Q

Prisonv In Crete
The Sweet Defeat of the Prison in Crete

‘Sometime in October of 2011, 1 received an email that the Village
of Crete, or more accurately, the Mayor of Crete, Michael Einhorn,
was looking to erect a large immigration detention center in Crete.
He would be the local point man for a project that ICE - Immigration
& Customs Enforcement (the bully force of Homeland Security) and
CCA - Corrections Corporations of America, which is the largest, for-
profit outfit of private prisons, plus youth and immigration detention
centers in
the country.

T immediately got a vomitous feel in my stomach. This
neighboring town is also the site where my son's best friend was.
Kkilled by an off-duty cop, in 2006. I've known Einhorn as the long-
time mayor of Crete, who has had a reputation for disdain and ill-
treatment of his workers (he was also a long-time Post Master in
Beecher) and residents, or anybody who did not kowtow to his
dictates. He's been very vocal pushing the Peotone Airport and the
recently, fast-tracked, liliana Tollroad, both also slated to be
privately-run and forced - counter to the wishes and interests of the
majority of the people in Eastern Will County.

As well, it was learned that this project had already moved along
for over a year, as Einhorn and his sycophantic trustees had had
discussions with ICE, CCA and had already gotten a conditional land
sale for this project.” [t was aiready ate in the game and only now
were the residents of Crete made aware of all of this and that,
because people in Joliet informed Cetta Smart, who lives in Crete.

1 thought about the long, drawn-out struggle down in Pembroke
Township, where the hardscrabbie African farming town of Hopkins
Park is located. The former (and presently incarcerated in Indiana)
Governor of lilinois, George Ryan, who hails from nearby Kankakee,
proposed to build a women's prison down there. The usual tired,
untrue arguments were made. This would bring “economic
development” to the area, provide "jobs" and be a "boon” to the
entire area. The people down there didn't buy it and formed an
articulate grassroots group o fight it. Ryan would have his
billionaire developer buddy, Tony Perry hande the acquisition of the
land for this wonderful project.

1 believe this was the only time a state government had to
actually pay for the land (which Perry owned) for the land to be used
for a prison. This was right across from an organic farm.

The people clamored, researched and advocated against it, as the
horrible idea that it was. It was found that the land deal was shady
and the site was abandoned. “Peaple power" at work, right? Yes
and no. Unbeknownst to tne townspeople, Ryan quietly managed to
acquire land elsewhere in the area for this monstrosity. The snake

had not been kiled, yet.

The project moved along. The papers dutifully touted it as a
good project for the area, etc. I remember going down to a meeting
about it at Village Hall. The only people in favor of it were the
Mayor, the Police Chief, a local preacher and some other politician.
Everyone else in the packed room was against it. I was threatened
by the police on my way out. After all, I was an "outside agitator.”

It got to the point that the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Senior went
down to Hopkin's Park to try to persuade them to accept this as a
positive for their town. The project was moving along and a huge
foundation was poured. 2

Then, Governor Rod Blagoyevich (presently incarcerated in
Colorado) was elected and promptly pulled the plug on the project.
Blagoyevich was a Democrat, the first one in many years to become
Governor. Ryan was a Democrat, but had switched to being a
Republican, during the Reagan era. 1 don't think Blagoyevich cared
one way or the other about the prison. He just wanted to undo a pet
project, his rival had pushed. He had his own schemes to push!

It hasn't been mentioned, but I believe it was a real factor why
the prosecutors went 5o hard after him - that, and the bumbling,
ineffective graft and corruption he was involved with. So, since then,
the project lay dead in the water. No other “help" was offered to
those folks. They were looking for such things as a laundromat, a
grocery store, a gas station and a park for their children. After all,
why in hell would they want their abused and now incarcerated
sisters from the city (Chicago) living in cages in their town???
Repulsive!

