[PRISONACT] Fwd: [abcf-ern] URGENT ACTION: Jalil Muntaqim Needs Our Help!
Prison Activist Resource Center
Tim (N.E-BG/Lancaster ABCF) received a letter 27 November from Black
Liberation Army Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom), which
requests your help.
In the letter, Jalil states:
"I am asking folks to call the NY DOCS and once again complain about
harassment at Auburn, demanding that I be transferred. On November 16 at
approx. 10 PM, upon returning to the cell after teaching a class on
sociology, preparing prisoners to take the CLEP exam on the subject, I
found the cell had been turned upside down. All of my personal and legal
property had been dumped on the bunk and floor, I was issued a Tier III
report for possession of unauthorized organizational material, of which was
my own writings, booklets and pamphlets.
"At 12:30 PM, Nov. 17, I was released from Keeplock status and told to see
Capt. Gummerson. Gummerson is the guy who last year had me sent to the SHU
for 90 days claiming I possessed contraband literature. This time, he
returned my writings to me, (the exception of one booklet that is missing)
and dismissing the misbehavior report. He claimed the order that the cell
be searched saying that he was looking for a petition being circulated in
NY state calling for the release of NY state political prisoners. The
petition in question, I authored on the request of Abdul Majid, and it part
of the overall initiative in NY state on the existence of PP/POWS.
"I did not keep a copy of the petition in my possession, and it is apparent
that they continue to target me here. So if some folks can put pressure on
the Commissioners office, it will be helpful!"
WHO IS JALIL?
Anthony Bottom/Jalil A. Muntaqim was born October 18, 1951 in Oakland,
California, the first of four children in his family. His early years were
spent in San Francisco. In his junior high school years he obtained a
summer scholarship to attend an advanced college math and engineering
program. During the civil rights movement, he participated in NAACP youth
organizing and was one of many who engaged in street riots against racism
and police brutality in San Francisco. In high school, he became a leading
member of the Black Student Union. Because of his ability to articulate the
issues that confronted Black students, Jalil often toured San Jose,
California, in what was called "speakout" with the BSU Chairman of San Jose
State and City College. He had become a member of the "House of Umoja", a
cultural-nationalist affiliate of Ron Karenga's United Slaves organization.
At the age of 16 1/2, on April 6, 1968, two nights after the assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr. the BSU Chair of San Jose State and City
College, Jalil, and a couple of high school students were arrested in a car
and charged with possession of high-powered rifles and molotov cocktails.
Black high school students picketed and demonstrated in front of San Jose
City Hall demanding their release from detention. After the assassination
of Rev. King, Jalil began to believe a more militant response to national
oppression and racism was necessary, and began to look towards the Black
Panther Party for Self-Defense for leadership. He became affiliated with
the BPP when he was 18 years old. Having moved back to San Francisco from
San Jose, Jalil was recruited into the Black underground by elementary
school friends who had since become Panthers. Less than two months from his
twentieth birthday, on August 28, 1971, Jalil was captured along with
Albert Nuh Washington in a midnight shoot-out with San Francisco police (It
has been alleged that Jalil and Nuh attempted to assassinate a S.F. police
sergeant in retaliation for the August 21, 1971 assassination of BPP Field
Marshal George Jackson). Subsequently, Jalil was charged with a host of
revolutionary underground activities, including the assassination of NYC
police officers for which he is currently serving a life sentence. When he
was arrested in 1971, he was a high school graduate and employed as a
social worker for the California State Employment Office. Having been
imprisoned since 1971, Nuh and Jalil are two of the ten longest held Black
political prisoners in the world.
While imprisoned in San Quentin in 1975-77, Jalil was able to organize the
first national prison petition campaign to the United Nations. He
established the first revolutionary prisoners national newspaper called
"Arm the Spirit", and organized the first Black August demonstration in
front of San Quentin. From his prison cell, Jalil with the support of
Sundiata Acoli, organized the first march to the United Nations calling for
recognition of U.S. political prisoners, as well as the first demonstration
in front of the Harlem State Office Building calling for recognition of
U.S. political prisoners.
Also, since being in NY state prisons, Jalil wrote and submitted a
legislative bill for prisoners with life sentences to receive good time off
their minimum sentences. This bill was introduced to the NY State Assembly
Committee on Corrections. Jalil has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of
prisoners' civil and human rights challenging the prison system's way of
doing business. In addition, he has received awards of appreciation from
Jaycee's NAACP, and Project Build prison chapters for his active
participation and leadership.
After many years of being denied the opportunity to attend college because
he has been designated a Central Monitoring Case (CMC) security
classification, in 1994, Jalil graduated from SUNY-New Paltz with a BS in
Psychology and a BA in Sociology. He is a founding member of the New
African Liberation Front (NALF), and presently working to develop a
National Prisoners' African Studies Project (NPASP). Recently, he initiated
the international mobilization, Spring Break '98 Jericho March on the White
House and U.S. Embassies to Demand Amnesty for U.S. Political Prisoners.
Over the years he has written several political booklets and essays, an
unpublished novel and teleplay.
Jalil has a daughter and granddaughter. He states, "I came to prison an
expectant father and will leave prison a grandfather." Jalil will not
appear before the parole board in NY state until the year 2002. He also
states, "The United States does not recognize the existence of political
prisoners. To do so would give credence to the fact of the level of
repression and oppression that exists in the United States, and have to
recognize the fact that people resist racist oppression in the U.S., and
therefore legitimize the existence of not only the individuals who are
incarcerated or have been captured, but also legitimize those movements of
which they are a part."
ACTION REQUESTED:
-> Call the commissioners office at: 518-474-2121 and demand an end to the
harassment of Anthony Bottom (#77A4283) at Auburn Correctional Facility.
-> Contact Inmate Transfers at 518-457-6022 and ask them to see that
Anthony Bottom (#77A4283) at Auburn Correctional Facility is transferred.
Jalil can be contacted by writing him at:
A. Jalil Bottom
#77A4283
Auburn Correctional Facility
P.O Box 618
Auburn, NY 13024
Thank you!
Ernesto Aguilar
Houston ABC-SG
P.O. Box 667233
Houston, TX 77266-7233
(713) 595-2103, ext. 7585
Toll-free: 1-877-875-2600, extension 807
in...@houstonabc.org
www.houstonabc.org
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