,640 We're not going to participate in a reasonable negotiation. 1496 01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:24,770 Tensions within the walls 1497 01:27:24,770 --> 01:27:27,230 have steadily increased. 1498 01:27:27,230 --> 01:27:29,480 The action now underway 1499 01:27:29,480 --> 01:27:31,770 was initiated with extreme reluctance 1500 01:27:32,900 --> 01:27:36,240 only after all, attempts to achieve 1501 01:27:36,940 --> 01:27:40,820 a peaceful solution failed. 1502 01:27:40,990 --> 01:27:43,240 We were told that our mission was protection 1503 01:27:43,240 --> 01:27:47,120 for the medical battalion during the commander's briefing. 1504 01:27:47,330 --> 01:27:49,460 We were told that to our knowledge, 1505 01:27:50,170 --> 01:27:52,840 the inmates had no guns. 1506 01:27:52,840 --> 01:27:54,090 They had Spears. 1507 01:27:54,090 --> 01:27:56,340 They had some knives. 1508 01:27:56,340 --> 01:27:59,380 They had pipes that they were using as clubs. 1509 01:28:00,010 --> 01:28:02,390 But that was the extent of the threat. 1510 01:28:02,850 --> 01:28:05,390 So we knew that going in for, 1511 01:28:06,720 --> 01:28:07,930 you know, 5:00 a.m. 1512 01:28:07,930 --> 01:28:11,440 September 13, we're on the roof of a block 1513 01:28:12,100 --> 01:28:14,980 waiting for the assault to begin. 1514 01:28:14,980 --> 01:28:17,360 This is a team of 270 rifle shooters. 1515 01:28:18,900 --> 01:28:22,530 The center of our pictures, men distributing 1516 01:28:22,530 --> 01:28:24,830 baseball bats to the other prisoners. 1517 01:28:25,490 --> 01:28:28,250 We had no guns. We had no real weapons. 1518 01:28:28,250 --> 01:28:32,630 We had bullshit pieces of stick or a piece of iron 1519 01:28:33,040 --> 01:28:37,210 or shank that somebody made up on the sidewalk. 1520 01:28:37,630 --> 01:28:40,380 It was. It was pathetic. 1521 01:28:40,380 --> 01:28:45,100 Just four days, almost to the minute after the convict insurrection started, 1522 01:28:45,430 --> 01:28:49,060 state police reinforced by sheriff's deputies, National Guardsmen 1523 01:28:49,310 --> 01:28:54,610 and correctional officers moving in on the prison time is 150 5:00 p.m. 1524 01:28:54,610 --> 01:29:00,070 We're on the roof of C Block looking at a detail of 270 marksmen 1525 01:29:00,610 --> 01:29:03,860 with instructions to clear the catwalks upon command. 1526 01:29:05,700 --> 01:29:06,660 They took some of the 1527 01:29:06,660 --> 01:29:12,120 hostages on top of the catwalks, which is on top of the hallways, 1528 01:29:12,620 --> 01:29:17,670 and some of the inmates held knives to the to their neck as a result. 1529 01:29:18,000 --> 01:29:20,800 In an effort to try to stop the assault, 1530 01:29:21,420 --> 01:29:25,220 the hostages are armed with knives with their throats. 1531 01:29:25,800 --> 01:29:28,680 It was all just to show. 1532 01:29:28,720 --> 01:29:32,350 The try to get them to say, Oh, wait a minute, it's my cousin, my brother. 1533 01:29:32,690 --> 01:29:34,100 All he's got. 1534 01:29:35,060 --> 01:29:38,150 We were hopeful that if they saw this, they would back off 1535 01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:42,610 and try to renegotiate so they could protect their own people. 1536 01:29:45,410 --> 01:29:47,660 The notion of sending 1537 01:29:47,660 --> 01:29:49,990 in correctional officers 1538 01:29:50,910 --> 01:29:53,000 who didn't love the prisoners to begin with 1539 01:29:53,790 --> 01:29:58,420 and state police who were stressed out was a serious miscalculation, 1540 01:29:58,420 --> 01:30:02,210 somebody should have said, wait a second, wait a second, these people are on edge. 1541 01:30:03,800 --> 01:30:07,430 There is hostility 1542 01:30:07,510 --> 01:30:11,520 and it's going to get out of control. 