‘OK, back to Crete. Cetta Smart took the initiative. She sent out
an email for a meeting at her house in Crete to discuss the situation
1 knew I had to get involved. My sons went to Crete-Monee High
School and I've been a fierce prison abolitionist for a long time. |
couldn't just let the Mayor get away with this and it was good to
know, people in Crete were likewise aghast at this prospect. I
alerted my contacts about the meeting, as I'm sure others did, too,

1 co-founded the main grassroots group in Eastern Will County -
STAND - Shut This Airport Nightmare Down and knew a lot of people
in the area, in Chicago, surrounding towns, across the country, as
well as many reporters, etc. This would take a full-bore effort and
even though I was already insanely bogged down with work, I knew
T would have to devote a ton of time, money and energy to this fight

At the meeting at Concetta's house, I'd say about forty people
showed up. We were hanging all over each other. This was a very
good start! Cetta brought immigration activists from the city to give
us a briefing on the immigration struggle, the roles ICE and CCA play.
and basically, what must be done. I figured we would have to start A
whole new grassroots group, specifically geared to stop this thina,
which was what, in fact, soon happened

Although I'd done intense prisoner support work for several years
and have published a lot of prison-related information, 1 was rather
uninformed about the immigration detention situation. But, T took it
upon myself to find out - fastl 1 started collecting material, fist
being the literature the folks from Chicago brought that ight. 1 |
searched the internet and downloaded material and formatted it into
pamphiets to made available for tabling, mailing, and at meetings.

Ibelieve Emily Burns was at this initial meeting. She was from
the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. Fred Tsao spoke on behalf of
ICIRR - The Ilinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Sister Lisa Polega from the Sisters of Mercy also spoke powerfully
about the human tragedy of immigration detention and deportation
They and others are part of an umbrella group called The Interfaith
Community for Detained Immigrants.

S0 we learned the gravity of the situation and planned further
meetings for those interested in doing the actual organizing of the
looming fight.

Al the next meeting I attended at Cetta's house, we started
planning an upcoming informational forum at the Crete Township
Center, located in the heart of town, set for January 9th. We decided
on a name for ourselves - Concerned Citizens of Crete and
Neighboring Communities. 1t was already December and we figured
we'd have to wait until after Christmas to get people informed and
involved. This gave us time to research, meet, make phone cals,
talk to people, email people, gather information and begin o get 3
handie on the intricacies of what all was involved here.

The group quickly evolved. A lot of people did a lot of work
These people included but were not limited to Marimonica Murray,
Alice McBride, Linda Daniels, Jill Hornick, Cindy Szostak, Deborah
Anderson, and many others. Other people not part of this core
group, but none-the-less very active, include Jerry and Donna
Callaway, Christian Anderson, Don Seehausen, Laurene Lambertino-
Urquizo and many others, 1 can't recall right now. The people in
Crete stepped up when it mattered to their town and 1 applaud them
for their efforts. 1 wish they (and others) would show the same
fortitude fighting the Peotone Airport and the liliana Tollroad, which
also menace their area.

Anyway, 1 started putting lterature together for this event and
assumed the role of media outreach coordinator, as I've had
extensive dealings with the media, fighting the Peotone Airport in the
area. As well, I would outreach others interested in the situation
outside of Crete, most notably those in Chicago. 1 spoke in the city
at Occupy gatherings and at 2 demonstration at ICE headquarters in
the loop. 1 put on a prisoner art show at an activist gallery in
Chicago, called MultiKulti. We invited several prisoner support
groups in the city for a nice discussion, including about the Crete
Detention Center. This is where I first et Rozalinda Borcila and
thus hooked up with the folks in Little Village.
‘Again, this is just a glimpse of what all happened. I can just
vouch for what 1 was particularly involved with. Others will have to
tell their own story. Some folks, like Marimonica and Concetta spent
the greater part of every day dealing with all of this. All around, it
was an incredible effort - completely voluntary. We did what we had
to do until our mission was accomplished! <

