subtitles-attica/Attica.srt

8342 lines
138 KiB
Plaintext
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters!

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters that may be confused with others in your current locale. If your use case is intentional and legitimate, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to highlight these characters.

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 linferno.
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
Allimprovviso,
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
lavresti 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 unarea 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
Allinsaputa 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 lhanno 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 unambulanza.
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
“Cabbiamo 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
Labbiamo 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
got to deal with the hostages,
we hollered,
109
00:07:15,630 --> 00:07:20,800
we got hostages and we had about 1000
110
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,140
men shouting at.
111
00:07:27,930 --> 00:07:33,600
Indian hostages to keep the police coming
and drop in on us, got our hostages.
112
00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,270
That's the only that's the only leverage.
113
00:07:36,570 --> 00:07:41,400
As long as they have the hostages,
they didn't have guns
114
00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:43,910
and they didn't have this
and they didn't have that,
115
00:07:44,950 --> 00:07:47,450
but they had hostages.
116
00:07:47,830 --> 00:07:53,330
And they're your people
and you were responsible for your people.
117
00:07:53,710 --> 00:07:56,790
You're responsible to protect your people
118
00:07:57,250 --> 00:08:00,420
and do your job.
119
00:08:00,420 --> 00:08:02,800
Sit down and negotiate with us
120
00:08:04,430 --> 00:08:07,720
getting into the area
where the 21 hostages are being held
121
00:08:08,970 --> 00:08:14,600
here in that main group room
because the prisoners
122
00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,940
have taken their clothing away
and put prison clothes on.
123
00:08:20,230 --> 00:08:23,780
They were blindfolded in a circle
in the middle of the yard.
124
00:08:23,900 --> 00:08:29,030
They also had guards, inmate guards
that were around them, protecting them.
125
00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:33,580
And we seen them as captives.
126
00:08:33,580 --> 00:08:36,420
We seen as people who were in on the.
127
00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:40,090
Our supervision.
128
00:08:40,550 --> 00:08:43,720
So we couldn't do harm to them,
but understand that Islam
129
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,390
was that you don't harm a captive,
therefore.
130
00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,680
It was decided.
131
00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:55,600
To allow the Muslim brothers.
132
00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:56,850
To look out for them.
133
00:08:56,850 --> 00:08:59,820
I was so mad at them for not letting us
get to the police
134
00:09:00,110 --> 00:09:02,820
because I wanted to put my hands
someone I wanted to get wanted
135
00:09:02,820 --> 00:09:04,900
to give them a very fuck them up.
136
00:09:04,900 --> 00:09:07,110
These are the same politicians
talking down to me,
137
00:09:07,660 --> 00:09:09,990
dirty to me and tell me, get over it.
138
00:09:10,780 --> 00:09:12,750
So I said, Yeah, now
what do you think about me now?
139
00:09:12,750 --> 00:09:14,370
Yeah, yeah.
140
00:09:14,870 --> 00:09:17,920
And the good thing that the Muslims just
did because London police would have been
141
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:19,380
on video.
142
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:24,800
It's hard for somebody that
143
00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:30,050
has never been incarcerated
to understand how surreal
144
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:35,230
everything is at this point in time,
we nobody threatening us.
145
00:09:35,310 --> 00:09:39,440
We had, you know, it sounds crazy,
but it was when you had it a little bit,
146
00:09:39,810 --> 00:09:43,610
even this much control over your own life,
even for a short period.
147
00:09:43,610 --> 00:09:46,990
You know, it's going to cost you,
you know, in spades.
148
00:09:47,740 --> 00:09:51,740
You know,
it was a moment of exuberance. Of.
149
00:09:52,740 --> 00:09:57,210
Somehow doing something
to have some control over your own life,
150
00:09:57,330 --> 00:10:06,470
you do it up,
151
00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:08,630
don't lose.
152
00:10:14,770 --> 00:10:17,480
When you first got out,
there was totally just gave it up.
153
00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:18,940
Guys are coming up.
154
00:10:18,940 --> 00:10:21,810
Food, clothing, setting up tents.
155
00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,280
Oh, it's a festive time.
156
00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:27,650
We, we're free.
157
00:10:30,700 --> 00:10:32,950
We came together as a community,
158
00:10:32,950 --> 00:10:35,910
and that's when there was no such thing
159
00:10:35,950 --> 00:10:39,670
as black, white, Hispanic,
whatever it was about.
160
00:10:40,170 --> 00:10:41,080
We are inmates
161
00:10:42,250 --> 00:10:42,540
and we
162
00:10:42,540 --> 00:10:45,840
need to be able to survive
whatever's going on.
163
00:10:46,590 --> 00:10:48,470
Oh, good.
164
00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:53,390
Come on, buddy.
165
00:10:53,470 --> 00:10:55,350
So we're you
166
00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:00,310
to have, you know, what is it
167
00:11:00,310 --> 00:11:02,480
we did about it?
168
00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:03,480
We die.
169
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,360
Got we.
170
00:11:08,990 --> 00:11:11,030
The guys that had been to Vietnam,
171
00:11:12,070 --> 00:11:14,700
they said, let's make Hutchins,
172
00:11:14,700 --> 00:11:17,330
who draws of ten kids,
173
00:11:17,330 --> 00:11:20,830
took a stick
and put a sheet over all of that,
174
00:11:21,750 --> 00:11:25,460
and I was just sleeping quarters
175
00:11:27,090 --> 00:11:29,760
by the time guys started
176
00:11:31,590 --> 00:11:33,760
having to go to the bathroom.
177
00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,180
There was none will work
178
00:11:36,180 --> 00:11:39,770
the crowd that had been to Vietnam
and been in the army, they said.
179
00:11:39,770 --> 00:11:41,940
We got to make that a train.
180
00:11:41,940 --> 00:11:43,400
They knew the latrine was.
181
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,400
I don't know what all the training was.
182
00:11:53,070 --> 00:11:54,620
I'll give you a lap.
183
00:11:54,620 --> 00:11:56,080
All right. All right.
184
00:11:56,580 --> 00:11:58,540
Okay. I got to speak.
185
00:11:58,540 --> 00:11:59,200
There was his
186
00:12:00,450 --> 00:12:01,580
brother
187
00:12:02,210 --> 00:12:04,830
and I said, Brother, he was white.
188
00:12:04,830 --> 00:12:06,790
They call him tiny.
189
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,510
And he was like a nurse
before the article, before you happened
190
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:15,050
to set up a medical section of New York.
191
00:12:15,260 --> 00:12:19,350
For anybody who had any problems to go
and in time you would take him
192
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,770
and the medical attention in your eye
193
00:12:23,770 --> 00:12:27,360
was much better than the medical tent
you got throughout the years.
194
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:30,980
Oh, and he had a good time.
195
00:12:30,980 --> 00:12:34,700
He was making wine
and cooking food outside.
196
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:37,870
It was like a big picnic,
like a chanty town.
197
00:12:37,870 --> 00:12:39,540
You know, like that would belong.
198
00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:42,450
When in Buffalo Bill was out there,
199
00:12:42,750 --> 00:12:45,870
have you ever watched Gunsmoke
200
00:12:45,870 --> 00:12:46,540
the West?
201
00:12:46,540 --> 00:12:51,420
Well, Matt, Matt Dillon
was the show marshal at the Gunsmoke.
202
00:12:51,710 --> 00:12:53,380
He kept order
203
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:55,760
and we didn't have a map.
204
00:12:57,430 --> 00:13:00,640
Every man was a law unto himself.
205
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:03,600
He did whatever the hell you want to do.
206
00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:07,480
There was no order.
207
00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:35,760
The assignment
208
00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:40,510
editor says there's
this place called Attica and there's
209
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:46,190
some prison riot up there
and we want you to go up and do it.
210
00:13:46,310 --> 00:13:49,480
We're not sure about any of what
211
00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,440
the details are specifically.
212
00:13:52,940 --> 00:13:56,110
And off I went.
213
00:13:57,070 --> 00:14:00,990
Up to Buffalo and then on to Attica.
214
00:14:07,250 --> 00:14:07,870
This is John
215
00:14:07,870 --> 00:14:10,500
Johnson, ABC News, Attica, New York.
216
00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,460
It was just an extremely
217
00:14:15,590 --> 00:14:18,180
fluid situation, to say the least.
218
00:14:18,470 --> 00:14:20,970
And it was hard to get information.
219
00:14:21,180 --> 00:14:25,100
I mean, we couldn't get inside,
and all we heard was
220
00:14:25,390 --> 00:14:27,980
these inmates want to talk
221
00:14:28,230 --> 00:14:31,520
and they have prisoners.
222
00:14:31,730 --> 00:14:33,940
And this was something almost
223
00:14:33,940 --> 00:14:36,780
that had never happened in history.
224
00:14:37,030 --> 00:14:41,280
This huge institution
where the inmates have taken over.
225
00:14:41,740 --> 00:14:42,740
Oh my goodness.
226
00:14:44,990 --> 00:14:47,410
Atika, New York had never heard of Atika,
New York.
227
00:14:47,450 --> 00:14:49,160
What's an etiquette?
228
00:14:49,210 --> 00:14:52,080
Quite frankly,
I did not know what to expect
229
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,250
when I got to Atika.
230
00:14:55,670 --> 00:14:57,880
We parked right in front of the prison,
231
00:14:58,170 --> 00:15:02,970
so consequently we just set up and started
232
00:15:02,970 --> 00:15:05,810
filming as much as we possibly could
233
00:15:06,270 --> 00:15:08,930
of the activities outside of the prison
234
00:15:10,230 --> 00:15:12,940
. We had no idea what was happening
inside.
235
00:15:13,310 --> 00:15:18,320
Your instructions are that
your weapon is not to be taken by you.
236
00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,150
To be taken,
you're to meet force with force.
237
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,330
There have been some of the prison
personnel severely injured here
238
00:15:25,870 --> 00:15:28,830
this morning, and we certainly don't
want to see any right
239
00:15:28,870 --> 00:15:29,870
people hurt.
240
00:15:32,170 --> 00:15:34,790
The state police officers
241
00:15:34,790 --> 00:15:38,010
were being handed out weapons.
242
00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,510
They were making sure they had gas masks.
243
00:15:42,380 --> 00:15:47,390
It looked to me like they were ready to
go in and retake the prison.
244
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,100
The inmates
circumstances, might you go inside?
245
00:15:52,100 --> 00:15:52,640
Pardon me.
246
00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:54,560
Might you go inside
under some circumstances?
247
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,230
Well, one doesn't know.
I'll have to fill this out.
248
00:15:57,270 --> 00:15:59,440
The inmates made any demands. one me.
249
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:00,320
I don't know.
250
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,820
They say that they only want to speak
with the governor or me.
251
00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,200
There seem to be some sense at the time
252
00:16:06,620 --> 00:16:10,290
that we are going to have to negotiate
something
253
00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:14,290
to save the lives of the hostages
254
00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:18,250
because of the hostages that they have.
255
00:16:18,550 --> 00:16:21,760
There's the possibility that negotiations
256
00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:23,380
will begin.
257
00:16:25,260 --> 00:16:29,010
And we're looking at a man
258
00:16:30,810 --> 00:16:34,270
using a loudspeaker on a bullhorn.
259
00:16:37,270 --> 00:16:37,810
Well,
260
00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,360
there appears to be a large meeting
going on in this area,
261
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,410
although we can't hear anything from that
section.
262
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:47,870
That's right.
263
00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:51,160
And inmates
264
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,670
decided that,
you know, they're in a situation that,
265
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,090
you know, that required man
a little bit more focus,
266
00:16:58,630 --> 00:17:02,760
a little bit more discipline,
how to combine the actual population.
267
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,470
Who do you want to represent you? You
268
00:17:06,970 --> 00:17:10,310
mean we had elections, blah blah blah.
269
00:17:11,260 --> 00:17:13,480
That's where we got our leaders from.
270
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:13,980
Hell.
271
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:16,520
Now some guys have some juice in.
272
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:18,020
They already.
273
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,860
The guys that have been there, while
274
00:17:20,860 --> 00:17:23,490
all other inmates respected
275
00:17:24,530 --> 00:17:27,320
what they were saying made sense to most,
everybody was in the yard.
276
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:30,740
And they had a plan
277
00:17:30,740 --> 00:17:34,120
and they had a plan about making things
different for the prison system itself.
278
00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:40,380
All we want is the basic necessities
of being treated like human beings,
279
00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,340
even though we're in prison,
we're human beings and stuff like that.
280
00:17:46,930 --> 00:17:47,760
The prisoners
281
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,640
in the yard must have had a radio.
282
00:17:50,970 --> 00:17:53,680
They heard I was outside.
283
00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,770
So they ask for me to come in.
284
00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:58,690
I said, sure.
285
00:17:59,150 --> 00:18:01,360
And they then said
286
00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,490
we would like Commissioner
Oswald to come in, and
287
00:18:06,450 --> 00:18:08,280
some of his assistant
288
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,200
said, Don't go, don't go
that you can't trust them.
289
00:18:13,330 --> 00:18:15,910
And Oswald said,
Of course, I'm going to go in.
290
00:18:17,750 --> 00:18:20,170
We are glad to have someone
from the administration
291
00:18:20,830 --> 00:18:23,590
point blank
coming in and view it as fact, now
292
00:18:24,210 --> 00:18:26,550
we're making some kind of headway
beginning here.
293
00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:28,430
We got some contact with somebody.
294
00:18:28,430 --> 00:18:30,970
We've got some negotiations for you
listening to us.
295
00:18:31,220 --> 00:18:34,810
I've never heard of this before
negotiating
296
00:18:35,060 --> 00:18:40,020
with inmates, and I just assume
297
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:46,570
that this was going to be
in a landmark moment in American history.
298
00:18:46,610 --> 00:18:50,660
I thought that this was going
to be negotiated
299
00:18:50,990 --> 00:18:53,990
to a decent humanitarian end.
300
00:18:55,290 --> 00:18:58,330
It seems to be a little misunderstanding
about why.
301
00:18:59,370 --> 00:19:01,540
This incident developed at Attica
302
00:19:01,540 --> 00:19:04,090
in this declaration here
will explain the reasons
303
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:10,050
the entire incident that has erupted
here, Adam, is not a result.
304
00:19:14,930 --> 00:19:17,100
Well,
in college towns and their factory towns,
305
00:19:17,100 --> 00:19:20,560
there's all kinds of towns in this country
and this is Attica, New York.
306
00:19:21,190 --> 00:19:23,270
It's a prison town.
307
00:19:24,980 --> 00:19:26,980
Most of the people
in the village of Attica
308
00:19:26,980 --> 00:19:29,650
make their living,
working at the state prison
309
00:19:31,490 --> 00:19:32,610
for 40 years.
310
00:19:32,610 --> 00:19:35,160
Most have lived within
sight of the prison wall.
311
00:19:35,780 --> 00:19:37,990
They have never feared.
312
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:43,460
The village of Attica
313
00:19:43,460 --> 00:19:46,170
was a great place to live was
314
00:19:47,460 --> 00:19:48,550
very typical.
315
00:19:48,550 --> 00:19:50,970
I think small town
316
00:19:50,970 --> 00:19:53,760
where you knew everyone,
317
00:19:54,550 --> 00:19:56,760
you were related
to probably half of the town.
318
00:19:59,220 --> 00:20:02,270
We've ride our bikes through town,
go to the park,
319
00:20:02,270 --> 00:20:06,980
we go swimming at the public pool,
we go hiking up in the woods.
320
00:20:11,190 --> 00:20:13,450
Erica is a company town.
321
00:20:14,740 --> 00:20:18,200
Many of the people who work there
and have lived in our town
322
00:20:18,540 --> 00:20:22,830
worked as either civilian employees
or corrections officers at Attica.
323
00:20:24,420 --> 00:20:27,920
My grandfather worked there.
324
00:20:28,250 --> 00:20:30,800
My dad worked there.
325
00:20:31,050 --> 00:20:32,590
And between six or
326
00:20:32,590 --> 00:20:36,340
eight of the houses that were on
our street had correctional officers
327
00:20:36,390 --> 00:20:39,560
or civilian individuals
working in them with their families.
328
00:20:44,350 --> 00:20:46,730
These were the only jobs in the area,
329
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,610
dairy farming and the prisons.
330
00:20:50,610 --> 00:20:54,450
So there was this culture clash
that came together to Africa.
331
00:20:54,820 --> 00:20:56,990
You had all white guards.
332
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,990
And a population of prisoners,
333
00:21:00,990 --> 00:21:04,580
there was 70 or more percent
black and brown.
334
00:21:06,500 --> 00:21:08,420
What could go wrong?
335
00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:15,590
And the reputation was called
the last stop.
336
00:21:16,050 --> 00:21:18,680
This was the most strict prison
in the state of New York.
337
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:20,640
It was known the word was dead
338
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,850
that when you got there,
you knew where he was in for a hard place.
339
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,230
Last place,
the last place, Attica was the last place
340
00:21:28,060 --> 00:21:29,690
that was that was that that was last.
341
00:21:29,690 --> 00:21:32,610
And you've got to really be there
to see why
342
00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:35,820
there was no, no black guards in Attica.
343
00:21:36,070 --> 00:21:38,070
There was no Spanish guards.
344
00:21:38,070 --> 00:21:41,990
They were all white people, man
that come from the local neighborhoods
345
00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:46,290
that don't know
nothing about people who come from broken
346
00:21:46,540 --> 00:21:49,920
people who come from Manhattan,
people who come from the Bronx.
347
00:21:50,590 --> 00:21:52,300
They don't know
nothing about this culture.
348
00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:55,720
Most of
them don't even want to talk to you.
