One member’s thoughts on planned Police/Protester Forum

Wingnut member Mo Karnage has a blog post on the announced public forum between Police and Protesters in Richmond.

Check it out:
http://mokarnage.com/2015/01/30/public-forum-set-between-richmond-police-and-protesters-really/

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One Anarchist Response to Open Carry in RVA

Mo Karnage, a member of the Wingnut, has written an essay on the recent open carry debate in Richmond.
Check it out here:
http://mokarnage.com/2014/07/06/anarcho-redneck-response-to-recent-richmond-open-carry/

Insurgent Theatre Coming to Wingnut

Prison Activists Spread Radical Critique Through Theatre

 

RICHMOND, VA
Fri Aug 9, 7PM
Shadow of Lucasville
Sat Aug 10, 7PM
Know Your Enemy

both shows at:
The Wingnut
2005 Barton Ave.

 

Radical DIY theatre group Insurgent Theatre is touring the country with a play about police and a documentary film about a prison uprising. The film and play will be showing in Richmond on August 9th at 10th. The play, entitled Know Your Enemy juxtaposes dramatic unraveling of a troubled officer with a radical interactive lecture about prisons, history, and resistance. The film, entitled Shadow of Lucasville revisits the 1993 prison uprising at a maximum security prison in the Southern Ohio town of Lucasville. The film will be followed by conversation with death-sentenced survivors of the uprising, who will be calling in from the Ohio State Penitentiary, Ohio’s supermax prison.

 

Part of the money raised by this tour will go to support RedBird Prison Abolition, RedBird Books to Prisoners and The Lucasville Amnesty Campaign.

EVENT DETAILS

 

Venue: The Wingnut Anarchist Collective

Date: August

Time: 7pm

Local contact: wingnut_collective@yahoo.com

Price: suggested donation $5-20, no one will be turned away for lack of funds

Contact Insurgent: Ben Turk 614-704-4699 insurgent.ben@gmail.com

InsurgentTheatre.org, LucasvilleAmnesty.org, RedBirdPrisonAbolition.org

 

 

 

MORE ABOUT KNOW YOUR ENEMY

 

A Theatrical Examination of Police and Prison in America.

 

Written by Ben Turk, Directed by Kate Pleuss, Performed by Ben Turk – 90 minutes

insurgenttheatre.org
What does it mean to be a compassionate, dedicated, humane police officer in the country with the world’s highest incarceration rate and a continuing tradition of racial injustice? Know Your Enemy examines the role of police using stripped down interactive theatre, critical understanding of history and the power of silent refusal. Know your history. Know your rights. Know your enemy.

Promo image: http://insurgenttheatre.org/acab/bencop_smile.jpg

 

 

MORE ABOUT THE SHADOW OF LUCASVILLE

 

Follow-up to the award winning documentary film, The Great Incarcerator, part 1: Dark Little Secret

 

Directed by D Jones – 75 minutes

https://www.facebook.com/TheShadowOfLucasvilleMovie
The Shadow of Lucasville revisits the 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, one of the longest in U.S. history, while exploring the fight for human rights and media exposure through inmate uprisings in response to mass incarceration and dehumanization supported by the prison industrial complex. After the film, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb and Keith Lamar, prisoners who were unjusty sentenced to death following the uprising and have spent the last 20 years in solitary confinement appealing their convictions and resisting supermax confinement will be calling to answer questions from the audience.

 

Promo image: http://insurgenttheatre.org/acab/shadow.jpg

MORE ABOUT INSURGENT THEATRE

Insurgent Theatre strives to connect performing arts with radical struggles, to make theatre that is relevant, engaging, challenging and useful for those who confront the US police state and global capitalist empire. We’ve been making original theatre since 2003 and also frequently touring the country since 2008 with pointedly political original works like Ulysses’ Crewmen and In the Belly.

http://insurgenttheatre.org

Shadow of Lucasville: prison uprising movie and discussion August 9th

Shadow of Lucasville-
The film is 60 minutes long, and is followed by call-in / Q&A with one of the prisoners who was involved in the uprising.

Organizations involved in prison issues and prisoner suport are highly encouraged to come table and share info!!!

Friday August 9th at 7pm

2005 Barton Ave

sober, all ages, by donation

consent policy, directions/bus routes, allergies/accessibility online

https://www.facebook.com/events/170132149823363/

Wingnut Radical Lending Library Re-Organized

The past few days have been spent re-organizing and re-arranging the Wingnut Radical Lending Library!

