vague-humanoid:

Christopher “Naeem” Trotter had three months left in prison. Then, on February 1, 1985, he tried to save another incarcerated man’s life in a fight against white supremacists — and was punished with over a century behind bars.

In 1985, 23-year-old Trotter was finishing a four-year prison sentence at the Indiana Reformatory, which is now known as the Pendleton Correctional Facility.

That February morning, he reminded himself that soon, he would be home and able to care of his mother, whose mental health had been declining. He was also looking forward to meeting his 3-year-old daughter, who was born while he was imprisoned.

“I was a momma’s boy,” he told Truthout. “It was my beloved mother who always taught me to stand up for that which is right and to never just stand by and watch acts of injustice take place.” As a child, he had shielded both his brother and mother from his father’s violence. And that morning, though he didn’t know it, he would act to protect someone else — and pay for it with his freedom.

First, he smelled mace. He knew from experience that could only mean that the prison guards were using it against other incarcerated men. Then he heard men hollering, “They’re killing Lincoln Love! They’re killing him!”

Trotter knew Lincoln Love. Known to his peers as Lokmar Abdul-Wadood, Love was a jailhouse lawyer, or an incarcerated person who helped others with their legal work.

That morning, according to Rodney Jones, who was in the cell directly across from Love, guards arrived at Love’s cell and ordered him to “cuff up,” or prepare to be handcuffed and have his cell searched. Before Love could rise from his bunk, several officers entered his cell and began beating him. They continued to beat him after handcuffing him and even after he was unconscious, Jones told Truthout.

This in itself was not unusual — Trotter and several other men who had been incarcerated during that time attested that staff brutality, particularly against Black men, was rampant. Two years earlier, people at the reformatory had filed civil rights complaints with the U.S. Justice Department. They had also sent multiple letters to the local newspaper about individual instances of harassment and abuse. What was unusual was what happened next.

Other men also heard the cries for help. John “Balagoon” Cole was friends with Love. He, too, had experienced staff violence and wanted to protect his friend. Cole, Trotter and half a dozen other men went to the captain’s office to demand that he stop the beating. There, they encountered club-wielding guards, who tried to chase them off. The men fought back, injuring several guards, before heading to the infirmary, where they had been told Love had been taken.

At the infirmary, more officers confronted them.

Minkah Becktemba had been working at the prison laundry that morning when he saw guards dragging Love across the yard to the hospital. Shortly after, the prison called a lockdown. He tried to get into his housing unit, banging on the door until the guard on duty unlocked the door. When he did, several other men, including Cole and Trotter, poured in. They took over the unit and held three staff members hostage.

“We didn’t intend to take over the cell house,” Trotter explained. “If we could have surrendered without any physical reprisals, we would have.”

“We were forced to take hostages and take the house so that we could negotiate a peaceful resolution,” Cole elaborated. Both believed that, had they not done so, guards would have killed them.

From the housing unit, Becktemba called WTLC, a local Black radio station, and asked reporters to come to the prison. “That was what we had to do or else we’d end up dead,” he told Truthout. WTLC contacted other media, which soon arrived at the prison.

The men issued 14 demands, including investigations into all allegations of staff violence, adequate medical care, pay raises for prison jobs, improved educational programs, and no physical reprisals against those who had participated in the uprising. They also demanded that media be allowed to interview them about prison conditions.

After 17 hours, prison officials agreed to their demands. The men released the hostages. Media trailed the men as they were placed in segregation; the journalists’ presence ensured their safety. Within days, prison staff transferred Becktemba, Cole and Trotter to the Indiana State Farm (now Putnamville Correctional Facility).

Prison records and media accounts at the time stated that Trotter and Cole stabbed or slashed seven staff members that morning. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against Trotter, Cole, Becktemba, and three other men. The trial of Trotter and Cole was severed from the others. Prosecutors charged the two with attempted murder, rioting, assault and several counts of confinement (or kidnapping).

At their trial, Michael Richardson, one of the guards whom Cole had stabbed, testified that Pendleton’s officers were members of a white supremacist group called the Sons of Light. He explained that, while the group is not affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and doesn’t pay Klan dues, it uses the same literature and engages in similar types of rituals. He also testified that staff had beaten Lincoln Love even after he was handcuffed and posed no threat, and that they continued to beat, kick and stomp him after he fell unconscious.

Cole, who had three-and-a-half years left on his sentence, was acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of four counts of criminal confinement, each carrying a 20-year prison sentence, and rioting. The judge sentenced him to consecutive sentences for a total of 84 years. He spent 32 years and five months in solitary. In August 2017, he was allowed back into general population where he could have human contact. His release date is 2038. By then, he will be 79 years old.

Trotter, who had been looking forward to taking care of his mother and young daughter, was convicted of attempted murder, criminal confinement and rioting. He was sentenced to 142 years.

In 1990, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld Trotter’s and Cole’s convictions.

Becktemba was tried separately. Prosecutors charged him with five counts of confinement, conspiracy to confinement, rioting and conspiracy to riot. Each charge carried a maximum of 20 years. Ultimately, Becktemba was convicted of rioting and acquitted of all else. He was released in the mid-1990s.

@chrisdornerfanclub @el-shab-hussein