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Abolition for the People: No Justice, No Peace, by Derrick Hamilton (17/30) — Transcript

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0:00[Music]
0:06hello
0:08all right so we are continuing
0:13a series of essays by kaepernick
0:16publishing
0:18called abolition for the people
0:22today's is uh i'll go ahead and put the
0:25link for it
0:28well no justice no freedom by derek
0:31hamilton
0:36um there's a
0:41very extensive new yorker article
0:44on eric hamilton which i would also
0:47recommend a read
0:49and i'll post that link up as well but
0:52um
0:54i'm not gonna fully go into that but
0:57because
0:58you know as i say there's a fair bit of
1:01this
1:03and there's a couple other things that i
1:05want to get into tonight i might do a
1:06full segment on
1:08this case at some point because it's
1:13it's the case of someone who was who
1:16lost
1:18you know their life because
1:22the criminal justice system is unjust
1:27let's dive right into it
1:43no justice no freedom
1:46criminal justice reform cost me 21 years
1:49of my life
1:51and uh before we get into this i just
1:54want to say for anyone who is new to the
1:56stream
1:57uh this is intended as kind of
1:59discussion i'll be
2:01uh doing asides every now and then to
2:05expand on things that i'm reading or
2:09or give thoughts on them and if if you
2:12have any thoughts or comments that you
2:14want to make
2:14feel free to chime in um
2:18no i don't it's intended as kind of a
2:20discussion
2:22because these are things that need
2:24talking about
2:39president clinton's infamous 1994 crime
2:41bill is just one example of why reform
2:44never goes far enough
2:45and often only exacerbates the issues
2:48it's meant to solve
2:52so again as a reminder this is the
2:53second essay in the
2:55[ __ ] reform section of the
2:58series of essays
3:06in 1994 new york state convicted me
3:10of murder i did not commit like
3:12countless others i was found guilty of
3:14causing harm
3:15when in fact i was victimized by a
3:18system that
3:19often uses fabricated evidence to fill
3:21prison cells with black men just like me
3:25for 21 years i languished in prison
3:28my time stolen by bill clinton's
3:31infamous 1994 crime bill
3:34legislation was publicized as a
3:36much-needed reform
3:37to get drugs off the street but like so
3:40many other reform efforts
3:42framed as ways to make our criminal
3:44legal system fair and equal for all
3:47it gave police and the prison system the
3:48means to incarcerate peace
3:50people without concern for justice
3:52itself
3:56in 2015 i was exonerated
3:59some years previous a woman whose
4:02testimony had
4:03helped secure my conviction recanted it
4:05claiming that one of the investigating
4:07detectives had coerced her into
4:10testifying
4:12the same detective louis carsella
4:16has had 16 cases overturned
4:20ultimately a brooklyn district attorney
4:22investigating old cases
4:24overturned my conviction
4:27while incarcerated i studied law and was
4:29able to find paths to freedom not just
4:31for myself
4:32but for other art incarcerated people
4:35who had been wrongfully convicted
4:37i learned that the average lawyer has
4:39too many cases not enough time to
4:41litigate zealously
4:43if i were ever to get out of prison i
4:45realized i would have to file motions on
4:47my own
4:48and assist my lawyers in proving my
4:51innocent
4:52while i was incarcerated no one else had
4:54a vested interest
4:55in me achieving this goal this is by
4:58design
5:03so yeah um one of the things that we
5:06talked about last
5:07week was how
5:10the system really doesn't have
5:14uh it is not an impartial system and it
5:19is absolutely not a perfect system
5:21people who are innocent can get caught
5:23up in the system very easily
5:29they
5:33oh uh dead naming is when
5:37you refer to a trans person by
5:41their um their name before they
5:44become trans and adopt a name that is of
5:48their
5:48appropriate gender
5:52there
5:56it's basically it it's
6:05i know the question wasn't to me but
6:07sometimes monica's
6:10unlurk mode i didn't know
6:40and uh so
6:44this uh you know this system
6:48there's a lot of pressure to get
6:49convictions and there's
6:52not pressure to actually
6:55um impartially carry out
7:00justice
7:15so like the way that um
7:21the way that it works with a lot of
