theintercept--2020-06-20--Beyond Jamaal Bowman, Progressives Targeting New York Incumbents Up and Down the Ballot

The campaigns of the last two years created a roadmap for left-wing insurgents this cycle , with the Cabán and Ocasio-Cortez races pointing progressives to the New York City neighborhoods where their strength is particularly strong , exposing opportunities to unseat new incumbents .
The 2018 bids for governor , lieutenant governor , and attorney general , by Cynthia Nixon , Jumaane Williams , and Zephyr Teachout , respectively , left behind additional local data .
While Jamaal Bowman ’ s challenge to Rep. Eliot Engel has gotten the most coverage , Reps. Yvette Clarke , Greg Meeks , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the left .
Progressive Mondaire Jones , meanwhile , has moved into the lead in an open congressional primary in a southern New York district .
That same force is rattling the cages of the machine in down-ballot races throughout the city .
Then came Tiffany Cabán , a former public defender who ran a shoestring campaign for Queens district attorney and came out ahead on election day in the summer of 2019 , only to lose by a few dozen votes when the absentee ballots were counted .
The first inside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knocked off Queens machine boss Joe Crowley in June 2018 .
Three months later , a slew of progressive and socialist insurgents beat incumbents in New York state legislative primaries : some who ’ d been serving decades , and others who ’ d been part of the renegade Independent Democratic Conference , which shifted power in Albany toward Republicans .
Those primaries brought Jessica Ramos , Alessandra Biaggi , Julia Salazar , and a host of others to Albany , where they uncorked a burst of bottled-up of progressive legislation .
González-Rojas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive challengers taking on state Assembly incumbents in the June 23 primary , running largely on the argument that New York ’ s pandemic-and-Trump-administration-produced budget crisis should be resolved by taxing the wealthy rather than austerity .
The insurgency is also coming for the top prosecutor in Albany , with a Bernie Sanders-backed challenger taking on a 16-year incumbent .
Jabari Brisport , meanwhile , a public school teacher and Democratic Socialists of America activist , is running for an open Brooklyn state Senate seat against the machine-backed Tremaine Wright ; he has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Salazar , Nixon , the Working Families Party , and most of the institutional left .
If Brisport follows Salazar to Albany , the city ’ s Senate delegation will have significant DSA representation .
Despite the presence of other progressives in the primary , González-Rojas has the consolidated support of New York ’ s socialist and progressive organizations .
( Ocasio-Cortez has not endorsed in this race , having weighed in only on competitive local primaries outside of her district .
“ I understand that endorsements are complicated , ” González-Rojas said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Queens , for instance , covering Jackson Heights , has been represented for years by Michael DenDekker , a reliable cog in the local machine , yet it broke 59-26 for Cabán .
Jessica González-Rojas , a longtime activist and the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health , saw what was happening around her .
“ We saw wins like AOC , who ’ s my congresswoman , and Jessica Ramos , who took out an IDC member , which is the Independent Democratic Conference , and then Catalina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assemblywoman , who was a former DREAMer , ” she said .
“ All these inspiring Latinas breaking glass ceilings , and then a lot of my neighbors are like , ‘ Is DenDekker still there ?
Why don ’ t you run against him ?
’ ” In addition to Brisport , the NYC DSA is backing Samelys López for the House of Representatives , Zohran Mamdani for Assembly in Queens , and Phara Souffrant Forrest and Marcela Mitaynes for Assembly in Brooklyn .
The group nearly doubled its first quarter fundraising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to support phone banking , mailers , and other critical resources for the campaigns in its slate of endorsements .
Nixon ’ s endorsement by the DSA during her 2018 gubernatorial run was controversial within the organization , but the argument that backing her would help build the group ’ s capacity now appears prescient .
She has remained active with the group , and appeared alongside Sanders surrogates Nina Turner , Philip Agnew , and Jaboukie Young-White at a high-profile NYC-DSA fundraiser on May 31 .
They raised $ 60,000 that night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the multiracial , class-conscious movement inspired by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and led largely by young and working people is alive and well — even as politicians and news organizations critical of Sanders have penned its obituary in the wake of his failed presidential bid .
