KALIEF BROWDER, 1993–2015
In this land of the free and home of the brave, things can be so horribly bad for some people that suicide is truly the only way out. To understand the truth of these people's lives brings tears to the eyes of anyone with any sense of humanity. The details of the story of one person, while seemingly beyond sad, are actually the common experience for many.
False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments are common events. Do a google search and examine the results. Visit the Innocence Project. Read almost any large city newspaper to see 'News about False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments'. The New York Times published archival articles along with commentary on the subject. Innocent human beings are caught in the system and destroyed. The system is designed that way. Information is available for you to read everywhere you look... it truly happens every day...
In the American criminal-justice system (misnamed if ever there were a misnaming - the 'system of justice' is itself criminal all the way to the core) we imprison children with adults in inhumane conditions. We have a bail system that exploits the poor and especially poor minorities. Innocent people are imprisoned for excessively long periods of time before having a trial. We place individuals in solitary confinement. We brutalize our citizens with the effects of incarceration on their mental health, their spiritual health, their economic health, (every aspect of their health) and we refuse them treatment when we finally prove their innocence and release them back into society.
False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments are common events. Do a google search and examine the results. Visit the Innocence Project. Read almost any large city newspaper to see 'News about False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments'. The New York Times published archival articles along with commentary on the subject. Innocent human beings are caught in the system and destroyed. The system is designed that way. Information is available for you to read everywhere you look... it truly happens every day...
In the American criminal-justice system (misnamed if ever there were a misnaming - the 'system of justice' is itself criminal all the way to the core) we imprison children with adults in inhumane conditions. We have a bail system that exploits the poor and especially poor minorities. Innocent people are imprisoned for excessively long periods of time before having a trial. We place individuals in solitary confinement. We brutalize our citizens with the effects of incarceration on their mental health, their spiritual health, their economic health, (every aspect of their health) and we refuse them treatment when we finally prove their innocence and release them back into society.
It is well documented that 'free' citizens face unbelievable brutality from 'law enforcement' officers on the streets of this country... even murder at the hands of the 'trigger happy cop'. If it can be that bad on the streets (and we know that it is that bad), it is not hard to believe how bad it can be behind the walls of a prison where there are fewer restraints on the actions of the 'authorities' and the assumptions about the victims are almost totally negative... they obviously deserve what they get, that's why they are in prison in the first place is our automatic response.
What happened to Kalief Browder, falsely accused of stealing a backpack, is to offer details of one person's story, but it is truly the story of many.... in the United States of America this story repeats in one version or another every day. When one actually pays attention to what is going on in our country, one realizes that this same thing could happen to anyone of us... and that's the truth!!!
Kalief Browder Way Unveiled In The Bronx In Honor Of His 24th Birthday --- unfortunately, Kalief was not available to join the celebration... photo, Marcus Santos, New York Daily News
On Kalief Browder Way: This Happens Every Day
from Common Dreams by Abby Zimet
see surveillance video of Kalief being assaulted in Rikers
Thursday, on what would have been his 24th birthday, an intersection in the Bronx was renamed in honor of Kalief Browder, the 16-year-old African-American boy flung into New York's grisly Rikers Island Prison in 2010 after he was wrongly accused of stealing a backpack and his family couldn't raise bail.
At Rikers, known as a de-facto "penal colony" for its brutal conditions, Kalief endured three years of "documented torture," including two years in solitary, at the hands of both guards and fellow inmates. He was repeatedly beaten, assaulted, starved; he attempted suicide at least five times, and was punished each time; he faced unending legal delays until he became "an unheard voice," as though he "didn't exist."
Throughout his harrowing ordeal, documented at length by Jennifer Gonnerman in The New Yorker, he maintained his innocence and refused all plea deals. In June 2014, the charges were suddenly dropped and he was freed. After struggling for two years with post-Rikers trauma, depression and paranoia, Kalief hanged himself outside his family's Bronx home in what Gonnerman calls an “American tragedy almost beyond words.” He was 22.
Kalief's short life and tragic death "put a human face" on New York's broken criminal justice system, personified by the barbarous Rikers, and sparked a host of actions. In quick succession, Spike TV aired “TIME: The Kalief Browder Story,” a six-part documentary series produced by Jay Z, and city and state officials stopped the practice of charging 16-and-17 year olds as adults or putting them in solitary, passed a bill to speed up pre-trial detention, and announced a 10-year plan to close Rikers, "New York’s premier institution of punishment (that) churns out human carnage."
Still, Kalief's family and other prison reform advocates say there's a long way to go. His brother Akeem, who works to shut down Rikers and raise New York's age of criminal responsibility, notes the plan to close Rikers would see the "villainous" opening of four smaller jails that would likely change little in a toxic prison culture: "The walls of Rikers Island didn’t kill Kalief. Those officers that work there (did)."
At Thursday's modest, rainy unveiling of Kalief Browder Way, Akeem vowed to Kalief to "do more in your honor and in your memory." But he'll be racing against time: Recounting his torments after he was freed, a weary Kalief told an interviewer, "This happens every day."
from Common Dreams by Abby Zimet
see surveillance video of Kalief being assaulted in Rikers
Thursday, on what would have been his 24th birthday, an intersection in the Bronx was renamed in honor of Kalief Browder, the 16-year-old African-American boy flung into New York's grisly Rikers Island Prison in 2010 after he was wrongly accused of stealing a backpack and his family couldn't raise bail.
At Rikers, known as a de-facto "penal colony" for its brutal conditions, Kalief endured three years of "documented torture," including two years in solitary, at the hands of both guards and fellow inmates. He was repeatedly beaten, assaulted, starved; he attempted suicide at least five times, and was punished each time; he faced unending legal delays until he became "an unheard voice," as though he "didn't exist."
Throughout his harrowing ordeal, documented at length by Jennifer Gonnerman in The New Yorker, he maintained his innocence and refused all plea deals. In June 2014, the charges were suddenly dropped and he was freed. After struggling for two years with post-Rikers trauma, depression and paranoia, Kalief hanged himself outside his family's Bronx home in what Gonnerman calls an “American tragedy almost beyond words.” He was 22.
Kalief's short life and tragic death "put a human face" on New York's broken criminal justice system, personified by the barbarous Rikers, and sparked a host of actions. In quick succession, Spike TV aired “TIME: The Kalief Browder Story,” a six-part documentary series produced by Jay Z, and city and state officials stopped the practice of charging 16-and-17 year olds as adults or putting them in solitary, passed a bill to speed up pre-trial detention, and announced a 10-year plan to close Rikers, "New York’s premier institution of punishment (that) churns out human carnage."
Still, Kalief's family and other prison reform advocates say there's a long way to go. His brother Akeem, who works to shut down Rikers and raise New York's age of criminal responsibility, notes the plan to close Rikers would see the "villainous" opening of four smaller jails that would likely change little in a toxic prison culture: "The walls of Rikers Island didn’t kill Kalief. Those officers that work there (did)."
At Thursday's modest, rainy unveiling of Kalief Browder Way, Akeem vowed to Kalief to "do more in your honor and in your memory." But he'll be racing against time: Recounting his torments after he was freed, a weary Kalief told an interviewer, "This happens every day."
Getty Images
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