1543 01:30:12,730 --> 01:30:15,480 We know that now, did we know that 1544 01:30:16,020 --> 01:30:17,940 in real time? 1545 01:30:19,690 --> 01:30:21,480 I guess not. 1546 01:30:24,110 --> 01:30:27,110 I seen this as a glorious fight. 1547 01:30:28,410 --> 01:30:30,660 They would come in with batons 1548 01:30:30,660 --> 01:30:35,580 and stuff like that, and we would be fighting the brave battle 1549 01:30:35,580 --> 01:30:39,090 with baseball bats and stuff like that, I. 1550 01:30:51,180 --> 01:30:52,010 I did. 1551 01:30:57,730 --> 01:31:00,440 I just never expected. 1552 01:31:01,020 --> 01:31:03,650 The the coverage through what actually happened, 1553 01:31:03,650 --> 01:31:04,990 I'm sorry. 1554 01:31:20,210 --> 01:31:23,840 Helicopter, two helicopters and a. 1555 01:31:28,720 --> 01:31:30,260 We're talking now going overhead 1556 01:31:30,260 --> 01:31:33,260 and over the wall into the prison. 1557 01:31:34,350 --> 01:31:37,350 It just disquieted, and Sky was getting dark, 1558 01:31:37,850 --> 01:31:40,100 and then we heard the helicopters does a dance. 1559 01:31:40,810 --> 01:31:43,230 This is fucking strange. 1560 01:31:46,440 --> 01:31:48,780 The helicopter comes up over the wall 1561 01:31:49,200 --> 01:31:51,820 and it's hovering over the yard. 1562 01:31:54,740 --> 01:31:56,120 I seen this. 1563 01:31:56,120 --> 01:31:57,960 I thought it was a monster. 1564 01:31:57,960 --> 01:32:00,290 It was a helicopter, a green helicopter. 1565 01:32:00,750 --> 01:32:02,000 It was flying low. 1566 01:32:07,720 --> 01:32:09,630 You see this. 1567 01:32:09,630 --> 01:32:12,760 It's like a sickly green gas with. 1568 01:32:13,470 --> 01:32:15,640 Sparkly stuff, minute coming down. 1569 01:32:16,470 --> 01:32:18,810 It tightens your chest. 1570 01:32:18,810 --> 01:32:21,440 Where you can hardly breathe. 1571 01:32:21,440 --> 01:32:23,650 That gas knocked me down. 1572 01:32:24,190 --> 01:32:26,730 Oh, what that was. 1573 01:32:27,030 --> 01:32:29,110 And they had me so weak I could not. 1574 01:32:29,860 --> 01:32:32,990 Your eyes are just all burning, 1575 01:32:32,990 --> 01:32:35,450 your nose is burning, your mouth is burning. 1576 01:32:42,540 --> 01:32:43,830 I mean, 1577 01:32:44,290 --> 01:32:45,420 we are. 1578 01:32:48,800 --> 01:32:52,220 And you got on the microphone, everybody in D-Block, yeah. 1579 01:32:52,260 --> 01:32:54,760 Put your hands in the air. 1580 01:32:54,760 --> 01:32:56,390 And you are not behind. 1581 01:32:56,390 --> 01:33:01,020 Go to the nearest police officer and you will not be home. 1582 01:33:01,270 --> 01:33:04,440 You would not be home. We will not be. 1583 01:33:04,440 --> 01:33:06,690 You would not be here for that was. 1584 01:33:16,240 --> 01:33:17,160 Do just ended up 1585 01:33:17,160 --> 01:33:19,500 doing this to get blown away. 1586 01:33:20,700 --> 01:33:24,210 They blew his head off and then. 1587 01:33:24,210 --> 01:33:28,170 Has all of a sudden there was all this popping all around us 1588 01:33:29,510 --> 01:33:31,130 and all these little pops 1589 01:33:31,130 --> 01:33:34,930 all around us were actually bullets. 1590 01:33:35,890 --> 01:33:40,560 Oh, and you could really see because the CO2 public first heard 1591 01:33:40,560 --> 01:33:43,730 you blah, that you can hear the boom going by your ear. 1592 01:33:49,150 --> 01:33:52,320 The hostages can't be seen in any. 1593 01:33:54,950 --> 01:33:57,320 I'm trying to stay on the ground as long as possible, 1594 01:33:58,490 --> 01:34:00,660 just like they were shooting down the barrel 1595 01:34:00,660 --> 01:34:04,500 and they started shooting point blank range, blowing guys away . 1596 01:34:04,500 --> 01:34:08,090 I got shot in the arm up there right through the back macroeconomist on. 1597 01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:15,680 I I felt something. 