Kite Line Kite Line

Eight days ago, students and others established a tent camp - a Liberated Zone - at IU's Dunn Meadow, as part of a national rising tide of protest against Israel's war in Gaza. Within hours, Indiana State Police arrived from Indianapolis and attacked the students, injuring dozens and arresting 34 students and faculty. The protesters were undaunted, rebuilt their encampment, and faced a repeat assault that Saturday. The repressive apparatus reached this level of violence across the country, with dozens of camps and occupied buildings facing militarized incursions by police. This begs the question of why the state turned so quickly to naked violence, even compared to previous movements that have had to face down and defeat police violence. Many have pointed to Cop City and similar police training facilities, which have worked since the 2020 George Floyd Uprising to prepare cops to squash anti-racist protest. We have covered the Stop Cop City movement previously on Kite Line. There is certainly an intimate relationship between prisons, police violence, and this country's long history of racist repression. We spoke to local IU faculty and other movement participants about this sequence and what it says about the future.

This week, we focus on two people who are studies in dignity in the face of state repression. Jack Mazurek was arrested in Atlanta yesterday and charged with arson. These allegations stemmed from an attack last July on police motorcycles, which was rooted in the movement against Cop City. He is standing strong despite the serious charges against him, as people around the country mobilize in his defense. After addressing Jack's charges, the rest of the episode features Leon Benson, who survived decades in Indiana prisons, organizing against the guards and admins despite terrifying repression, and who emerged unbroken and exonerated a year ago.

For our first episode of the new year, we wanted to begin sharing an interview with Leon Benson. In this conversation, he covers his release from prison, reflections on the treatment he received from the authorities, and his work on the outside.  This is a special privilege for Kite Line, since we have aired Benson's work and thought many times over the years, since he was a leading organizer and thinker inside the Indiana Department of Corrections.  We are thrilled that he has been released and are excited to share news of his ongoing work to challenge the prison system. In this segment, he shares the story of what led him to be arrested for a murder he didn't commit. We will continue this interview in our next episode.



You can hear previous episodes with Leon and his family members:



https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/you-cant-force-the-state-to-abide-by-the-law/



https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/253-truth-never-dies/



https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/leon-benson-in-his-own-words-part-one/



https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/leon-benson-in-his-own-words-part-two/



https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/staying-in-touch-a-conversation-with-leon-benson/



 



 



 

In this episode, we have our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle. Afterwards, we have a conversation with Sophia Johnson, also known as Candle, who is an anarchist writer who currently serving a sentence in Oregon. In this conversation, she talks about writing in prison, and her ongoing struggle to receive adequate health care.

Since 2021, a diverse movement in has challenged the construction of Cop City, which is slated to destroy Atlanta's South River Forest.  The forest is also known by its Muscogee name, Weelaunee.  The movement has created new intersections between abolitionist and environmental politics, since it is defending a forest with important ecological elements for the surrounding Black community, in order to protest the creation of new police training facilities.



In the movement's latest phase, a new coalition called Block Cop City made an ambitious proposal for mass, non-violent action.  That action forced the city to suspend construction that day- and as of our airdate- has not resumed in the days since.



Here are selections from the statement issued by Block Cop City about the mobilization:



On November 13th, a bold and joyful procession of roughly 500 people marched along a public road to the proposed Cop City construction site. Holding banners and giant puppets, and accompanied by drummers and a brass band, Block Cop City activists reclaimed Atlanta's rich civil rights legacy from politicians who continue to tarnish it with every voter disenfranchised and each tear gas canister thrown. Despite the violent response by police, activists minimized arrests and harm through careful planning, extensive preparation, and close attention to lessons learned from generations of revolutionary struggles against repression and authoritarianism.



Despite numerous stated commitments from religious leaders and city officials to honor the right to protest, armed riot police terrorized the crowd with tear gas grenades, attack dogs, clubs and ballistic shields.



As other protestors took to planting tree saplings in the Weelaunee Forest, journalists were forcibly separated from the crowd and threatened with arrest by police. We condemn this infringement of these journalists' rights as well as the arrest of protestors including the Indigenous activists arrested while visiting Tortuguita's altar in the Weelaunee Forest over the weekend.



The movement to Stop Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest is undeterred by today's police aggression.







Photo credit: Mia Beach



 

On today's Kite Line, we are sharing more research conducted collectively by Micol Seigel's Inside-Out class. Last spring, this course brought together students at Indiana University and students held by the Indiana Department of Corrections. This presentation is focused on the tension between surveillance and sousveillance, a term for when apparatuses like social media and smartphones are turned around and used against state violence and official abuses.



Thanks to the students who wrote and recorded this project.