Ghosts of Attica

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Attica. Like Watergate and Vietnam, it is an icon of recent history. Gov. Rockefeller's brutal re-taking of the prison - a nine-minute, 1600-bullet assault that took the lives of 29 inmates and 10 guards - put an end to the four-day rebellion. But the struggle for justice, by both prisoners and guards, has endured for three decades. Only last year, inmates wrested an historic $12-million settlement from the state, and that bittersweet victory spurred a new round of agitation by guards and their survivors.

This stirring documentary features extensive interviews with Attica survivors, including former inmate Frank 'Black' Smith. When the riot broke out, the inmates, who respected his level head, imposing size, and maturity, appointed him Chief of Security. After the prison was stormed, Black was singled out for vicious treatment by the guards, who tortured him for hours with cigarettes, Russian roulette, and threatened castration and death. In the years since his release, Black overcame a drug habit, married, and became a drug counselor for juveniles.

Also interviewed is Mike Smith, who, then 22 years old and married with a child, was a guard who was taken hostage and subsequently wounded by police fire. But more recently, he took on a new role: that of political agitator. He is currently lobbying Governor Pataki for compensation, counseling, and an apology from the State.

Elizabeth Fink, the attorney who headed the inmates' decades-long legal battles against New York State, is also interviewed. Fink has devoted her entire career to the surviving inmates. Other interviews include those with New York Times columnist Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo, Assemblyman Arthur Eve, and civil rights lawyer William Kunstler.

GHOSTS OF ATTICA offers the definitive account of America's most violent prison rebellion, its suppression, and the days of torture that ensued. Using exclusive, newly uncovered video of the assault, interviews with eyewitnesses who've never spoken before on-camera, and footage of inmates and hostages throughout their battles against the state, this film unravels one of America's deepest cover-ups, and shows how the legendary prison riot transformed the lives of its survivors.

'****(Four Stars). Highly recommended. Recounting the entire fiasco and the government cover-up that followed, while documenting Elizabeth Fink's legal battle... this fine documentary also addresses the demands of the guards that were wounded in the attack and of the families of the guards killed in the police action... Well-edited and loaded with revealing photographs and cogent commentary... this is an exceptional piece of filmmaking.'-Video Librarian

'An excellent and constantly engaging primer on the horrific riot... the ghosts of Attica are very much alive '-The Hollywood Reporter

'One of [the] best documentaries in quite a while. Absolutely chilling.'-New York Daily News

'A hard-hitting documentary... This film is masterful in its portrayal of the fear, raw emotion, and lingering pain of Attica survivors. It presents brutal, graphic detail of an event indicative of a turbulent time in America's history. Highly Recommended.'-Educational Media Reviews Online

'Powerful and disturbing...a timely film that is likely to fuel the continuing debate over how our society deals with those that are incarcerated.'-indiewire.com

'Unsparing... 'Ghosts' is timely for more than historical reasons'-New York Times

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Main credits

Lichtenstein, Brad (film producer)
Lichtenstein, Brad (film director)
McBaine, Amanda (film producer)
Sarandon, Susan (narrator)

Other credits

Edited by Tom Haneke; photographed by Ken Druckerman; music by Vernon Reid.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

film; video; documentary; Attica; prison; jail; convict; inmate ; guard; riot; uprising; human rights; civil rights; New York; compensation; cover up; torture; penology; ; "Ghosts of Attica"; Icarus Films,doc; history; sociss

WEBVTT

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We are men.

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We are not beasts and we do not intend
to be beaten or driven as such.

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The entire prison populace, that
means each and every one of us here,

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have set forth to change forever
the ruthless brutalization

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and disregard for the lives of the prisoners
here and throughout the United States.

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What has happened here is but the sound
before the fury of those who are oppressed.

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We call upon all the conscientious
citizens of America

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to assist us in putting an end to this situation
that threatens the lives of not only us,

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but of each and every one of you.
We want the Governor

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to guarantee that there
will be no reprisals.

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[music]

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Good evening, the four day insurrection

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of New York’s Attica state prison
came to a tragic end this morning.

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Negotiations gave way to force and
at least 37 men died, nine guards

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and 28 prisoners making this the bloodiest prison
incident the country has seen in four decades.

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[music]

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Law office, can I help you? Uh… I’m just calling
to reference to the (inaudible) sediments

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for the people that were in Attica? Yes. My husband asked me
to call. Where is your husband at? Well, at this place in…

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in the (inaudible) You ask him, did you get a package.
We call all the people that we know where they are at.

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We send him package. So tell your husband…
Ask him, did he get a (inaudible).

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And tell him to call us. Frank
“Big Black” Smith and Liz Fink

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have been leading the Attica legal teams battle against New
York State for 26 years. Because we didn’t have a copy machine

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I made four, okay? Since the
team filed suit in 1974,

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three juries have ruled in favor of the
inmates, only to have their verdicts

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reversed on appeal. Undaunted, Fink, Smith,

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and the Attica team refused to let their
struggle die. They didn’t want to give us dime,

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they wanted to us to go away. Right?
Yes. But we weren’t gonna go away

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and they were gonna have
to give us something.

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You know, if you make a commitment to be a political
person and to believe in a progressive vision,

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then you have to live that. You know, and
that’s what people don’t do. They just talk it.

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And then when push comes to shove, you know,
they don’t live it. Well, we try and live it.

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So you know what I need, Carol? I
need this thing, this 90 thing

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and the 2961s, right? Okay.
This one is exhibit A

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and the 2961s are uh… exhibit B.

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Hello, Mr. Meyers, good morning.
This is Mr. Black. Hey, Danny,

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Liz say that you should fax
old copy of that decision.

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Me being around leaders is
like me going to school.

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Well, Liz is a litigator.
Liz is a fact finder.

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Liz like to fight staying in your face,

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making you worked along and working
along, making you respect it,

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making you make it work,
making you be accountable.

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From WORK, Rochester, this
is News Source 13 At Six.

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For nearly 30 years former Attica inmates

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have waited for justice. Today, it finally
came in the form of a $12 million settlement.

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Inmates who lived through
Attica uprising in 1971,

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say after state police retook the prison,
they were beaten, burned, and tortured.

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Most agreed, no amount of money
can ever fully compensate them.

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Without admitting any wrongdoing, the state
has agreed to pay former Attic inmate

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$8 million in damages, another four
million will be paid to their…

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[music]

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Originally, 1,200 Attica Brothers

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were party to the lawsuit. But
since 1974, hundreds have died,

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others have disappeared through the
cracks of society. Frank Smith, Liz Fink

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and the legal team managed to track
down over 500 surviving inmates.

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The judge wants to hear their stories.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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The highest levels of official tub

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in the state of New York
have never admitted

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that atrocities happen at Attica.

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And their position

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has always been that nothing happened,
that none of this happened.

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After the assault was over,

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they were all beaten, brutalized and
tortured, that’s what it’s about.

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[sil.]

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I don’t see anything that’s gonna make
me forget about what happened in 1971.

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You can give me a trillion,
billion, zillion dollars,

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it’s not gonna happen.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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When I first heard about the settlement,

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it… it really pissed me off.
These are the guys

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that started the riot, did all the damage

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and they are getting paid.

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We should not have to pay
them eight million dollars.

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Fine, some of them got hurt.
Fine, some of them got shot.

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We had a lot of our people get shot.

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Everyone thinks that it is time that
the hostages and their families

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receive some type of consideration.

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The inmates got their money,
fine, now give me mine.

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You know, I feel for them.

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You know, they would have done a lot better

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to uh… align themselves with us, right?

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You know, they would have gotten some
justice, but they refused to do that.

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They still don’t get it.

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No one ever thought that they could save the hostages
by, you know, using 4,500 rounds of ammunition,

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no one believe that.