349
00:21:56,090 --> 00:21:57,180
They're giving you just straight.
350
00:21:57,180 --> 00:21:58,800
Don't talk to me.
351
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,100
And it was like that Don't talk to me.
352
00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:03,470
They were hit the state bar.
353
00:22:03,470 --> 00:22:04,770
And this is a metal.
354
00:22:04,770 --> 00:22:07,310
A metal tips that.
355
00:22:07,310 --> 00:22:10,690
And it rings out, but and you walk
356
00:22:11,310 --> 00:22:13,860
and then when they want you to stop,
they said. But
357
00:22:14,940 --> 00:22:16,950
that was their communication.
358
00:22:16,950 --> 00:22:19,490
The only thing was right was being right
359
00:22:19,490 --> 00:22:21,700
and I mean it in all sincerity
360
00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:25,330
where everybody was sort of like
not so much mixing with other countries
361
00:22:25,330 --> 00:22:27,910
would stand together
for the purpose of the.
362
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:31,250
Survival,
363
00:22:31,420 --> 00:22:33,960
I was white, so I got the best jobs.
364
00:22:34,670 --> 00:22:36,970
I was always given a little bit
365
00:22:36,970 --> 00:22:40,720
more leeway than the Blacks.
366
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.
367
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,270
I'm a I'm a white guy, you know,
give me a little extra.
368
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:50,810
And I got it.
369
00:22:50,810 --> 00:22:54,570
I always was able to manipulate the system
370
00:22:54,570 --> 00:22:57,110
inside the prison
because I was a white guy.
371
00:22:57,690 --> 00:23:01,450
I'm almost ashamed to say
that I took advantage of that back then,
372
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,950
but it was the only way to survive.
373
00:23:04,950 --> 00:23:07,330
It really, really was.
374
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:17,670
A roll of toilet
375
00:23:17,670 --> 00:23:20,050
paper would have to last you a month.
376
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,970
You have to be a magician
or tear up papers
377
00:23:23,970 --> 00:23:27,270
out of the books and stuff like that
to wipe your behind and stuff like that.
378
00:23:27,310 --> 00:23:30,100
Guys were complaining
about basically things like toothpaste.
379
00:23:31,230 --> 00:23:32,810
Toilet paper.
380
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,360
A change of sheets.
381
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:37,320
More than once a month.
382
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,400
Things like digging clothes being cleaned.
383
00:23:40,490 --> 00:23:43,160
Personal hygiene, things
being treated like human beings.
384
00:23:45,830 --> 00:23:49,120
No school program, Atika, was.
385
00:23:49,330 --> 00:23:51,830
I can't describe it to me.
386
00:23:52,290 --> 00:23:53,500
It was dead.
387
00:23:53,580 --> 00:23:55,250
It was just dead.
388
00:23:58,630 --> 00:24:01,300
There was no religious freedom,
particularly
389
00:24:01,300 --> 00:24:03,930
for the burgeoning Muslim movement.
390
00:24:04,090 --> 00:24:07,560
They were denied the right to worship.
391
00:24:08,140 --> 00:24:12,770
They were fed pork because the prison
also had a farm where they raised pigs.
392
00:24:12,770 --> 00:24:15,810
So that's what you god.
393
00:24:15,810 --> 00:24:18,110
If it isn't $0.60 a day,
394
00:24:18,110 --> 00:24:20,780
so that's $0.24 a meal.
395
00:24:20,780 --> 00:24:24,320
If saw money on $0.21.
396
00:24:25,990 --> 00:24:26,740
I swear to God,
397
00:24:26,740 --> 00:24:29,660
one time I got my head opened up by God
398
00:24:30,330 --> 00:24:32,620
and I was put into a segregation cell.
399
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:35,880
And a doctor came, you know,
400
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,920
just out of I was bleeding all over.
401
00:24:39,050 --> 00:24:42,380
So it's like they cracked my head wide
open.
402
00:24:43,380 --> 00:24:47,010
Put it over here,
but they had a feeding hole in the cell.
403
00:24:48,180 --> 00:24:49,640
And so I put it that he put a
404
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,270
flashlight like, I swear to God,
he hit me with the flashlight.
405
00:24:54,020 --> 00:24:57,310
Right, right where the cut was.
406
00:24:58,110 --> 00:24:59,860
And walked away.
407
00:25:04,570 --> 00:25:06,950
They wait
until everybody is locked up at night
408
00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:09,870
and then they come for you,
come for you as a goose.
409
00:25:12,910 --> 00:25:15,960
These are the beat up police.
410
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,210
These two guys, they come nine, ten.
411
00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:21,250
Real big guys
412
00:25:21,250 --> 00:25:25,630
with real big sticks when they come in
and they beat you up in your show
413
00:25:25,630 --> 00:25:29,050
and then they take, you say, gation
and sometimes you don't come back.
414
00:25:29,390 --> 00:25:30,930
Attica was.
415
00:25:34,020 --> 00:25:34,770
It's.
416
00:25:37,100 --> 00:25:40,650
Fear they they ran the prison would fear.
417
00:25:42,110 --> 00:25:44,570
Being scared of them were their means
418
00:25:44,570 --> 00:25:47,280
of running a prison.
419
00:25:50,530 --> 00:25:53,200
You either shut your mouth
or you were in big trouble.
420
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,370
Some people died.
421
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,670
Somewhat crippled,
somewhat psychologically damaged
422
00:26:01,670 --> 00:26:05,630
for life. And.
423
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,300
It was a bad place to be.
424
00:26:15,850 --> 00:26:17,890
They wanted to to institute
425
00:26:17,890 --> 00:26:20,650
and instill that fear
and that they were in control,
426
00:26:21,900 --> 00:26:24,320
even though they knew
they were losing control.
427
00:26:26,740 --> 00:26:27,740
My generation
428
00:26:27,740 --> 00:26:30,240
that came into Annika at that time,
429
00:26:31,070 --> 00:26:34,240
we felt that we was in broken Malabar
as we wasn't
430
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,460
shuffling our feet,
we would walk with our heads up high.
431
00:26:37,870 --> 00:26:39,920
We would talk in our own lingo.
432
00:26:40,330 --> 00:26:41,250
Who's your daddy?
433
00:26:41,250 --> 00:26:43,000
That's what we were going to take.
434
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,920
Nothing from nobody.
435
00:26:45,170 --> 00:26:47,340
We want to respect.
436
00:26:48,510 --> 00:26:50,680
You had to give it to us,
would you want to do or not?
437
00:26:51,890 --> 00:26:54,220
I'd read Algiers Cleaver Soul on Ice.
438
00:26:54,510 --> 00:26:59,390
Huey Newton and, you know, the path of
Piety and George Jackson story.
439
00:26:59,390 --> 00:27:00,810
I read all that stuff.
440
00:27:00,810 --> 00:27:02,480
George Jackson was revolutionary.
441
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.
442
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,780
He ended up in the system
in the soul of the prison.
443
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,330
He showed us. And I mean us.
444
00:27:15,490 --> 00:27:17,620
The younger guys that came into Attica
445
00:27:18,370 --> 00:27:21,540
there was OK to say no.
446
00:27:21,540 --> 00:27:24,170
It was OK to be rebellious.
447
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,630
Understand
they may be consequences to saying no.
448
00:27:30,050 --> 00:27:31,970
But it was OK
449
00:27:31,970 --> 00:27:35,010
and it was uplifting, it was uplifting.
450
00:27:35,970 --> 00:27:39,430
I think racism is a controlled
of control would
451
00:27:40,690 --> 00:27:43,020
create an atmosphere whereby then
452
00:27:43,020 --> 00:27:48,280
petroleum, of course, here in prison
we see the repression
453
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,570
and the exploitation,
454
00:27:50,570 --> 00:27:53,530
the victimization of.
455
00:27:53,660 --> 00:27:56,490
Lower class people's.
456
00:27:56,660 --> 00:27:59,660
A lot of Black Panthers
were coming to prison.
457
00:27:59,950 --> 00:28:03,170
I started hanging out with them
and they politicized me.
458
00:28:03,630 --> 00:28:07,340
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
calls upon the American people in general
459
00:28:07,550 --> 00:28:11,510
and the black people in particular
to take careful note of the racist.
460
00:28:11,510 --> 00:28:15,220
Police agencies throughout the country
are intensifying the terror,
461
00:28:15,430 --> 00:28:18,470
brutality, murder
and repression of black people.
462
00:28:18,510 --> 00:28:23,810
Of course, you had black Muslims
and his message to a black man really?
463
00:28:24,100 --> 00:28:27,320
Well, a lot of guys that were in jail.
464
00:28:27,610 --> 00:28:29,190
You want one thing?
465
00:28:29,190 --> 00:28:31,860
We declare our right on this word
466
00:28:32,450 --> 00:28:36,160
to be a man, to be a human being,
to be respected,
467
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,330
every human being,
to be given the rights of a human being
468
00:28:39,660 --> 00:28:44,000
in this society, on this Earth,
and this day what we intend
469
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,130
to bring into existence
by any means in the city.
470
00:28:53,090 --> 00:28:53,720
Officials at
471
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,970
California's San Quentin
Prison still are trying to piece together
472
00:28:56,970 --> 00:29:00,680
exactly what happened and how inmate
attempted prison break yesterday,
473
00:29:00,970 --> 00:29:03,520
in which three convicts and three guards
died.
474
00:29:04,230 --> 00:29:07,480
one of the dead convicts was George
Jackson of the self-styled
475
00:29:07,610 --> 00:29:10,190
Soledad Brothers. Jackson was 29.
476
00:29:10,820 --> 00:29:12,820
Joy Jackson was that final straw?
477
00:29:12,820 --> 00:29:14,200
I don't give a fuck no more.
478
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:15,530
You're going to kill us anyway.
479
00:29:15,530 --> 00:29:17,740
We can't get out when it's fucking cage.
480
00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:18,950
So where we're going.
481
00:29:18,950 --> 00:29:21,660
So if we're going to die,
let's die as men.
482
00:29:21,870 --> 00:29:25,540
And brother just got frustrated.
483
00:29:27,170 --> 00:29:29,290
We'd go into the mess hall
484
00:29:29,290 --> 00:29:31,880
with a black band on Iran.
485
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,550
And just sit there,
take a spoon when you come in.
486
00:29:35,260 --> 00:29:36,880
Take no food.
487
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:38,430
We didn't speak.
488
00:29:39,350 --> 00:29:42,390
During the whole time,
we didn't pick up any food.
489
00:29:44,430 --> 00:29:46,440
That I think kind of alerted
490
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,940
the institution that we are in solidarity.
491
00:29:50,730 --> 00:29:52,190
They're probably seen that type
492
00:29:52,190 --> 00:29:55,030
of solidarity before.
493
00:30:01,700 --> 00:30:03,790
There was a lot of talk
494
00:30:03,790 --> 00:30:05,960
discussing the situation
495
00:30:06,210 --> 00:30:10,130
because the inmates were very upset
496
00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:12,750
and things were happening here
497
00:30:13,130 --> 00:30:15,510
and there was great concern.
498
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,930
It was a time bomb ready to blow,
and we live with it
499
00:30:19,930 --> 00:30:23,640
every day in my house
and every day I say goodbye to my dad.
500
00:30:23,890 --> 00:30:26,230
And I knew it might be the last day
I saw him.
501
00:30:26,270 --> 00:30:29,900
It was open conversation.
502
00:30:32,730 --> 00:30:34,320
Things were getting worse,
503
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,690
and so they had a meeting
with the administration
504
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,240
in the administration,
essentially dismissed their concerns
505
00:30:40,870 --> 00:30:43,120
and said everybody back to work.
506
00:30:43,740 --> 00:30:46,040
However, we think maybe it's a good idea
if you left
507
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,420
your personal belongings at home
like wedding rings, wallets, et cetera.
508
00:30:49,830 --> 00:30:52,960
So my father absolutely knew
that something was going on.
509
00:30:53,380 --> 00:30:56,760
I was having breakfast with him
and he was talking to me,
510
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:58,380
and I knew he was nervous.
511
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,
512
00:31:02,550 --> 00:31:03,810
but I think I'll be OK.
513
00:31:08,390 --> 00:31:09,350
There was a fight
514
00:31:09,350 --> 00:31:12,560
in a yard on September eighth,
515
00:31:13,230 --> 00:31:15,820
and the guards promised
nothing would happen as a result of this
516
00:31:15,820 --> 00:31:18,780
because they could feel the tension
building up.
517
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,530
Then that night, they broke that promise.
518
00:31:21,780 --> 00:31:26,410
They came and pulled them out of cells
and about three or four of them.
519
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,370
And then.
520
00:31:30,410 --> 00:31:32,540
He was thought to embarrass
Barroso would have a glass.
521
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.
522
00:31:37,590 --> 00:31:42,300
So the inmates decided at that moment,
Man, this is a man we tied.
523
00:31:42,550 --> 00:31:44,050
I mean, they killed Josh Jackson.
524
00:31:44,050 --> 00:31:45,680
They did this throughout the years.
525
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,390
We tie, you know, and they they went off.
526
00:31:58,780 --> 00:32:01,110
I was in school that day.
527
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,240
And the whistle
528
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,240
from the prison just kept going,
and we could hear it.
529
00:32:06,950 --> 00:32:09,620
We got calls from somebody from the prison
530
00:32:09,620 --> 00:32:12,160
saying that your dad, you know,
is definitely being held.
531
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:14,960
You know, I was scared,
I was worried for my dad.
532
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:19,260
I love my dad, but we didn't really
know what was going on.
533
00:32:22,170 --> 00:32:25,010
Understanding about what?
534
00:32:25,010 --> 00:32:29,140
This incident developing it added
in this declaration here will explain
535
00:32:29,140 --> 00:32:34,190
the reasons for the entire incident
that has erupted here at Attica
536
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,820
is not a result of the dastardly
bushwhacking of the two prisoners.
537
00:32:38,980 --> 00:32:44,660
September eighth of 1970
11 of the unmitigated oppression wrought
538
00:32:44,660 --> 00:32:48,450
by the racist administrative network
of this prison throughout the years.
539
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:53,120
We want the government to guarantee
that there will be no reprisals
540
00:32:53,410 --> 00:32:57,380
and we want all facets of the media
to articulate this.
541
00:32:58,290 --> 00:33:00,960
We needed the media in there
because we needed
542
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,260
to let the world know what was happening.
543
00:33:04,380 --> 00:33:08,390
We know this is one of the turning points
544
00:33:08,390 --> 00:33:10,350
in the whole thing.
545
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,560
We would like the press to come in,
546
00:33:15,230 --> 00:33:17,560
including the television cameras
547
00:33:20,150 --> 00:33:23,030
that transformed everything.
548
00:33:24,950 --> 00:33:28,820
Because now
the prisoners had a worldwide audience.
549
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,620
Whatever happens here at Attica
State Prison,
550
00:33:33,830 --> 00:33:39,000
I'm not sure how they heard
that there was a black journalist outside
551
00:33:39,380 --> 00:33:42,420
that they wanted me to be
552
00:33:42,420 --> 00:33:45,550
on the group that went in with us.
553
00:33:46,340 --> 00:33:48,550
Suddenly, I'm on in this group
554
00:33:49,260 --> 00:33:52,430
going into the prison with this.
555
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:55,430
Head of the prison system.
556
00:33:55,430 --> 00:33:58,480
I was surprised
that they had asked for me.
557
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,320
But I guess
because of the fact that they had watched
558
00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:07,410
the news, my reports were factual
559
00:34:08,070 --> 00:34:11,870
and I was not taking anybody's side
560
00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:14,290
in the whole thing.
561
00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:17,540
We went in
562
00:34:17,870 --> 00:34:21,920
and it was completely surreal,
563
00:34:22,420 --> 00:34:26,340
like, you're walking down a tunnel
and suddenly
564
00:34:26,550 --> 00:34:29,090
you walk into this huge yard
565
00:34:29,470 --> 00:34:34,680
where there are men everywhere
like thousands of men.
566
00:34:35,310 --> 00:34:37,560
And I remember
567
00:34:38,060 --> 00:34:40,310
some people yelling, Hey, J.J..
568
00:34:41,190 --> 00:34:43,320
I said hello to people
569
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,150
that I knew from Bed-Stuy and Harlem,
570
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,490
and they were in Attica.
571
00:34:52,950 --> 00:34:55,490
Once inside,
we were brought along through the yard
572
00:34:55,490 --> 00:34:59,040
with a member of the inmate security force
constantly at our side.
573
00:34:59,870 --> 00:35:02,250
We were allowed to go
where they told us to go.
574
00:35:03,090 --> 00:35:04,380
We were all allowed to film.
575
00:35:04,380 --> 00:35:06,510
Only one of the prisoners told us
we could.
576
00:35:07,090 --> 00:35:10,180
Inmates faces were covered
so as to keep their identities secret.
577
00:35:11,090 --> 00:35:14,680
Our first concern on entering was to learn
how the hostages
578
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,730
were going to see the hostages, but
579
00:35:17,980 --> 00:35:20,190
I was able to ask.
580
00:35:21,230 --> 00:35:24,150
one question before I was moved
581
00:35:24,610 --> 00:35:28,150
to the negotiation table to read it,
all right.
582
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,450
Yes, I have so far,
but very no, no complaints, but
583
00:35:31,910 --> 00:35:34,660
no problem solver so far and treat it
very good.
584
00:35:35,910 --> 00:35:38,580
Shortly thereafter, one of the inmates,
585
00:35:39,290 --> 00:35:42,080
a young man by the name of l.D.
586
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,670
Barclay, started to read
587
00:35:45,710 --> 00:35:48,460
the demands of the entire prison
population.
588
00:35:48,550 --> 00:35:54,050
That means each and every one of us here
have set forth to change forever.