7:23people is they will get
7:25arrested convicted they will get
7:27arrested
7:28and then pressured into picking a guilty
7:32plea
7:34because otherwise they're stuck you know
7:37and they can
7:38start getting on with the process of
7:41you know getting um
7:44or start doing their time and start like
7:49working towards getting out
7:52rather than having a lengthy trial
7:54process sometimes a guilty they're
7:57assured that they'll have a lighter
7:58sentencing or something
8:00as well um
8:03because even if they're innocent if
8:06they're stuck in jail for
8:07you know three four months
8:12they're um
8:15they could be having their lives ruined
8:16in that in that time period
8:20but uh in his case
8:23there was a detective who coerced
8:26testimony against him
8:31let's take a look at him
8:34this is derek hamilton leaves a
8:36courthouse in
8:38in the brooklyn borough of new york
8:40after hearing that vacated his 1991
8:42murder conviction
8:51one of the most daunting hurdles i
8:52encountered as a person incarcerated by
8:54the new york state department of
8:56corrections
8:57and community supervision was the
9:00anti-terrorism
9:01and effective death penalty act
9:04aedpa a 1996
9:08bill that uh president clinton signed
9:10into law
9:11this law also publicized as an important
9:14reform
9:15made it the case that once a person held
9:18in a state facility has exhausted
9:20their state remedies they can no longer
9:22pursue
9:23pursue federal recourse unless they can
9:26prove
9:27that an unreasonable application of
9:29united states supreme court precedent
9:31occurred this effectively creates an
9:34extremely narrow
9:36legal window and takes away the power of
9:38judges to release someone
9:39who they know is illegally confined
9:501994 and 1996 bills were essentially
9:53designed to do three things
9:55one give police and government officials
9:58the tools to fight what they deemed
9:59an extended war on drugs in black and
10:02brown communities
10:03and two build more prisons particularly
10:07solitary confinement unit
10:09three lock up more black and brown
10:12people
10:12in the process pushing them through the
10:14difficult to understand criminal legal
10:16system
10:21now
10:26unfortunately what we find is
10:30a lot of people who are not
10:34you know the de facto targets of
10:37these laws in implementation
10:41don't see this they are
10:45bad concerns about
10:48you know drugs uh especially you know
10:52drugs getting into the hands of kids or
10:53whatever and that is used as
10:55justification to push these kinds of
10:57reforms into place
11:00and there's a lot of language that goes
11:02into
11:05justifying them such as well
11:08you know we don't want these people just
11:11constantly appealing and putting a drain
11:14on the system
11:15once they're held in in
11:19state custody
11:22so
11:25even though people should be given
11:29the right to appeal they put limitations
11:31on it
11:32and they call it a cost cutting measure
11:35but what it does like he says here is
11:38it shuts doors that should be assured
11:42rights
11:44[Music]
11:49for example the 1996 spill imposed a
11:52one-year statute of limitations
11:54for filing for habeas relief this
11:57provision created an
11:58undue burden on non-lawyers to
12:00understand the complexity
12:02of this new enactment president
12:04clinton's reform law
12:06away federal review of state court
12:08convictions to incarcerated people
12:10perhaps have not had the luxury of years
12:12of formal legal training
12:14they could not understand what an
12:16unreasonable application of united
12:18states precedent meant
12:19let alone how to apply it
12:24the so-called truth in sentencing bill
12:27that
12:27president clinton signed in 1994 was
12:30publicized as a way to curb drug
12:31offenses
12:33this gave police both in new york city
12:35and beyond
12:36the power to conduct illegal
12:38stop-and-frisk searches
12:40plant evidence and falsify reports
12:43to justify an arrest this created a
12:46quota system
12:47in which police felt the only way to
12:49move up the ranks
12:51was to make more arrests
12:56these are things that we have talked
12:57about and
12:59the incentives that are created by the
13:01system
13:03notably of course the language of the
13:06bill
13:07doesn't put things in these explicit
13:09terms these are