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It was about showing the world
what happens when you rebel,

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that was its purpose. And they didn’t care

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about the hostages, they were just fodder.

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They set it up so that there
would be a slaughter.

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They wanted people to
understand what happened

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when you took this step.

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Armed rebellion of the type we have faced
threatens the destruction of our free society.

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We cannot permit that destruction to happen. In
these day, well, we don’t have to be a kind of

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what these day class citizen. So we’re going and
we’re killing all of them and they are saying,

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all niggers, whatever body was niggers, white
and blacks and Puerto Rican and who have else

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that was out there, we always niggers.
You had to stay in your place

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and if you didn’t, you had
to be taught a lesson

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and Attica was the ultimate lesson.

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[music]

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Former inmate Frank Big Black Smith
has been fighting for justice

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since he left Attica in 1972.
But before he entered prison,

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Smith was no crusader.

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I feel more comfortable
hustling than working.

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When I was 12 years old I
was in the street hustling.

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My father was a hustler too. He’s worried
of people getting out of the house

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and I used to hustle with them. And I was
shooting crap. I was going to race track,

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you know, (inaudible), people begging, people
for money, taking money of the people.

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I was out there give me like $10 to $12
a week and that was a lot of money.

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We try and I’m going back
55 and 60 years ago.

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I learned yearly on what the power
structure is, who is in-charge,

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who is not in-charge, who having the money, who don’t
have the money and who is in control of all that,

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I learned that yearly on and
I learned out on the street.

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If you ain’t got a job, you ain’t know
the right thing, that’s bullshit.

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You know, you can not a job, you can self
in fluid, and it don’t, you know, it’s not,

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it’s, it’s not necessarily so that they
don’t pay. All of time there were no pays

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when you get caught and that’s
what I did, I got caught.

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[music]

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We stuck him up and we took all the money

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from the crap gang, all
the money from the drugs,

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all the drugs and they followed us

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and we had to shoot at and we got
busted and that’s what happened.

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The prison population

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was a majority of uh… black and Hispanic,

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primarily, people from New York City.

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That was dramatically different from
the area that I had grown up in.

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I had been in New York City, but I grown up

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in a royal community in
the country all my life.

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Their background and
mine uh… were different.

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But they didn’t have no
guards that wasn’t anything

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but white, all was white. And they
call came out in our neighborhood.

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They look at the people coming that end,
nothing but thugs and whores are no-gooders.

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[sil.]

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I had no trouble with inmates. I mean, if I told
them to do something, I told them to do it,

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they did it. If not,
well, I got rid of them.

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Just go in there and hold these people
and the only thing you got to do

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is make sure that they get up and go to
bed and do what you tell them to do.

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That’s the punishment.
You just got to take it.

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You ain’t got nothing to say about it. All
you suppose to do is act as if you’re okay,

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even though you are not.

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[music]

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It’s a much different time.

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Those are time of rebellion. It was a
time of deep, deep radical politics.

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The War of Vietnam was happening on a level

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that we were all crazed.

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The police were out of control.

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Now the government was enemy, enemy.
If you didn’t take a political stand,

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you were part of the problem.
And it became clear to me that,

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what I wanted to do was to fight to stay.

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[music]

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People were protesting for
equal rights, civil rights

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and the prison population is made
up of people from our society.

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I mean, all, all prisoners is a reflection of actually what’s going
on in society anyway, I think. You’re having the Blank Panthers

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and then you have people’s well on the
ground and you had the, the Muslims,

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there was a Puerto Rican bank, you know,
like the young Lords, all those things

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was jumping around then. The population
was younger and more politically active,

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more bent and making the system change,

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not waiting for the system to
change, making the system change.

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The prison populists is dissatisfied with the
fascist regime that exists inside the walls,

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just like the people in a community should
be dissatisfied with the atrocities

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that they are being subjected too.

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The inmates are talked about different demands and it had
been going on all summer. The inmates were petitioning

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for basic reforms, adequate
food, water and shelter,

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minimum wage for work, legal
representation at parole hearings,

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adequate medical care and
sanitary facilities.

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I’m absolutely convinced
it’s a general public saw

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what happens in prisons and the
conditions that people live in.

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You’d… You’d have anything like the overwhelming approval of prisons
that you do have in this country because they are terrible places,

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they are terrible places.
You… You can’t keep men

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confide in cages and expect
them to come out of the cage

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better men than they were when they went
in. I don’t know why people think that,

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that’s gonna be the case because you can’t…
It won’t work, you can’t do it. Move it out.

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The inmates had asked for
meetings with Commissioner Oswald

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and they really felt that this guy might actually do
something to address some of the issues that they had.

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Oswald was supposed to come to Attica.

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Instead of the meeting in person
that was supposed to take place,

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Oswald sent a recorded message.

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Many of you have raised confidence in me
and then the directions I’ve talked about

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and I appreciate this.
I’m certain you realized

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that change can’t be accomplished overnight,
but I can assure that changes will be made.

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Don’t worry we’re gonna talk about
it, we’re gonna make some changes,

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we’re gonna… We’re gonna take it very, very
serious and then, you know, that kind of stuff

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and I really didn’t listen out all of that.

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Officials at California’s San Quentin Prison still are
trying to peace together exactly what happened and how

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and that attempted prison break yesterday
in which convicts and three guards died.

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One of the dead convicts was George
Jackson. He became nationally known

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and assembled a black revolutionaries in this country, after his
book on prison lives, \"SOLEDAD Brother\" was published last year.

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When George Jackson was murdered in August,
right, there was this protest at the prison

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that made them really nervous. What happened was that
people heard that George Jackson had been murdered

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and they put on blackened armbands and they
went to the mess hall and everybody sat

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and they didn’t eat. And there was nothing they
could do about it and that kind of mess action,

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you know, it’s very scary for
a bunch of prison guards.

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They walked in the mess hall,

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they were right by the food and sat down.
They took the tray and sat down.

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Dead silence.

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They had it organized
that nobody eats today,

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so nobody ate.

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Everybody was quiet and nobody didn’t
eat and I met(ph) him, what’s going on?

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You know, what I mean? And somebody told me, you know,
this black dude out in California, so and so and so

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and he got killed and it was a shootout with a judge and
all that. And you know, but they talking be quiet, man.

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And I want to eat breakfast here. You know,
what I mean? That’s what I wanted to do

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because I didn’t know. But then I see

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there’s unusual activity jumping off here now. It
look like something is going to happen, you know.

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I think it donned on me.

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Then, how dangerous and
volatile a situation

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was just waiting to ignite.

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You’d hear a rumors, today is the day.

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When your shift would end, you’d go… Man, we
made it through another day, no problems.

00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
See what happens tomorrow.

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
They came back from breakfast and there was
an order, they should go back to their cells.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
They should… No, we’re not going back
to our cells, we’re going in the yard.

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
Bam, just like one spot
will create a violence.

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
That’s what happened.

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
The only other time that I’d heard a prison
whistle sound was when an inmate had escaped.

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
You could tell something was going on and looked
out, I could see a number of inmates running around

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
in unsupervised fashion. And there’s
inmates running up and down in there

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
with pick handles, baseball bats,
they got football helmets on.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
Damn, what was going on, man? Shit, look like something was
happening here down. You could hear windows being smashed,

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
screaming and hovering. And nobody knew what was
going. Other than it was an out of control situation.

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
There’s a riot, not a rebellion
at that time, a riot.

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
I could hear some type of
ramming noise or banging noise

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
that they were trying to break in the doors down
the hall. You could tell that they were angry.

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
I locked the door at the top of stairs
and went immediately to the phone.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
There was nothing. The phone was dead.
I couldn’t communicate with anybody.