S0, on January th, all of our outreach to the community and =
beyond brought results. The capacity was I believe 76 people. At
first, there was just a few of us on this chilly evening. Soon, a
torrent of people filed in. Someone said we would have to close the
doors 3s It was now beyond capacity. 1 said, nol We must let
everyone who wants to attend come in. I'd say double that amount
of people came. The meeting room was packed, with people lining
the wall. The lobby was also packed and this is where I stayed with
2 fully-stocked literature table. In an adjacent room, Fred held court
with two or three dozen more people. We also had NO CRETE
DETENTION CENTER yard signs available and they were going like
hotcakes!

Charles Bayo spoke movingly about his horrible experiences in
the maze of county Jails, he was shuttled around to, basically ruining
his law-abiding lfe. His "crime® was that he was born in what was.
then called the Belgian Congo. After a revolution, that country no
longer existed. It was now called Mozambique. But he wasn't a
Belgian citizen, either. He was a man without a country. So he came
to America - the alleged "Promised Land." He ran a small grocery
Store / gas station in a small town in southern Iilinois, until one night
on his way home from work, he was apprehended and sent on this
hellish descent into the sickness of prison - because he was an
“illegal.”

See, under the Obama regime, people are being arrested, not for
any specific crime, but also for being in the country “illegally.” Many
are married to American citizens but it takes years for them to get all
the proper papers and jump through all the hoops. In fact, under
the harsh Obama regime, deportations have doubled those of the
Dubya presidency. This is federal policy - Obama's responsibilty.
400,000 people have been deported per year under Obama. This is
2 major crisis for those being deported, their families and the Latino
community in particular.

"After the outraged townspeople heard Charles' testimony,
someone decided that people should march a couple blocks to the
Village Hall, which coincidentally, was also meeting that evening.
Sure enough, about fity people went over there and swarmed the
place, shouting "No Detention Center! NO Detention Center!” The
Mayor and his ltte coterie hid out in a locked back room. until they
Teft
Anong the reporters there that night was Phil Kadner, who writes
column on page 2 for the Southtown Star. He went with the people
o Village Hall, too that night and wrote about it, in the next day's
paper. He's not necessarily sympathetic to the people on this issue,
but many, many people now realized that the cat was out of the bag
and the people of Crete did not want a detention center in their town
and were outraged that Einhorn had been playing wheeler-dealer
behind their backs for several months.

We decided to o to every Village and Township meeting and
hammer away at why we were opposed to the detention center idea.
It would depress property values. It would drive good people and
positive business away and bring in a “prison town" economy. Crete
wasn't some desperate and ignorant failing farm town. We didn't
need or want the blood money Einhorn would get for being the
middle man between ICE and CCA.

See, the deal was, ICE would pay Crete, say $90 per captive per
day and Crete would pay CCA, say $75 per head to CCA. Of course,
Crete would be liable for any problems that might occur at the
prison. The more we learned about CCA, the more sinister we found
them to be. Their whole thing is maximizing profit for the few big
shots at the top. The pay and benefits for the poorly trained guards
would be minimal, the food and medical care would be poor and the
inevitable problems would be dropped in the laps of Crete's police
and fire departments - and those of surrounding communities.

At a village meeting, many packed into the room trying to voice
their opinions, while several demonstrated outside. Einhorn
continued to try to stifle our voices and insult / ignore people trying
to speak. Several TV trucks were camped outside recording the
event

All the while, several of us were writing letters to the papers,
which were being published, doing interviews with them, radio
stations, Spanish radio, etc. Our message was getting out and we
were growing stronger. It seemed every couple of weeks or 5o, we
would get 100 more yard signs. Bernie Kopera, an activist from
Palos, was the Chairman of our group and Cetta was Co-Chair. He
spearheaded the acquisition of these important signs, which
sprouted up around Crete and beyond like welcome early spring
flowers.