13:11the implicit effects of the of the law
13:16and that's a really important
13:17distinction to make because people get
13:19confused
13:20very easily they're like oh well you
13:21know the law doesn't say
13:23that it's like yeah it may not say
13:26that explicitly but
13:30if it shields police
13:33from legal
13:36uh consequence
13:40or falsifying reports or for planting
13:43evidence
13:46and there's no downside to doing so and
13:48there's an upside
13:49in obtaining arrests
13:53then all the incentive is to do those
13:56things
13:59i wonder how much the american culture
14:02bias
14:03against bureaucracy feeds into this not
14:06just cops and lawmakers but citizens
14:07seem to view
14:08following procedure closely being
14:10difficult in ways
14:18[Music]
14:23another reason that i'm glad that he's
14:24hammering on these in particular is
14:28the problems that exist in our legal
14:31system
14:32and the injustice of our cultural state
14:37is bipartisan in nature
14:41democrats are not the answer to
14:43resolving it
14:44obviously republicans are not either but
14:48i think it is you know it is useful to
14:51point that out
15:01uh but yeah i think you may be
15:04somewhat correct there shaloon um
15:07although i think a larger part of it is
15:12uh is our kind of cop worship and
15:15our reluctance to
15:22the the opposite side of cop worship
15:25which i think a lot of people have just
15:27been conditioned to
15:31avoid or have a knee-jerk reaction to is
15:34admitting
15:36that cops can get it wrong
15:40a lot of people do not want to admit
15:41that they want to say oh well
15:43okay maybe there's a handful of bad cops
15:45but
15:47it's not about an individual officer
15:51it's systems in place
15:54that create incentives to
15:58do things badly or systems in place
16:01which just
16:02unfairly put burdens on
16:05the incarcerated
16:09whether that be the bail system or these
16:12limitations on
16:14being able to appeal their arrest or
16:17what have you
16:21hadn't considered before yeah
16:24uh i think it gets in the way of
16:26presenting alternatives or being
16:28sympathetic to arrested
16:29yeah uh you could be correct there
16:32for sure
16:36you see the same thing in the
16:37immigration debate actually um how
16:39people are just like well
16:40you know they should just come in
16:42legally without
16:44ever actually appreciating
16:47how completely dysfunctional the legal
16:50immigration system actually is
16:54right like
16:58there's an assumption that if you're
17:01caught up
17:02in the legal system at at some point
17:05you are in the wrong when
17:09it's so convoluted that pretty much
17:11anyone could be
17:13arrested for something
17:16or justification for their arrest could
17:20be
17:20made out of whole cloth and they could
17:23be arrested
17:24all the same um
17:34and and that is just kind of part of the
17:37bureaucratic system
17:38of our massive law enforcement machine
17:42and it shouldn't be that way like
17:47if it was pared down and more focused on
17:50rehabilitation and
17:51community health i would imagine
17:54that structure would look a lot simpler
17:58in implementation and would be a lot
18:00less bureaucratic
18:03it says i had a cop look for every
18:05reason he could to arrest me for the
18:06crime of riding in a car while being
18:08visibly queer a few months ago
18:16[Music]
18:19that is that is definitely a thing that
18:20happens um
18:23and is happening a lot more in some
18:25states towards trans folks
18:29especially as some of these you know
18:35obviously like bathroom bills and other
18:38thing
18:38and all that is are going on the books
18:41like they're
18:42they're trying to create justifications
18:44just to arrest trans people for existing
18:49in public spaces
18:55because those who are
18:58trying to do this stuff uh yeah they
19:01definitely
19:02want to
19:07they want to erase their app groups
19:16i mean genocide needs to be called what
19:19it is and that's what it is
19:30germany didn't start with the death
19:32camps
19:34they moved there one inch at a time
19:37through what they could get people to
19:38buy into
19:49people who just wanted to stay on the
19:51fence about [ __ ]
19:52did so and things got worse and worse
19:55and worse
20:00i don't want to sorry
20:03i just it it does upset me how
20:07massive uh too many people are
20:11about this stuff