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
It was amazing to me

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
that this facility that I thought

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
was this invincible fortress
was following and how quickly

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
and how easily it was being taken over.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
People was coming out of the (inaudible)
kind of food, and cigarettes,

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
it was like martyr ground, man.

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:43.000
[sil.]

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
Former Attica inmates are traveling to meet Frank “Big
Black” Smith and Liz Fink in Rochester, New York,

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
where they will testify before a federal judge.
The most secured prison in the State of New York,

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
the most secure prison in the world. Nobody
is ever gonna escape out of my prison

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
and I’ll never gonna have a riot. Well, he
turned out to be real lie, didn’t he? Oh, yeah.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Attic was something that’s gonna bound to happen regardless
of what… what they did. Some guys was breaking up cells halls

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
and shit like that, everybody else was gonna
looking for hostages. We need hostages.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
You know, I… I feel so bad for the
hostages. You’re here as beggars,

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
like you are begging the state in New
York for something. You are old.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
They owe you. Anger that the state plans

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
to compensate inmates while giving
nothing to its own employees.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
Former hostages and the survivors of those
killed in 1971 are organizing a new group,

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
the forgotten victims of Attica
to press for their justice.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
You were screwed and you
were the heart of soul

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
of what Albany politicians like
to speak about as their friends.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
You are the good guys.
You are law enforcement.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
And I think that the accountability that you demand
and the apology that you demand, as bill suggested

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
is absolutely overdo. If you make
this a story that will not go away,

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
you will win.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
But what I know is, one of the
gates had a faulty bolt in it,

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
at the top of the game and apparently
with the force of the inmates,

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
uh… pushing on the gate, the gate then
crashed down and left my father defenseless.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
And uh… inmates within
that party beat my father

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
and left him there and proceeded on DR.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
He suffered two open skull fractures. There
was nothing that they could do for him here,

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
so they sent him to Rochester
Memorial Hospital.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
Let’s move back. Move back… They
told so far 11 guards injured,

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
one of them critically, more then 30 still
being held hostage by the prisoners.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
The riot believe… They were
beating me and two inmates

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
came to my assistance. Both went over my
body and kind of a spread eagle fashion

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
and told the inmates that I was
a good guy to leave me alone.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
They decided to try to get
me some place to safety.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
Guys were trying to hit us,
spitting on us. Being on us

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
and hitting us with groom handles
and punching us with their fists.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
There’s no if and buts about it. They… They were gonna
take over the prison and this is the end, you know.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
There were a number of inmates that set
up a blockade so that the two inmates

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
that were trying to escort me to safety couldn’t
go any further. They had to make the corner

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
and… and follow directions to D(ph) yard.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:58.000
[sil.]

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Can you imagine a person being
locked in the cell for 10 years,

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
running around and hitting the bloke and knock the
bloke? Hey, it’s that freedom outside the wall.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
[sil.]

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
There was a real sense of danger.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
I was buying for that.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
Once we got blindfolded, I never said much of anything.
Well, you can’t be making any plans or trying to escape,

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
being blindfolded and not knowing whose
listening. They come running up.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
Let us have a couple and then we’ll
kill them sons of bitches and all that.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
So you’re hearing all this
and, you know, you know that

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
any minute you’re gonna be dead.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
In the yard people drinking that old made wines, swallowing
beers, running on all kind of sex things going on.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
You know, all this kind of stuff.
You could see it all over the yard.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
It was a big mess. Not a stable situation.
It’s not a relax situation.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
[sil.]

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
My thoughts were, the guys who had good
relationships, hopefully they will make out okay.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
And the… And the guys who didn’t
have good relationships are…

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
are gonna be in big trouble.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:35.000
[sil.]

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
[sil.]

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
Army personnel preparing to
look the buildings over.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
They have a 25 men shotgun
details on the roof of D block.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
Men with the binoculars are
attempting to identify

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
some of the guards that they
spot out in the compound.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
You can see a couple of prisoners
taking one of the high chairs

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
out of the B yard are using to apparently

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
erect another barricade on the
catwalk going from cell block B

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
to square control.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
I had the feeling that
these guys were organizing

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
more quickly and getting
their together faster,

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
than whatever we’ve got on
the outside working for us.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
The courtyard inside the walls

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
resembles a military (inaudible) way. With the inmates
running the temp like courtyard on exact time schedules.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
There are 38 hostages now,
11 of them civilian workers.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
Using the hostages as a bargaining
tool, the inmates agreed to talk today

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
with prison officials.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
Prisoners would only talk to New York State Corrections Commissioner Russell
Oswald. There has been no report of what the prisoners are demanding.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
We want the Governor and the
Judiciary, namely Constance B. Motley,

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
to guarantee that there
will be no reprisals

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
and we want all factions of
the media to articulate this.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
We want Huey P. Newton from the Black Panther Party
and we want the Chairman of the Young Lords Party.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
We want Clarence B. Jones of the Amsterdam
News. We want William M. Kunstler,

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
Attorney at Law, 588 9th
Avenue, New York, New York,

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
one time with the New York Times.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
I didn’t even know where Attica was. I thought
a negotiation settlement was being worked out.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
People like be were being asked to
club their witness to… to settlement

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
and uh… and more or less guarantee that will be guarantee that
it will be carried out, sort of endorsed the cheque in a sense.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
I hope to walk in with the rest of the
negotiators and with Commissioner Oswald

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
and anybody else he wants and sit down
at the table in there and I hope that

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
and it results in a face to face negotiating
session in the prison yard within,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
you know, the next half hour or hour.
As prisoners started organizing

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
for negotiations with the state, their first
challenge was instilling discipline in the yard.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
Inmate leaders asked the previously
apathetic Frank Big Black Smith

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
to head up security because of his
credentials with the prison rank in file.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
My responsibility was to secure
what was happening in the yard.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
I’m a big old go run and
looking black dude.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
You know, automatically that’s an intimidation.
And they said, \"We need all that (inaudible).

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
Somebody that can talk to people
and that people would listen to

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
because people just coming in this yard,
bloke. Be it Constance is coming here,

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
Tom Wicker and (inaudible), we’re gonna
get the Commissioner coming here,

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
and we’re gonna ask the Governor to come in here. And
you got a bunch of nut (inaudible) that’s in here.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
They might have a lot of things on their mind,
but we can’t have nothing to happen to nobody

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
because you know, if they do,
they might blow this yard up.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
We need a line of 150 people and lock it on and
we will then walk right through the middle of it.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
So we can see somebody
coming on both sides.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
It was the first time

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
in my life I believe that I’ve been outside
the reach of, what I thought I was the law,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
the police, you know, the army of
this National Guard or whatever.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
And here we were and in this enclosed place

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
with people who described to as
constantly as murders, rapists, thieves.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
So the prison authority said, \"without any
police officer that I could turn to and called.\"

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
I was… I was…

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
I was frightened, there’s
no question of it.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
I thought we would go right in

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
before anybody got organized
and take the hostages back.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
But for some reason the Commissioner of Corrections I believe
they put a stop to that. You know, Commissioner Oswald.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
They wanted to… to wait until… They
did negotiations with the people

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
and inmates in control.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
These people, the rioting inmates were… were being fed. They were being
taken care of at least to that degree during this… during this time

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
and it gave them more time to fortify
themselves and think about their position.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
It did not serve the wellbeing of
the hostages at all in my opinion.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
I don’t think we’re bad at all.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
But I’ve never seen anything like this.
The people in here

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
are treated like dogs, not only the
black, the Puerto Rican and the white.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
And we’re going to get what we planned
or we’re going to die trying. Thanks.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
Liz think fresh out of law school was riveted
by live broadcast of the Attica rebellion.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
The Attica brothers at that
time, they had optimism.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
They thought that if they told everybody what the
situation was, that people would support them.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
These people think we (inaudible)
enjoy but we as for real.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
So taught us all the way. We’re doing this for
everybody. We got to watch them on television.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
These people try to rebel and this
totally brilliant and unbelievable way.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
Clearly everybody were notched, right?
Certainly the progressive forces,

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
right? Oh, my God this is it. Wah!