“ When we talk about the political revolution that means building power at every level of government , ” Sanders tweeted after two socialists won primaries for state legislative office in Philadelphia this month .
running in New York City , have public opinion on their side @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Data For Progress .
Four in five voters favor high taxes on those making more than $ 2 million per year and an additional tax on investment gains made by billionaires .
Three-quarters backed a tax on people with multiple homes , and four in five supported a tax on digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook .
Just three in 10 supported cuts to Medicaid .
A broad coalition of progressive groups — Make the Road New York , Citizen Action of New York , New York Working Families Party , New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Community Voices Heard , and the Alliance for Quality Education — has rallied behind most of those candidates , while being split on others , and seized on the results of the survey .
“ During this pandemic , he has balanced the state budget on the backs of working-class Black and brown people once , and threatens to do it again , ” the coalition said in a statement , referring to Democratic Gov .
Andrew Cuomo .
“ This data show that New Yorkers categorically reject the Governor ’ s approach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the legislature.
” “ We keep hearing that the coronavirus has put New York state in debt and put us in a position where cuts are necessary .
We progressives , myself included , are saying , wait a second , there ’ s money on the table that we ’ re not addressing , ” González-Rojas .
“ What ’ s exciting about the poll is that there ’ s data there .
It ’ s not just hearsay or conversations .
There ’ s real numbers behind it , that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health care or housing in a moment where there ’ s money on the table.
” Incumbent Aravella Simotas largely votes the Democratic line , but that might not work anymore in this district , where Ocasio-Cortez and Cabán both romped over their opponents in gentrifying Astoria , and voters also backed Nixon , Williams , and Teachout in their 2018 statewide races .
Housing activist Zohran Mamdani , whose race is a major priority of DSA , doesn ’ t have the backing of much else of the more established progressive infrastructure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it an interesting test of the strength of the DSA and the left absent that institutional support .
Simotas , meanwhile , is backed by companies fighting labor protections for gig workers ; New Yorkers for Flexible Work , which appears to be a front group for companies like Uber and Lyft , is running ads on Spotify in support of her .
Uber ’ s top lobbyist , Patrick Jenkins , donated $ 1,000 to Simotas last month .
Jenkins is a longtime friend and former college roommate of New York State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received a contribution of $ 500 from Savas Konstantinides , a city taxi fleet owner under federal investigation into possible lending fraud in the city taxi industry .
Mamdani ’ s campaign is focusing on rights for drivers in the district .
Part of this district , gentrifying quickly , is similar to Mamdani ’ s , but part is still traditional Queens neighborhoods , where young people and progressives have made fewer inroads .
Incumbent Catherine Nolan , not particularly progressive , is fortunate to have two challengers rather than one — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may end up splitting the progressive vote .
Local activists say Jabaida , running a shoe-string operation , is giving Nolan the most serious challenge and has the most progressive support , though neither has institutional backing from the coalition backing a broader slate .
Assistant Assembly Speaker Felix Ortiz has served since 1994 , and has been tied up in a corruption investigation .
Marcela Mitaynes , a housing activist , has the backing of everyone from DSA to WFP and Ocasio-Cortez , whose willingness to endorse against a member of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This is arguably the city ’ s closest-watched Assembly race .
This rapidly gentrifying district in the heart of Brooklyn was once represented by Hakeem Jeffries , now a member of Congress and major power player locally and nationally .
Jeffries ’ s friend and successor , Walter Mosley , has the backing of the WFP ( he bucked leadership to back WFP ’ s ballot access ) , but nurse and housing activist Phara Souffrant has the support of DSA and Ocasio-Cortez — making this race something of a proxy war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ titans whose congressional staffs have been engaged in high-profile conflict .
New Yorkers for Flexible Work , the group running ads against Simotas , is also spending on ads in support of Mosley .
Carmen Aroyyo , the 84-year-old machine incumbent in this South Bronx district , was challenged by 29-year-old Amanda Septimo from the left with the backing of WFP .
Arroyo falsified her petition signatures and was disqualified from the ballot , meaning the insurgent will waltz into the seat .
Septimo had run a strong race for the seat in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the adage that if you want to win , you often have to run twice .
Sam Fein , an Albany County legislator , was recruited by the WFP to take on incumbent John McDonald III .
