OH!
THE HUGH MANATEE!!!!
Posted on 04/28/2006 2:03:21 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The United States is emerging as the prison guard of the world, Angela Davis told a UW-Madison audience Thursday.
Between the prisoners the U.S. is holding in Iraq and Afghanistan and in secret CIA prisons, the county is promoting strategies of incarceration based on torture, said Davis, the former Black Panther Party member who now is chair of feminist studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
The evidence of torture in military prisons only highlights what is already going on in domestic prisons, she said.
"We have not even begun to talk about the people who are the victims of that torture. Just as we cannot possibly imagine ourselves in the position of that man who was standing on that box with that hood over his head, we can't imagine ourselves there," she told a group of about 300 who packed a room in Bascom Hall for her speech.
What's more, Americans have only had a small glimpse into the torture at one Iraqi prison, Davis said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the photographs that came out of Abu Ghraib were not the worst. He repeated that several times, she said.
"There were 1,800 photographs taken at this one prison. Now, who can believe that this is the work of a few bad apples?" Davis said.
The same way Americans cannot relate to the victims of torture, they cannot empathize with people in prison, she said.
"We cannot imagine ourselves in that place, in that horrible place. And it's very comfortable just not to think about it. Not to even go through the exercise of what it might be like to be the person who is being tortured, what it is like to be the person who is being executed, to be the person who receives a life sentence in prison. We assume that somehow or another we belong to another species."
Davis knows something about being incarcerated. In 1969, as a 26-year-old instructor at UCLA, Davis was fired for her political activity and Communist Party membership. In 1970, she went into hiding after she found herself on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for allegedly furnishing weapons used in a jail break and shootout in the Marin County, Calif., courthouse. Four people died during the shootout.
Although she was not present at the shootout, Davis was imprisoned for 16 months in the early 1970s on kidnapping, murder and conspiracy charges.
She said the U.S. "imprisonment binge" emerged in the 1980s, the same period that saw the rise of globalization and global capitalism, she said.
Now more than 2 million people are locked up in U.S. jails, prisons, detention centers and juvenile facilities. The number includes those in military and American Indian facilities, Davis said.
She calls herself a prison abolitionist, not a reformer. She prefers to see prisons abolished so society could confront issues of race and class that she thinks have led to incarceration of large numbers of minorities.
The more resources the United States spends on the "prison-industrial complex," the fewer dollars go into education and addressing social problems, Davis said.
"The more money we put into prisons, the more our schools start to look like prisons."
Immigrant felons: The United States will create a new prison population if the immigration bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., becomes law, Davis said.
The mention of House Bill 4437 drew hisses, and Sensenbrenner's name elicited one woman in the audience to shout "Senseless-brenner!"
If the bill becomes law, it could criminalize people who are undocumented and create some 11 million felons.
In December, the House of Representatives voted to approve construction of a 700-mile-long fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. That wall would "turn this whole country into a gated community," Davis said.
I was wondering how she got out.
Refresh my memory. Didn't Angela Davis back torture (North Vietnamese style) three plus decades ago?
I noticed you mentioned Ft. McCoy. I attended 2 weeks summer training in about '61 or '62 at what was then called Camp McCoy, I was in an Army Reserve unit in CA. It was beautiful in that part of WI, I suppose the rest of the state is similar.
I'm so glad North Korea isn't slaughtering, mutilating, and torturing people on a massive scale. Unlike that evil United States!
Vietnam era militant? Angela Davis? I thought you meant John Freakin' Heinz, er, Kerry. How do I tell them apart? Both are girlie men or manly girls. Both are Vietnam era militants. Both lied about American troops. Both are ugly as sin. Both are left of Nikita Kruschev. Anyone know how I can tell Davis from Kerry?
No, they didn't. That's why she is "the former Black Panther Party member who now is chair of feminist studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz."
Don't be fooled that "the commies lost". They are alive and well, in our schools, universities and OUR government.
I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see.
FMCDH(BITS)
I would add Patty hearst to that list. i dont believe that BS she spouts about being forced.
I agree. I grew up and lived about 30 miles away from the infamous SLA shootout at the time. I'm pretty familiar with the actions of those groups at that time.
Naw, alive and enjoying a high prestige professionship at Univ Calif Santa Cruz.
But hey! Harsh critic she is of USA human rights abuses, she is a REALLY harsh critic of human rights-abusing regimes in China, Cuba, N.Korea, Iran, etc who make the USA's worst offenses look like kids stuff by comparsion.
Oh wait, I forgot. Communist regimes are pure and holy in her eyes. Only Capitalist countries get dumped on by her.
Angela Davis: A has-been Feminazi racist unqualified to teach first grade. Only in Madison....
OH!
THE HUGH MANATEE!!!!
This psychotic commie should have been imprisoned for life when she supplied weapons for a prison break that led to several MURDERS. The fact that she served less than 2 years shows the excessive leniency of our so-called "justice system" - hilarious to read her ravings and ramblings, except it's scary to think that new generations of college students continue to be exposed to her dementia. How can such a charlatan with no academic qualifications be a tenured prof in a major US university?? It's lunacy.
p.s. FRY MUMIA NOW!! (just had to throw that in to upset any trolls and DUmmies who may be around)
The Left, with no Communists to back and to make them feel powerful, have simply substituted radical Islam as their comrades.
Yep. It used to be a Camp, then grew into a Fort. :) I've spent more time there than I care to remember as an instructor.
It IS a very pretty spot, and yes, Thank You, aside from her socialist politics, Wisconsin IS a very beautiful state. (As is CA; I lived in San Diego from 80-82; my husband was in the Navy.) Wisconsin looks a lot like Germany...another place I've spent more time than I care to remember, LOL!
Good fishin' at Big Sandy on Ft. McCoy. That's a nice little lake that the DNR stocks with trout for the military folks for their off-hour recreation. :)
And 300 people actually showed up to hear her speak? Did they even understand what she was saying?
So she wants to abolish prisons?
Fine.
Parole ALL the prisoners in and around the area where she lives and just for giggles put a couple of them (the very worst offenders) in her house.
Who, outside of U. Madison Wisconson, cares what she thinks?
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