20:15and like i mean the reason that i bang
20:17on about this stuff is
20:20is that the attitude that needs to be
20:24internalized is the whole
20:26as long as
20:30some aren't free none of us are free
20:36or even the other adage of
20:40first they came for
20:44because yeah um
20:48i am in pretty much every privileged
20:51group i could
20:53happily live a comfortable life and just
20:56turn a blind eye to all this [ __ ]
21:00um
21:02i no longer think that that
21:05is living as even just a decent person
21:09and a lot of people do say you know such
21:12and such they're not bigoted
21:14they just don't really get involved
21:17i don't think that's acceptable anymore
21:20um i mean marginalized communities would
21:24say it's never been acceptable but
21:26you know i say anymore because i used to
21:29be
21:31more on that side of thinking
21:35oh yeah i don't
21:39i feel like this like
21:43if
21:54i i ask myself like how many of
21:58my family or close friends would i watch
22:01be murdered by police on tv
22:05before i acted out it's like it would
22:07take one
22:08and i would be just absolutely enraged
22:13but that's the case
22:16and i actually view other people
22:20as equals as as my neighbors
22:23you know then i need to
22:27bear in that outrage and i need to call
22:30out that injustice
22:31as if it were my own
22:36i don't know that's that's why i see it
22:38anyway
22:50i'll be i'll be talking a little bit
22:52more in depth about that
22:55after this because
22:58since critical race theory is all going
23:00around
23:02as something to be feared of
23:05i decided tonight would be a good night
23:07to talk about
23:09i've been reading up on it a fair bit so
23:13anyway
23:17back to this we must abolish any system
23:21that permits prosecutors and judges to
23:24be protected by the 11th amendment
23:26which gives them immunity when they
23:27abuse their power
23:29by holding prosecutors and judges
23:31accountable the police will then have to
23:33answer
23:34for their actions because the prosecutor
23:36or judge can't protect them
23:40accountability would entail removing
23:42them from office when there is proof
23:44that they have violated their oath of
23:46kandor the courts
23:48and fairness of the to the accused
23:51an ethical oath all judges and
23:53prosecutors swear to uphold
23:57now it
24:01uh there's reading
24:05um there's not a lot of text
24:09to the 11th amendment but uh
24:12so
24:15let's go ahead and read it the judicial
24:19power of the united states
24:20shall not be construed to extend to any
24:23suit in
24:24law or equity commenced or prosecuted
24:27against one of the united states by
24:30citizens
24:31of another state or by citizens or
24:33subjects of any foreign state
24:41um now
24:45this has been interpreted pretty
24:47extensively
24:48uh and pretty broadly
24:51um mean that
24:58uh
25:02it won't let a state be sued without its
25:05own consent
25:06and so a judge counts as part of the
25:10state structure
25:12it seems rather than as an individual
25:15judge
25:16so he kind of gets
25:20uh the protection of a state
25:23now my understanding of this may be a
25:26little off
25:28i'm not a constitutional lawyer but
25:30that's
25:31from what i could kind of re that's
25:34where that
25:35protects judges
25:40and state prosecutors
25:50the 13th amendment should also be
25:52abolished because it permits
25:54and legalizes incarcerated people to be
25:56treated as slaves
26:01now a while back
26:05kanye west got into a lot of hot water
26:08for his take on the 13th amendment
26:11and i'm not really gonna defend him here
26:15but i will say
26:18i his argument wasn't very compelling
26:21derek's here is but derek is a lawyer so
26:25[Music]
26:26i wanted to draw that distinction
26:29[Music]
26:30many incarcerated people became mentally
26:33ill
26:34from long years in punitive housing
26:36self-included
26:38i spent 10 years in segregation housing
26:40where i was confined
26:42for 23 hours a day if we are
26:46to make a fairer society where all
26:49people are
26:49treated fairly and with dignity we must
26:53start
26:53with eradicating any laws and
26:55institutions that discriminate against
26:58individuals
27:00[Music]
27:04institutions like prisons destroy
27:06families
27:07don't make communities safer and
27:09intensify poverty
27:12as long as any member of society can be