The local SEIU is behind Fein , but there is little progressive infrastructure outside New York City to boost him .
This race could help build that , giving local progressives something to organize around .
Adam Bojak , a tenants rights attorney , is running with the backing of DSA national , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DSA ’ s strength outside the city .
WFP is behind Jon Rivera .
of other races , the left is working to fend off challenges to progressive incumbents .
Steven Lee , a controversial New York police officer , is challenging Assemblyman Ron Kim , a foe of the local real estate industry who was pivotal in fending off Amazon ’ s headquarters .
Lee and his campaign chair were recently caught ginning up racist memes to attack Kim .
Lee ’ s campaign chair Mike Cheng , in a chatroom run @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kim Jong Un praising Lee ’ s politics , and suggested people circulate it , adding , in a remarkable admission , “ Because we use other fake account but it ’ s maxed out and they have spam filters .
”

This article is updated with results that are not yet final.
The first inside the gates was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when she knocked off Queens machine boss Joe Crowley in June 2018. Three months later, a slew of progressive and socialist insurgents beat incumbents in New York state legislative primaries: some who’d been serving decades, and others who’d been part of the renegade Independent Democratic Conference, which shifted power in Albany toward Republicans. Those primaries brought Jessica Ramos, Alessandra Biaggi, Julia Salazar, and a host of others to Albany, where they uncorked a burst of bottled-up of progressive legislation.
Then came Tiffany Cabán, a former public defender who ran a shoestring campaign for Queens district attorney and came out ahead on election day in the summer of 2019, only to lose by a few dozen votes when the absentee ballots were counted.
The campaigns of the last two years created a roadmap for left-wing insurgents this cycle, with the Cabán and Ocasio-Cortez races pointing progressives to the New York City neighborhoods where their strength is particularly strong, exposing opportunities to unseat new incumbents. The 2018 bids for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, by Cynthia Nixon, Jumaane Williams, and Zephyr Teachout, respectively, left behind additional local data. While Jamaal Bowman’s challenge to Rep. Eliot Engel has gotten the most coverage, Reps. Yvette Clarke, Greg Meeks, and others are fending off spirited challenges from the left. Progressive Mondaire Jones, meanwhile, has moved into the lead in an open congressional primary in a southern New York district. That same force is rattling the cages of the machine in down-ballot races throughout the city.
The 34th Assembly District in Queens, for instance, covering Jackson Heights, has been represented for years by Michael DenDekker, a reliable cog in the local machine, yet it broke 59-26 for Cabán. Jessica González-Rojas, a longtime activist and the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, saw what was happening around her. “We saw wins like AOC, who’s my congresswoman, and Jessica Ramos, who took out an IDC member, which is the Independent Democratic Conference, and then Catalina Cruz, who’s my neighboring assemblywoman, who was a former DREAMer,” she said. “All these inspiring Latinas breaking glass ceilings, and then a lot of my neighbors are like, ‘Is DenDekker still there? Why don’t you run against him?’”
Despite the presence of other progressives in the primary, González-Rojas has the consolidated support of New York’s socialist and progressive organizations. (Ocasio-Cortez has not endorsed in this race, having weighed in only on competitive local primaries outside of her district. “I understand that endorsements are complicated,” González-Rojas said.)
González-Rojas is one of a slate of credible progressive challengers taking on state Assembly incumbents in the June 23 primary, running largely on the argument that New York’s pandemic-and-Trump-administration-produced budget crisis should be resolved by taxing the wealthy rather than austerity. The insurgency is also coming for the top prosecutor in Albany, with a Bernie Sanders-backed challenger taking on a 16-year incumbent. Jabari Brisport, meanwhile, a public school teacher and Democratic Socialists of America activist, is running for an open Brooklyn state Senate seat against the machine-backed Tremaine Wright; he has the backing of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Salazar, Nixon, the Working Families Party, and most of the institutional left. If Brisport follows Salazar to Albany, the city’s Senate delegation will have significant DSA representation. [Brisport leads by 11.]
Photo: Courtesy of the González-Rojas Campagn.