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
The entire incident that has
erupted here at Attica is a result

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
of the unmitigated oppression brought by the racist
administrative network of this prison throughout the year.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
So we want to stop slave labor here.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
We want to allow the New York State Minimum
Wage Law to all state institutions.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
We want to allow all New York State prisoners to be
politically active without intimation and reprisal.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
We want true religious sanctity. We
want to do our own thing in this place.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
I used to sit back like, when days we,

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
you know, (inaudible) and we talking at the table. We have
to people get in and I’m moving around, you know, looking at

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
what the security people is doing and whether
they are on their job, you know, out of that,

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
I… I was looking at those demands.
So like I start looking at

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
my being in prison and what I was doing in
prison and what needs was being served.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
Person be in prison for a lot of time,

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
and when they released, all
they get is $40 and suit.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
No education, they have no training,

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
they have is prison, you
may have no place to stay.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
What is gonna happen with that person?
We are men. We are not beasts

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
and we do not intend to be beaten or driven
as such. The entire prison populace,

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
that means each and every one of us
here, have set forth to change forever

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
the ruthless brutalization and disregard
for the lives of the prisoners here

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
and throughout the United States.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
There was a need for prison change.
It was time.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
[sil.]

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
Fires was still burning

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
at Attica State Prison, despite of small
army of police and state troopers,

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
the prisoners continued to call the shots
at Attica. While the talking went on,

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
the state police kept reinforcing. At
least 500 men in and out of the walls,

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
no indications that any of this force will be used or the
police are ready. We’re in the cover at the main entrance.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
Although the scene seems to
be one of general confusion.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
Actually we know what we’re doing and there
is orders prevailing among our troopers.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
The state police, they
don’t have nothing to do

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
but sit outside the prison. Law
enforcement were allowed to lay around,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
do nothing and they sat and
waited, you know, to attack.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
The instructions are that your
weapon is not to be taken

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
or you to be taken. And I can see state troopers
all up on buildings and stuff with their guns.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
Every step I took, I’m waiting on a bullet

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
and I was scared to shit this. I
didn’t even want to look out at them.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
And there is ugliest, blackest negro
gentleman I have ever seen in my life.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
(inaudible) in dark. But then I see,

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
well, I don’t think they are
gonna shoot down in the yard

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
because anybody might get hit. They got these hostages down here,
you know, and they don’t want to hit one of these white boys.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
Have you been treated all right? Yes,
I have so far been treated very good.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
No… No complaints, but no problems so far?
So far been treated very good.

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
I just hope that the Commissioner and the other people
on the committee that they’ve gathered together

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
can come up with a solution to
solve these people’s problems,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
and ours. People have a tendency

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
to blame the inmates for the riot.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
I… I think that it’s easier
to blame… blame the inmates

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
but these people are no
different than anyone else.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
And if the state would
have addressed the issues,

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
I don’t think the riot
ever would have happened.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
The recommendation is, apply the New York State
Minimum Wage Law to all state institutions,

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
stop slave labor. I have been
on record for a long while

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
that these wages are inadequate. Two,
allow all New York State prisoners

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
to be politically active without
intimation or reprisal.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
I’m in favor of that. Three, give us true
religious freedom. I’m in favor of that.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
Four, and all censorship of
newspapers, magazines, letters

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
and other publications coming from
the publisher. I’m in favor of that.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
And we’ll… we’ll work it out. When will you do
this? See, we’re all in favor of these things too.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
All of us are in favor. Nothing we do in
hand. What are you gonna do about it?

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
When are these changes going to implemented?
We’ve been talking for two damn months.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
We’ve been (inaudible) it with you.
We negotiated. We’ve talked.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
We shouldn’t be. We
should be demanding. Why?

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
Because we have 35 lives.
And I repeat Mr. Oswald,

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
a moment of hesitation will cause you
their lives, don’t play with us.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
It’s everything to make it
easier for these inmates

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
and the easier you treat these
people, the harder it is for us.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
We’ve got a job to do to incarcerate these people. We
didn’t ask them to commit the crime to get in there.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
We didn’t make them commit the crime and we didn’t
convict them. And you think the answer right now

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
is to remove Commissioner Oswald? We definitely.
I do. I think my fellow officers agree with me.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
We feel that Commissioner Oswald
should be out. He’s a paddy weight.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
My 15 year old daughter wants to know. Why
didn’t they go in and talk to the (inaudible).

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
There’s a report tonight

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
that prison officials have yielded to most
of the demands by the rebelling inmates

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
at the Attica State Prison in New York, where more
then 30 persons have been held hostage for three days.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
At the moment, the convicts are still in control of one
of the four cell blocks they seized Thursday morning.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
[music]

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
Mrs. (inaudible) Angela, you’d been waiting
all the night now and (inaudible) today. Yes.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
Tell us what are your feelings at this moment? I’m
very scared and I just want my husband to be safe.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
Did you have any fears for his safety.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
He’s been a guard now for a couple of years? No, and not
until today, or last night when the trouble started.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
What are… What are some of the things
that have been running through your mind?

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
Just… Just about his health and
I found that he is all right

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
and just… just that we need him at home.
Do you have any children?

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
Yes, one. She’s three months old. Are you going
to recommend that he continue being a guard?

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
I’m not gonna interfere. It’s his decision.
If he decides to comeback,

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
that’s fine with me. Thank you very much.
I hope he’s all right.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
Thank you.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Everything all right, brothers? And
tell them I’m all right at home, yeah.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
Right on. Right at home. Everybody got
caught there? Yeah, everybody got caught.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Beautiful. Beautiful. Prisoners late
last night met with a Civilian Committee

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
in an attempt to clarify demands ranging from
better prison life conditions to more religious

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
and political freedom. The civilian
committee selected five of the inmates,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
said they could not negotiate for the state but could
take back the prisoner demands and the inmate said

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
they are determined those demands be met.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
We’d had a miserable night in the prison,
no sleep and (inaudible) doesn’t eat.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
We came out

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
and there were group of troopers, these are state
police troopers and they were armed at the teeth.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
I felt the utmost contempt on the
part of these… of these armed men.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
It was a feeling on their
part that, you know,

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
you guys can go in there and talk all you want, that’s
all you can you do is talk, but ultimately we’ll…

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
we’ll settle this thing, we have to. So you go and go ahead
and talk and you three talk and we’ll go and settle it.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
You know, they are angry

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
and they are ready to do something. And they
will do something if they get the hand on me.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
So the more I can stay away from him, I’m gonna do
that and stay focused on why I’m out in the yard.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
I didn’t trust them.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
We want complete amnesty meaning, freedom from all
and innate physical, mental and legal reprisals.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
We want the judicial seal and a
continuingly restraining order,

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
without any reprisals or brutality against
any inmates. Well, this is the truth.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
[sil.]

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
Then we got the news of,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
of Bill Quinn that he had died.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
The death of one of the guards has hardened the position of
prison officials and there are strong indications tonight

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
that police will be send into the cell block in an
attempt to rescue the rest of the hostages by force.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
Well, boy, when the moment came that Quinn
was dead, (inaudible) he was a mess.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
People got nervous then.
Once we heard about Billy,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
the whole thing changed.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
He was the only one

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
that inmates killed.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
The way that the law was, everyone
that was involved in the riot

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
and in the yard at the
time, they felt could be

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
uh… guilty of murder of Bill
Quinn’s murder. I was really upset

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
because I knew the whole
thing was shifting now.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
Now you can’t focus what we’re talking about
because the administration is mad now.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Quinn, one of the Correction officers who dared and they
died to, you know, somebody killing him, an inmate.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
My name is Wicker, Tom
Wicker, the New York Times.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
At 3:45 pm this afternoon a
group went into the prison

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
to meet with the inmates at their request.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
They all requested strongly that
as much consideration as possible

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
be given to granting full
amnesty to the prisoners.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
[sil.]

