Welcome back to Mob Town aka Baltimore, Br. Marshall "Eddie" Conway. You
were locked up in 1971, the very year Nixon announced the start of the
"Drug War." That year, fewer than 200,000 people were held in state
and federal prisons. Today, there are more than 2.4 million, an increase of
more than 700 percent.
Br. Eddie, by the mid-1990s, over half of the young Black men in
Baltimore were under the "supervision" of the criminal-justice
system--that is, in a jail or prison, on probation or parole, or under pretrial
release (compared with one in three nationally). (Crime and Punishment in America, by Elliott Currie). Today the
figures are even more disproportionately skewed against Black men.
In 1971, there were two prisons in Baltimore, the Baltimore City Jail
(now known as the Baltimore City Detention Center) and the Maryland
Penitentiary (now known as the Metropolitan Transition Center). Today there are
nine. All of these, including the two extant when you were a Panther in
Baltimore, were built under the watchful eye of the Black Democratic
politicians (Uncle Toms) in power. The same politicians were pushing for a
tenth and eleventh prison--specifically to warehouse Black youth and women
respectively. The Youth Prison initiative was defeated in January 2013, at
least for the time being, as a result hard organizing by the People.
My dear brother, today in your hometown, Black men are profiled, gunned
down, or beaten to a pulp by a half a dozen/dozen cops. The situation reminds
me of Gaza, a situation with which I am far more familiar. An environment of
(police-inspired) terror and despondency exists for Baltimore’s Native Black
population, while the Settlers (usually wealthy White transplants to Baltimore,
the result of gentrification) live comfortably in million dollar homes in the
“clean” parts of the city. Black youth are locked up for years on very minor,
non-violent offenses (average sentences, based on mandatory sentencing laws,
are seven years in such cases). All of this occurs with the tacit approval of
the Democratic Governor (a Black democrat), the City Council (mostly Black
Democrats), and the States Attorney (a White Jewish Democrat).
They call you the "Leader" of Baltimore. What do you propose
to do now, and what advice/ admonitions do you have for the People?