We organized another informational meeting at the Crete
Elementary School, set for February 28th. By this time, we had
made contact with the group of Immigration activists based out of
the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, located in the Latino
neighborhood of Little Vilage, in Chicago. These were the peaple
and organizers fighting directiy with those people being menaced by
ICE and CCA by these harsh immigration kidnapping and deportation
policies.
This was a much bigger venue and over 200 people attended -
even though the Crete police confiscated all the signs I put out
quiding people to this event. More media, a strong list of speakers
and now, some of the Trustees came, too, looking to learn about the
issues and to gauge the mood of their constituents.

We kept up a relentiess pressure in the media and on the Mayor
and the board. We held another meeting of Crete residents at a bar
right across the street from Village Hall. Many new people came and
wanted to get involved. From this, an auxillary group was formed,
dubbed, the "Research Group.” Several talented thinkers, writers,
activists, mainstays in the business community etc. comprised this
group, plus some of us from the main group.

Now, we had gotten country-wide attention. We were in touch
with similar grassroots groups fighting detention centers in their
areas. ICE was looking to create five regional such dungeons all
across the country - Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Nevada and Crete.
S0, the proposed facility in Crete would have people dragooned from
throughout the Midwest come to town! ICE wanted a facilty within
90 minutes o its Midwest Headquarters, located in Chicago's loop.

Afantastic man, named Frank Smith contacted us and provided
tons of useful information and hooked us up with other such groups.
He's a 1-man CCA wrecking crew, who goes around the country
shutting CCA prisons down! Fantastic! He came to Crete to meet
with some of us and had a 1/2 hour conversation with a Trustee,
‘answering all of her questions, expertly.

T was in contact with the People in Florida fighting a similar
problem. It was to be located near Pembroke Pines, a place called
Southwest Ranches. They were further along in the process and
hipped up to the shenanigans ICE & CCA would play on us. By a
strange coincidence, my brother, Bill, lives in Pembroke Pines. He
mailed me newspaper clippings and CCA brochures from down there.

Al this time, all kinds of other people were doing all kinds of
other outreach to the media, their neighbors, the various layers of
politicians, etc. People were putting up facebook pages, websites,
tweeting away and etc.

ICIRR spearheaded an initiative whereby a bill was prepared in
Springfield to make it ilegal for a detention center to be privately
run in Tlinois. It was already illegal to run a regular prison that way.
It passed the Senate and alarmed, CCA brought in their heavy
hiters to wine & dine and lobby the already highly corrupted elected
officials into letting them do this deal with ICE & Einhorn. They said
thy didn't want to "interfere” in what localities wanted to do. Yeah,
right! Hellol? We don't want the damn detention center! 1t's all
about politicians - to politicians! They get their hands on power and
‘money and proceed to make horrible decisions with it! There was a
problem because a privately-run youth detention center, somewhere
in Southern Ilinois already was in operation, if you could call it that!

Plus, it was a race against time to us, for as we were ratcheting
Up our effrts to stop i, Einhorn & Co. were like a bunch of
stagecoach thieves, stealing offwith the loot on their horses and
starting to feel Dudley DooRie’s bullts starting to whistle by. CCA
and ICE were scrambling. They had the bully pulpit (and the
truncheans, gas, guns, dogs, chains and so forth) and the full ¥
“weight of the law” bu the truth was coming out all over the country
- perhaps especially clearly presented by the people fighting i, here
in Crete. Afterall, Barack Obama is from the southside of Chicago
and this i his so-called “policy." More on him and his mini i flop
na whike.

So, there was a constant sense of urgency, driven by some
exceptional individuals, intimately involved in efforts to expose it for
the evil project is was (and is, now for Jolet) and empower our
fellow citizens and residents. 'Soon, we would be taking the next
Ievel - while skipping several of the Intermediary steps!

