Friday August 04, @12:50PM http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=00/08/04/1250246&mode=thread
This is inhuman By @rK Legal
Demonstrators continue to demand medical treatment, access to lawyers, access to phones, and timely release as constitutional violations persist in Philadelphia jails. Outside, solidarity actions are happening, with rallies planned at Franklin Park at 12 noon and 7 p.m. Activists also plan to collect signatures for a petition demanding the release of jailed demonstrators.
Arrestees have now been held for over 60 hours without arraignment, some without phone calls or contact with their lawyers. Detainees report missing paperwork, and arraignments with incomplete or slipshod records. Philadephia continues to restrict R2K lawyers, allowing only a total of three access to all six detention sites.
R2K Legal has documented 381 confirmed arrests, not including members of the Int'l Action Center and School of Americas Watch (15 more). Additionally, there are people we have not heard from (we estimate up to 30), but due to restrictions on protester's access to telephones, there is really no way to tell. Of these people, approximately 60 have accepted "Release on Own Recognizance" or "Signed On Bail". Solidarity remains strong, with protesters coming to consensus on and communicating their demands. While not everyone still imprisoned is participating, most are.
Guards, police, and administrators continue to attack protestors in jail, seeking to demoralize and divide. There has been one sexual assault, by a female officer who pulled and twisted a prisoner's penis. One released activist reports men have been dragged face down through a 'trash trough' containing refuse, spittle, and urine. Arrestees have been verbally abused, punched, kicked, thrown against walls, bloodied, dragged naked across floors.
Outside pressure on the Philadelphia Health Commission has been effective at improving medical conditions. Diabetics, epileptics, and asthmatics continue to be denied medication. Trauma and psychological stress are evident. Released prisoners consistently report beatings during arrest and beatings in jail, with highest charges pressed on those most damaged. Supporters are asked to phone Mayor John Street at 215.686.2181 and demand release of these political prisoners.
Prosecuters have set unreasonably high bail for demonstrators: from $15,000 to $30,000 for most. Two individuals have bail of $1,000,000, an amount typically reserved for serial killers, not puppet makers. "I consider this a civil rights catastrophe of the first order," R2K legal counsel Ron McGuire stated.
Solidarity tactics include singing, chanting, story telling, puppet making, along with a 150-person-strong hunger strike. Some have been on hunger strike for as long as 56 hours. Three men have fasted without water for 28 hours.
R2K Legal is currently seeking legal redress, including a writ of habeus corpus and a possible temporary restraining order against particularly violent officers.
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"Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, and socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality." -- Mikhail Bakunin