workingclasshistory:

On this day, 13 September 1971, after negotiations for more humane treatment of prisoners broke down during the Attica Prison uprising and the desperate prisoners threatened their unharmed hostages, at the order of Govenor Nelson Rockefeller (of the absurdly rich Rockefeller family) to retake the prison, tear gas was dropped into the yard and New York State Police troopers opened fire non-stop for two minutes into the smoke. Among the weapons used by the troopers were shotguns, personal firearms, and bullets outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Both hostages and inmates (most of whom not resisting, as they stumbled and choked in the smoke) were killed and wounded. By the time the facility was retaken, twenty-nine inmates and nine hostages had been killed. Afterwards, in celebration of their murdering, police troopers were heard cheering “white power.” This is a short history of the uprising: https://libcom.org/history/1971-the-attica-prison-uprising https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1210000185851796/?type=3