589
00:35:54,300 --> 00:35:57,350
The ruthless brutalization and disregard
for the lives
590
00:35:57,350 --> 00:36:00,310
of the prisoners here
and throughout the United States.
591
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,020
He was saying,
What we all want you to scream.
592
00:36:03,650 --> 00:36:07,150
But he was explaining it
so that everybody could understand
593
00:36:07,570 --> 00:36:10,150
so that when you were sitting
in your living room,
594
00:36:10,150 --> 00:36:12,400
you could say, Well, the guy's a criminal.
595
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:13,570
Yeah, but.
596
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:15,240
He is saying something that's.
597
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:15,660
That's
598
00:36:17,740 --> 00:36:19,370
that I understand that.
599
00:36:19,370 --> 00:36:22,370
How could we do that, you know,
he was waking up America.
600
00:36:23,290 --> 00:36:25,630
And he was the best one to do it.
601
00:36:25,630 --> 00:36:27,590
We are men.
602
00:36:27,590 --> 00:36:31,760
We are not beasts and we do not intend
to be beaten or driven effort.
603
00:36:31,970 --> 00:36:34,840
Audi is only going to be here for 90 days,
604
00:36:34,890 --> 00:36:38,310
he'll be getting out, but he wanted to
the outside world and noted.
605
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:42,850
The prison is inhumane.
606
00:36:42,850 --> 00:36:45,400
What has happened here is but the sound of
607
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,070
for the fury of those who are oppressed,
608
00:36:48,650 --> 00:36:51,280
we will not compromise on any terms
609
00:36:51,530 --> 00:36:54,610
except those terms
that are agreeable to us.
610
00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:56,700
We call.
611
00:37:01,410 --> 00:37:03,910
You felt it.
612
00:37:05,790 --> 00:37:07,130
And at that moment,
613
00:37:07,130 --> 00:37:09,880
I heard it and I seen it.
614
00:37:10,550 --> 00:37:13,340
And that reaffirmed
615
00:37:13,340 --> 00:37:16,300
why we was data, why I was there.
616
00:37:20,180 --> 00:37:22,430
It was a feeling that this was big.
617
00:37:23,180 --> 00:37:25,390
This was huge.
618
00:37:28,770 --> 00:37:32,280
Corrections Commissioner Oswald maintained
619
00:37:32,860 --> 00:37:35,070
that he had done
620
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,910
quite a bit of the things
621
00:37:38,910 --> 00:37:41,910
that the inmates had requested.
622
00:37:42,410 --> 00:37:43,500
I've,
623
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,170
uh, complied
624
00:37:46,170 --> 00:37:50,340
with the several things
I said I would do as my part.
625
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:54,550
I brought the press and other media
626
00:37:54,550 --> 00:37:57,760
in here to listen as we talk.
627
00:37:58,010 --> 00:38:01,760
And now my question is I asked earlier,
628
00:38:03,220 --> 00:38:06,230
when will you release the hostages?
629
00:38:07,350 --> 00:38:09,480
Now the table was turned
630
00:38:10,270 --> 00:38:13,030
and we had the power,
631
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,070
so when we asked him for something,
632
00:38:15,070 --> 00:38:18,070
he had to give it to us
because he had no choice.
633
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,160
We wanted some assurance that we weren't
634
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:23,450
going to be retaliated against.
635
00:38:24,500 --> 00:38:26,660
So we ask Herman Schwartz
636
00:38:26,660 --> 00:38:28,870
to go to District Court in New York.
637
00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:33,050
And I get an injunction
638
00:38:33,670 --> 00:38:37,340
that would assure us
that we wouldn't be retaliated against.
639
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,090
I sat down and wrote an injunction.
640
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,180
Which barred any kind of retaliation.
641
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,560
It had been agreed that there would be
642
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,560
another meeting the next morning.
643
00:38:52,730 --> 00:38:55,070
The time is now ten minutes late.
644
00:38:55,070 --> 00:38:58,360
We've been shooting this tape
for approximately two hours.
645
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,030
We started about 6:00 p.m..
646
00:39:02,490 --> 00:39:04,540
Light is almost gone now
647
00:39:04,540 --> 00:39:07,910
we can see lights in cell block D.
648
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:18,130
Oh. The guy next to me
649
00:39:18,670 --> 00:39:20,970
was named Raymond Wei.
650
00:39:22,050 --> 00:39:25,060
You open up in the air.
651
00:39:25,060 --> 00:39:28,230
Gardner still remain way, your way,
652
00:39:28,930 --> 00:39:31,270
your smear
653
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:34,690
ain't been out at the dog and 22 years.
654
00:39:37,740 --> 00:39:38,690
And we was talking
655
00:39:38,690 --> 00:39:40,950
singing songs, it was
it was a festive night.
656
00:39:41,950 --> 00:39:42,950
I loved it. I loved it.
657
00:39:42,950 --> 00:39:46,580
Then I was out in the nighttime
looking at the stars.
658
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,250
I was drunk.
I was happy. I was. I liked it.
659
00:39:49,250 --> 00:39:52,290
Yeah, I was having a good time
and it was good.
660
00:39:52,710 --> 00:39:54,380
I feel free.
661
00:39:54,380 --> 00:39:58,010
You know, I mean, prison was dead,
but you know, I felt free.
662
00:39:58,210 --> 00:40:00,260
And you had to hear
663
00:40:01,260 --> 00:40:03,640
the doors not locking.
664
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:07,350
And if and if it was a good feeling
that that first night
665
00:40:08,890 --> 00:40:10,810
when it got dark
666
00:40:11,190 --> 00:40:13,480
and everybody was talking
about finding somewhere to sleep with,
667
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,610
you know, don't sleep alone
and you know, that type of thing.
668
00:40:16,900 --> 00:40:19,740
There's a lot of psychopaths
and sociopaths
669
00:40:19,740 --> 00:40:23,280
in those facilities, so you know you
had to protect yourself from
670
00:40:24,410 --> 00:40:26,910
from your peers, even.
671
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,790
Well,
I knew this was going to last forever.
672
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:37,960
I knew they would.
673
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,090
It would be an end this.
674
00:40:41,090 --> 00:40:42,720
But just because he was incarcerated
675
00:40:42,720 --> 00:40:44,800
didn't mean that we were less than human.
676
00:40:47,810 --> 00:40:50,520
Somebody had to take the stand.
677
00:40:59,690 --> 00:41:00,360
At dawn,
678
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,910
a smoke from yesterday's fires lingered
over prison walls, a federal injunction
679
00:41:04,910 --> 00:41:09,580
was obtained prohibiting physical reprisal
against those involved in the riot.
680
00:41:11,290 --> 00:41:13,660
When I brought in the injunction,
681
00:41:14,370 --> 00:41:18,290
we talked to the prisoners
at opposite ends
682
00:41:18,540 --> 00:41:21,300
of a rather long tunnel.
683
00:41:22,340 --> 00:41:24,760
They said where where the administrators.
684
00:41:25,300 --> 00:41:26,590
I don't know.
685
00:41:26,590 --> 00:41:28,890
I'm here about know where they are.
686
00:41:28,890 --> 00:41:31,680
Finally, at 10:00, Oswald
687
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,020
and the others show up.
688
00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:37,310
The prisoners were furious.
689
00:41:37,310 --> 00:41:41,440
They had been,
as they would put it, dissed.
690
00:41:42,030 --> 00:41:44,700
They're supposed
to meet at seven or 8:00 and.
691
00:41:45,950 --> 00:41:48,030
It was very clear
692
00:41:48,030 --> 00:41:51,200
the air was very tense.
693
00:41:51,620 --> 00:41:54,870
You had the table spread out.
694
00:41:55,500 --> 00:41:58,460
We were on one side.
695
00:41:58,460 --> 00:42:00,710
The inmates were on the other.
696
00:42:02,340 --> 00:42:03,960
And I gave the document
697
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:06,340
that the judge had signed this.
698
00:42:07,590 --> 00:42:08,800
It's nothing.
699
00:42:09,140 --> 00:42:11,680
I'm sorry, I spent hours of
700
00:42:12,100 --> 00:42:14,730
of and got no sleep and trouble
701
00:42:15,390 --> 00:42:19,350
declaring that a federal judge
has signed off on an injunction
702
00:42:19,650 --> 00:42:23,440
saying that there would be no reprisals,
anything that can.
703
00:42:24,900 --> 00:42:26,820
Waving that at us
704
00:42:26,820 --> 00:42:29,240
and they're free to do so was the same.
705
00:42:29,620 --> 00:42:32,160
There was no judicial seal on it.
706
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,830
I have received injunctions
from the Southern District,
707
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,000
which are judicial fields.
708
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,000
This paper is an empty gesture.
709
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:41,080
Jerry, did you?
710
00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:42,750
That was his nickname.
711
00:42:42,750 --> 00:42:47,260
Jerry Rosenberg was a hell of a guy
and he was well respected.
712
00:42:47,510 --> 00:42:48,470
He had a law degree.
713
00:42:49,890 --> 00:42:51,850
Any new law he would help
714
00:42:51,850 --> 00:42:54,140
all the inmates,
she was a jailhouse lawyer.
715
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:58,440
You can take this piece of paper
and throw it away
716
00:42:58,690 --> 00:43:00,150
because this is no protection.
717
00:43:00,150 --> 00:43:03,190
Geoffrey Rosenberg God bless him, sir.
718
00:43:04,150 --> 00:43:06,360
Charging scientists.
719
00:43:06,610 --> 00:43:09,660
There's
no there's no lost in district court
720
00:43:09,660 --> 00:43:13,830
stamp on this document
saying that, you know what?
721
00:43:13,830 --> 00:43:17,250
Nothing will happen to worse and torn up.
722
00:43:18,790 --> 00:43:20,750
You know, we know you mean well,
723
00:43:20,750 --> 00:43:23,130
but don't come with the bullshit here.
724
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,630
We want a judicial seal and a continuing
725
00:43:26,630 --> 00:43:30,010
restraining order
until the litigation is finally ended
726
00:43:30,300 --> 00:43:33,800
without any reprisal or brutality
against any inmate
727
00:43:34,010 --> 00:43:36,060
of this institution.
728
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,190
Well, lawyers know
729
00:43:47,190 --> 00:43:50,030
that seals don't mean anything
730
00:43:51,820 --> 00:43:55,030
so long as the signature is there.
731
00:43:55,030 --> 00:43:58,410
I could have kicked
Jerry's ass, and I should have
732
00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:00,500
read because
733
00:44:00,500 --> 00:44:03,290
he he just started to grandstand.
734
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,380
You know, he was caught up in the moment.
735
00:44:08,300 --> 00:44:10,340
Good, smart as he is
736
00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:14,090
and a shrewd as he is, he over reacted.
737
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,310
And we lost an opportunity there.
738
00:44:17,310 --> 00:44:20,680
And then somebody said, let's hold them.
739
00:44:21,060 --> 00:44:23,060
Let's add to the hostage Cal.
740
00:44:26,020 --> 00:44:29,570
I speak everybody here,
741
00:44:29,570 --> 00:44:31,900
I want to to you as well.
742
00:44:31,900 --> 00:44:33,990
When you come in here covering the game,
743
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.
744
00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:42,080
Nothing I know.
745
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,670
Nothing, you know?
746
00:44:44,670 --> 00:44:46,880
And I'm gonna to leave you.
747
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,550
It seems to me that you are
748
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,220
saying to me that you,
you are an artist at pretty rare occasion.
749
00:44:55,050 --> 00:44:57,510
I bear witness
to your evil deeds, Mr. Art.
750
00:44:58,470 --> 00:44:59,970
Now I repeat,
751
00:44:59,970 --> 00:45:03,390
as I told you yesterday,
we are being lenient with you.
752
00:45:04,350 --> 00:45:05,940
We are negotiating.
753
00:45:05,940 --> 00:45:08,400
We are talking. We shouldn't be.
754
00:45:08,900 --> 00:45:10,530
We should be demanding.
755
00:45:10,530 --> 00:45:11,530
So why?
756
00:45:11,530 --> 00:45:15,200
Because we have 35 lives, not hostages.
757
00:45:15,860 --> 00:45:16,870
And I repeat Mr.
758
00:45:16,870 --> 00:45:20,950
Oswald, a moment's
hesitation would cause you delay.
759
00:45:21,330 --> 00:45:23,830
The meeting in the yard got very tense
760
00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:28,880
because Oswald would talk to you
from one side of the mouth.
761
00:45:29,170 --> 00:45:31,550
And then when he left the yard
and go outside,
762
00:45:31,550 --> 00:45:33,970
he talks from the other side of the mouth
763
00:45:33,970 --> 00:45:37,050
of the inmates made any demands
that, you know, there are all kinds
764
00:45:37,050 --> 00:45:40,760
of demands, you know, for the change
of change in the whole world.
765
00:45:40,890 --> 00:45:44,560
But what he forgot
was that he was being seen on TV.
766
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:47,440
Come on, how could you do that?
767
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,020
We watch you
768
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.
769
00:45:54,820 --> 00:45:56,410
Well, I don't know what they want.
770
00:45:56,410 --> 00:45:58,530
They want the world and what you like.
771
00:45:58,530 --> 00:45:59,740
You walk away from reporters.
772
00:45:59,740 --> 00:46:01,830
Would you reply that the sidewalk?
773
00:46:01,830 --> 00:46:04,160
Yes, I did say that.
774
00:46:04,870 --> 00:46:05,580
Let him finish.
775
00:46:05,580 --> 00:46:06,620
I don't say that.
776
00:46:06,620 --> 00:46:09,210
Can't bullshit a bullshitter.
777
00:46:09,210 --> 00:46:10,630
You can't do that.
778
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:13,090
The first time he came in, I'm going to do
779
00:46:13,090 --> 00:46:15,220
this, a b, c, d e f g
780
00:46:16,340 --> 00:46:18,760
and people said, All right,
going back to business, get it done,
781
00:46:19,180 --> 00:46:21,510
came back in and started talking
and you know,
782
00:46:22,390 --> 00:46:26,100
it was going around about hearing around
about then this scenario.
783
00:46:26,140 --> 00:46:28,190
Not that the hostages go.
784
00:46:28,690 --> 00:46:30,980
But you be hostage,
785
00:46:31,570 --> 00:46:33,020
whatever, you know, power
786
00:46:33,980 --> 00:46:34,780
and water.
787
00:46:34,780 --> 00:46:35,740
We haven't got that.
788
00:46:35,740 --> 00:46:38,860
We're going to get Mr. Harper for himself.
789
00:46:39,070 --> 00:46:40,370
So we got to.
790
00:46:42,830 --> 00:46:45,330
We're not letting him out of here
and keeping him in Austin.
791
00:46:46,330 --> 00:46:47,960
We all we shut that down.
792
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:49,750
We're not going to be like them.
793
00:46:49,750 --> 00:46:50,920
We're not going to break our word.
794
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,920
And it says, well, inmates
would be more honorable than them.
795
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,800
Yes, we were because we gave him my word
nothing would happen to him.
796
00:47:06,810 --> 00:47:07,850
Everybody starts
797
00:47:07,850 --> 00:47:10,440
screaming at him, go, let him go.
798
00:47:12,110 --> 00:47:12,360
Don't.
799
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:18,900
He got out of Dodge.
800
00:47:18,900 --> 00:47:21,240
He never came back.
801
00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:26,200
In New York State,
802
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:30,580
some 500 inmates of the Attica maximum
security prison are still in revolt.
803
00:47:30,830 --> 00:47:34,000
Authorities tried unsuccessfully
to reach a settlement with the prisoners
804
00:47:34,290 --> 00:47:38,300
over demands for reforms and to obtain
release of more than 30 hostages.
805
00:47:38,670 --> 00:47:42,340
We have a report on what's been happening
at Attica from ABC's John Johnson.
806
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,390
Fires were still burning at Attica
State Prison,
807
00:47:45,810 --> 00:47:48,680
despite a small army of police and state
troopers.
808
00:47:48,850 --> 00:47:51,480
The prisoners continue to call the shots
at Attica.
809
00:47:52,190 --> 00:47:54,610
Commissioner Oswald announced that
810
00:47:54,610 --> 00:47:57,570
prison officials
were attempting to bring to the prison
811
00:47:57,730 --> 00:48:02,530
those people requested by the prisoners
in areas under where the group
812
00:48:03,030 --> 00:48:05,490
was basically people
813
00:48:06,410 --> 00:48:10,040
whom they knew people like Tom Wicker,
814
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,790
who had written a column about prisoners.
815
00:48:13,670 --> 00:48:16,000
Senator John Dunn was chairman
816
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,590
of the Prisons Committee and sympathetic.
817
00:48:19,210 --> 00:48:21,170
He was asked to come.
818
00:48:21,170 --> 00:48:24,550
Bill Kunstler, a lawyer for the Chicago
819
00:48:24,550 --> 00:48:27,140
seven, asked him to come in
820
00:48:27,890 --> 00:48:32,350
and Clarence Jones,
publisher of the Amsterdam News.
821
00:48:37,190 --> 00:48:38,020
Have a driver was
822
00:48:38,020 --> 00:48:41,490
driving me up,
the ampersand is the driver, says Boss,
823
00:48:41,860 --> 00:48:43,990
they're calling your name on the radio,
so what you mean?
824
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,200
Called Rockefeller,
825
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,000
and lo and behold,
the governor picked up the phone.
826
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,080
He said, thank you so much.
827
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:55,500
Mr Jones, we have a major situation.
828
00:48:57,210 --> 00:48:58,500
A number of the inmates
829
00:48:58,500 --> 00:49:00,590
have called your name.
830
00:49:02,630 --> 00:49:04,630
We'll have a car and pick you up.