In addition to Brisport, the NYC DSA is backing Samelys López for the House of Representatives, Zohran Mamdani for Assembly in Queens, and Phara Souffrant Forrest and Marcela Mitaynes for Assembly in Brooklyn. The group nearly doubled its first quarter fundraising goal, raising more than $175,000 to support phone banking, mailers, and other critical resources for the campaigns in its slate of endorsements.
[Mamdani leads by 8 points, Souffrant trails by less than 4, and Mitaynes is behind by 8.]
Nixon’s endorsement by the DSA during her 2018 gubernatorial run was controversial within the organization, but the argument that backing her would help build the group’s capacity now appears prescient. She has remained active with the group, and appeared alongside Sanders surrogates Nina Turner, Philip Agnew, and Jaboukie Young-White at a high-profile NYC-DSA fundraiser on May 31. They raised $60,000 that night. The rising insurgency is a sign that the multiracial, class-conscious movement inspired by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and led largely by young and working people is alive and well — even as politicians and news organizations critical of Sanders have penned its obituary in the wake of his failed presidential bid. “When we talk about the political revolution that means building power at every level of government,” Sanders tweeted after two socialists won primaries for state legislative office in Philadelphia this month.
The challengers, most running in New York City, have public opinion on their side, according to a new survey by Data For Progress. Four in five voters favor high taxes on those making more than $2 million per year and an additional tax on investment gains made by billionaires. Three-quarters backed a tax on people with multiple homes, and four in five supported a tax on digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook. Just three in 10 supported cuts to Medicaid.
A broad coalition of progressive groups — Make the Road New York, Citizen Action of New York, New York Working Families Party, New York Communities for Change, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, and the Alliance for Quality Education — has rallied behind most of those candidates, while being split on others, and seized on the results of the survey. “During this pandemic, he has balanced the state budget on the backs of working-class Black and brown people once, and threatens to do it again,” the coalition said in a statement, referring to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “This data show that New Yorkers categorically reject the Governor’s approach and demand urgent action from him and the legislature.”
“We keep hearing that the coronavirus has put New York state in debt and put us in a position where cuts are necessary. We progressives, myself included, are saying, wait a second, there’s money on the table that we’re not addressing,” González-Rojas. “What’s exciting about the poll is that there’s data there. It’s not just hearsay or conversations. There’s real numbers behind it, that we shouldn’t be cutting education or health care or housing in a moment where there’s money on the table.”
Assembly District 36
Incumbent Aravella Simotas largely votes the Democratic line, but that might not work anymore in this district, where Ocasio-Cortez and Cabán both romped over their opponents in gentrifying Astoria, and voters also backed Nixon, Williams, and Teachout in their 2018 statewide races. Housing activist Zohran Mamdani, whose race is a major priority of DSA, doesn’t have the backing of much else of the more established progressive infrastructure, such as the WFP, making it an interesting test of the strength of the DSA and the left absent that institutional support. Simotas, meanwhile, is backed by companies fighting labor protections for gig workers; New Yorkers for Flexible Work, which appears to be a front group for companies like Uber and Lyft, is running ads on Spotify in support of her. Uber’s top lobbyist, Patrick Jenkins, donated $1,000 to Simotas last month. Jenkins is a longtime friend and former college roommate of New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Simotas also received a contribution of $500 from Savas Konstantinides, a city taxi fleet owner under federal investigation into possible lending fraud in the city taxi industry. Mamdani’s campaign is focusing on rights for drivers in the district.
Assembly District 37
Part of this district, gentrifying quickly, is similar to Mamdani’s, but part is still traditional Queens neighborhoods, where young people and progressives have made fewer inroads. Incumbent Catherine Nolan, not particularly progressive, is fortunate to have two challengers rather than one — Mary Jobaida and Danielle Brecker, who may end up splitting the progressive vote. Local activists say Jabaida, running a shoe-string operation, is giving Nolan the most serious challenge and has the most progressive support, though neither has institutional backing from the coalition backing a broader slate. [Nolan won in a blowout, with 69 percent of the vote.]
Assembly District 51
Assistant Assembly Speaker Felix Ortiz has served since 1994, and has been tied up in a corruption investigation. Marcela Mitaynes, a housing activist, has the backing of everyone from DSA to WFP and Ocasio-Cortez, whose willingness to endorse against a member of the Assembly leadership raised eyebrows in the city. This is arguably the city’s closest-watched Assembly race.
