Ever since the Valve Turners bravely shut off all those pipelines coming from Canada, I have known that direct action is now our only hope of stopping climate catastrophe before it’s too late. We’ve tried everything else.
So when I learned that Tacoma Direct Action was about to act at the Liquified Natural Gas Storage Facility to prevent its further construction, I wanted in. I had no idea, however, that I would be so privileged as to expose the criminal behavior of our local criminal justice system itself.
This is what we, the Tacoma Super Six, did. We entered the construction site at 5:30 a.m. on May 17 and were chained to a large auger before anyone realized it. Seventeen police cars and four hours later, they finally arrested us. We were incarcerated for 30 hours.
The cell block was filled with young women, most under 30. And the treatment they were receiving was nothing less than criminal. They are kept locked in their tiny cells 15 hours a day despite encircling a large room with tables and chairs. Breakfast is at 4:30 a.m., and then they are locked back in their cells until lunch at 9:30 a.m. (I kid you not). Then they’re out in this big room with nothing to do until 11 a.m. No games, no computers, no cards, no books, no nothing. They are then locked up until 4:30 p.m. when slop is once again served. The food is not fit for human consumption. As hungry as I became, I could not bring myself to eat any of it. The women all say they are always hungry.
The cells are small: a bunk bed for two, with an open metal toilet and a sink with cold water only.
The guards are exceptionally nasty. They are loudmouthed and belligerent and ready at a moment’s notice to put a girl in the hole for even a minor infraction. The hole is a cell where you are locked down 23 hours of the day.This was definitely not “Orange is the New Black.” There was not one scary woman in the place, only poor young women struggling in a world that does not protect them. These women have already suffered so much trauma, just from the lives they have been forced to lead, and yet our system is set up to make it worse.
Their treatment is not only inhumane but is purposely designed to enforce their lack of self-worth, and to ensure continued failure. There is no rehabilitation, no educational opportunities, just numbing pain and neglect. But it is designed that way. It assures that the jails and police coffers are kept full and that businesses profit mightily from these mass incarcerations (telephone companies, food businesses and foster care, for example).
Everyone should be angry because your tax dollars pay for this. Many remain in jail until their trials because they cannot pay the $500 bail, and trials may not happen for months.
Ninety percent of inmates have not even been convicted of a crime, but languish in jails unable to make bond, according Chris Hedges’ show “On Contact.”
And these incarcerations have real consequences for them and us. Many lose all their belongings, their residences, their jobs, their children and of course their freedom with sentences that far outweigh the crimes. And this family disruption means that the community pays the price. It is appalling that we allow such a system to exist, and this too has now become another reason to rail against it.
Our country is in deep trouble. We are the biggest polluters and consumers on the planet, and yet our government continues to be on the wrong side of history, rapidly gobbling up fossil fuels at the expense of our waters, air, land and people, and escalating, through mass incarcerations, a policy that devastates families and places great burdens on their communities.
Who knows if we will be able to save our planet, but we must make the effort. And if we do not quickly come to economic and social justice for all, we will not be able to tackle the problems looming ahead.
So, it’s up to you. Get involved. For you seniors, put direct action on your bucket lists, do it for your grandchildren. Just remember that there is one group more powerful than they are, and it is us.
Cynthia Linet is the artist of “The Gun Show by Cynthia Linet,” on Facebook and Youtube.
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