1598 01:34:16,640 --> 01:34:20,310 Go to my head, it must go, and it was burning, 1599 01:34:21,390 --> 01:34:22,770 no was shot. 1600 01:34:22,770 --> 01:34:26,190 I felt something hit my arm 1601 01:34:26,190 --> 01:34:28,810 and we're all numb and realized needed. 1602 01:34:28,810 --> 01:34:31,940 I got shot in the arm about two inches from my heart 1603 01:34:32,070 --> 01:34:36,360 and also a one to a football helmet on Spanish food. 1604 01:34:37,200 --> 01:34:39,700 Now the guard is up on the catwalk. 1605 01:34:39,700 --> 01:34:44,120 He jumps out with a hammer and throws it up and it hits the catwalk. 1606 01:34:44,660 --> 01:34:49,040 And you can hear the sound clip and all of them turn looked at him, 1607 01:34:49,130 --> 01:34:53,590 and all of them turn their guns on a brutal dashboard body. 1608 01:34:53,760 --> 01:34:55,260 I'm assuming that you guys got anywhere 1609 01:34:55,260 --> 01:34:59,180 from 20 to 50 shots because his body was doing like that. 1610 01:34:59,180 --> 01:35:00,640 I'd never seen no shit like that. 1611 01:35:00,640 --> 01:35:02,640 Not as a nasty shoot in the street. 1612 01:35:02,640 --> 01:35:03,560 I'd never seen them. I did. 1613 01:35:04,600 --> 01:35:06,020 I mean. 1614 01:35:10,810 --> 01:35:12,940 This was a holiday for the. 1615 01:35:12,940 --> 01:35:16,070 We got no guns to shoot back. 1616 01:35:16,070 --> 01:35:16,650 You know what? 1617 01:35:16,650 --> 01:35:21,030 It is a shoe store man and it's a shoe, but that's just a holiday 1618 01:35:21,780 --> 01:35:24,040 slow motion and all it was 1619 01:35:24,040 --> 01:35:27,620 that was save money. 1620 01:35:27,620 --> 01:35:30,170 That's what they will follow to each other. 1621 01:35:30,500 --> 01:35:32,130 I was scared. 1622 01:35:33,550 --> 01:35:35,760 I've done bad things, but I never did this bad. 1623 01:35:36,170 --> 01:35:37,260 As no. 1624 01:35:37,260 --> 01:35:40,640 These guys are real fucking cold blooded 1625 01:35:40,640 --> 01:35:42,260 killers and shit. 1626 01:35:43,930 --> 01:35:47,480 Until that moment came, 1627 01:35:47,560 --> 01:35:51,110 what is killing really started, and I realize that 1628 01:35:52,150 --> 01:35:55,610 you're not that fucking bad guy, no more, man, there's more power with his words 1629 01:35:55,610 --> 01:35:58,780 new, every bullet that missed by me, 1630 01:35:59,610 --> 01:36:01,160 if he could move. 1631 01:36:02,570 --> 01:36:05,410 Close to me, I winced, 1632 01:36:07,580 --> 01:36:09,160 then all of a sudden, it just stopped. 1633 01:36:25,180 --> 01:36:25,430 There are 1634 01:36:25,430 --> 01:36:28,680 people throwing off their smoke gear. 1635 01:36:29,230 --> 01:36:31,440 They ran out screaming niggers, niggers, niggers 1636 01:36:33,060 --> 01:36:36,400 and two of them pointed their guns at me. 1637 01:36:37,030 --> 01:36:38,190 Negative niggers. 1638 01:36:38,190 --> 01:36:40,280 And I said, Don't shoot, don't shoot. 1639 01:36:40,320 --> 01:36:41,320 Don't shoot. 1640 01:36:41,320 --> 01:36:44,200 Well, I'm coughing with all the gas. 1641 01:36:45,160 --> 01:36:46,790 I've been gassed. 1642 01:36:46,790 --> 01:36:48,750 It's an awful thing. 1643 01:36:48,750 --> 01:36:50,540 William Kunstler 1644 01:36:51,540 --> 01:36:54,380 has said that people are dying in there. 1645 01:36:54,630 --> 01:36:58,550 And I agree with that. 1646 01:36:59,050 --> 01:37:03,390 But that people are dying and then a shooting went on forever 1647 01:37:03,970 --> 01:37:07,220 and then it was like the shooting subsided 1648 01:37:07,680 --> 01:37:09,890 and then I heard some. 1649 01:37:10,310 --> 01:37:15,400 After the shooting subsided, I heard some single shot 1650 01:37:15,480 --> 01:37:18,650 bang and bang. 1651 01:37:27,830 --> 01:37:30,040 After they took over the prison, 1652 01:37:30,040 --> 01:37:32,660 all those books that had been speaking to the cameras 1653 01:37:34,170 --> 01:37:37,170 were all targeted and tortured. 