831
00:49:04,630 --> 00:49:07,010
And taking him to a private airport.
832
00:49:08,970 --> 00:49:10,100
We're a state private
833
00:49:10,100 --> 00:49:12,270
plane is waiting for you.
834
00:49:13,980 --> 00:49:16,020
And there are more.
835
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:18,900
Atika, you be part of the.
836
00:49:20,230 --> 00:49:21,990
Observers committee.
837
00:49:23,570 --> 00:49:26,450
My wife and I were off on vacation
at the time
838
00:49:26,820 --> 00:49:27,870
and we got a call
839
00:49:27,870 --> 00:49:31,790
that they had asked me to come there,
and I felt that with my prior experience
840
00:49:31,790 --> 00:49:35,670
and my responsibilities as a chairman
of the prison committee ought to be there.
841
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:39,750
I was optimistic.
842
00:49:39,750 --> 00:49:40,550
I thought.
843
00:49:41,090 --> 00:49:42,340
Give it a shot.
844
00:49:43,010 --> 00:49:45,760
For the rebel prisoners of Attica,
the encouraging appearance,
845
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,680
the people, they consider friends.
846
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,220
A 30 man mediation committee,
including a congressman for newsmen
847
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,230
and most importantly, lawyer
William Kunstler.
848
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:56,900
Have you heard anything from Governor
Rockefeller's office?
849
00:49:56,900 --> 00:50:00,110
I mean, has he put any time
limit on these negotiations?
850
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:03,400
No, but I understand that
there is no present
851
00:50:03,650 --> 00:50:07,030
plan to use force in this prison,
and I hope that continues.
852
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,910
I just hope that they realize
that this is a unique situation
853
00:50:10,910 --> 00:50:15,000
and that it may take time
and that if everyone has a good faith,
854
00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:17,080
something will work out.
855
00:50:18,750 --> 00:50:21,630
It was scary, the tension was tremendous.
856
00:50:21,630 --> 00:50:25,470
Eager to cut the air with a knife,
it was terrifying.
857
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:28,890
I remember going into the yard
and saying to Mel, Where was I?
858
00:50:29,090 --> 00:50:30,050
Do you have a cigaret?
859
00:50:30,050 --> 00:50:30,470
And he said,
860
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.
861
00:50:35,100 --> 00:50:36,600
I was scared.
862
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:39,770
When you see a tower
with people with rifles,
863
00:50:41,150 --> 00:50:43,020
I kept thinking
864
00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:45,990
we should stay close to Tom Wicker
and Herman Badillo
865
00:50:45,990 --> 00:50:48,530
because they would be the least likely
to be shot.
866
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:52,620
Frank Big Black
867
00:50:52,620 --> 00:50:56,540
Smith was the overall security leader.
868
00:50:57,410 --> 00:50:59,670
He took that job on himself already.
869
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,000
He was the guy.
870
00:51:02,340 --> 00:51:04,170
Here's the big man.
871
00:51:04,250 --> 00:51:06,840
I mean, this is big.
872
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:08,680
That was responsible to make sure
873
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:11,680
that the observers that came in.
874
00:51:13,260 --> 00:51:15,890
They the same way
they can't manage the same way
875
00:51:15,890 --> 00:51:19,480
they did
that, you know, no harm come to them.
876
00:51:19,940 --> 00:51:23,060
He said, Well,
we've got to have a security force.
877
00:51:23,770 --> 00:51:26,610
So we were looking for volunteers.
878
00:51:26,610 --> 00:51:27,570
You, you.
879
00:51:28,530 --> 00:51:30,610
Along the way for her,
880
00:51:30,610 --> 00:51:35,330
can't be all black as we need
black guys, white guys and Puerto Ricans.
881
00:51:38,620 --> 00:51:41,420
We would line up and create a corridor,
882
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:45,840
and they would walk down the middle
of the corridor with us being a barrier
883
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:49,630
between general population
and the negotiators.
884
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:53,680
So we would just
stand shoulder to shoulder and give them
885
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,010
that safe space to walk through.
886
00:52:00,310 --> 00:52:01,730
We begin to talk with them
887
00:52:01,730 --> 00:52:06,690
about what they wanted,
and they had their their
888
00:52:06,780 --> 00:52:10,700
their list of things that they wanted
already written.
889
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:13,950
You know, everybody wanted a voice.
890
00:52:13,950 --> 00:52:14,660
Good, bad.
891
00:52:14,660 --> 00:52:19,000
And it worked out,
so nothing went easy, but it went.
892
00:52:19,500 --> 00:52:24,920
We got to a point where we had
what we thought might be possible.
893
00:52:25,380 --> 00:52:27,670
Their demands were, you know,
894
00:52:28,130 --> 00:52:31,260
reasonable demands
about living conditions.
895
00:52:31,630 --> 00:52:34,090
They wanted medical care.
896
00:52:36,140 --> 00:52:38,430
Decent food,
897
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:41,850
fair disciplinary hearings.
898
00:52:45,020 --> 00:52:46,440
Basically,
899
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:50,400
they wanted to be treated
like human beings,
900
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,820
prisoners late last night met
with a civilian committee
901
00:52:54,820 --> 00:52:58,160
in an attempt to clarify demands
ranging from better prison
902
00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,910
life conditions
to more religious and political freedom.
903
00:53:01,540 --> 00:53:03,920
I injected into the two demands
904
00:53:04,670 --> 00:53:08,170
for some people
to go to non imperialistic country.
905
00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:10,880
You have to be frightened flight out.
906
00:53:11,210 --> 00:53:12,920
We thought Cuba
was going to come and get us.
907
00:53:14,180 --> 00:53:17,800
You ship
troops to Vietnam to stop the men.
908
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:20,810
Go to all these five countries
to press the button.
909
00:53:21,020 --> 00:53:23,850
You can bet why these helicopters
in air and ship
910
00:53:24,100 --> 00:53:26,230
on this country.
911
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,440
We didn't seeing people snatch airplanes
912
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,940
and all like dead and go to Cuba
and Algiers and all other places.
913
00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:34,950
Why not get out of jail?
914
00:53:34,950 --> 00:53:38,120
An Air France
jet was hijacked by Palestinian girls.
915
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,830
17 year old girl hijacked a twb jetliner
916
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,580
I have for years
and on a 25 to life sentence.
917
00:53:44,580 --> 00:53:46,960
Why not get out of jail?
918
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:48,040
Why not?
919
00:53:49,290 --> 00:53:50,590
We all do that.
920
00:53:50,590 --> 00:53:52,010
I wasn't going to happen.
921
00:53:52,010 --> 00:53:54,260
We weren't going to go to
922
00:53:54,340 --> 00:53:55,840
Algeria on the plane.
923
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:58,680
I knew that everybody
in the back of their mind knew that.
924
00:53:59,850 --> 00:54:01,010
But we need it, obviously.
925
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:04,480
We want the federal
926
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:08,560
judiciary to guarantee complete amnesty
to each and every one of us
927
00:54:08,770 --> 00:54:13,940
has taken part in the struggle
here at Attica to ensure that this amnesty
928
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.
929
00:54:20,030 --> 00:54:23,620
They were not looking to be relieved
of the prison sentences
930
00:54:23,620 --> 00:54:27,080
to which they have been sent by the courts
after being convicted.
931
00:54:27,420 --> 00:54:30,500
They were looking to be freed from any
932
00:54:30,500 --> 00:54:32,880
prosecution or any penalties
933
00:54:33,300 --> 00:54:35,340
for their engaging in the riot.
934
00:54:38,470 --> 00:54:41,260
Besides the normal beatings
and everything else
935
00:54:41,300 --> 00:54:45,350
they're going to do to us, which is,
you know, automatic.
936
00:54:46,230 --> 00:54:49,940
We knew that they could also take us
and bring us to court and,
937
00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:55,690
you know, and turn us into the monster
inmates who took over the prison.
938
00:54:56,530 --> 00:54:59,110
We are not advocating violence.
939
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,200
We all want to live.
940
00:55:04,990 --> 00:55:07,290
All right.
941
00:55:07,290 --> 00:55:09,290
If you get one on dog.
942
00:55:11,500 --> 00:55:14,420
You're treating them
better than we have been treated
943
00:55:15,130 --> 00:55:15,880
the last.
944
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:21,220
They were fiercely
945
00:55:21,220 --> 00:55:25,520
trying to convince prison authorities
that they didn't cease
946
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:29,100
being a human
being merely by the fact that they were
947
00:55:30,020 --> 00:55:32,400
incarcerated because they had broken.
948
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:36,860
A law society,
and that's a profound thing.
949
00:55:37,780 --> 00:55:40,570
I am somebody.
950
00:55:40,570 --> 00:55:42,700
I'm not a thing.
951
00:55:42,990 --> 00:55:46,290
You can't treat me like a dog.
952
00:55:46,290 --> 00:55:48,580
I may be a prisoner, but I have dignity.
953
00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:52,040
And that's what they insisted.
954
00:55:53,500 --> 00:55:55,250
I'm getting the.
955
00:55:56,380 --> 00:55:59,420
Power structure of Africa to recognize.
956
00:56:00,590 --> 00:56:03,550
That they continue to be.
957
00:56:03,550 --> 00:56:04,930
Somebody.
958
00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:07,140
All of you have seen
959
00:56:07,220 --> 00:56:10,390
the observers,
they all were listening to us.
960
00:56:10,810 --> 00:56:13,600
I feel that they were supporting us.
961
00:56:14,980 --> 00:56:15,730
We see.
962
00:56:15,730 --> 00:56:17,900
And that meant a lot to us.
963
00:56:19,990 --> 00:56:21,280
This is our situation.
964
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,740
Please listen to us.
And that's what they were doing.
965
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:25,030
They were listening.
966
00:56:25,030 --> 00:56:27,410
It felt like they were somebody
that believed in us.
967
00:56:27,540 --> 00:56:29,160
It felt that way.
968
00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:32,080
If somebody believe that you know,
you did have some rights,
969
00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:34,420
even though you were a convicted felon
or whatever.
970
00:56:36,460 --> 00:56:37,920
Would we able to get
971
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:41,340
a better mailing
privileges, better medical privileges?
972
00:56:41,670 --> 00:56:47,390
We tried to nail it down to that,
which was realistic and possible over
973
00:56:47,430 --> 00:56:50,100
distinguished from a plane waiting for us
974
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,730
outside the cellblock, flying us to Cuba.
975
00:56:54,770 --> 00:56:57,690
That's what it was like it was
it was realism
976
00:56:58,190 --> 00:57:01,570
from fantasy.
977
00:57:01,780 --> 00:57:05,370
We want to be treated as human beings,
978
00:57:05,370 --> 00:57:08,280
we will be treated as human beings.
979
00:57:08,870 --> 00:57:11,290
Yeah, we have come to the conclusion.
980
00:57:13,540 --> 00:57:15,120
That's the study.
981
00:57:16,540 --> 00:57:19,920
After much suffering.
982
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,090
After much consideration.
983
00:57:23,090 --> 00:57:25,890
But if we cannot move
984
00:57:26,090 --> 00:57:27,180
people.
985
00:57:28,390 --> 00:57:30,680
We will at least try.
986
00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:32,980
Today, let me.
987
00:57:36,100 --> 00:57:38,190
That statement was sounded
988
00:57:39,650 --> 00:57:41,070
everywhere.
989
00:57:45,990 --> 00:57:46,820
In that yard,
990
00:57:46,820 --> 00:57:50,790
when he said that a roar went up
like no other.
991
00:57:51,700 --> 00:57:54,580
This was this day, and I saw that
992
00:57:55,330 --> 00:57:58,540
I really none of us
were going to be observers,
993
00:57:58,540 --> 00:58:03,300
we were going to be mediators ,
whether we wanted to be mediators or not,
994
00:58:03,300 --> 00:58:06,010
whether we were called up to be mediators.
995
00:58:07,010 --> 00:58:11,510
This prison uprising had to be mediated.
996
00:58:11,510 --> 00:58:14,680
Otherwise it was going to end in disaster.
997
00:58:16,270 --> 00:58:19,020
If you people do not understand.
998
00:58:20,020 --> 00:58:22,150
If you people do not pick what?
999
00:58:23,650 --> 00:58:25,900
If you people can not make the commitment
1000
00:58:25,900 --> 00:58:28,360
that we have made here.
1001
00:58:29,910 --> 00:58:31,740
We all did.
1002
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:32,990
All right.
1003
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:34,870
We'll take you all
1004
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:37,750
to stand with us.
1005
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:42,170
Not necessarily.
1006
00:58:42,380 --> 00:58:45,210
I know you want to
1007
00:58:45,210 --> 00:58:48,090
hey, hey, before.
1008
00:59:12,030 --> 00:59:14,950
Things were growing on the outside,
1009
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:17,370
don't take.
1010
00:59:20,210 --> 00:59:22,380
There were more journalists.
1011
00:59:22,380 --> 00:59:25,210
There were more police.
1012
00:59:25,210 --> 00:59:27,510
And it was just getting bigger
1013
00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:30,260
and bigger and bigger.
1014
00:59:31,930 --> 00:59:34,350
People are coming night and day
1015
00:59:34,640 --> 00:59:37,680
vans with reporters and police
1016
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:41,310
and things are building up.
1017
00:59:42,900 --> 00:59:44,730
Among those keeping a vigil outside
1018
00:59:44,730 --> 00:59:48,530
the prison walls, the families
of some of the 38 men held hostage.
1019
00:59:48,690 --> 00:59:51,700
I was just home watching the TV.
1020
00:59:51,990 --> 00:59:54,910
I just kept looking for my husband.
1021
00:59:55,330 --> 00:59:58,410
Maybe he'd be killed or brutalized
in some way
1022
00:59:58,660 --> 01:00:02,170
because the inmates at that time
had the power there, you know,
1023
01:00:02,790 --> 01:00:05,500
and if they didn't like somebody
who who knew
1024
01:00:05,500 --> 01:00:08,920
what you were scared to death that,
you know,
1025
01:00:08,920 --> 01:00:12,300
they'd just kill him or something
and they didn't get their way.
1026
01:00:14,050 --> 01:00:16,810
Families of the 31 hostages wait for word
1027
01:00:16,810 --> 01:00:19,480
as part of the prison remains
in control of the inmate.
1028
01:00:26,570 --> 01:00:27,860
They were upset.
1029
01:00:27,860 --> 01:00:29,940
They were angry and they were scared
1030
01:00:30,570 --> 01:00:35,030
standing out there while their loved ones
are being held hostage
1031
01:00:36,030 --> 01:00:39,790
and they are waiting
for any scrap of information
1032
01:00:41,330 --> 01:00:44,830
to hear something.
1033
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,250
And many of those families
1034
01:00:47,250 --> 01:00:50,970
stood vigil day and night out there.
1035
01:00:52,510 --> 01:00:54,340
A bunch of people crying,
1036
01:00:54,340 --> 01:00:57,220
the wives and brothers and fathers
1037
01:00:57,680 --> 01:01:00,430
freaking out to his panic.
1038
01:01:01,180 --> 01:01:04,850
People are afraid to talk
in the parking lot because they thought
1039
01:01:04,850 --> 01:01:10,280
that any reporters or anybody, even
they did it on the privacy
1040
01:01:10,570 --> 01:01:13,780
because they didn't want the relatives
targeted, singled out
1041
01:01:13,780 --> 01:01:15,780
by the inmates.
1042
01:01:26,630 --> 01:01:28,290
I had sympathy for them.
1043
01:01:28,290 --> 01:01:32,800
They were elsewhere, you're going to get
a job if you lived in that
1044
01:01:34,180 --> 01:01:36,430
area and you had no
1045
01:01:37,180 --> 01:01:41,180
training and no understanding
1046
01:01:41,180 --> 01:01:44,310
of what it was like to grow up in
1047
01:01:45,390 --> 01:01:48,270
a poor black urban area.
1048
01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:52,690
You used these were aliens.
1049
01:01:52,690 --> 01:01:56,070
These were people from a different world
1050
01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:01,410
and your family members.
1051
01:02:01,580 --> 01:02:04,410
Maybe you're going to get killed
1052
01:02:04,410 --> 01:02:06,330
because of them.
1053
01:02:06,330 --> 01:02:08,670
Sure, you were.
1054
01:02:08,670 --> 01:02:10,880
Infuriated.
1055
01:02:12,050 --> 01:02:13,590
All these dogs up there with
1056
01:02:13,590 --> 01:02:15,800
all those rifles are trying to kill us.
1057
01:02:16,760 --> 01:02:20,510
Well, we ain't gonna quit the inmates
that we're giving microphones.
1058
01:02:20,510 --> 01:02:21,560
I'm on TV.
1059
01:02:21,560 --> 01:02:23,810
I mean, the very upsetting.
1060
01:02:25,060 --> 01:02:26,730
They should have resolved it right away.
1061
01:02:26,730 --> 01:02:28,730
It just went on too far.
1062
01:02:28,730 --> 01:02:31,440
We all just wanted it to end.
1063
01:02:32,320 --> 01:02:36,320
What I what you hear over the radio
1064
01:02:36,990 --> 01:02:40,320
and the TV was and it's inspiring to me
1065
01:02:41,030 --> 01:02:43,870
because it seemed to
me that what I was hearing.
1066
01:02:44,910 --> 01:02:47,540
I didn't think
1067
01:02:48,370 --> 01:02:50,670
they were doing the right thing.
1068
01:02:50,670 --> 01:02:52,840
It just seemed sort of limp to me
1069
01:02:53,670 --> 01:02:56,510
and it was frustrating.
1070
01:02:57,300 --> 01:02:59,180
You'd hear stuff from people.