Books are now organizing into the following subjects on the shelves:

Radical fiction, guns, guerilla strategy, gardens, herbs, diy do it yourself, queer fiction, queer, religion/spirituality, myths, kids books, feminism, graphic novels, cookbooks, animal issues. home renovation, music, art, food politics, bikes, field guides, survivalism, Mexico, indigenous, Native American, prisons, police, medicine/medical, travelling, DIY Do it Yourself, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Journalism, Urban Planning, 1960s, drugs, zines, Hawai’i, Zinn, Schools/Education, Consumer Culture, Richmond/The South, South America, Globalization/Neoliberalism, Government Repression, Environment, The Spanish Civil War, Labor/Class, Black Power/Race, Anarchist Practice, Anarchism

That’s over 50 different categories of books for you to come read, and come check out if you are so inclined.

We are also currently looking for volunteers to help us re-vamp our Open Hours, folks who can come over during Open Hours, offer coffee and tea to guests, re-shelve returned books, help folks check out books, etc. If you are interested and available for Wednesday evenings from 4-9 or Friday evenings from 4-9 please shoot us an email at wingnut_collective@yahoo.com Ideally we’d have 2 volunteers per shift and everyone would take about 1 shift a month

Check out our book and zine collections online, http://www.librarything.com/profile/thewingnutrva our collection of over 1000 books and growing us under “Your Library” and our zines are under “approaching apocalypse” Zines are available to be read in the space, but not taken out of the space.

 

 

Re-Uploaded General Orders from the RPD

Here are links to a few individual sections of the Richmond Police Department’s General Orders, and then a link that contains 285 files of General Orders.

These General Orders do not contain the type of information which was prohibited in the injunction received by activists earlier this week. So even though all of the police files were taken off of a previous upload website, these ones should not have been, based on the language of the injunction. The injunction is concerned about confidential information, which they define as personal information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and information about undercover agents. None of this type of information is in the General Orders.

Please download and share these General Orders, to better keep the police accountable to the public.

Oleoresin Capsicum Spray Canister and Fogger 01-08

Firearm Discharge 01-09

Procedure For Consular Notification Of Foreign Nationals 01-10

285 RPD General Order Files

Tweet about the cops- Become a Copwatcher!!

Watch the Cops Richmond!!

If you see the cops- tweet about it!

 

1. Get a free account on twitter.com
2. Sync your account with your cell phone, enabling you to send tweets from your phone.
3. Follow @rvacopwatch on twitter to see what the cops in Richmond, VA are up to
4. When you see the cops, send a tweet, starting with @rvacopwatch
5. Send identifying info like the license plates of cop cars, cop names and code numbers, location where they are, and a description of what they are doing.
6. Your tweet will be displayed on the @rvacopwatch feed, allowing everyone who follows @rvacopwatch to keep up to date on where the cops are, what they are doing, and which ones are doing it!!

 

For more information, email sbhcopwatch@gmail.com or call 804 303 5449 or check online at www.wingnutrva.org about copwatch trainings, patrols, and events!

RVA Prisoner Solidarity: Against Solitary Confinement!

Join us on Tuesday, June 19th at 5:30 PM at the John Marshall Court Building 400 N. 9th Street for a brief rally and then a march to the Richmond City Jail and back (1701 Fairfield Way). Bring signs, banners, noisemaking things, and water!

Tear Down All The Jails! Fire to the Prisons!

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights will hold the first-ever Congressional hearing on solitary confinement on Tuesday, June 19 at 10am in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226.

We in Richmond are joining the national call by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (this is not a religious action – just in Solidarity – with a cause) in a fast for 23 hours prior to the hearing – symbolising the 23 hours prisoners spend in solitary confinement cells per day. Join people across the nation in fasting from 1pm on Monday, June 18 until 12 noon on Tuesday, June 19.

In Richmond we will gather at the John Marshall Court House (400 N. 9th St) at 5:30pm with a short rally and march to the Richmond City Jail and back. We will march chain gang style, meaning two by two with home-made prison garb. Bring pots and pans. We encourage those with police or guard-uniforms to wear them. This is not mandatory but recommended.

Here is the link for the national call
http://www.facebook.com/events/406272916089904/

The United States is a world leader in holding prisoners in prolonged solitary confinement. There are 44 state-run super-max prisons and one federal super-max prison — each of which holds inmates exclusively in solitary confinement. At least 80,000 people in the U.S. criminal justice system are held in solitary confinement on any given day. From 1995 to 2000, the growth rate of segregation units significantly surpassed the prison growth rate overall: 40% compared to 28%.