1654 01:37:37,920 --> 01:37:40,840 So yes, yes, yes, yes, they were targeted. 1655 01:37:43,130 --> 01:37:45,050 Andy Barclay. 1656 01:37:45,180 --> 01:37:48,220 They were calling his name. 1657 01:37:48,260 --> 01:37:50,600 Going to that, Bob, looking for him 1658 01:37:51,310 --> 01:37:54,100 and threatening him with what they were going to do to him. 1659 01:37:55,520 --> 01:37:58,320 When they when they found him and they found him, 1660 01:37:59,190 --> 01:38:00,860 he was yelling. 1661 01:38:01,530 --> 01:38:03,990 No, no, but it's too fucking late. 1662 01:38:04,030 --> 01:38:07,070 They had him do acting, actually dragging him towards a 1663 01:38:07,120 --> 01:38:10,370 block far yard over there. 1664 01:38:10,370 --> 01:38:13,080 He's Holland new agreement and the acuity. 1665 01:38:24,970 --> 01:38:27,590 You can see because the gas is so thick, 1666 01:38:28,390 --> 01:38:31,220 but all of a sudden a puff of wind comes 1667 01:38:32,560 --> 01:38:35,390 and disperses the gas. 1668 01:38:35,390 --> 01:38:37,560 And then I could see. 1669 01:38:37,560 --> 01:38:40,650 And what I saw was fright. 1670 01:38:41,190 --> 01:38:44,150 Hundreds of bodies just laying there. 1671 01:38:45,740 --> 01:38:47,950 Some were moaning, some wasn't moving. 1672 01:38:48,240 --> 01:38:50,740 Blood was everywhere. 1673 01:38:55,710 --> 01:39:00,040 We were given stretchers and told to go into the prison. 1674 01:39:01,170 --> 01:39:03,260 It was really an unthinkable scene. 1675 01:39:03,260 --> 01:39:06,130 It was dead and wounded and simply 1676 01:39:06,130 --> 01:39:08,890 starting to carry them out. 1677 01:39:09,510 --> 01:39:12,140 It was far beyond anything 1678 01:39:12,140 --> 01:39:15,310 I had imagined when they said we would be doing medical evacuation. 1679 01:39:16,230 --> 01:39:18,980 We were basically civilians 1680 01:39:18,980 --> 01:39:22,110 put into a situation where state troopers 1681 01:39:22,110 --> 01:39:24,530 and correctional officers had created a war zone. 1682 01:39:26,990 --> 01:39:31,120 There was a pile of bodies, maybe eight or ten people, 1683 01:39:31,120 --> 01:39:34,160 and the man on top, it had his eyes shot out. 1684 01:39:56,930 --> 01:39:57,600 Right below us, 1685 01:39:57,600 --> 01:40:00,230 there was a huge pool of rainwater 1686 01:40:01,060 --> 01:40:03,400 and it was blood red. 1687 01:40:03,570 --> 01:40:07,070 And I looked down on down at it 1688 01:40:07,070 --> 01:40:10,070 and they said, Those are false teeth down there, aren't they? 1689 01:40:10,820 --> 01:40:13,910 And somebody said, Yeah. 1690 01:40:16,540 --> 01:40:18,710 The attitude of the people 1691 01:40:18,710 --> 01:40:20,830 who should have been concerned 1692 01:40:21,750 --> 01:40:24,420 about what had happened was simply that they were 1693 01:40:25,750 --> 01:40:28,010 pleased with what had happened 1694 01:40:28,010 --> 01:40:31,220 and had no qualms or second thoughts 1695 01:40:31,640 --> 01:40:34,470 or anything but satisfaction 1696 01:40:34,470 --> 01:40:37,640 with Walker wants to go back to. 1697 01:40:42,810 --> 01:40:45,230 Why white power weight, 1698 01:40:46,360 --> 01:40:48,400 right, right? 1699 01:40:53,820 --> 01:40:56,120 They had control. 1700 01:40:56,120 --> 01:40:58,410 And once they had control, you would think 1701 01:40:58,410 --> 01:41:00,830 that things would have stopped. 1702 01:41:01,620 --> 01:41:03,250 They didn't. 1703 01:41:06,380 --> 01:41:09,590 It was clear that at that point it was all about revenge. 1704 01:41:10,130 --> 01:41:12,930 It was all about reestablishing who was in charge. 