A Reflection From the Bowels of the Beast Bon in a Storm 1970 was a year of uncertainty, in America. The system Sremed out of control - it could not hold the loyalty of the pubiic. This national moad of hostiity harbored by the people toworis Jyertiment and business came out of the Vietnam War, its 58,000 goverment. On top of this came the political disgrace of the Nixon administration, known as the "Watergate" scandals. This would lead to Richard Nixon's resignation from the U.S, presidency n August 1974 - the first president in American history to do xo. The CIA had also been involved in assassination plots against Castro of Cuba and other heads of state. It had introduced Afean The FBI COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) perations included tactics of badjacketing (faise labeling,) discrediting, forging letters, illegally opening matl, ‘wrongful \mprisonment and assassination (sponsored government murder. ) \Within a few years, these tactics, sanctioned by the FBI and tre. U-S- government, resulted in the dissipation, neutralization ame Pbiiteration of thousands of determined, revolutionary politieat forces and their leadership, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Hhalcolm X, numerous members of the Black Panther barty and the Black Liberation Army (BLA.) Many Afrikans who refused to stomach this repression, fied into gained on the backs of African people, were made public. The Z O et New Bethel Church incident, where hundrecs of African people, meeting for political advancement, ducked under gunfire from police and agent prove yrs, who had turned out the lights, took place. The 70's were a time of uprisings, ‘within American prisons. These rebellions took on 2n ‘unprecedented political B wer. The 50's and 60's movement in the U.S. W= taking effect within the U.S. prisons. During colonial imes, the traditional punishments inuSs. prisons had been mutilation, hanging and exle. BY mid-nineteenth Pentury, the prison was based on hard labor, along with other e mshments, such as sweat boxes, iron yokes and solitary confinement. e Quaker reform approach was a bellf that through solation, a prisoner would repent and reach state of salvation, but most heoners went insane and died in Isolation. A warder, at the D ron: New York Penitentiary, summed up this approach: “In order to reform a criminal you must first break his spirit.” This approach persisted. R Rupuet 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson (George's brother) ‘entered a courtroom In San Ratael, California, with a sub-machine Y hchette and George Jackson (his brother.) So happen, George §id not appear in court on this date. Jonathan, 17 years of age, Sen armed the Soledad prisoners and took five hostages, induding the assistant district attorney and a judge. A few minutes later, inside 2 rented van for the getaway, in 2 nail of bullets, Jonathan was murdered. ‘Subsequently, after this, Ruchell Cinque Magee was ‘wrongfully accused and convicted for the death of the judge, ‘despite evidence which proves the bullet that killed the judge in Marin County Courthouse, on August 7, 1970, came from police gunfire. T November 1970, prisoners at Folsom in California, organized what became the longest work stoppage and strike In the history of T mitea States. August 21, 1971, George Jackson s shot to ucth at San Quentin, during an escape attempt. George was G fered by the govemment for daring to be a revolutionary n prison. ot long after George's death, there was 2 domino effect of rebelions all over the United States - in San Jose Cic Center Jail, e balias County fail, in Suffolk County Jail in Boston, In O rpertand County failin San Antono, Texas. The spirt of George had come back to haunt the prison system. George's death, spawned a climate of tension throughout the U.S. prison system. The most direct effect of George's murder, was the 3 rebellion at Attica prison in September, 1971. A group of Attica prisoners in New York took over one of the four yards at the prison. Forty guards were held hostage, for tive days. Prisoners set up a remarkable community in the yard, that was free of racism. The governor at the time was Neison Rockefeller, who ordered a full-scale assault on the prisoners. Thirty-one prisoners, who had no firearms and nine guards held hostage, were killed in a hail of bullets. By the year of 1978, 50 of prisoners in American jails were black, 31% had been unemployed in the month prior to their arrest, 60% had earned less than $6,000 in the year prior to their arrest. The spring of 1970, Nixon ordered an invasion in Cambodia, sparking the first general student strke in United States history. Students at Kent State University gathered to demonstrate against this war. National Guardsmen are ordered to fire into the crowd, killing four students and paralyzing one. By years end, in 1979, the CIA, playing both sides against one another, are involved in arms trades with Iraq and Iran, in which millions of lives are lost in bloody war, between these countries. In the same year Nicaragua, the very dynasty installed by U.S. marines before World War 11, was toppled by a revolutionary army, and the U.S. government seemed unable to prevent this. Aaron israel Into this whirlwind, was born Aaron Israel (fka Aaron Isby,) on September 16, 1970, in Riverside California, the first of three (3) children and only son of Morris Isby and Linda Hilton-Bruce. Four months after Aaron was born, his father was sent to Soledad Prison. The abuse Aaron's mother recewved from his father, and ater he went to prison, would now, give her a chance to escape and never look back. So, she dropped out of Riverside