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
I’m a father with a son 22 years old. Don’t
you think I realize that he could die?

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
But do you think there’s gonna be any good
come out of this to nurse it any further?

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
The longer they got to nurse, the longer they
are gonna nurse. I’m a father of eight children

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
and Michael is the oldest and I don’t want to see
any one of them die. But if he is gonna die,

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
I want that whole damn thing
bomb right to hell of it.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
And this really isn’t my feelings because I’ve
always told Michael that got to have consideration

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
for a human being. So I’m talking right now
of a human being is pretty damn close to me.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
That’s all I got to say. I… I
just hope they all come out

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
and everything is all right with them.
And every mother and wife has…

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
These are very anxious moments. How do the
inmates feel about the current situation?

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
Well, we really have nothing to say about accepting
our firm in their demands and that’s it.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
In other words, they are not gonna let the
hostages go until they are granted amnesty?

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
That was their last position. I’m only hoping
that the one man who could stop all this now,

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:50.000
who is the Governor of the
State acts before it’s late.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
By day four, the Attica standoff, prospects
for an agreement were dimming(ph).

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
[music]

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Those who obviously in the observers group,
we just felt it, the end was… was near.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
We had tried everything we could. We
hadn’t solved the amnesty problem.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Good morning, Governor.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
Calling Rockefeller and asking him to
come there in person, it was a last try.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
I felt it was last try. And we
got him on the phone right away.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
Uh… And… And he was… he was cordial enough.
In fact, he was… he was unnerving,

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
you know, the old backslapping
Rockefeller, working the crowd.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
He… he worked those of his (inaudible), you know, it’s just fine,
just fine. You know, I really like what you got to do up there.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Then we got down a bit.
Listen, he was less cordial.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
You have to remember with this in 1971. Nixon is
in the White House and this is the heart of the

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
whole law and order academic in this country.
And I think Rockefeller ignited that point,

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
you know, given up his
presidential ambitions.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
And he wanted to be seen as
tough and not a soft on crime.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
[music]

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
We’re talking about peoples lives

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
and that’s a grave enough
situation that it deserves

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
executive attention.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
Uh… Sergeant Cunningham, now
would you give us a message

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
for Governor Nelson Rockefeller?
I certainly would

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
and if he says no I’m dead. You
know, Rockefeller was the man.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
He suggested in the phone that if… if
demand came up, then the demand cared.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
He just felt somehow that it was
beneath him. Governor of a great state

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
and the representative of a
great family to come up there

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
and deal with murderers, rapists and thieves. And
somehow this would be the world turn upside down.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
The establishment just couldn’t lower
itself to do that kind of thing.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
Therefore, he wasn’t gonna come.
He just wasn’t gonna come.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:20.000
[music]

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
Inmate leaders met Oswald in no man’s
land to hear the states final offer.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
Oswald was nervous

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
when he came to the gate. He was sweating,
he was looking around, he was uneasy,

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
you know, he was nervous. He’s
getting readied to double deal.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
He’s getting ready to make
promises, he’s not gonna keep.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
If they release the hostages immediately,
Oswald promised, a group of inmates

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
can discuss demands with him on
neutral ground, away from D Yard.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
It’s a game that we should go in a mutual zone
and talk. You know, dividing conquered(ph).

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
Try and get them away from it and we’re
(inaudible) to deal with the other people.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
Just get the heads away. To much time
I’ve gone by already negotiating with…

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
with these people. They were unreasonable.
They want their amnesty,

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
they want their other demands that were not
going to be met. They were holding the hostages

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
and this had to brought to an end.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
They wanted to get my butt. I’m
telling him my name is being called.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
All right, Black, this is your day now.
Without these coming up,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
we’re gonna fix you, nigger, we’re
gonna beat you to down death(ph).

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:50.000
I think they knew what they were gonna
do and it was going to be done.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:48:03.000
[music]

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
We’re on the roofless sea block and we had a detail 270
marksmen with instructions to clear the catwalks on command.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
If they go in there, it’s going
to be a massacre in this prison

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
and it’s on the heads of the
authorities if it takes place.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
Time can produce something here, but a loss of time
and a sheer force will produce only death and misery.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
They ain’t going anywhere. There’s no where
they can go. So, you know, in an closed cage.

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
With 30 foot walls all around, you know, it
was getting cold up there. It was raining,

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
it was nasty. Just sit tight for two weeks.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
They would have been happy to go
back to their cells in my opinion.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
But that was law and order as I said, you
can’t… can’t allow people to defy the state.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
You all set? Yes.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
All right. At 8:46 Commissioner Oswald went
down to await the response of the inmates.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
Uh… they came back and asked for more time.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
Uh… Commissioner Oswald, after
some discussion with them

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
agreed to extend it to 9 o’clock. Uh…
Commissioner Oswald is downstairs now

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
waiting the inmates return and
as soon as we do get a response

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
uh… we’ll be getting out to you. Thank you.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
Its deal wasn’t granted(ph),
they was gonna shoot.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
We thought it was gonna be (inaudible)
combat thing. That’s gonna be no weapons,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
no shooting. What you gonna shot for?
Hey, nobody got no gun.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
We gonna die. We will not die in here.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
I’ve talked to myself. I should get up

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
and say, you guys… you guys are talking
big but what you don’t understand is,

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
a lot of you are gonna die. I’m
not trying to tell you what to do

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
and I couldn’t tell you what to do but I think you ought to know the
facts. These guys are gonna coming here and shoot you down if you don’t…

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
You know, if you… if you hold on.
You should know that.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
Then if you want to hold out, that’s fine, but you should know that.
That’s what I should have said. I knew I should have said that.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
I felt it very strongly
and I was afraid to it.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:33.000
[music]

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
What I did, put some answers so that they could
see and so that (inaudible) when they come in.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
That’s why I moved him out of the circle and
put him up on a catwalk, to slow them up.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:08.000
[music]

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
The action now underway, was
initiated with extreme reluctance.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
Only after all attempts

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
to achieve a peaceful solution failed.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
I’m (inaudible) of the type we have faced,
threatens the destruction of our free society.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
We can not permit that
destruction to happen.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:43.000
[sil.]

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
[sil.]

00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:03.000
[music]

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
Surviving Attica inmates

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
arrive in Manchester New York. Frank, Big
Black Smith and Liz Fink will prepare them

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
to testify before a federal judge the
next morning. Come on let’s get in here.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
I want to thank everybody for coming. Uh… I want to
thank everybody for being so patient all these years,

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
and I want to tell you what’s happening.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
Judge Tilescus(ph) actually umm… uh… interested
in… in finding what… what happened here

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
and what happened to all of you and he really
wanted everybody to come in and testify.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
First thing he’s gonna probably ask you
is, \"where you were in the yard, right,

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
and did you see anybody killed
and did you get shot yourself?\"

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
You know, he’s blown away by the fact that
people were killed in… in cold blood.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
And I wanted to say, the judge,
you know, what do you think?

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
They were shooting the hostages,
they were shooting the inmates…

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
It was the concern about who was what?
Where were you shot? No, this, like a shot

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
by the (inaudible) that explode. All that went straight
through like this here and my hand was (inaudible) here.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
The scar is still here, that… that shown.
Your teeth were taken out of your mouth…

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
stop, the glasses were stopped. I remember getting hitting
here with the butt of a rifle, that much I do remember.

