Betrayal at Attica (2021) documentary

PhenomenaTV

On September 13, 1971 the State of New York shot and killed 39 of its own citizens, injured hundreds more, and tortured the survivors. The plan to retake D Yard led to one of the bloodiest days in American history, and set the stage for the worst aspects of modern policing. Radical lawyer Elizabeth Fink tells the story of the Attica prison rebellion, and how she exposed the cover up that went on for decades.

Transcript

00:00:00They wanted people to see what happens

00:00:28when you rebel, you know, that they were prepared to kill you,

00:00:32and not only kill you, but kill anybody.

00:00:35That's the basic contradiction, you see.

00:00:37The inmates couldn't believe that the state would kill its own,

00:00:43and the state couldn't believe that the inmates wouldn't kill everybody,

00:00:48and they were both wrong.

00:00:51All right, here we go.

00:01:06So, I mean, I guess tell me who you are and what your title was.

00:01:12Who am I and what my title was? I never had it.

00:01:14Oh, well, that's not true.

00:01:16I still am.

00:01:18I sort of consider a staff attorney at Attica Brothers Legal Defense.

00:01:22On September 13, 1971, the state of New York shot and killed 39 of its own citizens,

00:01:28injured hundreds more, and tortured the survivors.

00:01:31During the 30-year legal battle that followed,

00:01:34the prisoners who fought to expose the truth of that day

00:01:36became known as the Attica Brothers.

00:01:38Fink joined their legal team two weeks after being admitted to practice law in New York.

00:01:44People need human rights.

00:01:46She had a high-profile career defending vulnerable communities

00:01:49from the most powerful foe in her time, the U.S. government.

00:01:52If you don't put your government to the task,

00:01:54then you get our Constitution being used as toilet paper.

00:01:58We're releasing defendant on his own records.

00:02:03Black Panthers like Daruba Ben-Wahad,

00:02:05Puerto Rican nationalists, hacker Jeremy Hammond,

00:02:08Freedom! Freedom now!

00:02:10Her focus was attacking abuse of power by defending its victims,

00:02:13but no case required as much dedication or attention as Attica.

00:02:17There is no justice in America.

00:02:20What empowers you is the fight for justice.

00:02:26When she died in 2015,

00:02:28she left a legacy as a fierce defender of human rights,

00:02:30a lawyer who changed the face of jury selection forever,

00:02:33and a mentor to a new generation of radical thinkers.

00:02:36She also left me a box that she had guarded for decades.

00:02:40It was an archive with hundreds of photographs

00:02:42and over 60 hours of videotape

00:02:44containing the most damning evidence

00:02:46remaining from the Attica trials.

00:02:48The state of New York had declared this material lost decades ago,

00:02:51but as lead counsel in the 26-year civil phase,

00:02:54Fink figured out where it was hidden.

00:02:56This archive proved allegations of wanton murder

00:02:59and abuse by state police

00:03:01and was a cornerstone of the $8 million settlement

00:03:03in the civil trial,

00:03:04the largest ever granted to prisoners.

00:03:06We needed the evidence,

00:03:09and it became clear to me that they were going to destroy it.

00:03:14So how do you have it now?

00:03:16I stole it.

00:03:17From?

00:03:18New York State.

00:03:19I didn't steal it.

00:03:20I shouldn't say that.

00:03:21I expropriated it from them

00:03:24as the chief counsel for the prisoners who were the plaintiffs.

00:03:28We're at this point right now

00:03:30where they are refusing to admit they have all these files,

00:03:34and they are lying about what they have,

00:03:37and it's all going to be blown up because I took it all.

00:03:41The archival photos and videos used in this film

00:03:44are from the Fink collection.

00:03:45They have never been available to the public.

00:03:48I mean, we did this huge trial

00:03:50and everybody wants to ignore it

00:03:52because it proves out what we know to be true,

00:03:55which is that it was a massacre,

00:03:57and they did it on purpose.

00:04:00I should probably go back.

00:04:11So I was a red-diaper baby,

00:04:13and I was brought up by communists.

00:04:15In seventh grade, I was called Khrushchev's daughter.

00:04:18Okay?

00:04:20In ninth grade, I was thrown out of school for a day

00:04:23because I surmised that Francis Gary Paros, right,

00:04:29was a spy, and my teacher went nuts on me

00:04:33and suspended me from school.

00:04:35Now, the next day when it was announced that he was a spy,

00:04:39he had to apologize,

00:04:41but trust me, he never forgave me for that.

00:04:43I was famous for being leftist in high school, right?

00:04:50You know, I sounded like my mother,

00:04:53I talked like my mother, and I went in there,

00:04:56and, you know, I made a scene.

00:04:59She was the head of the Eastern Parkway chapter

00:05:02of the American Jewish Congress.

00:05:05When I say Jewish, I mean Jewish communists.

00:05:07You always got to understand communists

00:05:09because my parents didn't do Judaism at all.

00:05:11My father left the party immediately

00:05:14after marrying my mother.

00:05:16My mother didn't leave the party until 1952.

00:05:20My mother was into the race issue, always.

00:05:24We used to go down to Florida every year.

00:05:26We used to drive down in the car,

00:05:28and we used to go into a restaurant

00:05:32in South Orangeburg, South Carolina,

00:05:35and we'd order.

00:05:36And about 10 minutes before the food would come,

00:05:38my mother would beckon over the waitress.

00:05:43She says, do you serve Negroes here?

00:05:46Oh, no, ma'am.

00:05:47Don't you worry about a thing.

00:05:49We don't let no niggas in here, right?

00:05:51And we would then have to get up and leave.

00:05:53Okay.

00:05:54So that was, we didn't eat much

00:05:56on the way down to Florida.

00:05:58On one level, you know, you're always embarrassed.

00:06:02But I always, you know, on another level,

00:06:05I always admired her ability to do that, right?

00:06:09You know, she taught me how to fight politically.

00:06:13You know, she was the most enlightened person

00:06:15of her age I ever met.

00:06:17I mean, the whole struggle for black liberation

00:06:20was so profound.

00:06:21You know, those pictures, I mean, you see them,

00:06:23those lynching people pictures

00:06:25with all those white people

00:06:27and those bodies, I mean.

00:06:30Phew.

00:06:38The thing about Edmund Till

00:06:39is people for the first time had a look at it.

00:06:43And it was unbelievable after I was 14.

00:06:50And then everything else, you know, Little Rock.

00:06:54And then when you put it together with Nazism

00:06:57and say, well, if you let this happen,

00:07:00if you're not fighting against this,

00:07:01you ain't no different than that.

00:07:03I was taught that the struggle for black people,

00:07:13for freedom and justice in this country,

00:07:16was the most important thing I could be a part of.

00:07:19That it was my responsibility as a white person, right,

00:07:24to support and do everything I could.

00:07:27And that people had to get together

00:07:31and organize together to change their lot.

00:07:37I was taught that it's everybody's obligation

00:07:42to join the movement.

00:07:43I think it's better to be aggressive at this point.

00:07:48It seems to me that it is both historically

00:07:52and sociologically true

00:07:54that privileged classes

00:07:57do not give up their privileges voluntarily.

00:08:01When I went to Reed College,

00:08:03I joined SDS, but that wasn't my thing.

00:08:06I became involved in student government.

00:08:09And I became a member of the community senate.

00:08:12And then I became student body president

00:08:14and head of the judicial board.

00:08:16And then I came out of Reed and my father died,

00:08:19which was a terrible thing for me.

00:08:21And I had to run his business.

00:08:23And my mother certainly didn't want me

00:08:26to run his business.

00:08:27My mother wanted me to be a leftist lawyer.

00:08:30And so she was going to facilitate that.

00:08:32But in August of 1968,

00:08:40me and a friend named Ken Linden

00:08:43drove to Chicago for the Democratic convention.

00:08:48We were not there to demonstrate.

00:08:51We were there to watch.

00:08:53It's now! It's now! It's now!

00:08:57We walked out of the hotel

00:08:58and walked into Lakeshore Park or whatever

00:09:02and all of a sudden were overtaken

00:09:04by National Guardsmen with bayonets,

00:09:07right, and rifles.

00:09:09So to make a long story short,

00:09:11we're caught up in this thing

00:09:12and it's 8.06 at night

00:09:16on the corner of State and Grant

00:09:18and I'm right there.

00:09:20And I look at the cops

00:09:23and they go, you ready?

00:09:25Right? And they charged.

00:09:34Right, first of what happened

00:09:36is that they had one charge

00:09:38and then the second charge,

00:09:39Sidney Peck walked over to them

00:09:41who was the leader of the demonstration

00:09:43and was gesticulating,

00:09:45what did you just do if you were beating everybody?

00:09:47And they beat him to a pulp down there

00:09:50and dragged him away.

00:09:51And then everybody started,

00:09:53there was this police riot.

00:10:02Okay, so at 8.06 p.m.

00:10:07on August 28, 1968,

00:10:09I became a different person

00:10:11because then my whole thing kicked in

00:10:14about, you know, being the child of Jews

00:10:18right after Nazism

00:10:20and when you have this kind of thing

00:10:22you've got to fight it.

00:10:23Right, and as a result of that

00:10:25I became an active principal

00:10:28and full-time leftist.

00:10:31In America, black people

00:10:41are treated very much

00:10:43as the Vietnamese people

00:10:44or any other colonized people

00:10:46because we're used, we're brutalized

00:10:48because they have their orders

00:10:50to do so.

00:10:51And just as the soldiers in Vietnam

00:10:53have their orders

00:10:54to destroy the Vietnamese people.

00:10:56There was a Black Panther Party

00:10:58that was all there.

00:10:59Right?

00:11:04You know, it was Huey

00:11:05and all that

00:11:06and then there was Bobby Hutton

00:11:07and then, you know,

00:11:09it just escalated from there.

00:11:11Attica was just the end of it, right?

00:11:13You had all the people,

00:11:15you had Martin killed,

00:11:16you had Malcolm,

00:11:17you had all of that.

00:11:18Then in 1969,

00:11:19you had Fred Hampton.

00:11:21I'm the deputy chairman

00:11:22of the state of Illinois

00:11:23Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton.

00:11:25This is where our chairman

00:11:27had his brain blown up.

00:11:29He's a man in bed.

00:11:314.30 in the morning

00:11:32started with a gun,

00:11:34still on single fire,

00:11:35brought it all the way

00:11:36across the wall again.