Assembly District 57
This rapidly gentrifying district in the heart of Brooklyn was once represented by Hakeem Jeffries, now a member of Congress and major power player locally and nationally. Jeffries’s friend and successor, Walter Mosley, has the backing of the WFP (he bucked leadership to back WFP’s ballot access), but nurse and housing activist Phara Souffrant has the support of DSA and Ocasio-Cortez — making this race something of a proxy war between Jeffries and Ocasio-Cortez, two local titans whose congressional staffs have been engaged in high-profile conflict. New Yorkers for Flexible Work, the group running ads for Simotas, is also spending on ads in support of Mosley.
Assembly District 84
Carmen Aroyyo, the 84-year-old machine incumbent in this South Bronx district, was challenged by 29-year-old Amanda Septimo from the left with the backing of WFP. Arroyo falsified her petition signatures and was disqualified from the ballot, meaning the insurgent will waltz into the seat. Septimo had run a strong race for the seat in 2018, and is an example of the adage that if you want to win, you often have to run twice.
Assembly District 108
Sam Fein, an Albany County legislator, was recruited by the WFP to take on incumbent John McDonald III. The local SEIU is behind Fein, but there is little progressive infrastructure outside New York City to boost him. This race could help build that, giving local progressives something to organize around.
[McDonald is up by 9 against Fein.]
Assembly District 149
Adam Bojak, a tenants rights attorney, is running with the backing of DSA national, as well as its Buffalo chapter — a test of DSA’s strength outside the city. WFP is behind Jon Rivera.
[Bojok is down 17 to Rivera.]
In a handful of other races, the left is working to fend off challenges to progressive incumbents.
Assembly District 40
Steven Lee, a controversial New York police officer, is challenging Assemblyman Ron Kim, a foe of the local real estate industry who was pivotal in fending off Amazon’s headquarters. Lee and his campaign chair were recently caught ginning up racist memes to attack Kim.
Lee’s campaign chair Mike Cheng, in a chatroom run by Lee, shared a cartoon of Kim Jong Un praising Lee’s politics, and suggested people circulate it, adding, in a remarkable admission, “Because we use other fake account but it’s maxed out and they have spam filters.”
@MikeCheng2021, a Flushing slumlord developer creating fake twitter accounts to call me and Ron real estate billionaires using Kim Jong-un pic. We knew you were dirty (pay to play with Deblasio) and now we know how palpable your racism is toward Koreans.https://t.co/keMxoHHLZT pic.twitter.com/Ts76XisqF2 — Alison Tan (@alison4nyc) June 16, 2020
That provoked Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who has been broadly hostile to the insurgency, to condemn the assault: “Let me be clear — racist attacks and cyberbullying have no place in our public discourse, and the attacks that my colleague, Ron Kim, has been experiencing are truly disgusting. Racist dog whistles hidden behind phone accounts are beyond contempt and cowardly. Now more than ever we should be looking to lift each other up. Ron is a true champion for his district and an important voice in our Assembly Democratic Majority. He works hard for his community and I am proud to call him a friend.”
Lee, who distanced himself from the fake spam accounts, also falsely suggested he had the support of Rep. Grace Meng.
I received pictures of a mailer implying my endorsement of @SteveForNewYork. I did not approve and was not asked about this piece. I’ve asked his team to stop using my photo and misleading voters. — Grace Meng (@Grace4NY) June 16, 2020
[Lee looks to have been beaten badly, trailing by 40 points.]
Assembly District 65
Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou’s recent floor speech against Cuomo’s Medicaid cuts became a rallying cry for progressives. A former backer of Elizabeth Warren who later endorsed Sanders, this Manhattan representative now has both senators’ support as she fends off a challenge from Grace Lee, who has the heavy backing of real estate interests.
The NY State budget cut Medicaid in the middle of this pandemic. Lots of amazing electeds most of them who are also my comrades voted against it. One of those electeds was my dear friends and @NYWFP member @yuhline. Watch it share it for what’s happening in New York. pic.twitter.com/kkkzz9EGto — Nelini Stamp ?? (@NelStamp) April 3, 2020
[Niou is up by 21 points.]