1705 01:41:13,340 --> 01:41:16,680 And the most violent ways possible. 1706 01:41:24,270 --> 01:41:26,940 Everybody had to crawl through shit, 1707 01:41:26,940 --> 01:41:29,230 human waste. 1708 01:41:32,780 --> 01:41:33,660 But what do you do? 1709 01:41:33,660 --> 01:41:37,120 Do you live to tell your story 1710 01:41:37,280 --> 01:41:39,450 like I'm doing today or do you fucking die? 1711 01:41:40,410 --> 01:41:41,200 I made a choice. 1712 01:41:41,200 --> 01:41:42,540 I want to live. 1713 01:41:46,380 --> 01:41:48,460 Chrome nickel chrome 1714 01:41:48,460 --> 01:41:50,550 for like a dog. 1715 01:41:55,140 --> 01:41:58,720 If you look up, nigga, I'll blow your motherfucking brains out. 1716 01:42:00,600 --> 01:42:03,270 What the fuck they care about calling you a nigger? 1717 01:42:03,890 --> 01:42:06,310 That was your name. 1718 01:42:07,150 --> 01:42:08,440 They had us marching 1719 01:42:08,440 --> 01:42:10,820 around the yard with our with our hands 1720 01:42:11,940 --> 01:42:13,900 interlocked like this on top of our heads, 1721 01:42:13,900 --> 01:42:16,110 abject surrender. 1722 01:42:28,250 --> 01:42:30,420 When I saw these naked bodies 1723 01:42:31,050 --> 01:42:35,300 lined up, snaked around the area, it reminded me 1724 01:42:35,840 --> 01:42:40,970 of portrayals of of African-Americans being heard it on the slave ships. 1725 01:42:41,720 --> 01:42:44,390 That was just horrendous, just horrible, 1726 01:42:44,560 --> 01:42:45,520 horrible. 1727 01:42:55,780 --> 01:42:58,280 We're next in the middle of fucking yard. 1728 01:42:59,200 --> 01:43:02,160 God's going around with like baby bats. 1729 01:43:02,200 --> 01:43:06,120 It was seven remote guys as I'm laying here and I'm hoping 1730 01:43:06,120 --> 01:43:08,420 they don't come my way. 1731 01:43:21,010 --> 01:43:24,020 Frank Schmidt, Big Black, was put on a table 1732 01:43:24,350 --> 01:43:27,690 with the football under his throat. 1733 01:43:30,810 --> 01:43:33,190 People stood up above him on the catwalk, 1734 01:43:33,230 --> 01:43:37,450 aiming their guns down at him, throwing cigars and cigaret butts on him 1735 01:43:39,070 --> 01:43:39,740 . And 1736 01:43:39,740 --> 01:43:43,080 it said, Do said football falls, nigger, we're going to shoot you. 1737 01:43:46,830 --> 01:43:49,170 He was told to get to his feet. 1738 01:43:49,170 --> 01:43:52,130 He tried, he stumbled, he fell. 1739 01:43:52,130 --> 01:43:54,170 He was hit with clubs 1740 01:43:54,380 --> 01:43:56,670 on his back between his legs. 1741 01:43:57,800 --> 01:44:00,260 And he was crying out. 1742 01:44:00,890 --> 01:44:03,050 You know, don't do this. Don't do this. 1743 01:44:03,640 --> 01:44:06,600 And then you could hear him screaming as 1744 01:44:06,600 --> 01:44:08,600 he went up to the prison. 1745 01:44:14,110 --> 01:44:16,570 It felt good that I had survived this shit. 1746 01:44:17,570 --> 01:44:19,990 And now I got a look out 1747 01:44:20,610 --> 01:44:24,200 because some motion is coming. 1748 01:44:28,870 --> 01:44:30,170 The inmates were entering 1749 01:44:30,170 --> 01:44:32,710 these corridors off of the yard 1750 01:44:33,750 --> 01:44:36,380 and the guards were like 1751 01:44:36,380 --> 01:44:38,840 five or six feet apart with their clubs 1752 01:44:39,590 --> 01:44:43,640 and they would hit them against the wall and there was just this 1753 01:44:44,680 --> 01:44:46,770 dull drum like sound. 1754 01:44:46,770 --> 01:44:50,310 And then they were hitting the inmates as they ran a gantlet. 1755 01:44:55,070 --> 01:44:57,400 We could hear the screams coming out 1756 01:44:57,400 --> 01:45:00,990 so that we knew they were being tortured 1757 01:45:00,990 --> 01:45:05,330 and that we were somehow part of this unthinkable scene 1758 01:45:05,530 --> 01:45:09,080 that there was no escaping from but was completely wrong. 