1071
01:02:59,180 --> 01:03:03,140
That's where it got a little scary too,
because you could see how the inmates
1072
01:03:03,140 --> 01:03:07,310
were considered like less than human
kind of like animals.
1073
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:10,900
There was people saying,
You know, don't worry about your dad,
1074
01:03:11,150 --> 01:03:14,020
you know, they'll get theirs type thing.
1075
01:03:14,020 --> 01:03:16,990
And so that kind of made it
even more scary.
1076
01:03:17,030 --> 01:03:20,700
You realize how emotionally charged
the community is getting.
1077
01:03:21,620 --> 01:03:23,660
The tensions got worse and worse. Worse.
1078
01:03:23,660 --> 01:03:25,750
Emotions got worse and worse and worse.
1079
01:03:35,760 --> 01:03:36,710
Sadly,
1080
01:03:36,710 --> 01:03:42,180
I think that the hope was stronger
than any doubt because after three days
1081
01:03:42,430 --> 01:03:45,390
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
1082
01:03:45,970 --> 01:03:47,520
They had came in
1083
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:50,980
we had like 30
demands and most of them what
1084
01:03:52,560 --> 01:03:53,940
possible,
1085
01:03:53,940 --> 01:03:56,530
and we will still be doing about it.
1086
01:03:57,150 --> 01:03:59,860
I've never seen anything like this.
1087
01:03:59,860 --> 01:04:02,160
The people in here are treated like dogs.
1088
01:04:02,160 --> 01:04:04,240
Not only the Black Lives Matter, white.
1089
01:04:04,950 --> 01:04:06,740
And we're going to get what we planned.
1090
01:04:06,740 --> 01:04:08,790
Are we going to die? Try.
1091
01:04:08,790 --> 01:04:12,370
But we thought that whatever happened,
1092
01:04:12,370 --> 01:04:15,710
we may maybe really walk away
with some improvement
1093
01:04:15,710 --> 01:04:17,170
in our lives.
1094
01:04:19,130 --> 01:04:21,760
Point was, is that whatever happened,
1095
01:04:22,300 --> 01:04:24,890
it just had to make a difference.
1096
01:04:25,180 --> 01:04:26,970
Change had to happen.
1097
01:04:26,970 --> 01:04:29,020
You had to embrace who.
1098
01:04:34,020 --> 01:04:34,690
There's a report
1099
01:04:34,690 --> 01:04:37,730
that prison officials
have yielded to most of the demands
1100
01:04:37,730 --> 01:04:40,860
by the rebelling inmates
of the Attica state prison in New York,
1101
01:04:41,150 --> 01:04:44,490
where more than 30 persons
have been held hostage for three days.
1102
01:04:45,740 --> 01:04:48,490
As you know, during this ordeal.
1103
01:04:48,490 --> 01:04:51,000
I have personally met with inmates
1104
01:04:51,460 --> 01:04:54,830
on several occasions
in areas under their control,
1105
01:04:55,670 --> 01:04:58,340
and they have demonstrated my commitment
1106
01:04:58,340 --> 01:05:00,760
to deal with the issues they have raised
1107
01:05:01,510 --> 01:05:04,050
by accepting 28
1108
01:05:04,050 --> 01:05:06,930
of the three major inmate proposals.
1109
01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:09,850
The second is like
any time of what's going to happen now.
1110
01:05:10,520 --> 01:05:12,810
Well, we hope negotiations will
1111
01:05:13,350 --> 01:05:16,310
start this afternoon and continue
until they reach a solution.
1112
01:05:16,650 --> 01:05:19,650
Huey Newton or Bobby Seale,
are they coming?
1113
01:05:19,650 --> 01:05:20,190
They were asked.
1114
01:05:20,190 --> 01:05:23,150
Or we hope
we understood that they were en route.
1115
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:23,860
We had.
1116
01:05:25,030 --> 01:05:27,530
Kind of settled in on the demands
1117
01:05:28,200 --> 01:05:30,950
we had negotiated with Oswald
1118
01:05:30,950 --> 01:05:33,960
for his commitment to 28 of them.
1119
01:05:35,370 --> 01:05:39,880
The commissioner and the whole point of
Bobby SEALs coming there would be for him
1120
01:05:39,880 --> 01:05:43,420
to bless and support and urge the inmates
1121
01:05:43,420 --> 01:05:45,130
to accept them.
1122
01:05:50,310 --> 01:05:50,600
Bobby
1123
01:05:50,600 --> 01:05:53,600
Seale was our hero
because he was speaking out
1124
01:05:53,600 --> 01:05:55,810
about the brutality
that was happening in the prison system.
1125
01:05:56,940 --> 01:05:59,730
He was doing what we were trying to leave.
1126
01:05:59,730 --> 01:06:00,980
He was a panther.
1127
01:06:00,980 --> 01:06:02,820
The second in command.
1128
01:06:02,820 --> 01:06:05,780
I really thought it would help us out
of everything
1129
01:06:05,820 --> 01:06:08,240
we ever demand.
1130
01:06:10,660 --> 01:06:12,750
Bobby didn't stay long.
1131
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.
1132
01:06:17,710 --> 01:06:19,750
You walk around your.
1133
01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:23,630
Well, we won't read about the jail.
1134
01:06:23,630 --> 01:06:26,050
A lot of times we're going back in time.
1135
01:06:26,090 --> 01:06:28,340
It was quite a letdown.
1136
01:06:28,340 --> 01:06:32,390
There is no remember me
at all, about three minutes.
1137
01:06:35,350 --> 01:06:37,100
At that point,
1138
01:06:37,100 --> 01:06:40,440
everybody's just sitting around
waiting for something to happen.
1139
01:06:44,990 --> 01:06:47,780
But then Billy Quinn died.
1140
01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:51,700
And that transformed everything
1141
01:06:51,700 --> 01:06:54,660
the state prison in Attica,
New York, is at the crisis point.
1142
01:06:55,000 --> 01:06:58,710
The death of one of the guards as harden
the position of prison officials
1143
01:06:59,040 --> 01:07:01,710
and there are
you don't get amnesty for a murder.
1144
01:07:01,960 --> 01:07:04,460
I immediately knew.
1145
01:07:07,470 --> 01:07:08,840
That the
1146
01:07:10,010 --> 01:07:11,510
process of negotiations
1147
01:07:11,510 --> 01:07:13,970
just became far more difficult.
1148
01:07:15,060 --> 01:07:16,680
I knew that was.
1149
01:07:17,520 --> 01:07:20,730
I was the worst
possible thing that could happen.
1150
01:07:20,730 --> 01:07:23,440
How could they peacefully negotiate?
1151
01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:28,700
With inmates
who they held responsible for the death
1152
01:07:28,700 --> 01:07:29,660
of a guard.
1153
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:36,830
Prior to his passing on.
1154
01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:40,210
There was a hope and even an expectation
1155
01:07:41,170 --> 01:07:43,710
because people were listening.
1156
01:07:43,710 --> 01:07:46,420
People were coming to understand
what we had been living through
1157
01:07:48,090 --> 01:07:50,340
and suffering as prisoners there.
1158
01:07:52,300 --> 01:07:54,350
We know that it was a new ball
1159
01:07:54,350 --> 01:07:57,430
game was depression.
1160
01:07:57,430 --> 01:07:58,810
And fear.
1161
01:07:59,810 --> 01:08:02,770
And, you know, anxiety and yeah,
1162
01:08:04,230 --> 01:08:05,940
everything you can imagine.
1163
01:08:05,940 --> 01:08:08,990
We had to drop a lot of issues
1164
01:08:08,990 --> 01:08:11,030
and focus on amnesty
1165
01:08:11,030 --> 01:08:13,740
as one as the main issue
1166
01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:16,910
because we want to be charged
1167
01:08:18,120 --> 01:08:19,250
with murder.
1168
01:08:19,250 --> 01:08:20,660
We said.
1169
01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:22,540
As a group.
1170
01:08:24,630 --> 01:08:26,000
That we was going
1171
01:08:26,000 --> 01:08:28,170
to stay in solidarity with anyone.
1172
01:08:30,550 --> 01:08:32,630
They could not give amnesty to everybody.
1173
01:08:32,970 --> 01:08:36,140
Then was not going to leave
anyone in the clutch in
1174
01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:39,980
to take a towing back on the bus
or speak to take this.
1175
01:08:40,140 --> 01:08:45,190
We acted together
that we understood that this was us,
1176
01:08:46,020 --> 01:08:48,780
that if we didn't stand together now,
we never would.
1177
01:08:48,780 --> 01:08:49,820
And it would.
1178
01:08:49,820 --> 01:08:52,910
We would live
like dogs for the rest of our lives.
1179
01:08:55,490 --> 01:08:57,580
We understood that.
1180
01:08:57,580 --> 01:09:02,460
Did I wish that we could somehow
back away, but not without amnesty?
1181
01:09:02,500 --> 01:09:04,500
How do the inmates feel
about the current situation?
1182
01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:06,210
I will.
1183
01:09:06,210 --> 01:09:08,880
A group of us were in with the inmates.
1184
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:10,670
We met with them.
1185
01:09:10,670 --> 01:09:13,220
We had two and a half hours.
1186
01:09:13,220 --> 01:09:14,590
Some of the people are here,
1187
01:09:14,590 --> 01:09:18,100
but we really have nothing to say about
it, except they are firm in their demands.
1188
01:09:18,430 --> 01:09:19,680
And that's it.
1189
01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:20,270
In other words,
1190
01:09:20,270 --> 01:09:23,390
they're not going to let the hostages
go until they're granted total amnesty.
1191
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,650
That was their last position.
1192
01:09:31,110 --> 01:09:33,820
The flag at half staff
for the injured guard who had died
1193
01:09:33,820 --> 01:09:35,910
the night before
set the mood this morning,
1194
01:09:36,120 --> 01:09:38,910
it was clear that the troubles of this
troubled prison had grown worse.
1195
01:09:39,030 --> 01:09:42,120
That Sunday,
you had that fall that came over
1196
01:09:42,700 --> 01:09:44,750
and it was a certain chill in the air.
1197
01:09:46,250 --> 01:09:47,750
Something didn't feel right.
1198
01:09:47,750 --> 01:09:49,710
It didn't feel right.
1199
01:09:49,710 --> 01:09:52,550
There are strong indications tonight
that police will be sent
1200
01:09:52,550 --> 01:09:56,140
into the cellblock in an attempt
to rescue the rest of the hostages
1201
01:09:56,140 --> 01:09:57,260
by force.
1202
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:03,480
Water was cut off.
1203
01:10:03,480 --> 01:10:05,810
Food was getting scarce.
1204
01:10:05,810 --> 01:10:09,060
Patients were getting shot
and people were totally
1205
01:10:10,190 --> 01:10:12,280
wondering what is going to be the outcome
1206
01:10:13,110 --> 01:10:15,030
of the situation.
1207
01:10:22,370 --> 01:10:24,960
There was enormous pressure,
and I witnessed
1208
01:10:24,960 --> 01:10:29,710
that as I took a breather
and went out to the public space
1209
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:34,300
just outside the prison,
where a lot of correction
1210
01:10:34,300 --> 01:10:37,720
officers, their families, troopers
and other officials
1211
01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:39,640
were gathered together.
1212
01:10:40,930 --> 01:10:43,470
I mean,
the news was completely about that.
1213
01:10:43,770 --> 01:10:46,640
You know that the state troopers
and everybody were poised
1214
01:10:46,640 --> 01:10:49,560
on the top looking and
1215
01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:52,480
it was all about these rumors
1216
01:10:52,650 --> 01:10:56,950
that the prisoners were castrating
1217
01:10:56,950 --> 01:11:01,450
the hostages,
that they were torturing them.
1218
01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:04,540
And it's going to end in bloodshed.
1219
01:11:04,540 --> 01:11:08,960
And that was the storyline
that was terrifying, people.
1220
01:11:09,670 --> 01:11:11,170
Could you turn around
this way to the camera?
1221
01:11:11,170 --> 01:11:13,710
I think I did a few interviews
1222
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:16,170
and the people were
1223
01:11:16,170 --> 01:11:20,760
made it very clear
that these are bad people in there and
1224
01:11:21,850 --> 01:11:23,430
they shouldn't be doing this.
1225
01:11:23,430 --> 01:11:25,600
You know, they should be taken care of.
1226
01:11:25,680 --> 01:11:26,850
You know what I mean?
1227
01:11:26,850 --> 01:11:28,770
And hang them and
1228
01:11:28,810 --> 01:11:29,940
crazy stuff.
1229
01:11:29,940 --> 01:11:32,310
I mean, they're just really crazy.
1230
01:11:32,690 --> 01:11:35,190
It was a very hostile environment.
1231
01:11:35,230 --> 01:11:36,400
And I just
1232
01:11:36,820 --> 01:11:39,110
don't I
1233
01:11:40,530 --> 01:11:42,990
don't think that Jaime,
I'll stick up your hand.
1234
01:11:43,870 --> 01:11:47,080
I'm a father of eight children
and my boy is the oldest,
1235
01:11:47,450 --> 01:11:50,580
and I wouldn't
want to see any one of them die.
1236
01:11:50,580 --> 01:11:52,580
Whatever he is going to die,
1237
01:11:52,580 --> 01:11:55,840
I want that whole damn thing
bound right to hell. OK.
1238
01:11:57,010 --> 01:12:00,510
And while we're talking went
on, the state police
1239
01:12:00,510 --> 01:12:04,050
kept reinforcing
at least 500 men in and out of the wall.
1240
01:12:04,470 --> 01:12:08,100
No indication that any of this force
will be used at the police already.
1241
01:12:09,390 --> 01:12:09,940
Well, any
1242
01:12:09,940 --> 01:12:15,230
time you went in and out of the prison,
there was an army
1243
01:12:15,690 --> 01:12:21,780
and they were armed
with every conceivable type of weapon .
1244
01:12:21,780 --> 01:12:25,120
And it really looked like
1245
01:12:25,950 --> 01:12:28,370
they wanted to use those weapons.
1246
01:12:28,410 --> 01:12:31,540
You had the sense of their anger
1247
01:12:31,540 --> 01:12:33,580
and they've been held back and
1248
01:12:37,670 --> 01:12:39,090
they wanted to move.
1249
01:12:39,090 --> 01:12:42,760
They wanted to to to attack.
1250
01:12:47,220 --> 01:12:49,890
Yeah, they were very impatient,
1251
01:12:49,890 --> 01:12:51,440
very unhappy.
1252
01:12:52,390 --> 01:12:56,940
They were all thrown into a situation
in which they are not prepared for
1253
01:12:57,440 --> 01:13:01,450
and about which
they had basically an animosity.
1254
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:06,160
And I wish to
1255
01:13:06,160 --> 01:13:09,040
would any of the men that a lot us off
the roof?
1256
01:13:09,410 --> 01:13:14,210
Adobe that group is out of here because
if you get these shaky guy shooting off
1257
01:13:14,210 --> 01:13:18,340
or getting up, and all of a sudden
somebody is going to get excited
1258
01:13:18,750 --> 01:13:21,720
and then we're all going to say now,
this is not a joke.
1259
01:13:22,420 --> 01:13:23,130
This is not
1260
01:13:24,470 --> 01:13:26,760
some kind of a little tea party
we've got here.
1261
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:29,350
And I just hope that the commissioner
1262
01:13:29,810 --> 01:13:32,480
and the other people in the committee
that they've gathered together
1263
01:13:34,190 --> 01:13:36,980
can come up with a solution
1264
01:13:36,980 --> 01:13:39,860
to solve these people's problems
1265
01:13:39,860 --> 01:13:40,820
and ours.
1266
01:13:41,070 --> 01:13:42,690
Thank you very much.
1267
01:13:46,370 --> 01:13:49,700
Late Sunday afternoon,
1268
01:13:49,790 --> 01:13:53,290
Commissioner Oswald
and the officials were prepared
1269
01:13:53,620 --> 01:13:57,040
and intended to retaking.
1270
01:13:57,670 --> 01:14:00,340
But I pressed Israel to agree
1271
01:14:01,130 --> 01:14:03,590
to give them until 7:00 on Monday
1272
01:14:03,590 --> 01:14:05,970
morning, by Sunday morning,
everything else had failed.
1273
01:14:07,390 --> 01:14:12,640
And so the the the final shot
1274
01:14:13,060 --> 01:14:15,850
was going to be
to try to get the Roc-A-Fella.
1275
01:14:17,060 --> 01:14:21,230
And there was there was a committee
of people put together to do that.
1276
01:14:21,940 --> 01:14:22,610
Good morning.
1277
01:14:24,150 --> 01:14:26,780
We wanted four friends of the governor
1278
01:14:27,030 --> 01:14:29,450
to call him and please as your friend.
1279
01:14:29,950 --> 01:14:33,950
Let me ask you to come to Attica,
not to meet with the prisoners,
1280
01:14:33,950 --> 01:14:37,960
but to come and lay your hand
on approving these measures,
1281
01:14:38,920 --> 01:14:40,460
Sergeant Cunningham.
1282
01:14:40,460 --> 01:14:42,550
Now, would you give us a message
1283
01:14:42,800 --> 01:14:45,130
for Governor Nelson Rockefeller?
1284
01:14:46,340 --> 01:14:47,590
I certainly would.
1285
01:14:47,590 --> 01:14:51,100
one of the recommendations is
and he said, No, I'm dead.
1286
01:14:51,680 --> 01:14:55,310
I and some of my fellow members
of the Service Committee felt
1287
01:14:55,310 --> 01:15:00,440
very strongly that if Governor Rockefeller
were to come to and identify
1288
01:15:00,650 --> 01:15:04,400
with finding a solution,
it might have broken the logjam.