00:11:38Fred Hampton,

00:11:3921 years old

00:11:40and a member of a militant,

00:11:42well-known militant group,

00:11:43was murdered in his bed

00:11:45probably as he lay asleep.

00:11:47I mean, they were at war, right?

00:11:50There was all this stuff,

00:11:51there was stuff in LA,

00:11:52you know,

00:11:53I mean, so you were looking

00:11:54at that kind of shootout

00:11:55all the time

00:11:56and...

00:11:57Good morning, Vietnam

00:11:59and welcome back

00:12:00to part two

00:12:01of the Dawnbuster.

00:12:02Your country was at war

00:12:04and all these people

00:12:07from your country

00:12:08are out there

00:12:09killing all these people.

00:12:10There's a woman running

00:12:11so they shoot her down

00:12:12and I couldn't imagine

00:12:13why she's running.

00:12:14After all,

00:12:15we only raped three women

00:12:16in the last village

00:12:17and we killed an old man

00:12:18over there too.

00:12:19And doing this

00:12:20unbelievable stuff to him...

00:12:22I shot her about

00:12:23five or six times

00:12:24and I went there

00:12:25and turned over

00:12:26and there was a little

00:12:26three-month-old baby.

00:12:27Which you got to watch

00:12:29on television

00:12:30every day.

00:12:31So I think I killed

00:12:32about 18 or 20 people.

00:12:34How did the guys look

00:12:35when they were doing this?

00:12:36They looked like

00:12:37they were having

00:12:37a lot of good time.

00:12:39As far as resistance

00:12:40is concerned,

00:12:40we didn't encounter

00:12:41any resistance whatsoever.

00:12:42The firebombing

00:12:43of villages.

00:12:44After we swept

00:12:45through the village

00:12:46we turned around

00:12:47went back through it

00:12:48and burned all the buildings.

00:12:49Now,

00:12:50to destroy everything

00:12:51in a village

00:12:52means to destroy the people?

00:12:53Right.

00:12:54The slaughter of children.

00:12:56They figure that

00:12:57the babies when they grow up

00:12:58they will be BC anyway.

00:12:59So why give them

00:13:00the opportunity to grow up?

00:13:01All of this.

00:13:02Constant.

00:13:03We didn't believe

00:13:04that this would be

00:13:05such a publicity stunt.

00:13:07We felt that this

00:13:08has been happening

00:13:09many times before

00:13:10and it probably

00:13:11been happening

00:13:12many times since.

00:13:13the fighting

00:13:14you support

00:13:15with every fiber

00:13:16of your being.

00:13:17Right?

00:13:18I mean really

00:13:19every fiber

00:13:20of your being.

00:13:21And that is heavy.

00:13:23President Johnson

00:13:24meanwhile let it be known

00:13:25that the FBI

00:13:26is closely watching

00:13:27all anti-war activity.

00:13:29You know,

00:13:30at a certain point

00:13:31in the 60's

00:13:32and everything

00:13:33everybody was in the streets

00:13:34it was really revolution.

00:13:35and they hated it.

00:13:36And so they had to do

00:13:38something about it.

00:13:39Right?

00:13:40And what they did

00:13:41was mass incarceration.

00:13:42They took the entire

00:13:44undercast and they

00:13:45imprisoned it.

00:13:46America's public enemy

00:13:48number one

00:13:49in the United States

00:13:50is drug abuse.

00:13:52In order to fight

00:13:54and defeat this enemy

00:13:55it is necessary

00:13:56to wage a new

00:13:58all-out offensive.

00:14:00I never did

00:14:02what anybody

00:14:03wanted me to do.

00:14:04I went to law school

00:14:05because I wanted

00:14:06to be a lawyer.

00:14:07Right?

00:14:08But I certainly

00:14:09didn't want to go

00:14:10to law school.

00:14:11It was boring as hell.

00:14:12The reason why I went

00:14:13to Brooklyn Law School

00:14:14was because it cost

00:14:15fifteen hundred dollars

00:14:16a year.

00:14:17Were there a lot of women

00:14:18in law school?

00:14:19When was it?

00:14:20Oh no.

00:14:21There were a lot of

00:14:22women in the class.

00:14:23And fifteen of them

00:14:24were women.

00:14:25In a year, fifty percent

00:14:26of the women

00:14:27had been flunked out.

00:14:28Everybody would snicker

00:14:29when the women came.

00:14:30You would be called on,

00:14:32right, to give your cases

00:14:34or whatever.

00:14:35The women only were called

00:14:36on for statutory rape.

00:14:38Right?

00:14:39All sexual and everybody

00:14:41would be...

00:14:42Right?

00:14:43I had gone to law school

00:14:45but I had chosen

00:14:46the revolution

00:14:47many years before.

00:14:49So I went to law school

00:14:51to represent people

00:14:53who took radical action.

00:14:56And I got to do that.

00:14:58Among the first radical

00:15:00actors Fink represented

00:15:01were the Attica brothers,

00:15:02a group of almost thirteen

00:15:03hundred men

00:15:04who were connected

00:15:05by the Attica Prison

00:15:06Rebellion.

00:15:07She started by learning

00:15:08the details of the case

00:15:09and comparing their stories

00:15:10to the narrative

00:15:11being developed

00:15:12by the state.

00:15:13Truly, Attica

00:15:14is every prison.

00:15:15And every prison

00:15:16is Attica.

00:15:18In October 1971,

00:15:20the state of New York

00:15:21convened an investigative

00:15:22committee to study

00:15:23the causes and outcomes

00:15:24of the Attica Prison

00:15:25Rebellion.

00:15:26The McKay Commission

00:15:27produced a three-volume

00:15:28written report

00:15:29as well as a documentary

00:15:30film that aired

00:15:31on public broadcasting

00:15:32stations.

00:15:33The McKay Commission film

00:15:34was among the material

00:15:35declared by the state

00:15:36of New York

00:15:37to be, quote,

00:15:38lost or missing,

00:15:39unquote.

00:15:40But Fink had a copy

00:15:41on VHS that they

00:15:42were unaware of.

00:15:43It has not been available

00:15:44to the public

00:15:45for more than 40 years.

00:15:46I think Attica

00:15:48brings to mind

00:15:49several things.

00:15:50The first

00:15:51is the basic

00:15:52inhumanity

00:15:53of man to man.

00:15:55To people,

00:15:56be they black,

00:15:57yellow, orange,

00:15:58spotted, whatever,

00:16:00whatever uniform

00:16:01they wore,

00:16:03that day tore from them

00:16:06the shreds

00:16:07of their humanity.

00:16:08I'm Robert McKay,

00:16:10Dean of New York

00:16:11University School of Law

00:16:12and Chairman

00:16:13of the Special Commission

00:16:14on Attica.

00:16:15Forty-three people

00:16:16died at Attica

00:16:17in September 1971.

00:16:19Thirty-nine of them

00:16:20in the attack

00:16:21that retook the prison.

00:16:22Four others

00:16:23during the insurrection.

00:16:24The commission believes

00:16:26that to understand

00:16:27the uprising,

00:16:28one must understand

00:16:29the nature of Attica.

00:16:30Therefore,

00:16:31an essential part

00:16:32of our report

00:16:33is a study

00:16:34of the structure

00:16:35and operation

00:16:36of Attica prison.

00:16:37Attica sits

00:16:38on fifty-three acres

00:16:39of rural western New York

00:16:40near Buffalo.

00:16:41Buffalo.

00:16:42Its four cell blocks

00:16:43form a 600-foot square

00:16:44around recreation yards.

00:16:46A thirty-foot wall,

00:16:47two feet thick,

00:16:48and sunk twelve feet

00:16:49into the ground

00:16:50with fourteen gun towers,

00:16:52surrounds the entire prison,

00:16:54creating an enclosed world

00:16:55with its own standards,

00:16:56economy, and government.

00:16:58New York produces

00:16:59a lot of criminality.

00:17:01Murder Incorporated,

00:17:02Dutch Schultz, all of that.

00:17:04That one,

00:17:05they weren't in the feds.

00:17:06They were in the state.

00:17:07Up the river,

00:17:08that sinks in.

00:17:09Right,

00:17:10they only began

00:17:11to mass incarcerate

00:17:12black people

00:17:13after the war.

00:17:14And really,

00:17:16when the civil rights

00:17:17struggle became.

00:17:19Before that,

00:17:20you know,

00:17:21they had a system

00:17:22which held them in place.

00:17:23Prisons in New York State

00:17:24are called

00:17:25correctional facilities,

00:17:26but what they provide

00:17:27is custody.

00:17:28Guards are called

00:17:31correction officers,

00:17:32but their work

00:17:33is the routine

00:17:34of confinement.

00:17:35They operate

00:17:36Attica's security machine,

00:17:37and that doesn't leave

00:17:38much time

00:17:39for correctional work.

00:17:40In any case,

00:17:41few of the officers

00:17:42have had much training

00:17:43in these skills.

00:17:44Correctional officer

00:17:45doesn't have any skill.

00:17:46All he does

00:17:47is sit and watch people

00:17:48and beat them up.

00:17:49Watch them when they walk,

00:17:51watch them here,

00:17:52watch them there,

00:17:53right?

00:17:54It's like being a teacher

00:17:56without teaching.

00:17:57Correctional officers

00:17:58the commission found

00:17:59have in the Maine

00:18:00chosen this work

00:18:01for job security,

00:18:02not because they want

00:18:03to rehabilitate criminals.

00:18:05Attica was this

00:18:06terrible place.

00:18:08It was run by

00:18:09this hideous warden,

00:18:10Vincent Mancusi.

00:18:12You know,

00:18:13it was upstate New York,

00:18:15all white rednicks.

00:18:17It was totally segregated.

00:18:19Most officers

00:18:20first come to know

00:18:21blacks as convicted

00:18:22criminals,

00:18:23not social equals,

00:18:24and racism affects

00:18:25some officer judges.

00:18:26They tell you

00:18:27when they get up

00:18:28in the morning,

00:18:29when they go to chow,

00:18:30when they go to sleep

00:18:31at night,

00:18:32when they go to movies,

00:18:33when they go to yard,

00:18:34when they come back

00:18:35from yard.

00:18:36Do you know the frustration

00:18:37I'm going through

00:18:38and I'm a good enemy?

00:18:39Just being incarcerated.

00:18:40Incarceration is hell.