Rozaiinda Borcil, Jose Herrara, Jose Landeverde
and al the other wonderful people, we met and were schooled by. A
few of us went to a meeting held at the Mission. As Rozalinda sad,
it was an “historic® meeting because it was n and of tsef, bringing
people together to gain strength from each other and knowledge and
Rumanity and caring. This, of course, 1 the exact oppoSite of what
any government wants to see happen.

We extended ourselves to committing to work together to fight
this damn thing. 1t was very humbling to me to get 4 chance to
collaborate with such exemplary individuals! My word! Earfer, they
had marched to Batavial Now, the resolve was being forged to plan
2 march, from Litle Vilage, stopping at the gateway to Litie Village
(Gook County Jai)rallying, and then nuffng It throogh the shatered
dreams and bombed-out sidewalks of destitute south Chicago and
Suburbs. Unbelievable! But hold up, lets back up 3 bit

In such an undertaking as this, people, perhaps talented and
driven as al get out, or whatever, are sort of thrust into each others
midst in a forced working situation. Personalty conflicts, cashing
ideologies - whatever, it can make for 3 Giiult ordeal, ot fmes.
Anyway, luckily for me, 'm used to my autonomous behavior and
have developed effective ways to communicate, albeit highly old
school. The Crete group was cool. We trusted each other (usually)
did our own thing, sometimes in tandem in some form or another
A serious mood was fike standard behavior. . A group of us met with
Congressman Jesse Jackson, . (now "ex" Congressman, if you know
what I mean.) He came out vociferous in his condemnation of the
ides, and pledged to get ICE to come to Crete. We shook hands. It
was kinda weird because I've been ighting i on the sirport for so
ona.

We kept him to his word and bugged his staff until they came up
with a promise of ICE to Crete on May 21st. S0, OK. We bugged
high school principals and so forth to acquire the old high school next
door; which would hold six or seven hundred people.

Another thing we did was have a meetin at the Sister of Mercy
church on the southside. Rozalinda and her daughter were there
with all these other people. She was speaking for the people in the
immigrant community. Someone told her that she should call or
write to Senator Durbin, as he hadn't weighed in on the issue (and
never would.) I would say, this is where her determination solidified
2nd where her intent to make a gigantic statement came from.
Probably not.

In the meantime, all sorts of other things were happening. In
Peotone, Jesse Jackson, J. trucked in a bunch of pro-airport
preachers to take pictures and get a few shovelfuls of soil - like
they're now doing on Mars! He'd just called Peotone "tumbleweed.”
Down the road was a mile-long parade of farmers and supporters in
tractors, on horses, all that stuff. Of course, the city media didn't
cover that at all.

Plus!Goebbels himself - Mayor Emmanuel, was to host the
international killing machine known as NATO. Genocide-haters from
all over came to town, as did thousands of cops. See, this would
bring a little *mini-boon" to the city, commerce-wise. When it did
happen, it was the most surreal event I've ever experienced in
Chicago. Far from "extra* commerce for the city, it was a downtown
ghost town! The only people there were protesters, cops and a few
curious onlookers. This is Oprah gone wild taking over the city!

So, people started planning our next move. Our Crete group was
‘mixed In their reaction to the plans of those working out of the
Mission. They wanted me to sort of outreach the situation. This was.
a dream assignment! I love this sort of stuff and I hate prisons!

We'd try to pull this thing off, somehow. None of the
neighborhood or town officials wanted this to happen. Families,
some with baby buggies pushing and walking their way, first to Cook
County Jail, and, three days later, wind up at a ceremony at the site
of a proposed prison. Welcome to America. Enjoy your
incarceration!