1759 01:45:12,960 --> 01:45:16,090 They had guards on both sides, and they would be hitting you 1760 01:45:16,340 --> 01:45:17,840 as you were running through beating you 1761 01:45:17,840 --> 01:45:21,800 with hoses and batons and whatever they had in their hands. 1762 01:45:22,010 --> 01:45:24,140 I'm ducking, trying to get through, 1763 01:45:24,140 --> 01:45:27,760 protecting my head, so I hit all of my all the elbows. 1764 01:45:27,760 --> 01:45:32,140 My knees still hurt, beating you and they're making you run 1765 01:45:32,140 --> 01:45:33,230 through the gantlet with it, 1766 01:45:33,230 --> 01:45:36,190 took all the glass out the fucking windows and put it in the middle of the floor. 1767 01:45:36,520 --> 01:45:38,480 So you had to run through grass with bare feet. 1768 01:45:38,480 --> 01:45:40,940 Nobody came out of that yard. 1769 01:45:40,940 --> 01:45:46,030 What with picking without having to pick a shot of your feet for four weeks? 1770 01:45:47,910 --> 01:45:51,370 Couldn't walk, nobody could walk anymore. 1771 01:45:51,370 --> 01:45:53,460 But we had to run because if you didn't run, 1772 01:45:53,920 --> 01:45:57,500 they just kept beating you with these clubs. 1773 01:46:05,930 --> 01:46:08,810 The families of the hostages, a lot of them waited 1774 01:46:08,810 --> 01:46:12,560 just outside the prison wall. 1775 01:46:14,980 --> 01:46:17,360 Then news began to filter out of Attica. 1776 01:46:17,690 --> 01:46:20,900 Names of freed hostages were called out to the loved one 1777 01:46:21,070 --> 01:46:23,990 by Curtis Lieutenant Colonel 1778 01:46:24,280 --> 01:46:25,160 Robert 1779 01:46:26,110 --> 01:46:26,740 Elder. 1780 01:46:29,950 --> 01:46:31,750 Some didn't see their men come out. 1781 01:46:31,750 --> 01:46:33,580 All they learned was the name of the hospital 1782 01:46:33,580 --> 01:46:35,370 where the survivors were being treated. 1783 01:46:35,370 --> 01:46:36,790 There were no time to wait. 1784 01:46:36,790 --> 01:46:40,210 They ran off to see their man. 1785 01:46:42,630 --> 01:46:44,670 People couldn't seem to run fast enough. 1786 01:46:49,430 --> 01:46:51,510 My mom came home and she was with her sister, 1787 01:46:51,510 --> 01:46:53,730 and my mom was crying, obviously upset. 1788 01:46:57,150 --> 01:46:59,110 I was outside sitting on the front porch, 1789 01:46:59,110 --> 01:47:02,230 you know, praying and worrying, and where's dad? 1790 01:47:02,400 --> 01:47:05,070 I respect him to show up, you know, and. 1791 01:47:06,490 --> 01:47:09,070 I again, my mom was dead. 1792 01:47:09,780 --> 01:47:11,870 What's what's why are you crying, what's going on? 1793 01:47:11,910 --> 01:47:15,830 Well, my mother came back in the house and, you know, he 1794 01:47:15,870 --> 01:47:19,210 she said, nobody to play with me now, are you? 1795 01:47:19,210 --> 01:47:22,500 I mean, you know, because I didn't want to believe it. 1796 01:47:22,840 --> 01:47:26,630 And she finally said, I saw him. 1797 01:47:26,930 --> 01:47:29,090 I saw him. 1798 01:47:33,060 --> 01:47:33,520 Finally, 1799 01:47:33,520 --> 01:47:37,480 she blurted out, Your father's dead. 1800 01:47:37,810 --> 01:47:39,270 So it ran. 1801 01:47:42,320 --> 01:47:44,610 We're in for a while, and I came back 1802 01:47:45,490 --> 01:47:49,910 and I was sitting on the front porch trying to be strong and not cry. 1803 01:47:49,950 --> 01:47:53,030 And I could hear everybody in the house crying 1804 01:47:53,030 --> 01:47:55,620 and I was trying to be so tough and. 1805 01:48:03,750 --> 01:48:04,880 All right. 1806 01:48:05,960 --> 01:48:06,630 Yeah, right. 