Ghosts of Attica Re: Selective

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>  >>Those who are captured and take them up again, they are
>combatants. The absolutely logical response is to hit them back hard, so
>others don't get the same idea. Or, does the Geneva convention serve to
>calibrate the day-to-day operational decisions conducted during a war?<<
>
>Right. So carpet bomb a prison til nothing moves to make sure you got all
>those who took up arms--as well as anyone on the premises, including poor
>Mike the CIA agent. Makes good sense to me. Kill em all, let god sort em
>out, and the only people getting ideas will be the usual candy asses who
>write all their stuff from total safety. If you can believe what you just
>wrote, you can believe anything. And it's obvious you do. Just can't wait
>for the implementation in the US, that's all. Give peace a chance to you
>too, Abe!
>
>Charles Jannuzi

That reminds me to recommend _Ghosts of Attica_....

*****   Ghosts of Attica

Directed by Brad Lichtenstein
Produced by David Van Taylor and Brad Lichtenstein
Narrated by Susan Sarandon

Attica. Like Watergate and Vietnam, it is an icon of recent history. 
Gov. Rockefeller's brutal re-taking of the prison - a nine-minute, 
1600-bullet assault that took the lives of 29 inmates and 10 guards - 
put an end to the four-day rebellion. But the struggle for justice, 
by both prisoners and guards, has endured for three decades. Only 
last year, inmates wrested an historic $12-million settlement from 
the state, and that bittersweet victory spurred a new round of 
agitation by guards and their survivors.

This stirring documentary features extensive interviews with Attica 
survivors, including former inmate Frank "Black" Smith. When the riot 
broke out, the inmates, who respected his level head, imposing size, 
and maturity, appointed him Chief of Security. After the prison was 
stormed, Black was singled out for vicious treatment by the guards, 
who tortured him for hours with cigarettes, Russian roulette, and 
threatened castration and death. In the years since his release, 
Black overcame a drug habit, married, and became a drug counselor for 
juveniles.

Also interviewed is Mike Smith, who, then 22 years old and married 
with a child, was a guard who was taken hostage and subsequently 
wounded by police fire. But more recently, he took on a new role: 
that of political agitator. He is currently lobbying Governor Pataki 
for compensation, counseling, and an apology from the State.

Elizabeth Fink, the attorney who headed the inmates' decades-long 
legal battles against New York State, is also interviewed. Fink has 
devoted her entire career to the surviving inmates. Other interviews 
include those with New York Times columnist Tom Wicker, Congressman 
Herman Badillo, Assemblyman Arthur Eve, and civil rights lawyer 
William Kunstler.

GHOSTS OF ATTICA offers the definitive account of America's most 
violent prison rebellion, its suppression, and the days of torture 
that ensued. Using exclusive, newly uncovered video of the assault, 
interviews with eyewitnesses who've never spoken before on-camera, 
and footage of inmates and hostages throughout their battles against 
the state, this film unravels one of America's deepest cover-ups, and 
shows how the legendary prison riot transformed the lives of its 
survivors....

90 minutes / Color / 2001
Sale/video: $440
Rental/video: $100

<http://www.frif.com/new2001/gho.html>   *****
-- 
Yoshie

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