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
His hair turned into a red midst.
He was going on.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
They were all lined up with rifles and he was
pointing the rifles down at us and they were shooting

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
and firing. So it was like…

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
I heard a helicopter, the helicopter says
lay down, put your hands on your head,

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
you’ll not be harmed and I comply.
They had us boxed in

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
and they were shooting down at us. I
couldn’t crawl. I literally couldn’t crawl.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
Hand of the hostages,

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
surrender peacefully, you will not…

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
I remember an inmate said this guy is bleeding, he’s
bleeding, bleeding and, you know, he was refereeing to me.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
Uh… Uh… All right, what
you got to tell him then?

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
We’re just, you know, because everywhere
you looked around, all you’re seeing was

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
uh… killing and shooting
everything, they change across.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:38.000
[sil.]

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
People laying allover now, all
bleeding and blood and stuff.

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
You know, so everybody know now
that is real and this is it.

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
You know, they are here now, they… They
are in the yard now, they got control.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
[music]

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
State troopers just took their clubs

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
and beat them down the stairs, broke peoples
legs, hit them on the tibia and broke tibialis.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
On their back, on their head, in
their genitals, on their front,

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
you know, wherever they could ought to
hit him, that’s where they beat them.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
I’m telling you, my name is being called,

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
\"where is Big Black? Where is Big
Black?\" Get up. Like, get up.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
And he busted me with a nigger stick,
pickax and got a 38 in his hand

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
and I gets up and he bam, hit my
side, hit my back and made me run

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
with my hand on my head over to the side. And before I
got over there, two, three more correction officers

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
hit me now and everybody is hitting me.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
[music]

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
And now they made me spreading on a table.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
I am laying now looking up at the cad
walk and cigarettes and spitting,

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
(inaudible) gun, they dropped (inaudible).

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
And I’m there with the football up under
my chin, that football better (inaudible)

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
before you’re gonna die sooner
than you expect to die.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
I’m not in charge now. You
know, I’m back to day reality.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
They gonna show to you mitigation

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
that they are doing to me,
everybody in the yard.

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
[music]

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
(inaudible) security chief, what
do you got to say about it now?

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
They got mad and wanted to teach the lesson

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
to their third world population
and led all this evil go down.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
You have at least 88 people

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
who are shot so, so fearly

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
that they need immediate surgery. There
was absolutely no preparation made

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
to treat the inmates. No
blood, no plasma, no bandages,

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
no fluids, no uh… painkillers, no surgical,

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing was done.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
L.D. Barkley was shot. The shot went
through and it collapsed his lung.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
He couldn’t get medical
treatment and he led to death.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
Correction officers take inmate X,

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
he’s got two broken bones and
they are both sticking out

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
and they tell him to get up and
walk and he says he can’t do it

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
and so they take a screwdriver
and shove it up his anus.

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
In A carder where you know
50 correction officers,

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
they line the carders with their sticks
and clubs and 2/4s and rifle butts,

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
and one by one they made them run through
it while they got beaten with clubs

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
all the way up the stairs into the cell.
One dude had a rifle

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
and he hit me in the side with it two, three times,
boom, you know, and knock me to the other side.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
Get off of me you, nigger, he popped me back
in another side and I fell out on the floor.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
That’s when they burst my head open
and broke my wrists and stuff.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
There was nothing the shit out of me.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.999
They drove me down the hallway
and drove me in this room.

00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.999
They proceeded to torture Big
Black for another six hours

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:54.999
accusing him of castrating Mike Smith

00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
and stuffing his testicles in his mouth. And
that’s when they spread my legs, you know,

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
and placed shotgun (inaudible) with me. Nigger, open
up your eyes up and in my testicles and all it is.

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
And so there you are, you know, naked
and someone’s pointing a gun at you

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
and pulling the trigger. They did like this and
I’m gonna shut my… Open your eyes, nigger.

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
You didn’t cut the opposite (inaudible), put them in
your mouth, that’s what we’re gonna do with you, nigger,

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
we’re gonna cut yours out.

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
After all you just watch them blow people away for no reason.
So when they came in and told them that you say your prayers,

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
we’re gonna blow you away,
you would believe them.

00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
I can talk about it now. One time
I couldn’t talk without crying.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
You know, all of that was coming from
anger and disappointment in the world

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
and disappointment in people.

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
How could you do that?

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
That’s the thing that bothered me. How low
down and dirty and vicious a person could be?

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
[music]

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
I couldn’t see what was going on.
I was still blindfolded.

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
I could feel myself bleeding,

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
almost like my life was being poured
out and I could feel it draining away.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
[music]

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
I was on the cad walk and the… and
the gun firing was going forever.

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
You could hear people screaming.

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
You could feel people crying.
You could hear people dying.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
I got hit four times in the abdomen

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
and the… It’s a very close pattern.
It was by an automatic weapon.

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
The bullets entered

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
in about a four inch pattern in a
straight line. They made a hole

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
when they went in the front. That
was bigger round as a quarter.

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
They export an impact and
break up and expand.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
I was virtually exploding inside.

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
[music]

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
There was a state trooper
and he looked down at me

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
and he put his shack on
to my head and I thought,

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
I made it this far and, you know, I’m
gonna… Now he’s gonna blow my head off.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
There was another officer that
recognized me and he reached down

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
and swoop the guns barrel up away from me
and said don’t shoot, he’s one of ours.

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
One of the things that the
state had told the public

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
was that I had been castrated

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
and that Frank Smith was
the person that did it,

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
that never happened.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
The most violent rebellion in modern
American penal history came to an end today

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
at the maximum security prison in Attica,
New York. In the final hours of the revolt,

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
let primarily blacks, the inmates
murdered nine of their white hostages.

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
How did they kill out hostages? Well,
several were… had their throat slashed.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
The lead story at the time the next day

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
flatly stated, the inmates had slashed
their throats of 10 hostages.

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
The entire front page was fantasy…

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
fantasy, right and it was all lies.

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
That’s what they wanted.

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
They wanted people to believe the
inmates murdered the hostages.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
Even today are told,

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
there are probably people who think the
inmates really killed those hostages.

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
Their delight in lies,

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
they blessed with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
Only in God that my soul in rest,

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
from him comes my salvation.
Trust in him at all times

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
all my people, pour out
your hearts before him,

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
God is my refuge. Only
in God is my soul rest.

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
From him comes my salvation.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
The controversy over what happened at
Attica Prison followed the dead hostages

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
to the very brink of the grave. When the
funeral was over and all the words were said,

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
the bodies were taken not to be
buried but back to the funeral home

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
for yet another autopsy.

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
Well, why can’t you bury those people?
Why can’t you allow them to be buried?

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
I think Deputy Attorney General Fisher
yesterday… yesterday said to you

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
that the burial unfortunately
was being delayed

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
until the work by the forensic pathologists was
completed. I don’t know what the situation is

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
on the burials, I don’t. If I had… If I
knew I would tell you, but I don’t know.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
The first eight autopsies were on the
cases identified to us as hostages.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
All right cases

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
died of gunshot wounds.
There was no evidence

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
of slash throats. There was one single cut

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
in the back of one of the (inaudible).

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
Do you know you have yet
to hear the full story

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
of what took place in Attica. With the
half of the (inaudible) of million

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
of black and third world people, who have been slaughtered
in Maine(ph) in the name of oppression, repression

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
and racial genocide. We now gathered
here to (inaudible) of honor,

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
our dead brothers this day. All of them
died with liberation on their lips,

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
freedom in their hearts and the will
to fight and (inaudible) to maintain

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
their dignity as men, black
men, men of the third world.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
Is demanded that Governor
Rockefeller be indicted for murder.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
[sil.]