1807 01:48:21,900 --> 01:48:24,690 The National Guardsmen were told to get back in their trucks, 1808 01:48:25,150 --> 01:48:28,110 and we did that and were taken out to the parking area. 1809 01:48:28,860 --> 01:48:33,660 And the colonel then addressed the battalion, maybe several hundred men, 1810 01:48:34,280 --> 01:48:37,370 and he said, essentially you saw things 1811 01:48:37,370 --> 01:48:40,080 that were excessive and wrong today. 1812 01:48:40,960 --> 01:48:44,250 And I have to ask you not to speak of this to anyone 1813 01:48:44,790 --> 01:48:48,630 because the world will not understand what happened here today. 1814 01:48:51,300 --> 01:48:54,550 The most violent rebellion in modern American penal history 1815 01:48:54,550 --> 01:48:58,020 came to an end today at the maximum security prison in New York. 1816 01:48:58,310 --> 01:49:01,310 In the final hours of the revolt, led primarily by blacks, 1817 01:49:01,600 --> 01:49:04,110 the inmates murdered nine of their white hostages. 1818 01:49:04,480 --> 01:49:05,860 28 convicts were killed 1819 01:49:05,860 --> 01:49:09,150 by state troopers, and sheriff's deputies will regain control of the prison. 1820 01:49:09,780 --> 01:49:12,820 The storming of the prison had the full approval of New York's governor, 1821 01:49:12,820 --> 01:49:17,370 Rockefeller, who earlier had rejected a prisoner demand for complete clemency. 1822 01:49:17,700 --> 01:49:22,080 The White House said that after the prison was retaken, President Nixon telephoned 1823 01:49:22,080 --> 01:49:25,340 the governor to express his approval of Rockefeller's action. 1824 01:49:26,920 --> 01:49:29,920 We went in we couldn't tell whether all 39 1825 01:49:29,920 --> 01:49:33,090 hostages would be killed and maybe two or 300 prisoners. 1826 01:49:33,590 --> 01:49:35,970 So we were able to pick off 1827 01:49:36,640 --> 01:49:39,640 either from the wall or as our men went in. 1828 01:49:41,100 --> 01:49:41,940 The man who had the 1829 01:49:41,940 --> 01:49:44,400 knives at the throat of the hostages 1830 01:49:45,020 --> 01:49:48,320 and they did a fabulous job. 1831 01:49:48,610 --> 01:49:50,740 I mean, this is this 1832 01:49:50,740 --> 01:49:53,950 are these primarily blacks? 1833 01:49:53,950 --> 01:49:56,820 Know, and the whole thing was led by the black cabinet, 1834 01:49:56,950 --> 01:49:59,080 are all the All Blacks? 1835 01:50:00,660 --> 01:50:04,870 I haven't got that report, but I have to admit I just out. 1836 01:50:05,040 --> 01:50:07,290 Yeah, yeah, we've got to have any. 1837 01:50:07,710 --> 01:50:10,420 We just not tolerate this kind of 1838 01:50:11,630 --> 01:50:12,590 anarchy. 1839 01:50:18,300 --> 01:50:20,640 Yesterday, officials at the prison said 1840 01:50:20,640 --> 01:50:23,560 eight of the hostages had had their throats cut. 1841 01:50:23,980 --> 01:50:26,730 But today, the Monroe County medical examiner, 1842 01:50:26,730 --> 01:50:30,280 having looked at the bodies, said no throats were cut at all. 1843 01:50:30,860 --> 01:50:35,530 The medical examiner says the hostages were apparently killed by a large caliber 1844 01:50:35,530 --> 01:50:38,620 ammunition and shotgun blasts from a distance, 1845 01:50:38,990 --> 01:50:42,660 which immediately raised the possibility that some of the hostages may 1846 01:50:42,660 --> 01:50:46,540 in fact have been shot down by the lawmen who broke in to rescue them. 1847 01:50:47,790 --> 01:50:50,590 Some of the hostages were actually shot 1848 01:50:51,090 --> 01:50:53,920 running towards the state troopers thinking, 1849 01:50:54,130 --> 01:50:57,140 I'm saved, I'm saved. 1850 01:50:57,140 --> 01:50:59,220 And the hostages were dressed 1851 01:50:59,220 --> 01:51:01,970 the same way the inmates were. 1852 01:51:02,310 --> 01:51:05,140 Anything that inmate garb on it. 1853 01:51:05,140 --> 01:51:07,980 They just started shooting at. 1854 01:51:10,020 --> 01:51:14,110 What Rockefeller had done was treat. 