City Coliege where she majored in psychology, packed up the little possessions they had, and took Aaron and moved to Detroit in 1973. Growing up fatheriess, in a single parent environment, not only created a challenge for Aaron, coming up in the poverty-stricken ghetto/colonies in Detroit and later Fort Wayne, but aiso would deny him a primary reference of true manhood. To say it wasn't a struggle growing up without a father, would not be a statement of truth. Aaron had become affected by a rapidly nsing trend among Africans in America, the destructive social forces of hustlers, pimps, drug addicts, prostitution and gangsterism overwheimed T ermromment of the ghetto/colonles In which Aaron tved. 1 Aaron's mother struggled, moving regularly In the country, due to financial woes and Instability. The youngster called several states his home early on. At a very young age, Aaron leamned responsibility and hard times. Sometimes his mother could not make "ends meet.” During these desperate times, Aaron would go to the comer store on Delaware in Detrott, to raise money for food, by carrying senlor’s groceries and collecting cans. Settling in Detroit, which had been known as the automobile capitol of the world, was not easy. Aaron was tested physically by his peers dally. He had to stand his ground or become the nelghborhood sissy. The streets, Is where this young manchild received his basic orlentation to life. The lack of positive male role models forced Aaron to tum to the social outcast in his neighborhood, to obtain the essential skills needed to survive in the world he lived. As a teen, Aaron settied in Fort Wayne, a city growing and becoming attractive to outsiders from major cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Clevetand, Detroit and New York. The influx of various out-of-state street personalities migrating to Fort Wayne, had a major Influential impact, on the social attitudes and appetites of those within the nelghborhoods. The 1980's brought another challenge to Aaron, the flourishing of street institutions, aiso known as "gangs” made the streets of Fort Wayne, more difficult. The struggle for territory and control over the "game,” created a new intensity of violence. By the mid-80's, it was ‘common to see 12 - 15 year olds carrying pistols or tommy machine guns. The streets of Pontiac hecame Aaron's stomping grounds. ‘When Aaron was not in school, he was out chasing females, drinking o getting high, partying In the club or skating rink, hustling to make a dolfar. School was never primary, although he play football his 9” and 10™ grade year the racist institution of leaming could not provide. The stocky built, nearly six foot tall youth, weighing close to 180 pounds, a handsome manchild - was a product of his environment. The streets bestowed on him certain values and norms that ultimately became his way of Iife. Unkike many youngsters, Aaron's world was a cruel world. It denied him the right of life, liberty and the pursult of happiness. The hall of gunfire became a Aaily occurrence. In many instances, Aaron's life was threatened in shoot-outs, in which rivairy in the streets, made attempts to ‘ambush him by gunfire. 5 His experiences in the streets taught him at a young age, self- preservation. Aaron had to contend with an American society that was in backlash mode since the 60's. ‘Warnings from this white- run, white-defined social order about where he was accepted, or wasn't, where he was to take his displeasure, insighttul questions and limited joys were doled out by the white teachers and people in “authority” that looked like him in skin tone. The Rise of Mental Weapon The Riverside, Detroit, and Fort Wayne streets, full of those boys and girls, babies when the potential revolutionary social, ‘economic and political changes were ready to hatch, now listéned Wwith scom to the elders. The rise of hip-hop music and rapping over music dominated their hours. Some, bonding together against abusive parents and an uncaring society, belonged to groups called "sets.” Confusion, begun long ago about "turf" being in possession of one group or another, led to tragic shooting deaths. As in infamous Los Angeles, wearing the wrong colored clothing or ones hat the wrong way, could mean your life in the ghetto/colony. Laboratory produced crack cocaine, yet another false baim tor oppressed souls, appeared in the 1980's. Weapons were far easier t0 get than food or books In these ghetto slums. They ranged then, and do now, from rusty pistols (from the 2" impenaiist war (1940's) to mac-10 and Tek-9 automatic guns, capable of shooting dozens of rounds in mere seconds. Hospitals, police stations, jails, courtrooms, the television news and Hollywood films were packed with the African youth, their rage unheard by an America deaf to the building explosion. Drug arrests, often for minor possession charges, led to an escalation of prison terms for the poverty stricken and those poorly educated - those who would never be employed to support a family. From 400,000 U.S. prisoners at the beginning of the 80's, the number swelled to over 2 million today. Lawyers, judges, guards, construction companies, private prison firms, parole officers and secretaries have steadily built their income on the backs of the exploited. Brown politicians' faces enforced the U.S. status quo, denying decent housing, schools, health care, nutrition, while they pocketed burgeoning salaries. Incredibly, sounding like the white officials that they said they opposed, these women and men, with an eye on lifetime "public service" scolded the people for not participating, one politician who gt out of hand and who was