1289
01:15:05,490 --> 01:15:09,200
So I placed the call, the governor
Rockefeller, somewhere around 3:00.
1290
01:15:09,530 --> 01:15:13,030
Governor, what about your
personal feelings right now?
1291
01:15:13,330 --> 01:15:15,790
On one level, it was a Hail Mary.
1292
01:15:15,790 --> 01:15:18,790
On the other level
it was more than a Hail Mary.
1293
01:15:18,790 --> 01:15:21,130
These were prominent people.
1294
01:15:23,090 --> 01:15:27,970
People
that you would think Rockefeller respected
1295
01:15:28,430 --> 01:15:33,050
making a sincere pitch come up here,
you don't have to go in.
1296
01:15:33,510 --> 01:15:37,270
You don't have to agree to anything
your presence will have mean.
1297
01:15:38,190 --> 01:15:41,310
Maybe if he came, that would be an opening
1298
01:15:41,310 --> 01:15:45,030
that would have allowed us to negotiate.
1299
01:15:45,030 --> 01:15:45,690
Maybe.
1300
01:15:47,030 --> 01:15:47,900
Some other
1301
01:15:47,900 --> 01:15:52,410
negotiators could be brought in
who would help the negotiation,
1302
01:15:52,410 --> 01:15:55,080
maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
1303
01:15:55,740 --> 01:15:58,960
But no known donor or man.
1304
01:15:59,000 --> 01:16:01,040
Death, death, death, death.
1305
01:16:01,790 --> 01:16:05,130
Prisoners had been demanding from the very
beginning that I come into the yard,
1306
01:16:05,710 --> 01:16:09,090
and I frankly felt
that the idea of governors
1307
01:16:10,090 --> 01:16:14,010
any time there was an uprising
or any time there was a prisoner
1308
01:16:14,010 --> 01:16:18,640
taken on a prisoner, but a hostage
taking being involved in the negotiation,
1309
01:16:18,640 --> 01:16:21,140
the next thing would be, we don't want
the governor, we want the president,
1310
01:16:21,850 --> 01:16:24,900
and we get to a situation
with an impossible one for this country.
1311
01:16:24,980 --> 01:16:28,190
By the time they spoke to him,
he had made up his mind.
1312
01:16:29,190 --> 01:16:31,990
He listened carefully,
he listened politely.
1313
01:16:32,950 --> 01:16:35,120
But by then, he had made up his mind.
1314
01:16:37,160 --> 01:16:39,750
We didn't understand the background of us
1315
01:16:39,750 --> 01:16:44,960
having consulted on an ongoing basis
during those days with the White House,
1316
01:16:45,630 --> 01:16:49,170
the administration in Washington
encouraged Rockey
1317
01:16:49,170 --> 01:16:51,590
to take a strong hard line position,
1318
01:16:52,340 --> 01:16:54,550
which was unfortunate.
1319
01:16:54,640 --> 01:16:58,220
It was all a part of President Nixon's
law and order agenda.
1320
01:16:58,810 --> 01:17:01,480
They were putting the pressure
yesterday on me all day
1321
01:17:01,480 --> 01:17:05,270
to go up there and it up
because everything else had failed.
1322
01:17:05,270 --> 01:17:06,480
And did you go?
1323
01:17:06,480 --> 01:17:08,530
Of course not. Of course not.
1324
01:17:08,530 --> 01:17:09,480
But I had the time.
1325
01:17:09,480 --> 01:17:11,860
Rockefeller wasn't calling the shots.
1326
01:17:12,900 --> 01:17:14,950
Because he was on the phone.
1327
01:17:16,410 --> 01:17:19,290
With Richard Nixon.
1328
01:17:20,750 --> 01:17:24,290
Rockefeller wanted to be president.
1329
01:17:24,290 --> 01:17:26,130
But the word on him was that
1330
01:17:26,130 --> 01:17:28,300
he was too soft on crime.
1331
01:17:29,590 --> 01:17:31,420
Where was he recommending amnesty?
1332
01:17:31,420 --> 01:17:32,090
Oh, yes.
1333
01:17:32,130 --> 01:17:35,760
Oh God, I tell you, is
1334
01:17:35,760 --> 01:17:38,970
this was the great this is separated
the sheep from the goats.
1335
01:17:39,430 --> 01:17:46,310
And if he wanted the support of Nixon
and the Republican Party, then
1336
01:17:47,610 --> 01:17:49,820
he needs to go along.
1337
01:17:49,900 --> 01:17:52,440
And so he wouldn't come.
1338
01:17:57,780 --> 01:17:59,120
You know, not that Rockefeller
1339
01:17:59,120 --> 01:18:01,330
wasn't coming in.
1340
01:18:03,290 --> 01:18:05,080
It's like slamming the door on you.
1341
01:18:05,080 --> 01:18:08,790
You know, I slammed the door
and we were locked in this room
1342
01:18:08,790 --> 01:18:10,800
and we didn't know what to do.
1343
01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:13,720
You were to a great degree,
1344
01:18:13,720 --> 01:18:17,550
despondent
that we had no solution to this.
1345
01:18:17,590 --> 01:18:20,310
We didn't know what to do.
1346
01:18:20,310 --> 01:18:23,640
Made one last chance
to convince the inmates
1347
01:18:23,640 --> 01:18:25,350
to surrender.
1348
01:18:30,610 --> 01:18:33,070
That last night, Cell Block D.
1349
01:18:35,200 --> 01:18:37,200
As we were trying to negotiate.
1350
01:18:38,870 --> 01:18:41,490
Demands that we thought.
1351
01:18:42,410 --> 01:18:44,200
But realistic.
1352
01:18:47,080 --> 01:18:50,960
Was. A come to Jesus moment.
1353
01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:55,300
This is what you wanted the demands.
1354
01:18:56,130 --> 01:18:58,550
This is what we were able to achieve.
1355
01:18:58,550 --> 01:19:01,300
This is where we stand now.
1356
01:19:03,890 --> 01:19:06,390
I'm not going to mislead you.
1357
01:19:06,390 --> 01:19:08,600
And believe
that you can get anything better.
1358
01:19:09,650 --> 01:19:11,560
I do not believe you can get
1359
01:19:11,560 --> 01:19:13,150
anything better.
1360
01:19:14,980 --> 01:19:16,280
I think we have to make
1361
01:19:16,280 --> 01:19:18,820
a peaceful accommodation.
1362
01:19:20,740 --> 01:19:24,490
Ready to be shot down like dogs.
1363
01:19:25,250 --> 01:19:28,540
I said this is what we achieved. OK.
1364
01:19:30,250 --> 01:19:32,420
And turn around, look,
1365
01:19:32,420 --> 01:19:36,550
cellblock, then you see all those guns
there, just waiting to kill us.
1366
01:19:36,550 --> 01:19:38,050
They want to kill us.
1367
01:19:38,050 --> 01:19:41,050
Do you understand that they want to show
1368
01:19:41,220 --> 01:19:44,010
that they have the power
from the barrel of a gun?
1369
01:19:44,060 --> 01:19:45,520
That's what they want to do.
1370
01:19:45,520 --> 01:19:48,270
Oh God, I don't know
what's happening to me.
1371
01:19:48,520 --> 01:19:51,310
We were warned by the observers
1372
01:19:51,310 --> 01:19:55,230
that if we didn't settle,
even without the amnesty,
1373
01:19:55,780 --> 01:19:59,200
they were going to come in
and it could get very bad.
1374
01:20:00,990 --> 01:20:05,660
And of course, we talked among ourselves,
and we just couldn't
1375
01:20:06,410 --> 01:20:09,460
go without the amnesty
because it would have been literally
1376
01:20:10,250 --> 01:20:11,670
sending all our leaders.
1377
01:20:13,540 --> 01:20:15,960
To the dogs to be
1378
01:20:15,960 --> 01:20:18,720
tortured, murdered.
1379
01:20:19,550 --> 01:20:21,930
Convicted of crimes and
1380
01:20:21,930 --> 01:20:23,970
who knows what else, we had observed
1381
01:20:24,550 --> 01:20:28,850
the organization
and preparation of the troopers to enter.
1382
01:20:29,020 --> 01:20:31,850
Hundreds of them with their shotguns
1383
01:20:31,850 --> 01:20:35,610
just outside the immediate
area of the yard.
1384
01:20:36,190 --> 01:20:40,820
We witness the stationing of sharpshooters
on one of the ledges
1385
01:20:41,320 --> 01:20:44,320
looking down into DAAD.
1386
01:20:44,320 --> 01:20:47,740
Fear overtook the observers committee.
1387
01:20:51,790 --> 01:20:54,170
It seemed like they felt
something was going to happen.
1388
01:20:54,830 --> 01:20:56,340
They were more.
1389
01:20:57,500 --> 01:21:00,300
Hesitant to leave,
they left with a solemn mood.
1390
01:21:00,340 --> 01:21:02,510
He left us with a solemn like.
1391
01:21:04,180 --> 01:21:07,600
But is this better, just take care.
1392
01:21:10,140 --> 01:21:12,480
I remember seeing them leave, and,
1393
01:21:12,480 --> 01:21:16,400
you know,
it was a scary moment to see them leaving,
1394
01:21:16,770 --> 01:21:18,980
you know,
knowing that there wasn't coming back.
1395
01:21:22,570 --> 01:21:23,400
I remember
1396
01:21:23,400 --> 01:21:27,910
Big Black saying, I want to thank you
for what you guys tried to do.
1397
01:21:27,950 --> 01:21:30,790
We really appreciate it.
So there was a lot of that.
1398
01:21:32,080 --> 01:21:33,290
When we went out of
1399
01:21:33,290 --> 01:21:36,670
that yard that night.
1400
01:21:37,090 --> 01:21:38,500
There were tears.
1401
01:21:39,300 --> 01:21:40,420
Tears.
1402
01:21:42,470 --> 01:21:45,010
And I think all of us were hoping
1403
01:21:45,010 --> 01:21:47,140
that something happened
at the last minute.
1404
01:21:48,430 --> 01:21:49,430
Stop it.
1405
01:21:51,720 --> 01:21:55,270
I felt complete failure,
1406
01:21:55,270 --> 01:21:57,650
a failure that I had let them down.
1407
01:21:59,730 --> 01:22:03,110
one of the most painful things.
1408
01:22:03,190 --> 01:22:06,160
As inmates begin to.
1409
01:22:06,160 --> 01:22:09,450
Hand me
written notes, the telephone number.
1410
01:22:10,910 --> 01:22:14,080
Of their of their
1411
01:22:14,080 --> 01:22:15,540
next of kin.
1412
01:22:16,460 --> 01:22:18,790
In case they didn't make it OK.
1413
01:22:19,380 --> 01:22:21,090
They wanted me.
1414
01:22:21,090 --> 01:22:24,050
They they I mean, a couple of them
looked me in the eye with tears
1415
01:22:25,300 --> 01:22:27,300
for the Jones, but I don't make it.
1416
01:22:28,050 --> 01:22:28,930
You're going to call right.
1417
01:22:28,930 --> 01:22:31,260
I said, You have my word.
1418
01:22:31,970 --> 01:22:34,350
I will call you
1419
01:22:35,390 --> 01:22:38,690
any way optimistic that this thing
could be settled by tomorrow.
1420
01:22:38,980 --> 01:22:42,530
I think I'm much too tired to be either
optimistic or pessimistic at this moment.
1421
01:22:42,530 --> 01:22:44,860
I'm kind of just freaked out.
1422
01:22:56,540 --> 01:22:58,290
Randall, I know
1423
01:22:58,370 --> 01:23:00,920
it didn't stop ran until about
1424
01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:02,960
six in the morning.
1425
01:23:03,500 --> 01:23:06,760
Cold Mountain, right?
1426
01:23:06,800 --> 01:23:12,390
And we were not prepared
for those little hunches that we had the
1427
01:23:13,060 --> 01:23:15,600
that people had built a yard up
1428
01:23:15,600 --> 01:23:18,020
in every day,
all alone started collapsing.
1429
01:23:18,900 --> 01:23:21,060
And you had to get on
1430
01:23:21,730 --> 01:23:25,820
solid ground concrete and huddled together
1431
01:23:26,110 --> 01:23:29,200
because everybody was shivering
and everything else.
1432
01:23:29,700 --> 01:23:32,830
It was a miserable night,
one of the miserable nights
1433
01:23:32,830 --> 01:23:35,040
I ever spent in my life.
1434
01:23:37,620 --> 01:23:40,920
I could feel the tension in the air,
the tension was so strong
1435
01:23:41,170 --> 01:23:43,880
that I could just basically grab it
and hold on to it
1436
01:23:45,050 --> 01:23:46,170
. Am I going to make it?
1437
01:23:46,170 --> 01:23:48,630
Am I going to to this?
1438
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.
1439
01:23:56,850 --> 01:23:59,310
There was an air.
1440
01:24:03,770 --> 01:24:06,110
We've been out there for about four days.
1441
01:24:06,110 --> 01:24:08,610
Wake up that morning and it's
1442
01:24:08,610 --> 01:24:11,070
wet and dreary out there,
1443
01:24:11,070 --> 01:24:14,450
and you could always smell the fumes
1444
01:24:15,200 --> 01:24:18,200
of Guy's body
in that trench that we dug in the yard.
1445
01:24:18,410 --> 01:24:20,250
You use the bathroom.
1446
01:24:20,870 --> 01:24:22,960
Right there in front of You
Breathe initiative nowadays,
1447
01:24:22,960 --> 01:24:25,960
so you want out.
1448
01:24:28,380 --> 01:24:30,260
What was really bad?
1449
01:24:30,260 --> 01:24:33,260
People's moods was that way, and
1450
01:24:33,720 --> 01:24:34,510
it was crowded.
1451
01:24:34,510 --> 01:24:37,020
It started to rain a little bit.
1452
01:24:37,020 --> 01:24:38,140
You know, it was dog.
1453
01:24:38,140 --> 01:24:40,850
The sky was dark gray.
1454
01:24:44,020 --> 01:24:44,650
We heard that
1455
01:24:44,650 --> 01:24:46,770
we would be part of a medical evacuation.
1456
01:24:48,440 --> 01:24:50,530
And early on Monday morning,
1457
01:24:50,530 --> 01:24:52,950
we loaded into trucks
and headed for Attica prison.
1458
01:24:56,370 --> 01:24:58,450
In the three years
that I was in the National Guard,
1459
01:24:58,450 --> 01:25:02,580
I had not seen any kind of action
in which violence was involved.
1460
01:25:03,540 --> 01:25:05,500
But we had a sense of dread,
1461
01:25:05,500 --> 01:25:08,210
and we had a wish
that we could kind of not go.
1462
01:25:09,460 --> 01:25:12,760
And there was the hope,
even at the last minute, that
1463
01:25:13,470 --> 01:25:15,970
by some miracle, maybe
1464
01:25:16,300 --> 01:25:19,390
Rockefeller would intervene.
1465
01:25:20,560 --> 01:25:21,730
His refusal to come
1466
01:25:21,730 --> 01:25:25,860
here is a monstrosity, because what he is
saying is kill these men.
1467
01:25:26,110 --> 01:25:27,940
I have no concern.
1468
01:25:27,940 --> 01:25:31,240
All I want to do
is assault, law and order,
1469
01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:33,990
and I think that's a rotten
in exchange for life.
1470
01:25:35,570 --> 01:25:37,580
And we got to the prison
1471
01:25:37,580 --> 01:25:41,830
and saw the lines of state troopers
and deputies
1472
01:25:41,830 --> 01:25:45,540
with their raincoats
on and their weapons in hand.
1473
01:25:46,880 --> 01:25:47,920
They looked exhausted.
1474
01:25:47,920 --> 01:25:51,300
They had been there, many of them
for a couple of days at least,
1475
01:25:51,960 --> 01:25:55,260
and they really didn't look up to the
task that was given to them.
1476
01:26:03,310 --> 01:26:05,350
He was coming in, you could tell.
1477
01:26:05,350 --> 01:26:08,270
You can see them starting to get
more people I wasn't able to count on.
1478
01:26:10,480 --> 01:26:11,730
What I saw was.
1479
01:26:15,820 --> 01:26:18,870
We got another matches
to put up on that table committee, there's
1480
01:26:18,870 --> 01:26:22,750
going to be rubber bullets
and I say that's what that's
1481
01:26:22,750 --> 01:26:24,960
what the word was.
1482
01:26:27,460 --> 01:26:29,960
I thought they were going to be
a real old fashioned game for you.
1483
01:26:29,960 --> 01:26:32,380
David, you want to call it,
you know them versus us.
1484
01:26:32,630 --> 01:26:33,800
They've got the crowd.
1485
01:26:33,800 --> 01:26:36,680
We've got a few bats and stuff in here,
so we're going to
1486
01:26:37,760 --> 01:26:39,640
best guy win.
1487
01:26:41,760 --> 01:26:44,350
We started making preparations
1488
01:26:44,350 --> 01:26:47,350
and putting Vaseline
on every part of our body
1489
01:26:47,350 --> 01:26:50,570
that could be exposed to gas
and get burnt and stuff like that
1490
01:26:51,730 --> 01:26:53,900
padding ourselves with clothes.
1491
01:26:57,820 --> 01:26:58,780
Somebody saying
1492
01:26:58,780 --> 01:27:01,410
if they come in here,
then that's good because I know my sheik.
1493
01:27:04,040 --> 01:27:06,120
It became apparent to me
1494
01:27:06,120 --> 01:27:08,540
that the situation
was seriously deteriorating
1495
01:27:09,380 --> 01:27:13,250
and that the inmates,
many of whom are confined to this maximum
1496
01:27:13,250 --> 01:27:17,220
security facility
under light and long sentences.
