Justice
The Short Distance Between Attica and Ferguson
44 years ago this month, inmates seized control of Attica over prisoners’ rights issues—which are still flashpoints today.
“The Attica Prison Move … is a tactical move towards going forward to show the world’s community people how to begin to end oppression and wretched, unjust prison incarceration.” — The Black Panther newspaper, Sept 18, 1971
It took 15 minutes for police to deactivate the Attica prison revolt via blitzkrieg. On September 9, 1971, Attica inmates overpowered 10 prison guards and placed them, in their words, “under arrest.” As history tells it it, they took the guards hostage. Whatever you call it, the reason inmates seized Attica was to draw attention to the “hostage crisis” they said they had been detained in for decades.