00:18:41I don't care what anybody says.

00:18:42Can you imagine you

00:18:43not being able to just

00:18:44express an opinion?

00:18:45You know the first thing

00:18:46they say is,

00:18:47I don't want to hear it.

00:18:48When you got an opinion,

00:18:49I don't want to hear it.

00:18:50I'm a man.

00:18:51And I'll be a man

00:18:52when I leave at it.

00:18:53People were paid

00:18:5456 cents a day.

00:18:55You get a roll of toilet paper

00:18:58a month.

00:18:59You know,

00:19:00you had to work

00:19:01in the metal shop

00:19:02at 108 degrees

00:19:03and they only let you

00:19:04have a shower

00:19:05every two weeks.

00:19:06You know,

00:19:07I mean the food

00:19:08was terrible.

00:19:09Commission found prison food

00:19:11to be unappetizing

00:19:12and not up to

00:19:13nutritional standards

00:19:14even though the basic

00:19:15ingredients were

00:19:16of good quality.

00:19:17The healthcare,

00:19:18the doctors,

00:19:19Williams and Sternbergs

00:19:20were Nazis.

00:19:22Nazis.

00:19:23You know,

00:19:24I mean,

00:19:25I could go on.

00:19:26In October 1970,

00:19:28inmates at Auburn prison

00:19:29were told they couldn't

00:19:30hold a Black Solidarity

00:19:31Day meeting.

00:19:32They held it anyway.

00:19:33Believing reprisals

00:19:34were to be taken

00:19:35against them,

00:19:36they made guards

00:19:37hostages.

00:19:38They released the hostages

00:19:39after they got a promise

00:19:40of no reprisals.

00:19:41Despite the promise,

00:19:43several of the alleged

00:19:44leaders of the protest

00:19:45were shipped to solitary

00:19:46at Attica.

00:19:47And the shit kicked

00:19:48out of them.

00:19:49That was the point.

00:19:50They were promised

00:19:51no physical reprisals

00:19:53and then they beat

00:19:54the hell out of them.

00:19:55When released

00:19:56by a court order,

00:19:57they told Attica

00:19:58inmates a story

00:19:59of betrayal.

00:20:00In the spring of 71,

00:20:03they sent a manifesto

00:20:05saying,

00:20:06we really need

00:20:07changes here.

00:20:08And they took it

00:20:09from George Jackson

00:20:10and Folsom.

00:20:11Right.

00:20:12These were all people

00:20:13out of the city

00:20:14and they were

00:20:15revolutionaries.

00:20:16they were radicals,

00:20:17many of them.

00:20:18And they knew

00:20:19everybody was angry

00:20:20because not two weeks

00:20:22before,

00:20:23they had put

00:20:24on a prison-wide protest

00:20:26when George Jackson

00:20:27was murdered.

00:20:28And they came

00:20:29into the mess hall

00:20:30and no one took

00:20:31any food

00:20:32and no one ate.

00:20:33And mass action

00:20:34by convicts,

00:20:35ooh, makes people

00:20:36very nervous.

00:20:38Very upset.

00:20:39so they were

00:20:40getting scared,

00:20:41right?

00:20:42Inmate Lanny Boone

00:20:43was there.

00:20:44By noon,

00:20:45everybody knew

00:20:46what was going on.

00:20:47What was the reaction

00:20:48of the correction officers

00:20:49to this kind

00:20:50of an organized

00:20:51demonstration?

00:20:52They were uptight

00:20:53to say the least.

00:20:54It got away

00:20:55from them

00:20:56because of

00:20:57Russell Oswald.

00:20:58Russell Oswald

00:20:59told the commission

00:21:00he took over the prison

00:21:01system at a time

00:21:02of mounting tension.

00:21:03Well,

00:21:04was head of the Department

00:21:05of Correctional Services

00:21:06and he was a liberal.

00:21:07right?

00:21:09And he was a real

00:21:10white boy liberal.

00:21:11And he was trying

00:21:14to be diplomatic.

00:21:16He had known

00:21:17that there was trouble

00:21:18at Attica

00:21:19and he was supposed

00:21:20to come and visit it.

00:21:22And he came

00:21:23and he got waylaid

00:21:25by his wife being sick

00:21:27and he left the tape.

00:21:29Many of you

00:21:30have voiced confidence

00:21:31in me

00:21:32and in the directions

00:21:33I have talked about.

00:21:34And I appreciate this.

00:21:36I'm certain you realize

00:21:38that change

00:21:39can't be accomplished

00:21:40overnight.

00:21:41And this was

00:21:42on the 7th.

00:21:43And everybody

00:21:45had to listen

00:21:46to Oswald

00:21:47telling them

00:21:48that he was a good guy

00:21:49and that he was

00:21:50going to do this.

00:21:51I'm going to do this

00:21:52and I'm going to

00:21:53and it made

00:21:54everybody even

00:21:55more angry.

00:21:56On September 8th

00:21:57everybody

00:21:58was gearing up

00:21:59for football.

00:22:00These two guys

00:22:01were on the A Block

00:22:02team.

00:22:03Ray Lemory

00:22:04and Leroy Dewar.

00:22:05They were white

00:22:06and black.

00:22:07And they began

00:22:08to practice

00:22:09start a Spartan

00:22:10movement.

00:22:11Guards went nuts.

00:22:12And they broke it up

00:22:13and they thought it was

00:22:14a whole thing

00:22:15and everybody got uptight.

00:22:16Right?

00:22:17You know, the guards had

00:22:18to pull back.

00:22:19And that was a big thing.

00:22:20That night they came

00:22:21and took Ray and Leroy

00:22:23up to the box.

00:22:25and everybody

00:22:26on the company went nuts.

00:22:28This guy,

00:22:29William Ortiz,

00:22:31threw a soup can

00:22:34and hit Curtis,

00:22:35who was the lieutenant,

00:22:37right on the forehead.

00:22:39No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:22:42Very bad.

00:22:43The day's events

00:22:44left officers uneasy

00:22:45about what might happen

00:22:46the next day.

00:22:47For some time

00:22:48we've all been concerned

00:22:50about this trouble

00:22:51that was brewing

00:22:52in the prison.

00:22:53You could feel it

00:22:54in the air.

00:22:55The next morning

00:22:56they keeplopped him.

00:22:57Which is,

00:22:58they closed his cell dog

00:22:59and they weren't going

00:23:00to let him out.

00:23:01But as they were going

00:23:02out to breakfast

00:23:03somebody flipped the switch

00:23:05and Toriano went out too.

00:23:07So already

00:23:08we're into revolution here.

00:23:09There was a confrontation

00:23:11right at the A-yard entrance

00:23:14which is halfway

00:23:15in that long corridor

00:23:17between them and Curtis.

00:23:20And they took over.

00:23:22Right?

00:23:23And they grabbed Curtis.

00:23:24And they all converge

00:23:27on Times Square.

00:23:28There was the central area

00:23:29with a square called

00:23:31Times Square.

00:23:33And that controlled

00:23:34all the prisons.

00:23:35And if you got in and out

00:23:36of that, you had control

00:23:37over everything.

00:23:38And one of the gates broke.

00:23:41Shortly thereafter,

00:23:42about 25 inmates

00:23:43from this group rushed

00:23:44the Times Square gate

00:23:45they had just come through.

00:23:46They shook it

00:23:47and shoved at it.

00:23:48Officers behind the gate

00:23:49had no reason to expect

00:23:50that it wouldn't hold.

00:23:52Unbeknownst to everybody

00:23:53the gate, the A gate

00:23:55is defective.

00:23:57It's very old

00:23:58and there's 45 people

00:24:02pushing and screaming

00:24:03with sticks and rage.

00:24:05A faulty bolt snapped

00:24:07and inmates poured through

00:24:08attacking the officers.

00:24:09And they beat

00:24:10the three cops.

00:24:12They give Quinn

00:24:13a big time concussion

00:24:15which kills him.

00:24:16They fracture his skull

00:24:18is actually what they do.

00:24:20And a lot of people hit him.

00:24:22A lot of different people.

00:24:24A guard named Melvin,

00:24:29or Melgood,

00:24:30was on this post

00:24:31when the incident

00:24:34first started.

00:24:38The arm is pointing

00:24:39to a handprint

00:24:40on the wall,

00:24:41a handprint of blood.

00:24:44We can see patches

00:24:47of blood on the floor.

00:24:50No one,

00:24:51inmate, correction officer,

00:24:53or prison official,

00:24:54could have known

00:24:55that one of the

00:24:56Times Square gates

00:24:57was held

00:24:58by a weakened bolt.

00:25:00Many years earlier,

00:25:01two pieces of steel

00:25:02were badly welded together

00:25:04and the weld covered

00:25:05with paint.

00:25:07Had the gate held,

00:25:08it is possible

00:25:09that the uprising

00:25:10would have been contained.

00:25:11Did you have

00:25:12any understanding

00:25:13as to whether

00:25:14there was a policy

00:25:15as to what to do

00:25:16in those circumstances?

00:25:19There had been

00:25:20a riot plan of sorts

00:25:22which all supervisory

00:25:26officers were

00:25:27to familiarize

00:25:28themselves with,

00:25:29but it pertained largely

00:25:30to a single area,

00:25:33an isolated area

00:25:34where a disturbance

00:25:35might occur.

00:25:36It didn't provide

00:25:37for an institution-wide problem.

00:25:41Was that plan

00:25:42ever communicated

00:25:43to the officers?

00:25:45I don't know.

00:25:46Not to my knowledge.

00:25:47When the inmates

00:25:48broke into the metal shop,

00:25:49they took the guards

00:25:50and civilians

00:25:51working there hostage

00:25:52and ordered them to strip.

00:25:53There were civilians

00:25:54throughout the prison,

00:25:55right,

00:25:56who were not correction officers.

00:25:58This is the area

00:26:00from which a large group

00:26:01of hostages

00:26:02was taken.

00:26:04They were a count,

00:26:06the supervisors

00:26:07and the four people

00:26:08in the metal shop,

00:26:09the people who knew

00:26:10how to do metal work,

00:26:11right, welders and so.

00:26:13Word was passed

00:26:14for the inmates

00:26:15to take their captives

00:26:16to D yard.

00:26:17Then, once everybody

00:26:18got in the yard,

00:26:19then the politics

00:26:20took over.

00:26:21Attica was a riot.

00:26:22It began as a riot

00:26:23and it immediately

00:26:24turned into a rebellion.