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
What’s your feeling about what you
know of the unfolding facts of Attica?

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
Well, again (inaudible)
say that the new facts

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
that have been uncovered, developed.
It just gotten deepen

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
the tragedy of the whole Attica fair.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
Now I’m going to meet with the
legislative leaders tomorrow

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
uh… to discuss the broadening of the whole enquiry.
And until then I won’t have anything more to say.

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
You all set? This is it. Go.

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
Investigation into the events of the past six days has passed
into the control of Deputy Attorney General Robert Fisher.

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
The governor’s office has released this
information just a short while ago.

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
In view of this development, it would be inappropriate
for me to comment specifically on incidents

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
now under investigation.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:36.440
In effect then what you’re saying? Mr. Oswald will not respond to any questions
at all, is that it? He will not respond any questions? Not this time. That’s all.

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
Do we have any answers at all?
Any answers to any questions?

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
[music]

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
The Attica case is involved

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
some 61 individuals indicted on
some 42 separate indictments.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
Possibly 1400 Felony counts facing
these individuals collectively

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
and approximately 40,000 years in jail.

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
There was a massive effort
to prosecute the inmates

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
who had committed actual crimes.

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
And in the murder of correction officer Quinn for instance,
more power to him, they should have prosecuted that

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
and that certainly deserved it. And there
were other serious crimes short of murder

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
that needed prosecuting.

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
Hearing the first year I guess, I had always assumed
that well, we just haven’t gotten to the glace yet.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
The state of New York

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money
to investigate what happened in Attica.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
Well, what happened was
that 39 people were killed,

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
that’s what happened. They didn’t investigate
any of that, right, all they were doing

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
was investigating the prisoners.

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
As the result of the
indictments, you know, I decided

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
that I needed to find out what
it was like to be a lawyer.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
On July 4th 1974,

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
I walked into Attica Brothers legal defense
at 147, Franklyn Street, in Buffalo,

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
when, then rest is history. We had
this full scale organization.

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
They were law students. They were people who did
outreach. There were people who did press conference.

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
You had a graphics(ph) committee
and all of the propaganda

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
which was enormous. The attorney general’s job
is not only to prosecute, his job is to pursue,

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
prosecute all that he know is right.
To protect the right of the people,

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
that’s his job. I met Big Black the next
morning. It’s not just to get up there and say,

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
we’re gonna put this man in jail. I’m talking about… Well,
I was gaga. He was Attica Brother number one, right?

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
You know, it’s like you’re meeting
super star. …But Liz had it.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
You know, I can just see it. I just had
a feeling. You know I knew quality,

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
I knew talent, I knew…

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
When I’d see some whether it was all right.
You like because I was fat.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
You know that was a lot of it. You know, she was big. You
know, that’s what it was. Now we compliment each other. Okay?

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
We come… I… I call this big’s black and
white. So, but… But strange what happens,

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
every time they will go to court and so something, Liz
would sit at the table and write notes to the lawyers,

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
to present it to the court. So couple of brothers
said to me, and I know big fat woman there,

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
man, why you don’t let her talk? So she’s like, she
got something down, man, let her get out there.

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
I knew that we had
somebody with some balls.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
[sil.]

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
Power concedes nothing without a
demand and without a struggle.

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
We’re talking about Rockefeller there, that’s who I’m
talking about, the governor of the state in New York.

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
We knew what they were gonna do to us.

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
Then our only response was to fight it.

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
The senate rules committee

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
today completed it’s hearings on the nomination
of Nelson Rockefeller to be Vice President.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
It was the turn of those opposed to the Rockefeller nomination
today with criticism of the former New York Governor

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
centering on his handling of the
Attica Prison Uprising in 1971.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
Witnesses including an Attica inmate called Big
Black blamed Rockefeller for the 43 deaths

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
that occurred when the state police and
national guardsmen stormed the prison.

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
I’m telling you that the
Governor of New York State

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
premeditatedly set up the assault for us and
it came in that yard indiscriminately shoot.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
I’m not telling you about what somebody
told me, I’m telling you about what I know.

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
[music]

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
I felt strongly

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
that I wanted to get at the facts.
I wanted to see justice done.

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
I didn’t care

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
weather the evidence shows that trooper
A, or B or C or Z was innocent or guilty,

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
I just wanted to know what was.
But the law says that

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
when there’s an imminent threat of danger
to your life or somebody else’s life,

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
that’s justification for shooting.
It’s a fact that a lot of the inmates

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
were shot in the back and that’s…
that’s a very suspicious circumstance.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
It looks as though they are
running away when they were shot.

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
An inmate is photographed lying on
the pavement, no weapons insight.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
In later photographed shows a large
curved sword lying right beside him.

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
We actually got the detective
who planted it there,

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
to admit that he planted it there to make it more obvious
why the man was dead. When Kenneth Malloy was shot,

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
not only was he surrounded by
troopers, but all the hostages,

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
anywhere near him were safe. It was absolutely
no damage that he could have done to anybody,

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
that a box on the years wouldn’t
have remitted. For some reason,

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
two troopers emptied their pistols into him.
He was shot 12 times at pointblank range

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
when he was down. It was… it was just…

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
just murders as far as I can see.
Since the Attica Prison Revolt

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
in September 1971, 62 inmates
have been indictment,

01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
but no indictments have been brought against
guards or police who put down their revolt.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
Now there are charges of a cover up.

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
I was prevented from calling witnesses to the grand jury. When witnesses were
recalled, such witnesses were recalled, I was prevented from asking questions

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
that I regarded as important on
the issue of possible crimes.

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
Ex-prosecutor Bell talks about unnecessary and
unauthorized shooting by police and guards.

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
That there was indiscriminate firing into
congested areas, that police and guards

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
later fabricated false stories and that
guards engaged in systematic beatings

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
and other reprisals against inmates. There was a
conscious effort uh, to prevent necessary evidence

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
from reaching the grand jury in the area
of possible crimes by public employees.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:44.999
They just didn’t want to find that these
troopers could be guilty of these felonies.

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.999
Yu have 39 dead people,

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
that’s called the crime scene. So, you
know, what do you do in a crime scene?

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
I mean, everybody knows this.
You don’t touch anything,

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
right? You leave everything as it is, the bullets,
and this and this and then you go in there

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
and you mark everything, right?
So did they do that?

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
No, no, no. They did the exact opposite.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
State police collected all the tents
that inmates have been living in

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
and the benches and mattresses at the
hostage circle and all other kinds of stuff

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
that would have been valuable evidence to
find out where the bullets were flying

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
and that sort of thing. And they brought
a bulldozer in and they bulldoze them.

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
[music]

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
It was just swept up and dumped in a
big hole in the back of the prison.

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
If the grand jury had indicted several dozen of the New York
State Police whom Rockefeller had sent into the prison,

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
I imaged that would have killed his
chance to become Vice-president.

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
With Rockefeller safely
situated as vice-president,

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
his successor Governor Hugh Carey issued
a sweeping pardon of convicted inmates.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
He also ended all investigations
into crimes committed by troopers.

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
That was about Governor Carey
protecting Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
because by releasing all the inmates, then
they didn’t have to hold the hearings,

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
that they were gonna have to hold about
all the murders and the torture and the,

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
you know, destruction of evidence
and you know, all the perjury

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
and all the shit they did.

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
But we weren’t gonna go away and they
were gonna have to give us something.

01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
It’s commitment and I got
this thing with commitment.

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:53.000
[music]

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
It’s too late (inaudible), it’s done.

01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
It’s not too late to say
I’m sorry it happened.

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
How can we help you?

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
I’m Mike Smith and I’m
the surviving hostage.

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
I was the correction officer
at the time of the riot.

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
My name is Ryan (inaudible),
I’m surviving hostage

01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
(inaudible), you killed America.

