{"id":331604,"date":"2017-10-22T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T14:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/herman-bells-beat-down\/"},"modified":"2017-10-22T15:44:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T14:44:15","slug":"herman-bells-beat-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/herman-bells-beat-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Herman Bell’s Beat-Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“W<\/span>hy don’t you Americans drop the bullshit about the land of the free and the home of the brave? Admit you’re now basically a tinpot dictatorship.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This, from my playwright friend Diane in London, with whom I’m Skyping. I’ve just told her about what happened to Herman Bell, my friend in prison. He’s a former Black Panther who turns 70 this January and has been locked up since 1974. On September 5, Herman survived a “beat-down” by five to seven white correctional officers half his age at Great Meadow prison — one of the more Klan-friendly joints in upstate New York. Two of Herman’s ribs are broken; he’s lost some vision in one eye; probably has a concussion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Diane continues. “The mind fuck: ‘Everybody’s created equal?’ Please\u2026” <\/span><\/p>\n

I find it refreshing to hear my United States besmirched by a non-American (even one who shops at Banana Republic when she comes here). This means a lot when it pertains to Herman, who, after 40-plus years inside, only wants to get out on parole, to live what’s left of his life with his wife and grandchildren. Herman isn’t a saint; he isn’t my hero. He is<\/em> my friend, one of the kindest, funniest people I know. Now, he’s badly hurt.<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened to Herman isn’t unique in New York State, where brutal — sometimes fatal — assaults by guards on prisoners have persisted for years. As an American, though, I don’t usually hear about this, since the normalizing zeitgeist in this tinpot land o’ the free is that people behind bars — especially “convicted cop killers” — deserve whatever they get.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman’s beat-down happened when he was out in the rec yard. There’s a bank of phones there, and he was talking with his wife, Nancy, who was coming in a few days for a contact visit — their first in almost three years. Herman and Nancy have been allowed to see one another sitting across a divided table in a crowded visiting room. Recently, though, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) allowed them family, or “trailer,” visits, which is…<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Why don’t you Americans drop the bullshit about the land of the free and the home of the brave? Admit you’re now basically a tinpot dictatorship.” This, from my playwright friend Diane in London, with whom I’m Skyping. I’ve just told her about what happened to Herman Bell, my friend in prison. He’s a former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-331604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}