00:26:26It was a political time.

00:26:29People were political

00:26:30everywhere.

00:26:31There were political movements

00:26:33within the prison.

00:26:34People couldn't

00:26:35stand the conditions.

00:26:36Although the commission

00:26:37recognizes that many

00:26:38inmate grievances

00:26:39were justified,

00:26:40the commission

00:26:41condemns the taking

00:26:42of hostages as a means

00:26:43of obtaining redress.

00:26:44But unless the

00:26:46dehumanizing quality

00:26:47of inmate life

00:26:48is eliminated

00:26:49by meaningful reform,

00:26:50inmate frustrations

00:26:52are bound to find

00:26:53their outlet

00:26:54in future prison riots.

00:26:55Shortly before 9 a.m.

00:26:57this morning,

00:26:58the time set aside

00:26:59for visitors to the prison.

00:27:00A violent disturbance

00:27:01broke out in four

00:27:02of the five cell blocks.

00:27:03Prisoners took over.

00:27:05Over a thousand

00:27:06prisoners took over.

00:27:07We'll do it again.

00:27:08The damage to prison

00:27:09buildings will no doubt

00:27:10be repaired in time.

00:27:11As far as restoring order

00:27:13to this facility,

00:27:14that's another story.

00:27:15Now, in the laundry,

00:27:17we have Frank Lodge

00:27:18to the police.

00:27:19People have called me

00:27:20Dutch.

00:27:21They have called me

00:27:22Mr. Clean.

00:27:24They have called me

00:27:25Black Jesus.

00:27:27And Big Black is not

00:27:28a political person.

00:27:29He's a hustler.

00:27:30Right?

00:27:31He's charismatic.

00:27:32He's terrific in many ways.

00:27:34But he is, you know,

00:27:35he's a hustler.

00:27:37He's huge.

00:27:38A big guy.

00:27:39Right?

00:27:40And by the time he was eight,

00:27:42he was in trouble.

00:27:43Right?

00:27:44He never really went to school.

00:27:46He never really learned

00:27:48grammar or how to write

00:27:50or any of that.

00:27:51Right?

00:27:52He just didn't have any,

00:27:53you know,

00:27:54because he was out

00:27:55on the street hustling.

00:27:57When he was 12 years old,

00:27:59he got busted.

00:28:00And he gets out of that one.

00:28:02They bust him again

00:28:03and they give him a choice

00:28:05about whether he wants

00:28:08to go to prison

00:28:09or go into the army.

00:28:10So, he'd listen to the army

00:28:13and he becomes an MP.

00:28:16Right?

00:28:17Then they ship him to Korea.

00:28:19And he doesn't see any reason

00:28:21why he's here at all.

00:28:23You know?

00:28:24And all these people

00:28:25are shooting at him.

00:28:26Right?

00:28:27You know?

00:28:28And he didn't like it at all.

00:28:29So, he came back.

00:28:31He was this old reefer, mostly.

00:28:33He was a junkie

00:28:34from the army, of course.

00:28:36And then he was,

00:28:38you know, hustling.

00:28:40And he got involved

00:28:41in this crap game

00:28:43with some others

00:28:44and some shit went down.

00:28:46And they called the cops.

00:28:50They got busted.

00:28:52And he refused to rat

00:28:54on his co-defendant.

00:28:56And he got 15 years.

00:28:57And he's one of the leading hustlers

00:29:02in the jail.

00:29:03He's got an institutional pass.

00:29:06He does the laundry for the warden.

00:29:09And he had this one guy.

00:29:11Right?

00:29:12Tony Scangiacomo.

00:29:13Who was his outside bringing her in.

00:29:15Right?

00:29:16You know?

00:29:17And the riot started.

00:29:20The laundry fell.

00:29:22And he's about to walk to C Block

00:29:26and not get involved in this rebellion.

00:29:29Right?

00:29:30Because he don't want this shit.

00:29:31Right?

00:29:32And just as he's due,

00:29:33someone ran over to him

00:29:35and said,

00:29:36Man, Tony's busted.

00:29:38They got Tony.

00:29:40His main guy, Scangiacomo.

00:29:42So he turns around

00:29:44and he goes into the yard.

00:29:46And Tony's got his arm broken.

00:29:48And he's a mess.

00:29:49And Black goes over to Tony

00:29:51and says, Man, don't worry.

00:29:52I'll take care of it.

00:29:53And he becomes the head of security

00:29:55to determine who's going to get out,

00:29:58who's not going to get out

00:29:59and everything else like that.

00:30:00The next morning,

00:30:01he gets Tony out.

00:30:02Okay?

00:30:03Because he's got a broken arm.

00:30:05And then he starts to listen

00:30:06to the whole thing.

00:30:07And he gets turned on by it.

00:30:11As head of security,

00:30:12Big Black formed a circle

00:30:13of disciplined Muslim inmates

00:30:15to protect the hostages

00:30:16from the constant threat

00:30:17of inmate reprisal.

00:30:18He immediately arranged

00:30:19for the release of injured hostages

00:30:21so they could receive medical care.

00:30:23One of the first actions

00:30:24of the inmates in D yard

00:30:25was to release seriously injured hostages.

00:30:28At the same time,

00:30:29the inmates asked for

00:30:30and got medical supplies

00:30:32and a doctor for their own casualties.

00:30:34You know, it's a violent place prison.

00:30:36They did a very good job,

00:30:38as best they could

00:30:39to keep it contained.

00:30:40The Muslims did that incredible thing

00:30:42of guarding the hostages.

00:30:44By this time,

00:30:45they were under protection

00:30:46of a Muslim security guard,

00:30:47protection that would remain firm

00:30:49for four days.

00:30:50You have been treated all right?

00:30:51Yes, I have so far.

00:30:52I've been treated very good.

00:30:53There was no brutal,

00:30:57no beating on us

00:30:58or anything like this.

00:31:00There were threats yelled at us

00:31:03from outside the perimeter,

00:31:05but the security people

00:31:07that were in charge

00:31:08of keeping us safe

00:31:10did a real good job

00:31:12as far as protecting us.

00:31:14In the center of our pictures,

00:31:18the men distributing baseball bats

00:31:21to the other prisoners.

00:31:22Time is 2.18pm.

00:31:24You know, everybody was thinking politically

00:31:27because the head of the Muslims,

00:31:29right, was the murderer

00:31:31of Malcolm X.

00:31:33He was the chief iman

00:31:35at Attica Prison.

00:31:36His name is Thomas Hagen.

00:31:37Thomas X Hagen.

00:31:39And he's the murderer of Malcolm X.

00:31:41That's what he did.

00:31:42He murdered him.

00:31:43And Thomas,

00:31:44they understood

00:31:45that they couldn't use Thomas.

00:31:47So, you know,

00:31:49that even though he was

00:31:50the head of the Muslims

00:31:51and dealing with everything,

00:31:53they couldn't put him forward.

00:31:54Right?

00:31:55So they selected

00:31:56a young brother

00:31:57named Richard X. Clark,

00:31:58and he became that person.

00:32:00Right?

00:32:01And the leaders stood up.

00:32:03You know, the older people.

00:32:04Black was older than everybody.

00:32:06Roger Champin was older

00:32:08than everybody.

00:32:09Hurden Blyman was...

00:32:10And everybody was political,

00:32:12and they wanted to make a point.

00:32:14As far as the prisoners are concerned,

00:32:16do they have weapons and such

00:32:17that they're holding hostages with?

00:32:19Our information is that

00:32:20none of the prisoners are armed.

00:32:22However, they are holding hostages,

00:32:24I think, just by way

00:32:25to their sheer strength.

00:32:26But as far as we are concerned,

00:32:28at this point,

00:32:29they are not armed.

00:32:30Troopers took firing

00:32:31and observation positions

00:32:32on cell block roofs.

00:32:33One of them was assigned

00:32:35a small television camera,

00:32:36and he recorded

00:32:37what he saw on videotape.

00:32:39Time is 1.55 p.m.

00:32:42We're on the roof of C Block,

00:32:44looking at a detail of 270 marksmen,

00:32:47with instructions to clear

00:32:49the catwalks upon command.

00:32:53By Friday morning,

00:32:54the police thought

00:32:55they had enough men

00:32:56to take the prison.

00:32:57They chafed at the delay

00:32:58caused by Oswald's

00:32:59determination to negotiate,

00:33:01and they watched inmates

00:33:02build defenses and weapons.

00:33:04more activity in the central area,

00:33:07apparently, for the barricade construction.

00:33:11Sergeant Cunningham,

00:33:13now would you give us a message

00:33:15for Governor Nelson Rockefeller?

00:33:18I certainly would.

00:33:20One of the recommendations is,

00:33:22and if he says no, I'm dead.

00:33:24The thing about Rockefeller

00:33:25is that he knew how to delegate,

00:33:27and he had delegated Oswald.

00:33:31Oswald was trying to be a liberal,

00:33:34right, and hear what people had to say.

00:33:36Mancusi, who was the warden,

00:33:38would have sent and killed everybody.

00:33:40If it had been at Coxsackie or someone,

00:33:42but that was far.

00:33:44So by the time they got there,

00:33:46right, you know,

00:33:47Oswald had made the decision to negotiate

00:33:50and hadn't called the troopers in.

00:33:52And once negotiations,

00:33:54then the brothers took over

00:33:56because they already had their negotiating,

00:33:58they had this, they had that,

00:34:00and they had 39 hostages.

00:34:03But meanwhile,

00:34:04he would go and say one thing to them

00:34:06and then say another thing to the press,

00:34:08and they had TVs.

00:34:09So they saw and they knew, you know.

00:34:11Corrections Commissioner Russell Oswald

00:34:13was escorted to a negotiating table in D-yard,

00:34:15where he agreed to an extensive list of demands

00:34:17for both immediate and systemic relief.

00:34:19I earlier promised you there would be no reprisals.

00:34:24The main sticking point was a demand for amnesty

00:34:26by the men in the yard,

00:34:27who were afraid all 1,200 of them

00:34:29would be charged for the beating death

00:34:30of Officer William Quinn.

00:34:32Commissioner Oswald did not believe

00:34:34he had the authority to grant the amnesty.

00:34:36Plus, he had demands of his own.

00:34:38When will you release the hostages?

00:34:40He expected them to be grateful to him.

00:34:43And they weren't.

00:34:45Mm-mm.