1497
01:27:18,050 --> 01:27:21,640
We're not going to participate
in a reasonable negotiation.
1498
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:24,770
Tensions within the walls
1499
01:27:24,770 --> 01:27:27,230
have steadily increased.
1500
01:27:27,230 --> 01:27:29,480
The action now underway
1501
01:27:29,480 --> 01:27:31,770
was initiated with extreme reluctance
1502
01:27:32,900 --> 01:27:36,240
only after all, attempts to achieve
1503
01:27:36,940 --> 01:27:40,820
a peaceful solution failed.
1504
01:27:40,990 --> 01:27:43,240
We were told that our mission
was protection
1505
01:27:43,240 --> 01:27:47,120
for the medical battalion
during the commander's briefing.
1506
01:27:47,330 --> 01:27:49,460
We were told that to our knowledge,
1507
01:27:50,170 --> 01:27:52,840
the inmates had no guns.
1508
01:27:52,840 --> 01:27:54,090
They had Spears.
1509
01:27:54,090 --> 01:27:56,340
They had some knives.
1510
01:27:56,340 --> 01:27:59,380
They had pipes
that they were using as clubs.
1511
01:28:00,010 --> 01:28:02,390
But that was the extent of the threat.
1512
01:28:02,850 --> 01:28:05,390
So we knew that going in for,
1513
01:28:06,720 --> 01:28:07,930
you know, 5:00 a.m.
1514
01:28:07,930 --> 01:28:11,440
September 13, we're on the roof of a block
1515
01:28:12,100 --> 01:28:14,980
waiting for the assault to begin.
1516
01:28:14,980 --> 01:28:17,360
This is a team of 270 rifle shooters.
1517
01:28:18,900 --> 01:28:22,530
The center of our pictures, men
distributing
1518
01:28:22,530 --> 01:28:24,830
baseball bats to the other prisoners.
1519
01:28:25,490 --> 01:28:28,250
We had no guns. We had no real weapons.
1520
01:28:28,250 --> 01:28:32,630
We had bullshit pieces of stick
or a piece of iron
1521
01:28:33,040 --> 01:28:37,210
or shank
that somebody made up on the sidewalk.
1522
01:28:37,630 --> 01:28:40,380
It was. It was pathetic.
1523
01:28:40,380 --> 01:28:45,100
Just four days, almost to the minute
after the convict insurrection started,
1524
01:28:45,430 --> 01:28:49,060
state police reinforced by sheriff's
deputies, National Guardsmen
1525
01:28:49,310 --> 01:28:54,610
and correctional officers moving in on
the prison time is 150 5:00 p.m.
1526
01:28:54,610 --> 01:29:00,070
We're on the roof of C Block
looking at a detail of 270 marksmen
1527
01:29:00,610 --> 01:29:03,860
with instructions
to clear the catwalks upon command.
1528
01:29:05,700 --> 01:29:06,660
They took some of the
1529
01:29:06,660 --> 01:29:12,120
hostages on top of the catwalks,
which is on top of the hallways,
1530
01:29:12,620 --> 01:29:17,670
and some of the inmates held knives to the
to their neck as a result.
1531
01:29:18,000 --> 01:29:20,800
In an effort to try to stop the assault,
1532
01:29:21,420 --> 01:29:25,220
the hostages are armed with knives
with their throats.
1533
01:29:25,800 --> 01:29:28,680
It was all just to show.
1534
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.
1535
01:29:32,690 --> 01:29:34,100
All he's got.
1536
01:29:35,060 --> 01:29:38,150
We were hopeful that if they saw this,
they would back off
1537
01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:42,610
and try to renegotiate
so they could protect their own people.
1538
01:29:45,410 --> 01:29:47,660
The notion of sending
1539
01:29:47,660 --> 01:29:49,990
in correctional officers
1540
01:29:50,910 --> 01:29:53,000
who didn't love the prisoners
to begin with
1541
01:29:53,790 --> 01:29:58,420
and state police who were stressed
out was a serious miscalculation,
1542
01:29:58,420 --> 01:30:02,210
somebody should have said, wait a second,
wait a second, these people are on edge.
1543
01:30:03,800 --> 01:30:07,430
There is hostility
1544
01:30:07,510 --> 01:30:11,520
and it's going to get out of control.
1545
01:30:12,730 --> 01:30:15,480
We know that now, did we know that
1546
01:30:16,020 --> 01:30:17,940
in real time?
1547
01:30:19,690 --> 01:30:21,480
I guess not.
1548
01:30:24,110 --> 01:30:27,110
I seen this as a glorious fight.
1549
01:30:28,410 --> 01:30:30,660
They would come in with batons
1550
01:30:30,660 --> 01:30:35,580
and stuff like that,
and we would be fighting the brave battle
1551
01:30:35,580 --> 01:30:39,090
with baseball bats and stuff like that, I.
1552
01:30:51,180 --> 01:30:52,010
I did.
1553
01:30:57,730 --> 01:31:00,440
I just never expected.
1554
01:31:01,020 --> 01:31:03,650
The the coverage through
what actually happened,
1555
01:31:03,650 --> 01:31:04,990
I'm sorry.
1556
01:31:20,210 --> 01:31:23,840
Helicopter, two helicopters and a.
1557
01:31:28,720 --> 01:31:30,260
We're talking now going overhead
1558
01:31:30,260 --> 01:31:33,260
and over the wall into the prison.
1559
01:31:34,350 --> 01:31:37,350
It just disquieted,
and Sky was getting dark,
1560
01:31:37,850 --> 01:31:40,100
and then we heard
the helicopters does a dance.
1561
01:31:40,810 --> 01:31:43,230
This is fucking strange.
1562
01:31:46,440 --> 01:31:48,780
The helicopter comes up over the wall
1563
01:31:49,200 --> 01:31:51,820
and it's hovering over the yard.
1564
01:31:54,740 --> 01:31:56,120
I seen this.
1565
01:31:56,120 --> 01:31:57,960
I thought it was a monster.
1566
01:31:57,960 --> 01:32:00,290
It was a helicopter, a green helicopter.
1567
01:32:00,750 --> 01:32:02,000
It was flying low.
1568
01:32:07,720 --> 01:32:09,630
You see this.
1569
01:32:09,630 --> 01:32:12,760
It's like a sickly green gas with.
1570
01:32:13,470 --> 01:32:15,640
Sparkly stuff, minute coming down.
1571
01:32:16,470 --> 01:32:18,810
It tightens your chest.
1572
01:32:18,810 --> 01:32:21,440
Where you can hardly breathe.
1573
01:32:21,440 --> 01:32:23,650
That gas knocked me down.
1574
01:32:24,190 --> 01:32:26,730
Oh, what that was.
1575
01:32:27,030 --> 01:32:29,110
And they had me so weak I could not.
1576
01:32:29,860 --> 01:32:32,990
Your eyes are just all burning,
1577
01:32:32,990 --> 01:32:35,450
your nose is burning,
your mouth is burning.
1578
01:32:42,540 --> 01:32:43,830
I mean,
1579
01:32:44,290 --> 01:32:45,420
we are.
1580
01:32:48,800 --> 01:32:52,220
And you got on the microphone,
everybody in D-Block, yeah.
1581
01:32:52,260 --> 01:32:54,760
Put your hands in the air.
1582
01:32:54,760 --> 01:32:56,390
And you are not behind.
1583
01:32:56,390 --> 01:33:01,020
Go to the nearest police officer
and you will not be home.
1584
01:33:01,270 --> 01:33:04,440
You would not be home. We will not be.
1585
01:33:04,440 --> 01:33:06,690
You would not be here for that was.
1586
01:33:16,240 --> 01:33:17,160
Do just ended up
1587
01:33:17,160 --> 01:33:19,500
doing this to get blown away.
1588
01:33:20,700 --> 01:33:24,210
They blew his head off and then.
1589
01:33:24,210 --> 01:33:28,170
Has all of a sudden
there was all this popping all around us
1590
01:33:29,510 --> 01:33:31,130
and all these little pops
1591
01:33:31,130 --> 01:33:34,930
all around us were actually bullets.
1592
01:33:35,890 --> 01:33:40,560
Oh, and you could really see
because the CO2 public first heard
1593
01:33:40,560 --> 01:33:43,730
you blah, that you can hear the boom
going by your ear.
1594
01:33:49,150 --> 01:33:52,320
The hostages can't be seen in any.
1595
01:33:54,950 --> 01:33:57,320
I'm trying to stay on the ground
as long as possible,
1596
01:33:58,490 --> 01:34:00,660
just like
they were shooting down the barrel
1597
01:34:00,660 --> 01:34:04,500
and they started shooting
point blank range, blowing guys away .
1598
01:34:04,500 --> 01:34:08,090
I got shot in the arm up there right
through the back macroeconomist on.
1599
01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:15,680
I I felt something.
1600
01:34:16,640 --> 01:34:20,310
Go to my head,
it must go, and it was burning,
1601
01:34:21,390 --> 01:34:22,770
no was shot.
1602
01:34:22,770 --> 01:34:26,190
I felt something hit my arm
1603
01:34:26,190 --> 01:34:28,810
and we're all numb and realized needed.
1604
01:34:28,810 --> 01:34:31,940
I got shot in the arm
about two inches from my heart
1605
01:34:32,070 --> 01:34:36,360
and also a one to a football helmet
on Spanish food.
1606
01:34:37,200 --> 01:34:39,700
Now the guard is up on the catwalk.
1607
01:34:39,700 --> 01:34:44,120
He jumps out with a hammer
and throws it up and it hits the catwalk.
1608
01:34:44,660 --> 01:34:49,040
And you can hear the sound clip
and all of them turn looked at him,
1609
01:34:49,130 --> 01:34:53,590
and all of them turn their guns
on a brutal dashboard body.
1610
01:34:53,760 --> 01:34:55,260
I'm assuming that you guys got anywhere
1611
01:34:55,260 --> 01:34:59,180
from 20 to 50 shots
because his body was doing like that.
1612
01:34:59,180 --> 01:35:00,640
I'd never seen no shit like that.
1613
01:35:00,640 --> 01:35:02,640
Not as a nasty shoot in the street.
1614
01:35:02,640 --> 01:35:03,560
I'd never seen them. I did.
1615
01:35:04,600 --> 01:35:06,020
I mean.
1616
01:35:10,810 --> 01:35:12,940
This was a holiday for the.
1617
01:35:12,940 --> 01:35:16,070
We got no guns to shoot back.
1618
01:35:16,070 --> 01:35:16,650
You know what?
1619
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
1620
01:35:21,780 --> 01:35:24,040
slow motion and all it was
1621
01:35:24,040 --> 01:35:27,620
that was save money.
1622
01:35:27,620 --> 01:35:30,170
That's what
they will follow to each other.
1623
01:35:30,500 --> 01:35:32,130
I was scared.
1624
01:35:33,550 --> 01:35:35,760
I've done bad things,
but I never did this bad.
1625
01:35:36,170 --> 01:35:37,260
As no.
1626
01:35:37,260 --> 01:35:40,640
These guys are real fucking cold blooded
1627
01:35:40,640 --> 01:35:42,260
killers and shit.
1628
01:35:43,930 --> 01:35:47,480
Until that moment came,
1629
01:35:47,560 --> 01:35:51,110
what is killing really started,
and I realize that
1630
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
1631
01:35:55,610 --> 01:35:58,780
new, every bullet that missed by me,
1632
01:35:59,610 --> 01:36:01,160
if he could move.
1633
01:36:02,570 --> 01:36:05,410
Close to me, I winced,
1634
01:36:07,580 --> 01:36:09,160
then all of a sudden, it just stopped.
1635
01:36:25,180 --> 01:36:25,430
There are
1636
01:36:25,430 --> 01:36:28,680
people throwing off their smoke gear.
1637
01:36:29,230 --> 01:36:31,440
They ran out
screaming niggers, niggers, niggers
1638
01:36:33,060 --> 01:36:36,400
and two of them pointed their guns at me.
1639
01:36:37,030 --> 01:36:38,190
Negative niggers.
1640
01:36:38,190 --> 01:36:40,280
And I said, Don't shoot, don't shoot.
1641
01:36:40,320 --> 01:36:41,320
Don't shoot.
1642
01:36:41,320 --> 01:36:44,200
Well, I'm coughing with all the gas.
1643
01:36:45,160 --> 01:36:46,790
I've been gassed.
1644
01:36:46,790 --> 01:36:48,750
It's an awful thing.
1645
01:36:48,750 --> 01:36:50,540
William Kunstler
1646
01:36:51,540 --> 01:36:54,380
has said that people are dying in there.
1647
01:36:54,630 --> 01:36:58,550
And I agree with that.
1648
01:36:59,050 --> 01:37:03,390
But that people are dying
and then a shooting went on forever
1649
01:37:03,970 --> 01:37:07,220
and then it was like the shooting subsided
1650
01:37:07,680 --> 01:37:09,890
and then I heard some.
1651
01:37:10,310 --> 01:37:15,400
After the shooting subsided,
I heard some single shot
1652
01:37:15,480 --> 01:37:18,650
bang and bang.
1653
01:37:27,830 --> 01:37:30,040
After they took over the prison,
1654
01:37:30,040 --> 01:37:32,660
all those books
that had been speaking to the cameras
1655
01:37:34,170 --> 01:37:37,170
were all targeted and tortured.
1656
01:37:37,920 --> 01:37:40,840
So yes, yes, yes, yes, they were targeted.
1657
01:37:43,130 --> 01:37:45,050
Andy Barclay.
1658
01:37:45,180 --> 01:37:48,220
They were calling his name.
1659
01:37:48,260 --> 01:37:50,600
Going to that, Bob, looking for him
1660
01:37:51,310 --> 01:37:54,100
and threatening him
with what they were going to do to him.
1661
01:37:55,520 --> 01:37:58,320
When they when they found him
and they found him,
1662
01:37:59,190 --> 01:38:00,860
he was yelling.
1663
01:38:01,530 --> 01:38:03,990
No, no, but it's too fucking late.
1664
01:38:04,030 --> 01:38:07,070
They had him do acting, actually
dragging him towards a
1665
01:38:07,120 --> 01:38:10,370
block far yard over there.
1666
01:38:10,370 --> 01:38:13,080
He's Holland new agreement and the acuity.
1667
01:38:24,970 --> 01:38:27,590
You can see because the gas is so thick,
1668
01:38:28,390 --> 01:38:31,220
but all of a sudden a puff of wind comes
1669
01:38:32,560 --> 01:38:35,390
and disperses the gas.
1670
01:38:35,390 --> 01:38:37,560
And then I could see.
1671
01:38:37,560 --> 01:38:40,650
And what I saw was fright.
1672
01:38:41,190 --> 01:38:44,150
Hundreds of bodies just laying there.
1673
01:38:45,740 --> 01:38:47,950
Some were moaning, some wasn't moving.
1674
01:38:48,240 --> 01:38:50,740
Blood was everywhere.
1675
01:38:55,710 --> 01:39:00,040
We were given stretchers
and told to go into the prison.
1676
01:39:01,170 --> 01:39:03,260
It was really an unthinkable scene.
1677
01:39:03,260 --> 01:39:06,130
It was dead and wounded and simply
1678
01:39:06,130 --> 01:39:08,890
starting to carry them out.
1679
01:39:09,510 --> 01:39:12,140
It was far beyond anything
1680
01:39:12,140 --> 01:39:15,310
I had imagined when they said
we would be doing medical evacuation.
1681
01:39:16,230 --> 01:39:18,980
We were basically civilians
1682
01:39:18,980 --> 01:39:22,110
put into a situation where state troopers
1683
01:39:22,110 --> 01:39:24,530
and correctional officers
had created a war zone.
1684
01:39:26,990 --> 01:39:31,120
There was a pile of bodies,
maybe eight or ten people,
1685
01:39:31,120 --> 01:39:34,160
and the man on top,
it had his eyes shot out.
1686
01:39:56,930 --> 01:39:57,600
Right below us,
1687
01:39:57,600 --> 01:40:00,230
there was a huge pool of rainwater
1688
01:40:01,060 --> 01:40:03,400
and it was blood red.
1689
01:40:03,570 --> 01:40:07,070
And I looked down on down at it
1690
01:40:07,070 --> 01:40:10,070
and they said, Those are false
teeth down there, aren't they?
1691
01:40:10,820 --> 01:40:13,910
And somebody said, Yeah.
1692
01:40:16,540 --> 01:40:18,710
The attitude of the people
1693
01:40:18,710 --> 01:40:20,830
who should have been concerned
1694
01:40:21,750 --> 01:40:24,420
about what had happened
was simply that they were
1695
01:40:25,750 --> 01:40:28,010
pleased with what had happened
1696
01:40:28,010 --> 01:40:31,220
and had no qualms or second thoughts
1697
01:40:31,640 --> 01:40:34,470
or anything but satisfaction
1698
01:40:34,470 --> 01:40:37,640
with Walker wants to go back to.
1699
01:40:42,810 --> 01:40:45,230
Why white power weight,
1700
01:40:46,360 --> 01:40:48,400
right, right?
1701
01:40:53,820 --> 01:40:56,120
They had control.
1702
01:40:56,120 --> 01:40:58,410
And once they had control, you would think
1703
01:40:58,410 --> 01:41:00,830
that things would have stopped.
1704
01:41:01,620 --> 01:41:03,250
They didn't.
1705
01:41:06,380 --> 01:41:09,590
It was clear that at that point
it was all about revenge.
1706
01:41:10,130 --> 01:41:12,930
It was all about reestablishing
who was in charge.
1707
01:41:13,340 --> 01:41:16,680
And the most violent ways possible.
1708
01:41:24,270 --> 01:41:26,940
Everybody had to crawl through shit,
1709
01:41:26,940 --> 01:41:29,230
human waste.
