Outrage Over Prisoner Force Feeding Plans

From: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/outrage-over-cdcr-force-feeding-plans/

Supporters of prisoners who are on the 43rd day of hunger strike are expressing outrage at an order signed today [8/19/13] by a federal judge allowing strikers to be force fed, disregarding international human rights principles.

“CDCR justifies asking for the order to force feed by claiming that the widespread hunger strike is ‘orchestrated’ by gangs, that the massive participation and support for the demands is coerced and that prisoners have signed ‘do not resuscitate’ directives under duress,” according to Claude Marks of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. “This order violates all international laws and standards and gives the medical director of each prison authority to violate human rights laws instead of reasonably negotiating with prisoners.” Thousand of prisoners have united to challenge the torture of prolonged isolation, demanding an accountable process to challenge the gang validations that have kept them in security housing for decades.
Continues Marks, “”This approach, much like Guantanamo, sets the US apart from all related international human rights standards.”

From: http://solitarywatch.com/
Robert Lowell called it “man’s lovely, peculiar power to choose life and die”–the ability of human beings to give up their lives willingly in service of a cause greater than their individual selves.

But the state of California, with the approval of a federal judge, now has the ability to deny even this last, most desperate human right to the dozens of men in solitary confinement who are risking death after six full weeks of hunger striking.

As the Associated Press reports, this afternoon “state corrections officials and a federal receiver who controls inmate medical care received blanket authority from U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco to feed inmates who may be in failing health. The order includes those who recently signed requests that they not be revived [DNRs].”

According to the AP, as many as 70 men are in dire condition and may be candidates for force-feeding. They will join the dozens of men at Guantanamo who have been fed for months via tubes forced through their noses and down their throats into their stomachs–a practice that is clearly in violation of international law.

The state has chosen this course rather than negotiate seriously with the hunger strikers. California Corrections head Jeffrey Beard has called the 43-day strike a “gang power play,” although the former gang leaders are among the starving. Governor Jerry Brown stands silent. But presumably they are in agreement with the force-feeding strategy, which will prevent the strikers from becoming martyrs.

“Is Force Feeding Torture?” by Joe Nocera, 5/31/13 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/opinion/nocera-is-force-feeding-torture.html?_r=1&
“The World Medical Association holds that it is unethical for a doctor to participate in force-feeding. Put simply, force feeding violates international law.”

“American Medical Association Opposes Force Feeding Hunger Strikers at Gitmo,” 4/30/13
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/04/30/1940121/ama-force-feeding-gitmo/
In the letter to Hagel, AMA President Dr. Jeremy Lazarus said force-feeding competent prisoners making a conscious choice to refuse food is against medical ethical standards, the Miami Herald reports:

“Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life-sustaining interventions,” Lazarus said, adding that the AMA took the same position on force-feeding Guantánamo prisoners in 2009 and 2005.

“The AMA has long endorsed the World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo, which is unequivocal on the point: ‘Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially.’”
The AMA isn’t the first high-profile condemnation of force-feeding at Gitmo. A bipartisan expert report released earlier this month by the Constitution Project condemned the practice. “[We] came out very strongly condemning force feeding and this is in keeping and in line with international ethical standards,” said Dr. Gerald Thomson, a member of the Constitution Project’s detainee task force that compiled the report.

The 4/30/13 Miami Herald story by Carol Rosenberg is at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/30/3372407/guantanamo-hunger-strike-holds.html

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Democrat Gov Brown received the full cooperation of “liberal” Democrat Judge Thelton Henderson for refusing to grant the prisoners’ modest demands by allowing the illegal, unethical force-feeding that is painful and dangerous and is currently used with the approval of fellow Democrat Pres Obama, allowing him to keep open the illegal torture camp, Guantanamo Prison Camp, which houses men ages 27 to 65 who have never been charged or received any trial. THIS IS CALLED FASCISM brought to you by the Democratic Party, the same as the Republican Party.

Democrat Gov Brown is also ILLEGALLY allowing spoiled and contaminated food to be served to prisoners. Listen to the KPFA, 94.1 FM report of Sunday, August 18, 2013 on the 6 p.m. news at:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/18/18741756.php
or
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/94463

All prisoners should receive the same food as the prison guards. The prison guard who delivers the food trays should keep one tray for himself and deliver the other trays, with the same food, to the prisoners he oversees. The food should be high in vitamins and minerals and low in fat and sodium. A grown man needs 2,000 calories a day. The prisoners are on a starvation diet when not on a hunger strike EVERY DAY in that the food is already insufficient, and it is often spoiled or contaminated with soapy water. THESE PRISONS ARE CONCENTRATION CAMPS brought to us by the twin parties of war and fascism, the Democrat-Republicans.

In addition. Democratic Gov Jerry Brown wants to build more prisons with our tax dollars instead of building schools, which means that the ruling class has opted for fascism, including genocidal destruction of the workingclass! You can sign a petition to protest this outrage at:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11826

You can also sign petitions supporting the hunger strikers at:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11455

http://www.change.org/petitions/support-pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-five-core-demands-hunger-strike

If you oppose force-feeding, starvation diets, serving spoiled and contaminated food, solitary confinement, funding prisons instead of schools, then you have to support the only two parties on the ballot who share the same position as you, Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party, the ONLY TWO VIABLE PARTIES ON THE BALLOT. What makes a party viable is its platform. Their candidates can only be elected to office if you vote for them. It is your fault if they are not elected because you voted for the twin parties of war and fascism, the Democrat-Republicans. Peace & Freedom and the Green Party need you now to stay on the ballot. You can change your registration at:
https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/

For more information, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/about-us/platform/full-platform

http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.cagreens.org/platform
http://www.gp.org/index.php
http://www.gp.org/index.php/what-we-believe.html