00:34:46So he did this thing

00:34:48and he let negotiators in.

00:34:50We urgently demand immediate negotiations

00:34:53through William M. Kuntzler,

00:34:55attorney at law, 588 9th Avenue, New York, New York.

00:34:59Can you zoom in, Adam?

00:35:01Presently entering is Bobby Seale.

00:35:04On the extreme right as they walk towards us,

00:35:08our right is Professor Schwartz, Arnold Kuntzler,

00:35:11Bobby Seale in a black coat,

00:35:13and two of Seale's entourage on the extreme right.

00:35:18By late Friday, 33 observers had arrived.

00:35:21One was Tom Wicker of the New York Times.

00:35:24We had continuing discussions from the beginning

00:35:26as to precisely what we should do,

00:35:29what role we should be playing.

00:35:31Were we to view ourselves as representatives of the prisoners?

00:35:35Were we to view ourselves as representatives of the state?

00:35:38Were we purely neutral go-betweens?

00:35:42Were we, in fact, negotiators?

00:35:48Events soon settle at.

00:35:49We had to be, more or less.

00:35:50And then when the negotiators came,

00:35:53you had all those flamboyancy,

00:35:55and they had flamboyancy number 101, right?

00:35:59And he was Mr. Press.

00:36:01He understood how to deal with the press

00:36:04better than anybody I ever saw.

00:36:06You've got to negotiate for an amnesty.

00:36:10But that means you have to sit down

00:36:12and have to work out a real amnesty.

00:36:15He was a German Jew.

00:36:17His father was a doctor.

00:36:19His grandfather was a doctor.

00:36:20Everybody were doctors.

00:36:22He went to Yale, came in second.

00:36:25He was second in his class.

00:36:26Then he went into the Army, and he was a major.

00:36:30He was in the Army of Occupation in Japan.

00:36:34He went back to Columbia Law School,

00:36:36and he was in the same class

00:36:38with all these famous people together.

00:36:40And he became, you know, an estates lawyer.

00:36:44And he was a liberal.

00:36:47He was a member of the NAACP.

00:36:50And it was, like, 58.

00:36:53And he was going to Jackson, Mississippi.

00:36:55And he became a civil rights lawyer.

00:36:57And mostly became Martin Luther King's lawyer.

00:37:00So, you know, you had Bill Kunstler

00:37:03and Herman Badillo and all these people,

00:37:05and it became a scene.

00:37:07Why did the inmates ask for you people?

00:37:11Why are they asking for the Huey Newtons,

00:37:14Herman Badillos, Reverend Wyatt T. Walker?

00:37:17Why are they doing that?

00:37:18They want to be assured that if there is an agreement,

00:37:24that the agreement will be kept.

00:37:26They want to be assured that there is some mechanism

00:37:29for enforcing whatever changes exist in the regulations.

00:37:34And I think it's a wise idea.

00:37:37Power! Unity!

00:37:38There were close to 1,300 men in D. Yard.

00:37:41More than half of those interviewed told the commission

00:37:43they had not wanted to be there but couldn't leave.

00:37:46Inmates made rules against using drugs,

00:37:48fighting, and homosexual relations.

00:37:50Some of them built defenses or looked for food and fuel,

00:37:53but a large number, probably the majority,

00:37:55hung back and did nothing.

00:37:57Most of them lined up twice a day for mess call.

00:38:00How do the inmates feel about the current situation?

00:38:02A group of us were in with the inmates.

00:38:06We met with them.

00:38:08We had two and a half hours.

00:38:11Some of the people are here.

00:38:12But we really have nothing to say about it

00:38:14except they are firm in their demands and that's it.

00:38:17It was Bill's finest hour, Kunstler, in some ways,

00:38:21and one of his stupidest.

00:38:23No one told the Attica brothers

00:38:26that they were going to be murdered.

00:38:28They didn't tell them that there were all these crazy white people outside,

00:38:32filled with race hate,

00:38:34and all of them are going to be armed to the teeth.

00:38:36And there's no question that they're going to blow your people away.

00:38:42Time is 8-10, September 10th.

00:38:45As negotiations stalled, Governor Rockefeller decided to rely on the exhausted

00:38:50and increasingly agitated state troopers who had been taking shifts waiting outside

00:38:54the prison walls for three days.

00:38:56It was cold up there.

00:38:58You know, they could have worked something out.

00:39:00They didn't have to murder people that way, but they wanted to.

00:39:03They wanted people to see what happens when you rebel.

00:39:07You know, that they were prepared to kill you,

00:39:10and not only kill you, but kill anybody.

00:39:13All those white people, they were father.

00:39:17You said earlier that you think the warden would have done that day one.

00:39:21Yeah, they did too.

00:39:22Do you think Rockefeller would have done that day one

00:39:24if he would have had the choice?

00:39:26The Rockefeller thing, he was just horrified that these people thought they had any right to oppose him.

00:39:32And that's one of the main reasons why he killed them all,

00:39:36just like his father did, right?

00:39:39And not love.

00:39:56You know, I mean, who are you?

00:39:58You're scum.

00:39:59I'll show you.

00:40:00I have all the power.

00:40:01The cities had blown up, right?

00:40:04And they wanted to show everybody what happened.

00:40:07You know, you think we're not going to blow you away?

00:40:09I mean, Black didn't think they were going to shoot.

00:40:12He thought that they were going to come down and bust some heads

00:40:15and fuck everybody up, and that would be it.

00:40:18And that is what the National Guard wanted to do.

00:40:22That's exactly what they wanted to do.

00:40:24They wanted to come out of a helicopter, come into the middle of the yard,

00:40:28have them gas everybody, and take over the yard.

00:40:32They thought that they could do whatever, and they weren't allowed to.

00:40:39Here you have a captain in the state police who runs barracks in Vitavia, New York.

00:40:46The only thing they do up there is run up and down the highway

00:40:49and arrest people for driving.

00:40:51A principal task of the state police is highway patrol.

00:40:54They are not ordinarily assigned to military operations.

00:40:58All right, go right around to the supply truck and pick up the shotguns and rifles.

00:41:01On the double, let's roll.

00:41:02Right? I mean, they understood what the climate was.

00:41:06It's a situation in which lives are at stake.

00:41:09And my own personal opinion is that if lives are at stake and have any meaning to anybody,

00:41:15that there ought to be a serious reconsideration by the state.

00:41:18If the state takes the position that the guards' lives are expendable,

00:41:21then the state is going to cause the murder of many people.

00:41:24Anybody would know what was going to happen.

00:41:29Those people were crazed.

00:41:31All they did was sit around the prison.

00:41:33They had nothing to do.

00:41:34There was no discipline, and they were all lied to.

00:41:37There have been some of the prison personnel severely injured here this morning,

00:41:42and we certainly don't want to see any of our people hurt.

00:41:45So there it is, right there.

00:41:47Everything he said was a lie.

00:41:50They knew full well that there was no one injured, right?

00:41:54And that they were lying.

00:41:55The meat force, they knew no one had a gun.

00:41:58Your instructions are that your weapon is not to be taken or are you to be taken.

00:42:06They chose the state police, even though the National Guard knew what they were doing.

00:42:10The state police had no clue.

00:42:12The hostages are on the catwalks with knives at their throats.

00:42:17Of course, they wanted a massacre.

00:42:20And they got it.

00:42:23Time is 9.45 a.m.

00:42:42This was a wholesale murder, right?

00:42:56You know, Attica took it to a different level.

00:43:01They're heading wirk.

00:43:02And they came to New York now and say,

00:43:04They were looking for more and more options.

00:43:07And they pulled down and they went back and down.

00:43:10And that's what they did.

00:43:12So they checked out.

00:43:13They had to do funny things,

00:43:14and they tried to attack.

00:43:15All they found intéressers.

00:43:18And then in the USA, they Had To Wellcomeå,

00:43:19there was a serious business.

00:43:21All they found in the leg that they did.

00:43:24The head of the state police was on vacation in Bolton's Landing, New York.

00:43:33So there was absolutely no reason for him to be there other than to keep himself away from this shit.

00:43:39You know, he wasn't in Europe. He was in Bolton's Landing.

00:43:49They all had gas masks, and there was no way to communicate through the gas mask.

00:43:54There's this incredible testimony from the second-in-command of the state police.

00:43:58You know, this guy was a moron, and, you know, he comes out onto the catwalks, and they're shooting,

00:44:05and there's no reason for anybody to shoot anybody.

00:44:08And he's running up and down trying to get people to stop shooting,

00:44:11but there's no way to communicate because no one can talk to each other because they have gas masks on.

00:44:17Hello. The hostages can't be seen now.

00:44:21I mean, they did everything.

00:44:23Come on.

00:44:43They were all in a hostage circle in the middle,

00:44:46and someone began to run during the assault,

00:44:50and they all turned and fired at him with their shotguns filled with double-odd boat shot

00:44:57with an indiscriminate spread of 50 yards.

00:45:01And that's why they killed all the hostages.

00:45:03They didn't register any firearms.

00:45:09They told everybody to put tape over their name tags so you couldn't tell who was shooting.

00:45:14They, you know, told people to fight back, right?

00:45:17You know, any...

00:45:18What they wanted was what they got.

00:45:21I mean, at the best thing you could call it is depraved indifference for human life,

00:45:27but it was more than that.

00:45:304,500 rounds of ammunition.

00:45:33Can you imagine?

00:45:34Nobody had a gun.

00:45:35None of them had guns.

00:45:42A lot of people, 39 people.

00:45:48No one ever saw anybody resist.

00:45:54Nobody resisted.

00:45:55One person, Tommy Hicks, they beat him to a pulp and killed him right there.

00:45:58Gregory Wildridge fired 10 rounds of his shotgun.

00:46:02And when he was asked why he fired those shots, right, you know,

00:46:06he gives some absolute lying justification for the first four.

00:46:10And the remaining six, his reason for firing them was, quote, verbatim, quote,

00:46:15to keep up the noise.

00:46:17Aldo Barbellini was a state trooper,

00:46:27and he killed Kenny Malloy and Claude Budd with a pistol, with a handgun.

00:46:34You look at the pictures, they speak for themselves.

00:46:36He blew his face and heart, right?

00:46:38And what he did was witnessed by Gerard L. Smith, who testified about it.

00:46:43So Barbellini killed Kenny Malloy, and he killed Robinson.