1710
01:41:32,780 --> 01:41:33,660
But what do you do?
1711
01:41:33,660 --> 01:41:37,120
Do you live to tell your story
1712
01:41:37,280 --> 01:41:39,450
like I'm doing today
or do you fucking die?
1713
01:41:40,410 --> 01:41:41,200
I made a choice.
1714
01:41:41,200 --> 01:41:42,540
I want to live.
1715
01:41:46,380 --> 01:41:48,460
Chrome nickel chrome
1716
01:41:48,460 --> 01:41:50,550
for like a dog.
1717
01:41:55,140 --> 01:41:58,720
If you look up, nigga,
I'll blow your motherfucking brains out.
1718
01:42:00,600 --> 01:42:03,270
What the
fuck they care about calling you a nigger?
1719
01:42:03,890 --> 01:42:06,310
That was your name.
1720
01:42:07,150 --> 01:42:08,440
They had us marching
1721
01:42:08,440 --> 01:42:10,820
around the yard with our with our hands
1722
01:42:11,940 --> 01:42:13,900
interlocked like this on top of our heads,
1723
01:42:13,900 --> 01:42:16,110
abject surrender.
1724
01:42:28,250 --> 01:42:30,420
When I saw these naked bodies
1725
01:42:31,050 --> 01:42:35,300
lined up, snaked around the area,
it reminded me
1726
01:42:35,840 --> 01:42:40,970
of portrayals of of African-Americans
being heard it on the slave ships.
1727
01:42:41,720 --> 01:42:44,390
That was just horrendous, just horrible,
1728
01:42:44,560 --> 01:42:45,520
horrible.
1729
01:42:55,780 --> 01:42:58,280
We're next in the middle of fucking yard.
1730
01:42:59,200 --> 01:43:02,160
God's going around with like baby bats.
1731
01:43:02,200 --> 01:43:06,120
It was seven remote guys
as I'm laying here and I'm hoping
1732
01:43:06,120 --> 01:43:08,420
they don't come my way.
1733
01:43:21,010 --> 01:43:24,020
Frank Schmidt,
Big Black, was put on a table
1734
01:43:24,350 --> 01:43:27,690
with the football under his throat.
1735
01:43:30,810 --> 01:43:33,190
People stood up above him on the catwalk,
1736
01:43:33,230 --> 01:43:37,450
aiming their guns down at him,
throwing cigars and cigaret butts on him
1737
01:43:39,070 --> 01:43:39,740
. And
1738
01:43:39,740 --> 01:43:43,080
it said, Do said football falls, nigger,
we're going to shoot you.
1739
01:43:46,830 --> 01:43:49,170
He was told to get to his feet.
1740
01:43:49,170 --> 01:43:52,130
He tried, he stumbled, he fell.
1741
01:43:52,130 --> 01:43:54,170
He was hit with clubs
1742
01:43:54,380 --> 01:43:56,670
on his back between his legs.
1743
01:43:57,800 --> 01:44:00,260
And he was crying out.
1744
01:44:00,890 --> 01:44:03,050
You know, don't do this. Don't do this.
1745
01:44:03,640 --> 01:44:06,600
And then you could hear him screaming as
1746
01:44:06,600 --> 01:44:08,600
he went up to the prison.
1747
01:44:14,110 --> 01:44:16,570
It felt good
that I had survived this shit.
1748
01:44:17,570 --> 01:44:19,990
And now I got a look out
1749
01:44:20,610 --> 01:44:24,200
because some motion is coming.
1750
01:44:28,870 --> 01:44:30,170
The inmates were entering
1751
01:44:30,170 --> 01:44:32,710
these corridors off of the yard
1752
01:44:33,750 --> 01:44:36,380
and the guards were like
1753
01:44:36,380 --> 01:44:38,840
five or six feet apart with their clubs
1754
01:44:39,590 --> 01:44:43,640
and they would hit them against the wall
and there was just this
1755
01:44:44,680 --> 01:44:46,770
dull drum like sound.
1756
01:44:46,770 --> 01:44:50,310
And then they were hitting the inmates
as they ran a gantlet.
1757
01:44:55,070 --> 01:44:57,400
We could hear the screams coming out
1758
01:44:57,400 --> 01:45:00,990
so that we knew they were being tortured
1759
01:45:00,990 --> 01:45:05,330
and that we were somehow
part of this unthinkable scene
1760
01:45:05,530 --> 01:45:09,080
that there was no escaping from
but was completely wrong.
1761
01:45:12,960 --> 01:45:16,090
They had guards on both sides,
and they would be hitting you
1762
01:45:16,340 --> 01:45:17,840
as you were running through beating you
1763
01:45:17,840 --> 01:45:21,800
with hoses and batons
and whatever they had in their hands.
1764
01:45:22,010 --> 01:45:24,140
I'm ducking, trying to get through,
1765
01:45:24,140 --> 01:45:27,760
protecting my head,
so I hit all of my all the elbows.
1766
01:45:27,760 --> 01:45:32,140
My knees still hurt, beating you
and they're making you run
1767
01:45:32,140 --> 01:45:33,230
through the gantlet with it,
1768
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.
1769
01:45:36,520 --> 01:45:38,480
So you had to run through grass
with bare feet.
1770
01:45:38,480 --> 01:45:40,940
Nobody came out of that yard.
1771
01:45:40,940 --> 01:45:46,030
What with picking without having to pick
a shot of your feet for four weeks?
1772
01:45:47,910 --> 01:45:51,370
Couldn't walk, nobody could walk anymore.
1773
01:45:51,370 --> 01:45:53,460
But we had to run
because if you didn't run,
1774
01:45:53,920 --> 01:45:57,500
they just kept beating you
with these clubs.
1775
01:46:05,930 --> 01:46:08,810
The families of the hostages,
a lot of them waited
1776
01:46:08,810 --> 01:46:12,560
just outside the prison wall.
1777
01:46:14,980 --> 01:46:17,360
Then news began to filter out of Attica.
1778
01:46:17,690 --> 01:46:20,900
Names of freed hostages
were called out to the loved one
1779
01:46:21,070 --> 01:46:23,990
by Curtis Lieutenant Colonel
1780
01:46:24,280 --> 01:46:25,160
Robert
1781
01:46:26,110 --> 01:46:26,740
Elder.
1782
01:46:29,950 --> 01:46:31,750
Some didn't see their men come out.
1783
01:46:31,750 --> 01:46:33,580
All they learned
was the name of the hospital
1784
01:46:33,580 --> 01:46:35,370
where the survivors were being treated.
1785
01:46:35,370 --> 01:46:36,790
There were no time to wait.
1786
01:46:36,790 --> 01:46:40,210
They ran off to see their man.
1787
01:46:42,630 --> 01:46:44,670
People couldn't seem to run fast enough.
1788
01:46:49,430 --> 01:46:51,510
My mom came home
and she was with her sister,
1789
01:46:51,510 --> 01:46:53,730
and my mom was crying, obviously upset.
1790
01:46:57,150 --> 01:46:59,110
I was outside sitting on the front porch,
1791
01:46:59,110 --> 01:47:02,230
you know, praying and worrying,
and where's dad?
1792
01:47:02,400 --> 01:47:05,070
I respect him to show up, you know, and.
1793
01:47:06,490 --> 01:47:09,070
I again, my mom was dead.
1794
01:47:09,780 --> 01:47:11,870
What's what's
why are you crying, what's going on?
1795
01:47:11,910 --> 01:47:15,830
Well, my mother came back in the house
and, you know, he
1796
01:47:15,870 --> 01:47:19,210
she said, nobody to play with me
now, are you?
1797
01:47:19,210 --> 01:47:22,500
I mean, you know,
because I didn't want to believe it.
1798
01:47:22,840 --> 01:47:26,630
And she finally said, I saw him.
1799
01:47:26,930 --> 01:47:29,090
I saw him.
1800
01:47:33,060 --> 01:47:33,520
Finally,
1801
01:47:33,520 --> 01:47:37,480
she blurted out, Your father's dead.
1802
01:47:37,810 --> 01:47:39,270
So it ran.
1803
01:47:42,320 --> 01:47:44,610
We're in for a while, and I came back
1804
01:47:45,490 --> 01:47:49,910
and I was sitting on the front porch
trying to be strong and not cry.
1805
01:47:49,950 --> 01:47:53,030
And I could hear everybody in the house
crying
1806
01:47:53,030 --> 01:47:55,620
and I was trying to be so tough and.
1807
01:48:03,750 --> 01:48:04,880
All right.
1808
01:48:05,960 --> 01:48:06,630
Yeah, right.
1809
01:48:21,900 --> 01:48:24,690
The National Guardsmen
were told to get back in their trucks,
1810
01:48:25,150 --> 01:48:28,110
and we did that
and were taken out to the parking area.
1811
01:48:28,860 --> 01:48:33,660
And the colonel then addressed
the battalion, maybe several hundred men,
1812
01:48:34,280 --> 01:48:37,370
and he said, essentially you saw things
1813
01:48:37,370 --> 01:48:40,080
that were excessive and wrong today.
1814
01:48:40,960 --> 01:48:44,250
And I have to ask you
not to speak of this to anyone
1815
01:48:44,790 --> 01:48:48,630
because the world will not understand
what happened here today.
1816
01:48:51,300 --> 01:48:54,550
The most violent
rebellion in modern American penal history
1817
01:48:54,550 --> 01:48:58,020
came to an end today at the maximum
security prison in New York.
1818
01:48:58,310 --> 01:49:01,310
In the final hours of the revolt,
led primarily by blacks,
1819
01:49:01,600 --> 01:49:04,110
the inmates murdered
nine of their white hostages.
1820
01:49:04,480 --> 01:49:05,860
28 convicts were killed
1821
01:49:05,860 --> 01:49:09,150
by state troopers, and sheriff's deputies
will regain control of the prison.
1822
01:49:09,780 --> 01:49:12,820
The storming of the prison had the full
approval of New York's governor,
1823
01:49:12,820 --> 01:49:17,370
Rockefeller, who earlier had rejected
a prisoner demand for complete clemency.
1824
01:49:17,700 --> 01:49:22,080
The White House said that after the prison
was retaken, President Nixon telephoned
1825
01:49:22,080 --> 01:49:25,340
the governor to express his approval
of Rockefeller's action.
1826
01:49:26,920 --> 01:49:29,920
We went in we couldn't tell whether all 39
1827
01:49:29,920 --> 01:49:33,090
hostages would be killed
and maybe two or 300 prisoners.
1828
01:49:33,590 --> 01:49:35,970
So we were able to pick off
1829
01:49:36,640 --> 01:49:39,640
either
from the wall or as our men went in.
1830
01:49:41,100 --> 01:49:41,940
The man who had the
1831
01:49:41,940 --> 01:49:44,400
knives at the throat of the hostages
1832
01:49:45,020 --> 01:49:48,320
and they did a fabulous job.
1833
01:49:48,610 --> 01:49:50,740
I mean, this is this
1834
01:49:50,740 --> 01:49:53,950
are these primarily blacks?
1835
01:49:53,950 --> 01:49:56,820
Know, and the whole thing
was led by the black cabinet,
1836
01:49:56,950 --> 01:49:59,080
are all the All Blacks?
1837
01:50:00,660 --> 01:50:04,870
I haven't got that report,
but I have to admit I just out.
1838
01:50:05,040 --> 01:50:07,290
Yeah, yeah, we've got to have any.
1839
01:50:07,710 --> 01:50:10,420
We just not tolerate this kind of
1840
01:50:11,630 --> 01:50:12,590
anarchy.
1841
01:50:18,300 --> 01:50:20,640
Yesterday, officials at the prison said
1842
01:50:20,640 --> 01:50:23,560
eight of the hostages
had had their throats cut.
1843
01:50:23,980 --> 01:50:26,730
But today,
the Monroe County medical examiner,
1844
01:50:26,730 --> 01:50:30,280
having looked at the bodies, said no
throats were cut at all.
1845
01:50:30,860 --> 01:50:35,530
The medical examiner says the hostages
were apparently killed by a large caliber
1846
01:50:35,530 --> 01:50:38,620
ammunition
and shotgun blasts from a distance,
1847
01:50:38,990 --> 01:50:42,660
which immediately raised the possibility
that some of the hostages may
1848
01:50:42,660 --> 01:50:46,540
in fact have been shot down
by the lawmen who broke in to rescue them.
1849
01:50:47,790 --> 01:50:50,590
Some of the hostages were actually shot
1850
01:50:51,090 --> 01:50:53,920
running towards the state troopers
thinking,
1851
01:50:54,130 --> 01:50:57,140
I'm saved, I'm saved.
1852
01:50:57,140 --> 01:50:59,220
And the hostages were dressed
1853
01:50:59,220 --> 01:51:01,970
the same way the inmates were.
1854
01:51:02,310 --> 01:51:05,140
Anything that inmate garb on it.
1855
01:51:05,140 --> 01:51:07,980
They just started shooting at.
1856
01:51:10,020 --> 01:51:14,110
What Rockefeller had done was treat.
1857
01:51:15,190 --> 01:51:17,360
The hostages
1858
01:51:17,950 --> 01:51:21,370
as no more real live
1859
01:51:21,370 --> 01:51:26,290
human beings who deserve to be respected
than the prisoners.
1860
01:51:26,870 --> 01:51:30,540
And so you kill them all
and you restore order
1861
01:51:31,090 --> 01:51:35,170
and you make me into a major
1862
01:51:35,340 --> 01:51:38,510
figure who believes in law and order
1863
01:51:39,010 --> 01:51:43,260
at a time when that concept is beginning
1864
01:51:43,260 --> 01:51:46,890
to really take hold.
1865
01:52:08,670 --> 01:52:09,370
We should have entered
1866
01:52:09,370 --> 01:52:11,960
in a negotiated settlement.
1867
01:52:12,460 --> 01:52:14,880
No, they were they were interested
in that, they were interested in showing.
1868
01:52:16,300 --> 01:52:19,380
The naked fist of power law and order.
1869
01:52:21,050 --> 01:52:24,140
The national mindset of the nation
was law and order.
1870
01:52:25,060 --> 01:52:27,640
And law and order does not permit.
1871
01:52:29,230 --> 01:52:32,190
Any challenge?
1872
01:52:32,190 --> 01:52:35,150
To his authority whatsoever.
1873
01:52:35,150 --> 01:52:38,070
God willing, a few more months in
January will be 90 years old.
1874
01:52:39,490 --> 01:52:42,200
I will never, ever, ever, ever,
1875
01:52:42,660 --> 01:52:44,830
ever, ever, ever.
1876
01:52:45,830 --> 01:52:47,330
We get Atika.
1877
01:52:47,620 --> 01:52:48,290
Ever.
1878
01:52:51,370 --> 01:52:54,710
It didn't have to be that way.
1879
01:53:38,630 --> 01:53:41,130
All eight cases.
1880
01:53:41,220 --> 01:53:45,140
Died of gunshot wounds.
1881
01:53:45,260 --> 01:53:48,180
There was no evidence of slash throats.
1882
01:53:49,930 --> 01:53:53,140
We're sure
1883
01:53:54,350 --> 01:53:58,900
your. The.
1884
01:54:09,540 --> 01:54:11,910
I have never received an apology.
1885
01:54:13,790 --> 01:54:15,670
I've never received an apology,
and for me,
1886
01:54:15,670 --> 01:54:17,670
that's a pretty big deal.
1887
01:54:25,340 --> 01:54:26,140
What is money
1888
01:54:26,140 --> 01:54:29,140
do when you don't have your dad
1889
01:54:29,140 --> 01:54:31,970
or your brother or your uncle who?
1890
01:54:34,690 --> 01:54:37,310
How does that replace anything?
1891
01:54:37,650 --> 01:54:40,440
And I think it was the state's
way of saying,
1892
01:54:41,730 --> 01:54:45,820
we're going to give you this money
and we want you to go away and.
1893
01:54:49,580 --> 01:54:52,910
This is my.
1894
01:54:53,660 --> 01:54:55,710
True.
1895
01:54:57,330 --> 01:54:58,540
Well, she.
1896
01:55:00,960 --> 01:55:02,880
He threw
1897
01:55:02,880 --> 01:55:06,930
for nearly 30 years, former Attica
inmates have waited for justice.
1898
01:55:07,680 --> 01:55:10,350
Today, it finally came in the form of a 12
1899
01:55:10,350 --> 01:55:12,970
million dollar settlement.
1900
01:55:14,350 --> 01:55:18,940
Be. There's no justice.
1901
01:55:20,860 --> 01:55:22,900
All we got was money
1902
01:55:22,900 --> 01:55:25,360
and money wasn't enough.
1903
01:55:25,360 --> 01:55:28,070
Then you can't justify all the killings
that happened in Attica.
1904
01:55:28,700 --> 01:55:30,410
You can't justify that.
1905
01:55:30,410 --> 01:55:31,450
So there's no justice.
1906
01:55:31,450 --> 01:55:34,000
There is no justice.
1907
01:55:36,120 --> 01:55:39,040
We shall.
1908
01:55:40,130 --> 01:55:43,630
Be. And.
1909
01:55:47,720 --> 01:55:50,300
They might.
1910
01:55:51,470 --> 01:55:53,430
True.
1911
01:55:55,060 --> 01:55:57,640
Well, I'm sure.
1912
01:55:58,770 --> 01:56:01,980
Me, too,
1913
01:56:01,980 --> 01:56:04,530
do so.
1914
01:56:10,740 --> 01:56:12,910
And. Be.
1915
01:56:21,210 --> 01:56:27,090
You. Some
1916
01:56:27,090 --> 01:56:45,860
foolish. Oh.