Wed, 07/20/2011 – 5:41pm — Anonymous
On Wednesday, July 20th, we hung a banner that read “SOLIDARITY WITH CALI PRISONER HUNGER STRIKE (A) DESTROY ALL PRISONS” off the sixth floor of the parking garage on 3rd and Pine in Downtown Seattle. Below the banner, a smoke bomb was set off in the intersection, sending enormous plumes of orange smoke into the air. Those who hung the banner tossed thousands of fliers into the concrete canyon below the parking garage. The fliers rained down on the dozens of people waiting for the bus, grabbing lunch, shopping, or simply loitering. We later saw many people on the street reading and discussing the fliers.
This action was in solidarity with the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike which, as of the time of this writing, has spread to several other prisons in California. The thousands on hunger strike have been starving themselves for 20 days, some of them losing 25 to 30 pounds and suffering from such ailments as organ failure, loss of consciousness, and severe dehydration.
The action took place in one of the most heavily policed areas in Seattle. It is also one of the few public places in which many people still gather. On a normal day, the SPD and the King County Sherriffs patrol the streets on foot and on bike, locking up dozens of people for vagrancy, public intoxication, drinking, smoking weed, or any other reason they can think of. When they are not doing this, they are taking pictures with tourists at Pike Place Market, mock-arresting them and putting them in the back of their vintage cops cars, and parading around on their shit-dispensing horses. Despite this heavy police presence, the action was completely succesful.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE HUNGER STRIKERS AND ALL PRISONERS EVERYWHERE!
TOWARDS THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL CAGES!
TOTAL FREEDOM!
– anarchists