27:14treated as a slave
27:15there will be abuse of power by the
27:17slave owner history has taught us no
27:19less
27:24and this you know gets back to where
27:28as an alternative to prisons in the
27:31event that someone
27:32is deemed so much a threat that they
27:35must be separated from society
27:37having them live in some sort of
27:38residential community
27:41is a much more humane
27:46way of handling things and it can
27:49potentially
27:50rehabilitate them over time
27:54they if they were able to live with
27:57their dignity as
27:58a human being rather than as a slave
28:03but most shouldn't even need to be
28:06incarcerated in the first place
28:12together president clinton's 1994 and
28:151996 reforms
28:18led to my spending 21 years in prison
28:21in the absence of such laws the officer
28:23that framed me for murder
28:25would not have had the powerful
28:27resources and the ability to do so
28:30he still receives a pension from new
28:32york city and has not been held
28:34accountable for any of his actions
28:36despite the fact that dozens
28:37of his past murder cases are under
28:40investigation
28:42reform may sound appealing but we must
28:45abolish laws and institutions
28:46that have been enacted to give police
28:48and prisons more power and immunity
28:51a society that holds everyone
28:53accountable is the only one
28:55worth living in
28:59is the first step toward honoring the
29:01dignity and fundamental humanity of
29:03black and brown people
29:17he's making an appeal here which is is
29:19specifically against
29:20uh the the way that the legal system
29:23protects police
29:25and the courts and not just them but
29:29also lawmakers
29:33in the past four years if they've taught
29:34us anything it's that
29:38uh you know people who are in
29:42these positions of power they don't
29:44they're not bound by the law
29:46at all um
29:50whether it be you know devin nunes
29:53or bilbar or any of those folks
29:57um and they're you know there's a number
30:00of democrats
30:01as well who just regularly
30:04run afoul of you know
30:08ethics violations and campaign finance
30:11all these sorts of things
30:12like they just they know
30:15that there's not a downside for doing it
30:18so they do it
30:24our legal system is designed
30:27to keep the
30:32most disadvantaged at a disadvantage
30:36to keep the most impoverished in
30:39destitute
30:40conditions and basically maintain
30:44a carceral slave population
30:49if you analyze the effects of it that is
30:53that is the only conclusion you can come
30:55to
30:57especially when you add in things like
31:00dying people even the right to appeal
31:03their their own
31:07situations and such
31:11um i do strongly recommend
31:14digging into the new yorker article it
31:17goes through
31:20his his history his conviction his time
31:23in jail it's a very good read it's a
31:27fairly lengthy read which is i mean i
31:30don't mind doing lengthy reads on stream
31:32and maybe i will do this one this week
31:34or something
31:37um but i i
31:40i want to cover some other stuff tonight
31:43so
31:45i i do strongly recommend it i'll i'll
31:48drop it in the discord as well
31:49in case you didn't get it
31:52or in case you didn't catch it you're
31:58live
32:03um
32:06but yeah uh
32:10it it's uh it's really disturbing
32:15how much he went through um 21 years
32:19and it wasn't like
32:25like you said he was also in isolation
32:28for a lot of those
32:32and he was regularly mistreated
32:35uh abused he was denied his things
32:41frequently um
32:45and all for a crime he didn't commit
32:50is he had people who could testify
32:53to his alibi and
32:57that was thrown out in court in favor of
33:02what turned out to be falsified
33:04testimony
33:05coerced by an investigating detective
33:11all just to try to make more arrests
33:15because
33:16the metrics say more arrests good
33:19actually in in police departments
33:25so yeah
33:33the only silver lining here is he did
33:35eventually see
33:38get his freedom returned but there's no
33:41giving him back
33:4321 years of his life lost
33:50so yeah
33:52that was derek hamilton
33:56no justice no freedom
34:0017th essay of 30 in the abolition
34:04for the people series
34:11we are yeah we're
34:14cruising through these one a week
34:21you

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