We act in solidarity with the courageous hunger strikers at Red Onion State Prison, one of Virginia’s own super-max prisons, who are organising at great risk to themselves for rights that are already theirs under Virginia State law. Among their demands are fully cooked food with adequate nutritional content, access to grievance forms and a knowledge of why they are being held in solitary confinement and what is required of them to get out.

http://virginiaprisonstrike.blogspot.com/
____________________________________________

We are also collecting a list of names for people who wish to petition the VA Department of Corrections, Govenor McDonnell, and our state legislators.
Please send your information or questions and concerns to

Prisonerliberator@gmail.com

Name:
Organization (not required):
Zip Code:
Will you be participating in the 23hr fast for prisoners in solitary confinement: yes/no

(If you wish to include a statement to the petition add here)

*This is an informal petition! We will not solicit your information. This is specific to this event only.

Photo by Silver Persinger

After this march there is a fundraiser for the Richmond Zine Fest at the Flying Brick Library (506 S. Pine St)- join in to watch Grrly Show and Occupy America and eat cupcakes and popcorn!!

Video from 3/21/12 RRHA Meeting with RePHRAME Speakers

Some of the Wingnut went to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) meeting on March 21st, to support members of the groups Residents of Public Housing in Richmond Against Mass Eviction (RePHRAME). http://rephrame.blogspot.com/

RePHRAME asked for support at the meeting because RRHA had recently sent public housing residents in scattered sight homes (the more effective and humane sort of public housing as opposed to creating pockets of extreme poverty) had just received letters telling them that RRHA was trying to get approval from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to sell off the homes as they were too costly to maintain. If they were able to do this, residents would have 90 days to move. RePHRAME supports residents of public housing when they are threatened with displacement.

Many supporters came to the meeting to show that RePHRAME members are not an isolated bunch. In fact, there were so many people there that board room was completely full and some folks had to stay on the outside of the building.  The RRHA office at 901 Chamberlayne was using a metal detector on all visitors, which is a new policy. We tried to ask about the policy, and when it was implemented, and got a general run around about how many gun shots there had been in that area.

We took video of part of the meeting. It was Mo’s first time filming a meeting, so its clipped into a few separate parts, and is a little rough. They weren’t sure about proper manners when it comes to filming a meeting.

The speakers bring up many good points as to why they need to be allowed to stay in the homes where they’ve been paying rent for decades (you’d think they deserve to own them outright after so many years of paying rent). The basic message from all of the people who spoke is that RRHA needs to respect the residents of public housing more, needs to communicate with the residents better, and that RRHA has a long legacy of racism and problematic policies that it will have to really move away from in order to gain the trust of any residents.

Here are the videos:

and…

and finally…
 

Hey Activists! Use the Richmond Legal Support Website!

From the Richmond Anarchist Black Cross-

Hello Fellow Activists, Organizers, Protesters, etc.
` We are writing to let you know about a resource currently being developed with the aim of supporting the Richmond activist scene.
This resource is the website Richmond Legal Support (www.richmondlegalsupport.org). The website is a project of the Richmond Anarchist Black Cross, a prison abolition and political prisoner support group.
Richmond Legal Support is intended to be a central point where activists from many different organizations can plug in when facing legal difficulties in order to centralize this information and keep folks from having to rebuild the wheel every time there is a protest that results in legal trouble.
The website will enable people from various movements to be able to submit write-ups or information they want written up about legal issues, cases, upcoming court dates, support campaigns for the arrested, funds needed etc.
Richmond Legal Support is a website created to serve as a clearinghouse for information on legal issues facing activists, organizers, and community members in Richmond which focus on civil liberties and/or social justice issues.
Richmond Legal Support has also been created to provide support for the activists, organizers, and community members in Richmond who are facing legal trouble and prison due to their participation and action around civil liberties and/or social justice issues.
Richmond Legal Support is also prepared to provide support to political prisoners from Richmond- helping with their cases, raising funds, and raising awareness. Fortunately, there are currently no explicitly political prisoners from Richmond. But if and when that day comes, Richmond Legal Support will be here to help.
We are also looking for ways that Richmond Legal Support can offer help to people before they get into legal trouble- hopefully finding ways to link people planning activist events to legal observers, copwatchers, and hopefully even lawyers before there is a legal issue.
If you would like to help run this website, get involved in a particular campaign for a Richmond legal case, offer a donation, offer your legal expertise, help organize, if you want you, your organization’s,  or someone you know’s legal issue to be covered, or if you have any questions please get in touch!
Email rvaabc@gmail.com with the subject “Richmond Legal Support” or call 804 303 5449
Thanks for all the amazing work you to do make Richmond a better place!