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
Mary (inaudible), my dad was
(inaudible) killed (inaudible).

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
I’m (inaudible), my husband
John was killed in Attica.

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
I’m Cunningham, son of
(inaudible), Edward Cunnigham.

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
I’m (inaudible) was my
husband killed in the riot.

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
[music]

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
You know, they knew all this gonna happen.
It’s just no way you can proceed

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
in that way. The gunfire like that

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
with all those people crowding into that space
without a lot of people being wounded and killed.

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
[music]

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
These were (inaudible) shotguns, as
the pallets come out they spread.

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
So if you’re shooting at somebody

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
who is 50 yards away, at the 50 inch
pattern, a bunch of those pallets

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
have to go beyond that prison
because nobody is four feet wide.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
If sure killed a lot of people to have
those officers armed with shotguns.

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
Everybody had to recognize from the
start of the plan that there was no way

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
to save the lives of those hostages in the hostage circle
if the inmates had been (inaudible) on killing them.

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
It was just no way to reach them unless
then say five minutes. I don’t feel that

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
there was ever really a plan to
rescue the hostages as such.

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
I think it shows a willingness
to sacrifice hostages

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
uh… which is just painfully evident if you
study it at all to get the prison back.

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
One year after being shot at Attica,

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
former hostage Mike Smith was
interviewed by a local TV news crew.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
New York States treated fairly so far.
There’s no bitterness on…

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
on my part against anyone.
I receive $95 a week

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
and umm… that’s it.

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:39.999
Nothing from the corrections department? No,
nothing from the corrections department.

01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:44.999
Do you think you should be receiving
something from the corrections department?

01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
I don’t know. I don’t know

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
umm… Everyone of us was just fighting to
survive on our own. We were too busy with life

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
trying to survive on our own. They didn’t
understand the state was gonna screw them

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
and they also didn’t understand
what happened because, you know,

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
the lawyers that they use right, were more into
protecting the state than protecting them.

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
They were umm… given workmen’s
compensations cheques

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
and they cash them and that
constituted election of remedies

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
that they had elected to take a pittance rather
than what they deserved and the courts upheld

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
that ridiculous conclusion on the
basis of goodness knows what law.

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
They had union officials
and lawyers and money

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
and they all got sold down the river. I always
assumed that our side was telling the truth.

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
We the state in New York, the state
police, the corrections department,

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
that’s we, we were right. When you talk
to people, when you talk to the public,

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
it’s like they…

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
they assume that the hostages,

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
the widows and the families were…
were somehow taken care of.

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
I think they like to think
that, it didn’t happen,

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
it couldn’t be more
opposite and what happened.

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
Recent news reports on the
forgotten victims cause

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
bring unexpected results. A former workmen’s
compensation supervisor comes forward

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
with new information about
the state cover up.

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
I had read some of the minutes in reference to these cases
and one of the questions was, \"if these case were handled

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
in the usual routine and
the response was yes,

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
which is a bold faced lie.\" They
had to have known of course.

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
You wait for a hearing which
happens six to ten weeks

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
to select under Section 11 whether
they were gonna accept payments

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
or to file a suit.

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
Make election of remedies? They never had that. Right. They never had that
opportunity. So you don’t feel that this was good intention? Absolutely not.

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
I don’t know of another employer

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
that could shoot and murder their employees

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
and that will be held accountable
other than the government.

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
From WORK, Rochester,

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
this is News Source 13 At Six.
For nearly 30 years,

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
former Attica inmates have waited
for justice. Today, it finally came

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
in the form of a $12 million settlement.
If they had offered us $12 million in 76,

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
you know, we would have said kiss my ass,

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
kiss it.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.999
The judge and the defendants screw us

01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:59.999
in every manner they could. They lied,

01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.999
they hid evidence, they destroyed evidence

01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
and they delayed and delayed and delayed.

01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
Finally, after an
accountable period of delay

01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
we had a trial.

01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and the
jury. What this case is about is torture.

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
The right not to be
tortured either physically

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
or psychologically, the right
to be free of any punishment

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
that doesn’t come in a way provided by
the constitution of the United States.

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
We chose black because black was the
person who had the most damages

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
as a result of the reprisals and had
not been shot during the assault.

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
When they heard the evidence,
they gave him the largest verdict

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
ever given a prisoner in the
history of the United States.

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
We had 29 dead people who
were murdered in cold blood.

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
We had people who were shot
significantly, some of them

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
with lifelong injuries. The liability
against the state becomes enormous.

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
We felt that these cases
were worth between $50

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
and $60 million.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
Then it was reversed to make us settle.

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
They ruled it wasn’t appropriate class action and
that anybody who was gonna try, it should dismiss,

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
there’s a class and tried
individually, all 1,289 cases.

01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
After 25 years,

01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
we either had to take the $12 million
offered or continue on fight

01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.999
where there was a real possibility
that we wouldn’t get a dime

01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:59.999
before most of the (inaudible) died.

01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
What would have been justice? Very simple.
To indict the murderers,

01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.999
to impeach Nelson Rockefeller

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.999
and to award significant compensation
immediately to the victims,

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.999
that would have been justice.
What is justice?

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
Justice is what everybody’s
do and what no one gets,

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:30.000
that’s what justice is.

01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:39.999
This case was a hell of a case.

01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:44.999
We worked on it for a long
time and we thank everybody

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
for the tribute that everybody has
given us, but we have to say this.

01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:54.999
What we got might have been a
victory, but it was not justice.

01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.999
[sil.]

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
Who they were? A bunch of black,
Puerto Rican, people of color,

01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
rebellious convicts, was more important
to the system than the constitution

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
and the concept of justice. And
so we did not get justice,

01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
no justice at all, no justice for anybody.
So you ask, well, if there’s no justice,

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
why do we do this? And
the answer to that is,

01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
because this is struggle for justice and
the struggle for justice, it makes…

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:34.999
is what makes this meaningful
and what makes life meaningful.

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:39.999
A settlement has been reached with New York
State and former inmates of Attica State Prison

01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:44.999
who were injured in the riots that occurred in
the prison in 71. These monies are to be treated

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:49.999
as victim compensation payments.
I want to get some uh…

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:54.999
CDs… Yeah, CDs for my grandchildren.
Uh-huh…

01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:59.999
Steve’s gonna talk to you about what you can do with
this money, right? You can write cheques on it.

01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:04.999
Right? Collect six percent interest.
That, we could put some of the money

01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:09.999
in the credit union in an neighborhood there
and then they would have access to it…

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:14.999
So you are entitled to a $125,000
plus interest on that money

01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:19.999
and I don’t know how much that’s gonna be.
I… I can’t give this up.

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:24.999
I can’t give this up

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:29.999
until there’s some kind of
satisfactory resolution

01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:34.999
that’s acceptable to myself

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:39.999
and the widows and the other hostages.

01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:44.999
I won’t give it up.

01:26:45.000 --> 01:26:53.000
[music]

01:27:05.000 --> 01:27:09.999
It’s strange to see that

01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:14.999
something is bad and it’s
barbaric to the level Attica was.

01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:19.999
It was like a lifesaver to me.

01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:24.999
My value system changed. My awareness came,

01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:29.999
my consciousness changed.
You know, my whole mind

01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:34.999
and my way of looking at life is
different now, it feels better.

01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:39.999
It’s not about the money,

01:27:40.000 --> 01:27:44.999
you can’t let it be about the money.
It wasn’t about that.

01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.999
We are men. We are not beasts

01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:54.999
and we do not intend to be
beaten or driven as such.

01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:59.999
The entire prison populace, that
means each and every one of us here,

01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:04.999
have set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization
and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here

01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:09.999
and throughout the United States.

01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:15.000
[music]

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