00:46:47And he had a weapon that he had brought himself, a shotgun.

00:46:52And he went back to his commander, and he handed him the shotgun.

00:46:58He says, I took this off an inmate.

00:47:00They knew that he was a goddamn liar, right?

00:47:05And that the weapon did not come from an inmate.

00:47:08He had brought it himself, and that he had murdered these two people in cold blood.

00:47:13And did they arrest him for murder?

00:47:15No.

00:47:16What did they do?

00:47:17They let him retire.

00:47:20So, you know, that's Aldo Barbellini.

00:47:23Claude and Bergamini, they were sent in by the Warden of Orgman Correctional Facility,

00:47:28Robert J. Henderson, a swell guy.

00:47:31They killed Dark Angelo.

00:47:33They killed Monteleone, who were the two guys who were killed on the catwalks.

00:47:37Surrender peacefully.

00:47:39You will not be hurt.

00:47:41Santiago Sanclos, clearly, right, was following the instructions that were given from the helicopter.

00:47:59He had his hands over his head like this, and he was walking to the nearest trooper.

00:48:04And what happened?

00:48:05He got murdered.

00:48:06And he got shot and killed.

00:48:08And so when he fell, he fell with his hands over his head.

00:48:12Now, that didn't look good to them.

00:48:14Before Rigger sets in, clearly, so that's like two, three hours before Rigger comes in,

00:48:20they move his hand, they move his hand, and they put a scissor, so you think like he's reaching for a scissor.

00:48:25Great.

00:48:25So, under the feet, boy, you will not be hurt.

00:48:30And then there's Kenny Robinson, you know, who's shot without a weapon.

00:48:36There's nothing near him.

00:48:37He was clearly sitting on this big old seat, and they shot him, and it fell, he fell, it fell over him.

00:48:42And the next thing you know, he's got a big sword.

00:48:45You will not be hurt.

00:48:48Place your hands on top of your head and move to the outside of the D and 3D block corridor.

00:48:56The action now underway was initiated with extreme reluctance.

00:49:01Only after all attempts to achieve a peaceful solution failed.

00:49:08To delay the action any longer would not only jeopardize innocent lives,

00:49:15but would threaten the security of the entire correctional system of the state.

00:49:38The assault on Attica lasted six minutes and took the lives of 39 inmates and hostages.

00:49:44This is all only for the hostages.

00:49:49They had an ambulance for every hostage, and they had nothing, nothing for the prisoners.

00:49:58Dr. Michael A. Barton, chief pathologist of the New York State Police,

00:50:04who conducted the autopsies, come in and testify that if there had been proper medical care,

00:50:12at least eight people could have lived.

00:50:13I think it's ten.

00:50:15Including, but not limited to, Sam Melvin.

00:50:18He was shot by Vincent Tobia, who was a member of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation

00:50:23and the New York State Police, in the same place that L.D. Barkley was shot.

00:50:28Collapsed his lung, and he bled to death.

00:50:30We are men. We are not beast, and we do not intend to be driven or beaten as such.

00:50:37He was 19, and he was in Attica for probation violation, for joyriding.

00:50:43If they had only waited till today, there would be now 40 or 41 people still alive in this universe of ours.

00:50:51They would not wait, because these men were expendable.

00:50:56Guards, prisoners, had no meaning in the scheme of things of our white totalitarian world.

00:51:02How did they kill the hospital?

00:51:0311 minutes.

00:51:07Well, several had their throats slashed.

00:51:11I don't have all the details on it.

00:51:13I understand one had a chest wound that he died from, and I don't have all of those details.

00:51:17When you read the front page of the New York Times, it's a scream.

00:51:21It is.

00:51:22I mean, they have them fighting hand by hand in the blocks for four hours.

00:51:29The press accepted Houlihan's report of slashed throats,

00:51:33but the next day, county medical examiner John Edlund announced the truth.

00:51:37The first eight autopsies were on the cases identified to us as hostages.

00:51:45All eight cases died of gunshot wounds.

00:51:50He was this conservative Republican, and he was a doctor.

00:51:54So, you know, they brought all these bodies to him,

00:51:57and he says, oh, these were shot.

00:51:59You know, nobody's, what are you talking about?

00:52:02There was no evidence of slashed throats.

00:52:06There was one single cut in the back of one of the next.

00:52:10And they totally attacked him and destroyed him, actually.

00:52:14They totally tortured him.

00:52:16Wouldn't let him drive the car.

00:52:17They were pulling him over, you know, the whole nine yards.

00:52:20When the autopsy record was complete,

00:52:22it became known that all the dead hostages were killed or fatally wounded

00:52:25by shots fired by the assault forces.

00:52:28No hostage was castrated or sexually molested.

00:52:32There were no safeguards to minimize the risk of injury to hostages

00:52:35and to uninvolved and unresisting inmates.

00:52:39While the warnings against indiscriminate fire were issued,

00:52:41the plan allowed individual troopers to use their own discretion about firing their weapons.

00:52:47Many troopers carried shotguns with ammunition that scattered lethal pellets

00:52:51in such a way that unintended targets would almost certainly be hit

00:52:55when troopers fired into the crowded, confined space of D-yard.

00:53:01I have Governor Rockefeller for you, sir.

00:53:09There you are.

00:53:10Mr. President.

00:53:11I know you've had a hard day, but I want you to know that I just back you to the hilt.

00:53:16The courage you showed and the judgment in not granting amnesty.

00:53:20It was right, and I don't care what the hell the papers or anybody else says.

00:53:26I don't care what they say.

00:53:27I think that you had to do it that way,

00:53:29because if you would have granted amnesty in this case,

00:53:32it would have meant that you would have had prisons in an uproar all over this country.

00:53:36That's right.

00:53:37And you did the right thing.

00:53:39It's a tragedy that these poor fellows are shot,

00:53:41but I just want you to know that's my view,

00:53:43and I've told the troops around here they're to back that right to the hilt.

00:53:46Well, aren't you great, Mr. President.

00:53:48I only called you because I wanted to alert you that we were going in,

00:53:52and when we went in, we couldn't tell whether all 39 hostages would be killed

00:53:57and maybe 200 or 300 prisoners.

00:53:59And that's a pretty big, you know, they did a fabulous job.

00:54:05How many, I just, I only got the report this morning.

00:54:09What is the latest report?

00:54:11How many people?

00:54:11Seven hostages were killed.

00:54:13Seven hostages were killed.

00:54:14These were the guards.

00:54:15Those were guards.

00:54:16It appears now, Mr. President,

00:54:18as though quite a few of those were killed prior to this.

00:54:21In other words, that they'd been dead.

00:54:24You can prove that, can't you?

00:54:26This is the hospital.

00:54:27The hospital can prove that.

00:54:28Oh, yeah.

00:54:29They can find out how long the guy's dead.

00:54:31That's right.

00:54:31And there, it's a Catholic hospital, so it's outside of our jurisdiction.

00:54:35Right.

00:54:36Tell me this.

00:54:37Is this a, are these primarily blacks that you're doing?

00:54:41Oh, yes.

00:54:41There was, the whole thing was led by the blacks.

00:54:44That'd be nice.

00:54:44Are all the prisoners that were killed blacks?

00:54:47Are there any whites?

00:54:48I haven't got that report, but I have to, I would say just offhand, yes.

00:54:53Yeah.

00:54:55We did it, though, only when they were in the process of murdering the guards or when they

00:55:02were attacking our people as they came in to get the guards.

00:55:05You had to do it.

00:55:06And otherwise, we were captured, all the cell blocks and so forth, without shooting a shot.

00:55:12And no troopers were wounded.

00:55:15One of them, well, one of them was in the leg.

00:55:17Only one trooper was wounded.

00:55:20That's right.

00:55:21It really was a beautiful operation.

00:55:23Well, they must have really been, I would, I, you, you, you can certainly tell your people

00:55:31there, whoever they are, your other troopers, that I have great admiration for that.

00:55:35That's a efficient operation.

00:55:37Well, that's wonderful of you.

00:55:38Well, we back them up.

00:55:39You know, like, oh, we're not going to have any, we just cannot tolerate this kind of

00:55:44anarchy.

00:55:46What is your, what is your, what is your, the New Democrats going to say about this?

00:55:56As soon as the shooting stopped, every surviving inmate was forced to crawl across the muddy

00:56:00ground into the middle of the yard.

00:56:02They were stripped naked and funneled one by one into the cell blocks, where they were

00:56:06beaten by a gauntlet of state police troopers and prison guards.

00:56:11Big Black was described as a leader of the rebellion, despite his role protecting the

00:56:16hostages.

00:56:17He was singled out and tortured for hours, receiving injuries that would haunt him for

00:56:21the rest of his life.

00:56:24For the surviving hostages, the ordeal was over.

00:56:27For the inmates, another ordeal was beginning.

00:56:30The assault reduced the D-yard world to wreckage, and inmates had lost any ground they gained

00:56:35at the negotiation table.

00:56:36Whether they took part in the insurrection or not, the inmates faced correction officers

00:56:41and state troopers, many of them anxious for revenge.

00:56:45Medics were among the first outsiders to reach the wrecked yard.

00:56:49Major John Cudmore and his men watched what happened to inmates after the shooting stopped.

00:56:54They were in the position of having surrendered, hands on head, were coming down and were very

00:57:00forcefully being forced down the steps, were forced to lie down and low crawl across there.

00:57:10Apparently, the method employed to get them to lie down was to hit them with a club across

00:57:15the knees, or in several instances, not two disguised attempts to hit them when the genitalia

00:57:21was made.

00:57:22You had those personnel there from the heartlands of America with a very difficult job, with

00:57:27inadequate training, and in the light of what happened, and they knowing that their brother

00:57:31employees were in there, and their lives had been threatened continuously, they knew some

00:57:38of them were injured.

00:57:39Of course, it's human and understandable that they were under grave stress and anxious and

00:57:44had strong feelings about it, sir.

00:57:46This is only reality.

00:57:48As an administrator in this field, had there been a history after these prison disturbances

00:57:56of officers losing self-control and taking it out on inmates?

00:58:01This is a common concern and problem.

00:58:04Although officials were aware that high emotions among troopers and correction officers might result

00:58:08in unnecessary violence to the inmates during and after the assault, no one took responsibility

00:58:15to prevent reprisals.

00:58:17Almost half of the inmates from D. Yard suffered bruises, lacerations, or broken bones as a result

00:58:25of such reprisals.