They did all the work. They made dozens of colorful, plaintive
and wonderful protest signs - big, huge mural banners. They figured
out where they could stay at night. It was all done on the fly by will
and a passionate love of people. I tried to help along the way,
schiepping signs and stuff. It was a real joy to see this bedraggled,
Yet Joyous group, show up at one of the stops along the way, like
Blue Island, Harvey and Chicago Heights. 1 helped get them a team
of street medics. One of those street medics, Mark Neiweem is now
one of the NATO 5 - pre-emptively arrested days before NATO on
some cooked up “terrorism” charges. He's stil at Division 10 -
Maximum Security to this day - December 1st!
It was ready hard on the feet of those people. Can you imagine
trying to walk on those hideous sidewalks?

It was so energizing. People literally counting on other people to
catch them and rejuvenate them for the next leg of their journey.
That is "People Power!"

And when they reached Crete, it was like a festival-
Cetta told ‘em she was going to have a "family reunion.
she did!

My old friend, Dave Vance videotaped some of the march - the
beginning and end. He did it for Labor Beat. That was cool. 1 wish
he could have taped those stops along the way.

Sure, enough, we marched through town, with a giant American
flag and a giant black flag. Yes, the “anarchists* are in town. This
was Crete's first ever protest of any sort. The town was stunned into
incredulous bafflement. What is this? We went right down Main
Street, stopping traffic on a busy Saturday afternoon - on April Fool's
Day! On the way, Jesse Jackson, Jr. joined the group like a
schoolgirl joining the skip rope. He had a lttle few guys on each
comer of him. Finally! The last mile. We stopped for a few minutes
to where the village made us move the porta-potties. Then we got
to the place. It's just a comfield right now - right next to an insane
gas-powered power plant!

We got in a big circle and several people spoke. It was often a
solemn occasion, but also pointedly political, as well. At the end,
everyone laid all their signs on a pile, like an offering. Buses had
thankfully arrived to drive our city social warriors home. Talented
teenagers in the city were performing a powerful play about
immigration at the time and did a show, where the proceeds paid for
the buses. It was a beautiful day infused with the love and energy of
people determined to represent and bear witness to a much bigger
social struggle than just having your town inconvenienced!

50, now we're all over YouTube and people are googling our
cause. I understand some people were all atwitter about it all
Yeah, 1 know, I'm a computer loser!

Still, the Mayor and the Trustees didn't budge. It was difficult
obtaining information. We had to FOIA stuff, heaviy redacted, etc.
‘There's no transparency from the government, local, state or federal

The people of Crete then took the initiative. Several folks
decided the spearheading of canvassing the whole town and
presenting the results to the Mayor & Co. This was a huge
undertaking. Crete has, I don't know, 5,000 people? So, several
people had to spend several days doing this for several hours on
those days. The vote in the house was a gutless one vote short and
the people of Crete taking the lead, decided that the effort must
focus on the people in Crete. Now, I'm in the town over. I thought
we should involve other, nearby areas, as we were not just doing a
poll, but trying to get a massive turnout for the ICE visit, set for May
21st. This would be a Monday night.

After I pouted a little bit, I said, OK, if that's what you guys want
to do. I even offered to canvas the business district, which I did. All
the while, remember, we're flooding the town with these signs, with
a circle and a slash through it like all our anti-airport signs, so they
had to have been getting sick of seeing those. Plus, townspeople
grew up with the Mayor and the Trustees. So people talked to them,
every single day about it.

Anyway, NATO came May 20 - 21st. It seemed like ICE had
picked this date to sort of go under the radar of that hullabaloo. As
more and more anticipation grew for this ICE showdown, basically,
ICE inexplicably got cold feet. They canceled out of the event the
day of the event. They blamed the fear that "anarchists from the
city” would invade and disrupt such an event.

‘The truth is we had organized our brains out for this one and
knew at least 500 people from Crete would be there - and who
knows who else. We were relishing the opportunity to be heard,
that's for sure. Rozalinda & Jose's group, No Name Collective, were
thinking about coming down to Crete with a big block of ice, as part
of their statement about ICE's policies.