eliminated was Chicago's finest and last African mayor, Harold Washington, in Caode - philadelphia's only African mayor In 301 years ” o ated with the U.S. military, Pennsylvania and local cops, to Grop a military explosive on the MOVE house in 1985. Numerous. P b resulted, but the ones attacked, the MOVE family, had a G or 9o to prison - Ramona Africa - but not the legions of state mats, who were not even considered as criminalsy O williams, whose late 1950's stand to protect fus North Carolina community from Ku Klux Kian terror, meant he had to flee o iraming on a kidnapping charge, finding an exlle home in Cuba, China and Tanzania. earon made the dedision to become a soldier in the struggle and prison activist. ranim ji Jaga Pratt, after tours in Vietnarm, used his grasp of e etes Biack Panther Party from ambush by urban U2, O ttacks. He was fingered for a murder and spent 27 VE3 behind bars, 1970 to 1997, before it was ‘conclusively proven that DL iegally entrapped him, suppressing the fact that he had not killed anyone. An FBI agent had posed as ji Jaga's lawyer at o aint.. Aaro's clashes with himself, over the Americeth Sightmare he had somehow survived to that polnt, o¥cr \dentity, Cprtual and political matters, had been overwhelmed by the death e Mother. Aaran had come face to face with lfe and wondered % make sense of the artifical version, all around him. Ranald Reagan, an actor turned president of the U.S. government, had been govemor of Calfornia in 1967, when a I ueaun bearing Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Gelf-Defense and dozens of armed others, into the state assembly ‘bullding in the capitol, Sacramento. His point, B bch made headlines in newspapers globally, was that Oakiand Police could not take the lives of Africans with Impunity, Citles, DO Cmdustrialized Oakland, had major corporations like Kaser, protected by mainly all-white policemen. R hralt, which had just 277 African policemen out of 4,356, W3S home to multinationals, Chrysler, GM, and Ford. But, the rage after Vietnam veteran Danny “Thomas' murder by B e T abuge Park, and a police raid of a party for two other Africans, returning Vietnam veterans, began a firestorm.. Forty-one ‘Deople were Killed, 650 Injured, including 85 police, 23 3 fourteen square mile ghetto was sealed off, induding the U.S./Canadian Sorder with Windsor. 4,700 U.S. paratroopers (many brown faces) \eft fown by July 30, having enforced Martial Law. A key target of COINTELPRO, which was drawn up by the FBI dunng that August of 1967, Huey P. Newton, was shot dead twenty years later. This was also during Israel's soul-searching time. The report came that Huey's 1989 death was by an assassin. On the television, worldwide in the early 90's, the filmed version of police terrorism in the form of one African man being beaten senseless by several white Los Angeles highway cops was dismissed by many whites. Some Americans even said that the cops were acting in self-defense against Rodney King. American Justice would agree a year later, releasing the police to continue ‘their job, and a major U.S. ity erupted. Whites, Asians, Mexicans and Africans were hauled in for taking food and bedding out of burning stores. Many were seized for breaking into banks they were too impoverished to ever have an account in. ‘A hurricane of rage poured forth at the police, who had tortured and killed, deported Mexicans, €1 Salvadorans and Hondurans to certain death, and controlled powerful cocaine shipments and sales forces (often informers afraid to be sent to prson) on the streets. It seemed almost like the 1960's uprisings against injustice. That was the appearance on the surface, at least. There were 12,000 arrests. A popular map of the times noted that "slavery 1s back In effect.” ‘But before the 20 year old Aaron Israel could gather the maturity needed to handie everything before him, utilize a mind brimming with promising human greatness, he was arrested for two counts of attempted murder and one count of battery in Indiana. He was wrongfully charged, tried and sentenced to 71 years of imprisonment. The year was 1992. He is today, in 2005, 35 years old. He sits in Administration Segregation in the Michigan City, Indiana Maximum Security Prison. What Happened? “My name is Aaron Israel (f.k.a. Aaron Isby,) a Hebrew Israelite and a conscious humanitarian/Pan-Afrikanist freedom fighter. 1am a prison activist, and a writer of Biblical, historical, political commentaries and essays. 1 was arrested and wrongtully charged, was provoked and instigated by corrupted and racist reformatory prison guards and officials. 1 was convicted by a rigged jury, that ‘was all-white, in which jury members consisted of friends and kin to either the judge, prosecutor, reformatory guards 8/or witnesses who testified for the state. My trial attomey was incompetent and lacked sufficent resources necessary for a skilled defense.. Subsequently...sentenced to forty years on count one, thirty years on count two and one year on count three. Even though my sentences were concurrent, the total was 71 years... On October 12, 1990, under instructions ‘corrupt and radist reformatory prison guards, with premeditated intent to do me serious phvsical harm, staaed a violent attack against me, while I was locked in my prison cell and of no threat to anyone. Prior to this indident and from the very inception of my arrival to the Pendleton Reformatory, 1 had ‘experienced "a long train of abuses™ that lead up to the events. described herein. On this day in question, me and a prison counselor named David Miller, got into 2 heated exchange about legal papers he had been withholding for