00:58:27I would say that we felt that Mr. Mancusi and Mr. Vincent would handle this.

00:58:35We had given orders.

00:58:36We presumed it would be carried out.

00:58:39And he lied.

00:58:40He lied to these people.

00:58:41They asked him the question, did he know about the gauntlet and the beatings and whatever?

00:58:47And he says, no, he didn't go into the yard.

00:58:49That's a lie.

00:58:49He went into the yard about 10, 10.30, he saw it all.

00:58:54And he was forced to tell the truth in the trial around the killing of Herbert Jones,

00:59:01one of the cops.

00:59:02And he had lied to McKay.

00:59:04He had lied to, you know, Honest Deposition.

00:59:07He had lied in the grand jury.

00:59:09I mean, in our case, we brought that up.

00:59:11He got held to trial and he died the day after.

00:59:14When I graduated from law school, I just wanted to be a criminal lawyer.

00:59:26I wanted to support the movement, right?

00:59:29And what else could you do?

00:59:32But ABLD was it.

00:59:34The Anac brothers' legal defense, which was the mass defense office convened to defend

00:59:41the 63 people who were accused of crime as a result of the Attica Prison Rebellion, right?

00:59:48I had told them that I would give two weeks of my time, right?

00:59:52Now, I was full of shit.

00:59:54And I knew I was full of shit because I borrowed my mother's car and put the dog in the car,

01:00:00right?

01:00:00So, you know, but I had to give myself an out.

01:00:04I got up there on July 4th.

01:00:06And on July 5th, I walked into the office at about 9 o'clock in the morning.

01:00:13And I was commandeered by Frank Big Black Smith, who interviewed me for an hour, and then

01:00:20by Dennis Cunningham.

01:00:21And I fell in love with both of them.

01:00:24I mean, they were amazing, both of them.

01:00:29You know, they were really into the fight.

01:00:32And so that was it.

01:00:34I never left.

01:00:36The same people who killed everybody, the state police.

01:00:41They were the primary investigators from the time of the rebellion in, in, uh, when it

01:00:49was over on September 13th until February of, uh, 1972.

01:00:55They controlled all the evidence.

01:00:57They controlled everybody.

01:00:58And they destroyed everything.

01:01:00They returned 38 indictments against 61 prisoners, charging them with 1,485 felony counts.

01:01:18In March of 1974, they convened a second grand jury because they decided, four years later, that everybody

01:01:39on the first grand jury had ties to Attica prison and therefore couldn't be fair in evaluating anything, all right?

01:01:49And they, and of course we had raised this as an issue on November 1st, 1971.

01:01:57And we were thrown out of court, my colleagues, my comrades, uh, Michael Deutsch and, and Dennis Cunningham.

01:02:05The major employer of Wyoming County is Attica prison.

01:02:09There are only white people in Wyoming County, even though they're listed as one of the largest, uh, third world populations in upstate New York.

01:02:19Right, because there are 1,800 black people there, that they're all incarcerated and have no right of franchise, we won't speak on it.

01:02:29Right, your right name, please.

01:02:32Did you sign this for the good testimony of your father?

01:02:34To give up with the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so what do you matter?

01:02:37I know.

01:02:38In 1974, Attica Brothers' legal defense filed a $2.8 billion civil suit against the state of New York for damages on behalf of 1,281 inmates.

01:02:49After years of delay by the appointed judge, pre-trial discovery depositions got underway in 1991.

01:02:55These tapes are from that deposition. They have never been available to the public.

01:02:59George Alexander Shorts Jr.

01:03:04Do you recall where you were on the morning of September 13, 1971?

01:03:09Yes.

01:03:10Don't worry.

01:03:11In Attica's prison.

01:03:13I was hit.

01:03:14I was kicked in the side, the back, and the butt out.

01:03:16My head was in the dirt.

01:03:18I was kicked in the side, I was kicked in the hip, kicked in the back.

01:03:22Any inmates being kicked in a yard?

01:03:25I don't recall that.

01:03:27I was hitting testicles.

01:03:29Like what?

01:03:30On a shotgun.

01:03:31Can you tell me about how many times you feel you were hit?

01:03:35I couldn't really say.

01:03:36All I knew I was hit.

01:03:37I was hit, what?

01:03:38You know, when you're hit like that, you're not trying to count.

01:03:40You know, you're scared to death.

01:03:41I wear it on myself.

01:03:43I was hitting the head, the back, my arms, trying to block, and the lip.

01:03:49The lip?

01:03:50The face, yes.

01:03:51Did you wear glasses at that time?

01:03:52Yes, I did.

01:03:53Did you have them on?

01:03:54No, they had taken them through and stomped on.

01:03:57Then my glasses was taken off, we stomped.

01:04:00You were forced on the gunpoint to crawl the length of the yard on your knees and elbows.

01:04:05I was told to take off all of my clothes.

01:04:08I was hit and told to run, nigga.

01:04:10I put the gun in my head, cocked the gun, and said, nigga, I'm going to kill you.

01:04:15And that's when I started pleading for my life.

01:04:17There was a correction, two corrections in those officers there telling me the same thing.

01:04:22Run, nigga, run.

01:04:24And that's exactly what I did.

01:04:26And I was told when I hit this door with this stick, nigga, you better stop moving.

01:04:33And when he hit the door, I started moving.

01:04:36Did you hear what kind of language was being uttered in that yard?

01:04:40Emphatic language, get over there, get down, move along, that sort of thing.

01:04:45Did it have after it words such as nigger, and you said, get down there, move along?

01:04:51No, I didn't hear that.

01:04:52If I did, I'd report it to you.

01:04:54And then the gauntlet, 50 correction officers and sheriff's deputies, they lined the corridors

01:05:00with their sticks and clubs and two-by-fours and rifle butts and plenty of broken glass.

01:05:07And they had all these naked people, and one by one, they made them run through it

01:05:11while they got beaten with clubs all the way up the stairs into the cell.

01:05:15They were kicking and saying, keep moving, keep moving, keep moving, kicking, keep moving.

01:05:35Bobby Seals is not here now.

01:05:37Where's your black power?

01:05:38When I was being put in the cell, I was hitting the back of the head with a belly club and

01:05:43throw it in the cell on the floor.

01:05:44Then whoever beat me, they came in the cell, told me to put my hands against the back of

01:05:50the wall, and with their rifles, broke my toes.

01:05:54Broke your toes?

01:05:55Broke my toes.

01:05:56See, nigga, you don't want to run across our glass, and that's when he broke my toes.

01:06:00You'll run it next time.

01:06:01The same thing that I went through downstairs, I had to go through upstairs.

01:06:05Every time he came out, I took a count of, I had to have my head on the bar.

01:06:08And then they strike your head every time?

01:06:09Yes, yes they did, for that eight hours.

01:06:11He didn't call you by name, though, right?

01:06:13He called me nigga.

01:06:14Nigga puts your head on his bars, and you keep your head on his bars, nigga, when I come through.

01:06:18And I was hit on the head.

01:06:19Did he ever ask you your name?

01:06:21No, he didn't.

01:06:22I was working in the hospital that afternoon, and I was assigned to get four men to form a litter team

01:06:29and to walk through the hallway from the hospital to the BHZ, or reception center.

01:06:35And as I walked in, I got the door a quarter of a way or halfway open, and I saw correction officers,

01:06:42five, six, or seven, I wasn't exact, bending over, beating on somebody that was on the floor.

01:06:49And they told me to shut the door that I wasn't allowed into that room.

01:06:52And then while I was in the cell, they were having standing cunts.

01:06:56They would come around every 10 or 15 minutes and say, uh, cunt.

01:07:01So it got to be the point where I couldn't stand up anymore.

01:07:04I was just too tired.

01:07:05So I told them, I said, look, I'm alive, but I can't stand up.

01:07:09The guy told me, well, nigga, if you don't stand up, get on your knees and pray.

01:07:15I said, I'm not going to do that either.

01:07:18So this, I think it was two correction officers.

01:07:21They came back with a, I think it was a state trooper with a very large gun.

01:07:28It looked like a .357 Magnet, stuck in my cell.

01:07:31And he told me to get on my knees, nigga, pray you're going to die right now.

01:07:35So he pulled the trigger, but there was nothing in the gun.

01:07:38Just a loud noise.

01:07:41And, uh, I regurgitated for about 15 or 20 minutes because he thought it was quite funny.

01:07:48You know?

01:07:49And after I did that, then, uh, I started crying quite bad.

01:07:55Not because I was scared, I was just angry.

01:07:58And I said to myself, if I could just get my hands on one of them.

01:08:03Like I say, it's hard for me to go over some of these details.

01:08:08They made me take my clothes off, hit the ground.

01:08:11And then they crawled the whole length of the yard out the A block door.

01:08:15And just before I was going to, I was in line waiting to go through A block door,

01:08:22a correction officer picked me out and put me on the side of A block corridor on the outside.

01:08:30And he laid me down on the ground, put shotgun shell on my knee.

01:08:34He told me if that fell, I was dead.

01:08:37And I laid there for what seemed like hours.

01:08:40The officers that were up on the catwalk above me were throwing cigarettes down on my stomach.

01:08:47The officer that was over by me would pick me, pick him up and burn me with him, kick me in my ribs.

01:08:53As soon as I got to the top of the third floor, I was kicked in the testicles.

01:08:58And I went back down the stairs, head over heels, one flight.

01:09:03And then I was made to get up and they beat me up the stairs again.

01:09:09And what part of your body was struck?

01:09:12My back, head, neck, arms, shoulders, legs, kidney area, and I was urinating blood.

01:09:20I was beaten and laid in the cell for 11 days before I got any medical attention.

01:09:25Stuck rifles inside the shell, inside the cell, bars, pulled the trigger, told me I was dead.

01:09:33How long did you stay there?

01:09:39From September 13, 1971 until November 1972.

01:09:45You kept track of the dates, huh?

01:09:47Yeah.

01:09:48It's not a time to forget.

01:09:54Okay, now, you mentioned you have some psychological insurance.

01:10:00Can you tell me about that?

01:10:03Well, it's hard for me to recount things that happen in A Blanc.

01:10:10It's hard for me to recount things that happen in A.

01:10:14It's hard for me to recount things.

01:10:15I get very angry.

01:10:16You know, and this anger has caused me a lot of problems.

01:10:20I have problems dealing with authority figures.