“The folks in the city decided not to come down, anyway. They
hooked up with the remnants from the NATO demos and converged
on ICE headquarters for a rousing denunciation of their evil work.
We came to the Junior High, anyway, despite the phalanx of cops
everywhere, right here in Crete. There was a school-generated
robocall telling every family of a Crete school student, whatever age,
that the meeting had been canceled due to a “terrorism threat” from
the City. Funny, they never let anyone know about such a meeting
occurring in the first place. Typical, wouldn't you say?

We passed out some literature to people, anyway. So, ICE can
deport 1,150 people per day but is afraid of a little open meeting in
the sieepy little town of Crete, because of some contrived "threat”
from the city? Sheesh! This was the first hint that ICE was starting
to crack.

More signs, more calls, more documented proof from the
*Research Committee” to the Mayor and Trustees that CCA is a
terrible business *partner” and that bringing a prison to your town is
ot an advisable move, economically. Socially and politically, it sure
hadn't proved so far, for the powers that be!

More meetings, more canvassing, bringing the bill up again in
Springfield, more news stories, in short, more pressure on a daily
basis. Then one night in early June, at the village meeting, they
announced that they had unanimously voted to disconnect from the
arrangement with CCA as a business partner. They, of course,
caught us sort of stunned for a moment. They claimed it was their
decision and our efforts didn't affect their decision. Yeah, right, #2!
A week later, ICE threw in the towel down in Florida. And that
prison would have been twice the size of Crete's. Soon after,
President Obama, in a shameless bone tossed to the immigrant
community decried a two-year delay in any possible deportation
proceedings for young people working o in school, with a "clean”
record. This was a cheap (and, as it turns out, effective) play for
Latino votes in the Presidential election, he won handily over
Romney. 1 think he felt pressure from the failure in Crete and the
growing opposition to his hurtful policies. He had to do something,
because after SW Ranches / Pembroke Pines, his policy was
hemorrhaging due to people standing up to his ICE bullies and their
despicable private, for-profit prison vulture dungeon-keepers.

T saw the headiine in the newspaper kiosk at the Homewood post
office one moming on my way to work. Nice! Finally, the good guys
win one for a change! We had couple of parties at Cetta's and
Marimonica's

We were lucky we only had to really convince the Trustees that it
would be a terrible mistake to make, for themselves and the town's
future. Luckily, sanity ruled in this instance. But we knew the
problem would not go away and they would look for a more *secure®
site to stick their prison. Sure enough, they're clamoring to put it in
Joliet, now.

We still had a bunch of yard signs that were stillin the box. I
talked my into them so I could repurpose them to fight the airport. 1
left the circle and slash and just painted over the lettering and
replaced it with an airplane.

1 think it was the Mayor of Joliet, who was already sort of goading
us to challenge his right to have a detention center built there. After
all, Joliet is famous for its prisons, right? He made a good point, 1
thought. He said don't march down to Joliet, march to Hyde Park.
He meant go protest to Obama, because it's federal policy, so Joliet
becomes "blameless.” The Obamas have a home in Kenwood, the
next neighborhood over from Hyde Park. You know, the place,
where they got a land deal break from their next door neighbor, the
now incarcerated, Tony Rezco. 1 say, go both places.

Jenny Polak contacted us about her cool art project she is
creating. She's teaching a semester at Northwestern University. It's
an art class focusing on the Crete Detention Center fight and victory.
Very cooll

But while we can take pride in the Crete effort and its outcome,
the struggle continues. Nothing has really changed as far as
immigration policy is concerned and many people are at risk for
arrest, incarceration and deportation. A similar process of building
resistance to fight the proposed prison in Joliet is now taking place.

1 promised Cetta, when she gave me all those signs. She said,

“Now, I want you to promise you will help us fight a detention center

in Elwood." Elwood is close to Joliet. I gave her my word because I

hate the very idea of nrisons!_Long live fiberty - and human beings!
by Anthony Rayson

So. Chicago ABC Zine Distro / P.O. Box 721/ Homewood, IL 60430