1855 01:51:15,190 --> 01:51:17,360 The hostages 1856 01:51:17,950 --> 01:51:21,370 as no more real live 1857 01:51:21,370 --> 01:51:26,290 human beings who deserve to be respected than the prisoners. 1858 01:51:26,870 --> 01:51:30,540 And so you kill them all and you restore order 1859 01:51:31,090 --> 01:51:35,170 and you make me into a major 1860 01:51:35,340 --> 01:51:38,510 figure who believes in law and order 1861 01:51:39,010 --> 01:51:43,260 at a time when that concept is beginning 1862 01:51:43,260 --> 01:51:46,890 to really take hold. 1863 01:52:08,670 --> 01:52:09,370 We should have entered 1864 01:52:09,370 --> 01:52:11,960 in a negotiated settlement. 1865 01:52:12,460 --> 01:52:14,880 No, they were they were interested in that, they were interested in showing. 1866 01:52:16,300 --> 01:52:19,380 The naked fist of power law and order. 1867 01:52:21,050 --> 01:52:24,140 The national mindset of the nation was law and order. 1868 01:52:25,060 --> 01:52:27,640 And law and order does not permit. 1869 01:52:29,230 --> 01:52:32,190 Any challenge? 1870 01:52:32,190 --> 01:52:35,150 To his authority whatsoever. 1871 01:52:35,150 --> 01:52:38,070 God willing, a few more months in January will be 90 years old. 1872 01:52:39,490 --> 01:52:42,200 I will never, ever, ever, ever, 1873 01:52:42,660 --> 01:52:44,830 ever, ever, ever. 1874 01:52:45,830 --> 01:52:47,330 We get Atika. 1875 01:52:47,620 --> 01:52:48,290 Ever. 1876 01:52:51,370 --> 01:52:54,710 It didn't have to be that way. 1877 01:53:38,630 --> 01:53:41,130 All eight cases. 1878 01:53:41,220 --> 01:53:45,140 Died of gunshot wounds. 1879 01:53:45,260 --> 01:53:48,180 There was no evidence of slash throats. 1880 01:53:49,930 --> 01:53:53,140 We're sure 1881 01:53:54,350 --> 01:53:58,900 your. The. 1882 01:54:09,540 --> 01:54:11,910 I have never received an apology. 1883 01:54:13,790 --> 01:54:15,670 I've never received an apology, and for me, 1884 01:54:15,670 --> 01:54:17,670 that's a pretty big deal. 1885 01:54:25,340 --> 01:54:26,140 What is money 1886 01:54:26,140 --> 01:54:29,140 do when you don't have your dad 1887 01:54:29,140 --> 01:54:31,970 or your brother or your uncle who? 1888 01:54:34,690 --> 01:54:37,310 How does that replace anything? 1889 01:54:37,650 --> 01:54:40,440 And I think it was the state's way of saying, 1890 01:54:41,730 --> 01:54:45,820 we're going to give you this money and we want you to go away and. 1891 01:54:49,580 --> 01:54:52,910 This is my. 1892 01:54:53,660 --> 01:54:55,710 True. 1893 01:54:57,330 --> 01:54:58,540 Well, she. 1894 01:55:00,960 --> 01:55:02,880 He threw 1895 01:55:02,880 --> 01:55:06,930 for nearly 30 years, former Attica inmates have waited for justice. 1896 01:55:07,680 --> 01:55:10,350 Today, it finally came in the form of a 12 1897 01:55:10,350 --> 01:55:12,970 million dollar settlement. 1898 01:55:14,350 --> 01:55:18,940 Be. There's no justice. 1899 01:55:20,860 --> 01:55:22,900 All we got was money 1900 01:55:22,900 --> 01:55:25,360 and money wasn't enough. 1901 01:55:25,360 --> 01:55:28,070 Then you can't justify all the killings that happened in Attica. 1902 01:55:28,700 --> 01:55:30,410 You can't justify that. 1903 01:55:30,410 --> 01:55:31,450 So there's no justice. 1904 01:55:31,450 --> 01:55:34,000 There is no justice. 1905 01:55:36,120 --> 01:55:39,040 We shall. 1906 01:55:40,130 --> 01:55:43,630 Be. And. 1907 01:55:47,720 --> 01:55:50,300 They might. 1908 01:55:51,470 --> 01:55:53,430 True. 1909 01:55:55,060 --> 01:55:57,640 Well, I'm sure. 1910 01:55:58,770 --> 01:56:01,980 Me, too, 1911 01:56:01,980 --> 01:56:04,530 do so. 1912 01:56:10,740 --> 01:56:12,910 And. Be. 1913 01:56:21,210 --> 01:56:27,090 You. Some 1914 01:56:27,090 --> 01:56:45,860 foolish. Oh.