01:10:26I have problems dealing with policemen.

01:10:28And when I do encounter it, I get quite angry because I can still see people that I knew with their eyes blown up and their heads blown off.

01:10:41Michael Smith got shot four times.

01:10:43And by 10 o'clock or 10.30, he was already in the operating room being operated on.

01:10:53So, by 10.30, they knew he had been shot.

01:10:56He's the person who Black was supposed to have emasculated and shoved his testicles in his mouth.

01:11:07And that was the excuse they used to torture Black.

01:11:10And they told that story at 12.30, 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

01:11:14You know, and then they torture him and do all this shit to him.

01:11:20And there he is.

01:11:23Big Black.

01:11:24What happened to you in the hay yard then?

01:11:27I was made to crawl after I was knocked to the ground.

01:11:30Pushing, kicking, calling me all kinds of niggas, telling me to walk, telling me to run.

01:11:35Drug, drag.

01:11:37Where did they take it?

01:11:39They took me to.

01:11:41I'm in the cabine mat.

01:11:44I'm in the cabine mat.

01:11:45Number 4.

01:11:48I'm in the cabine mat.

01:11:50You've got that Hank miss your foot.

01:11:51No.

01:11:52No.

01:11:53No.

01:11:54No.

01:11:55No.

01:11:56No.

01:11:57No.

01:11:58No.

01:11:59Not no.

01:12:00No.

01:12:01No.

01:12:02No.

01:12:03No.

01:12:04No.

01:12:05No.

01:12:06No.

01:12:07No.

01:12:08No.

01:12:09No.

01:12:10No.

01:12:11You want a break, take some water?

01:12:26You want a break?

01:12:41You want a break?

01:12:46You want a break?

01:12:50You want a break?

01:12:51Sure.

01:12:52Okay.

01:12:53Tell me they was going to cut my testicles, my general eye.

01:13:13That's what was happening to me.

01:13:15How long did that go?

01:13:17Long time, three to six hours, all day.

01:13:24Was the football on your chin?

01:13:26On my chin, yes.

01:13:27All day?

01:13:28Yes.

01:13:29All day?

01:13:30Yes.

01:13:31The shells were on your chest?

01:13:32I moved and tried to get them off me, and the cigarettes off me.

01:13:37A bunch of times, being beat, calling a bunch of names because my legs were dead.

01:13:43I was numb, I couldn't walk.

01:13:47They finally drug me and threw me in the hallway, and I had to go through the same thing everybody

01:13:51else was going through because I was about the last person out of the yard.

01:13:57They made me run through a gully.

01:14:00They didn't crawl through a gully.

01:14:02What was that?

01:14:04I was in 8 quarter.

01:14:06Somewhere in that afternoon.

01:14:10Were you struck at all in 8 quarter in that gully?

01:14:12I was struck a lot.

01:14:13That's all I was was struck.

01:14:14As I got to the entrance to the HBC building, I was beat again.

01:14:19This happened.

01:14:20My wrists.

01:14:21Your what?

01:14:22My wrists.

01:14:23And my body.

01:14:27My legs were spread even on the floor, and they played with my gentlemen with gun butts

01:14:33and nigger sticks that they was calling to pick out.

01:14:38And played Russian roulette with a shotgun at my eyes.

01:14:41Made me open my eyes.

01:14:43Made me look up in it.

01:14:45A headache.

01:14:46My back was raised.

01:14:47My legs was raised me.

01:14:48My arms was raised me.

01:14:50I was a mess.

01:14:51My mind was messed up.

01:14:52I couldn't hold anything on my stomach.

01:14:54I urinate blood for two years after Attica.

01:14:57And did you ever complain about this to anybody?

01:15:00Yeah.

01:15:01To the lawyers.

01:15:02Nobody else was listening.

01:15:10In 2001, after 26 years of struggle, the Attica brothers were awarded $8 million of the

01:15:16$2.8 billion they sought.

01:15:18The money was divided among the survivors according to the severity of their injuries,

01:15:22most receiving a few thousand dollars.

01:15:27Big Black went on to work with Liz Fink as a paralegal, hounding her to pursue the civil

01:15:31case that exposed the truth of the retaking of Dee Yard.

01:15:34He was a substance abuse and suicide prevention counselor who was known to take desperate clients

01:15:39into the home he shared with his wife Pearl.

01:15:42At the end of his life, he was pushing for compensation for the families of the guards

01:15:46who were murdered on that day.

01:15:49In recognition of his injuries, Big Black received the largest individual payout for $125,000.

01:15:56Fink was proud of their accomplishments, but she did not consider the settlement justice.

01:16:00She went on to represent hundreds of people in the New York prison system through the worst

01:16:04years of the Rockefeller drug laws.

01:16:06These were huge prisons, they still are.

01:16:09They're still all, every one of them is still in existence with thousands of people in them.

01:16:14And these huge walls, right?

01:16:16Horrifying.

01:16:17Greenhaven, which is about 60 miles from New York City.

01:16:21Comstock, which is on the Vermont-New York border.

01:16:26Dannemore, which we all know is up right next to Canada.

01:16:31Auburn, which is the second oldest prison in America.

01:16:35Huge.

01:16:36In the middle of town.

01:16:37It's a monster prison, right?

01:16:39Wall, gun towers, the whole nine yards of it.

01:16:43Same town as the Harriet Tubman house.

01:16:46And Sing Sing, right?

01:16:51Which is right up on the Hudson.

01:16:53And last, but certainly not least, Attica State Prison.

01:16:56Attica was not the worst.

01:16:58It was the next of the worst.

01:17:01The worst is Dannemore State Prison in Clinton, New York.

01:17:05And all you have to do is look at this stuff that just happened as the perfect example of how the prison system has not changed.

01:17:13Matt and Sweat escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemore, New York on June 6th.

01:17:19What does New York State do?

01:17:21He blames the prisoners.

01:17:23Beats the shit out of them.

01:17:25Waterboards people, right?

01:17:27And you have the governor of the state of New York going and blaming the prisoners.

01:17:32And saying he knows that the corrections people had nothing to do with it.

01:17:37And, of course, they're the ones who had something to do with it.

01:17:39And they would, by definition, have to.

01:17:42The two men had inside help facilitating their escape.

01:17:46Joyce Tilly Mitchell, a supervisor in the prison tailor department, arrested and charged with helping them break free.

01:17:54The New York State prison system is a race-based conspiracy.

01:17:58Here you have all these prisoners that can't vote.

01:18:02And Clinton County counts them.

01:18:04They get money, right, from both the feds and the state for having a minority population.

01:18:12All the black people who live in Plattsburgh, they're all in that prison.

01:18:16And they don't vote.

01:18:18They don't vote.

01:18:23I am strongly in favor of the death penalty.

01:18:25I'm also in favor of bringing back police forces that can do something instead of just turning their back.

01:18:29Because every quality lawyer that represents people that are in trouble,

01:18:32the first thing they do is start shouting police brutality, etc.

01:18:36The problem with our society is that the victim has absolutely no rights,

01:18:40and the criminal has unbelievable rights.

01:18:42Unbelievable rights.

01:18:43All those people are my age.

01:18:45They're my generation.

01:18:47And they decided, you know, that they had a big problem here, that they had a control.

01:18:52And they were going to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

01:18:54And the first thing they saw is that a free press doesn't help at things at all.

01:18:59Right?

01:19:00And if you let cameras in there to show everybody what's happening, this is not progressive for you.

01:19:05They lost any sense of, of, of ethics.

01:19:12So they have created this situation where you have the life that we all have here.

01:19:19The correct grip is obtained by placing the leather thong over the right thumb in this manner.

01:19:24You say you'd like to see a practical demonstration?

01:19:26They hurt my mommy!

01:19:28Remember, as police officers, we may only use that amount of force necessary to make an arrest.

01:19:33And the amount of force must not be disproportionate to the degree of resistance offered.

01:19:38This technique is advocated when you are in close quarters,

01:19:41and the assailant has indicated he has the ability to make a dangerous attack upon your person.

01:19:46Your counter should be direct to the solar plexus area.

01:19:51Then quickly to the collarbone.

01:19:53And if he's still aggressive, then up under the chin.

01:19:59That's it. Solar plexus, collarbone, and up to the chin.

01:20:03Next man.

01:20:08That's the idea.

01:20:09But to master this technique takes practice.

01:20:13So, gentlemen, let's begin.

01:20:18The jury in the Los Angeles police brutality trial has just reached its verdicts.

01:20:22The four police officers were found not guilty.

01:20:26Not guilty of not guilty on all counts.

01:20:32While accuracy is certainly essential, delivering a shot first is paramount.

01:20:37Tactical speed shooting teaches both.

01:20:40An alternative method of firearms training,

01:20:43speed shooting is gaining recognition as the next logical step.

01:20:51The program is also available to state and local law enforcement officers

01:20:55with a basic training prerequisite.

01:20:57That looks like a bad dude, too.

01:20:58That'd be awesome.

01:21:07But the overall program is organized around the concept of domination.

01:21:22Dominate the opponent.

01:21:25Dominate the situation.

01:21:27And dominate all visual areas.

01:21:29These skills translate into a safer, more controlled officer

01:21:33who is less likely to overreact,

01:21:35or worse, underreact to a situation.

01:21:38The officer gave us a bag of basic shit.

01:21:40I'm here, brother.

01:21:41Let's go, let's go.

01:21:42Let's go!

01:21:43Let's go!

01:21:44Let's go!

01:21:45Damn, man.

01:21:48All right, right, stop.

01:21:49Stop, stop, stop.

01:21:50Stop, stop.

01:21:51Leave us your hands, buddy.

01:21:52What's all right?

01:21:53Put your hand behind you.

01:21:54I can't breathe.

01:21:55I can't breathe.

01:21:56I can't breathe.

01:21:57I can't breathe.

01:21:58I can't breathe.

01:21:59I can't breathe.

01:22:00I can't breathe.

01:22:01I can't breathe, my face.

01:22:02Just get up.

01:22:03Ugh.

01:22:04Ugh.

01:22:05What do you want?

01:22:06I can't breathe.

01:22:07It is all about oppression.

01:22:09I can't breathe shit.

01:22:10Uh-huh.

01:22:11Bro, get up, get in the car, man.

01:22:12Right, and greed and racism.

01:22:14I can't breathe.

01:22:15I can't breathe.

01:22:16Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

01:22:17No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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