Assembly District 43
Dianna Richardson was elected in 2015 with her name only appearing on the WFP ballot line, and has emerged as a leading progressive voice in the legislature. Jesse Hamilton, a former member of the turncoat Independent Democratic Conference, is challenging her in a primary, with the Brooklyn machine doing nothing to help the incumbent Richardson — revealing once again that the machine’s defense of incumbents is linked to ideology, not incumbency.
[Hamilton is losing by 45.]
Correction: June 20, 2020
This story originally misspelled the name of Jessica González-Rojas.


theintercept--2020-06-21--Revealed Sick-Call Requests From a Federal Jail Show People Desperate for Medical Attention Amid the

Revealed Sick-Call Requests From a Federal Jail Show People Desperate for Medical Attention Amid the Pandemic — and Waiting Weeks to Get It

last week denied a request by people held in a federal jail in Brooklyn to order officials to improve their efforts to prevent a coronavirus outbreak in the facility .
The incarcerated people had alleged a level of medical neglect at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn that rose to the degree of unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment .
They sought a temporary injunction ordering jail officials to improve medical care and disease prevention at the jail , as well as appointing a special master empowered to oversee those changes .
Judge Rachel Kovner ruled against this request , finding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had failed to show that jail officials had displayed “ deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm , ” the legal standard for a constitutional violation in this sort of case .
Kovner acknowledged deficiencies in medical care at the jail but concluded that “ the facility ’ s aggressive response to a public health emergency with no preexisting playbook belies the suggestion that these apparent deficiencies are the product of deliberate indifference on the part of prison officials.
” “ Petitioners have not established a clear or substantial likelihood that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through deliberate indifference to substantial risks of serious harm at the MDC , ” Kovner wrote .
“ They are therefore not entitled to the extraordinary relief they seek : a preliminary injunction at the outset of this case that would release hundreds of prisoners and subject many aspects of the facility ’ s operations to judicial control.
” Kovner did find that the Bureau of Prisons had spoliated evidence — that is , knowingly destroyed evidence relevant to the lawsuit — when it persisted in an evidently longstanding practice of shredding the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slips by people held at the jail .
Homer Venters , an expert in correctional medical care who inspected the jail on behalf of the incarcerated people bringing the lawsuit , had pointed to this destruction of medical records as part of a systemic effort on the part of jail officials to track the incidence of Covid-19 among the patients in their custody , calling it “ especially egregious and intentionally designed to avoid knowing the extent of the outbreak and providing the necessary care.
” “ The fact that the MDC engaged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ litigation is unprecedented finding against a BOP facility , ” lawyers for the incarcerated people wrote in a statement on the ruling , “ one that should stand as a reminder to other prison officials that they are not above the rules.
” Kovner found that the evidence before her “ suggests that the MDC ’ s sick-call process and the related isolation determinations are falling short.
” Shortly after denying the request for a temporary injunction , Kovner granted a request by The Intercept , which had intervened in the case seeking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ submitted digitally through the jail ’ s online medical request system , though some on handwritten slips of paper — which had earlier been submitted as evidence in the case .
The Bureau of Prisons , through its lawyers in the U.S. Attorney ’ s Office for the Eastern District of New York , had fought to block the disclosure of the medical requests , arguing that even with identifying information like names and inmate numbers redacted , the disclosure would still violate the medical privacy of the people in its custody .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical requests to be refiled publicly with names and identifying information redacted .
The picture painted by the now-public sick calls is a grim one .
The full collection of medical requests revealed in the filing show just how desperate some of the incarcerated people became .
“ i have a serious health problem and it can turn into life threathing if it doesnt get taken care of , ” one person wrote in a March 4 medical request .
“ i was suppose to see a speaciliest at my last jail i @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over my body again and im also having chest problems and wen i piss the last 2 times blood came out.
” Three weeks later , the person ’ s request had evidently gone unanswered : “ im still having the health prblom its getting worse wen i seen the nurse i was told nothing is going to happened untill i got to the jail im going unfurtuntllay its not going to be for a while i would like to get treated its getting worse i cant sleep at night without having alot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my body it burns it itches im having hard time breathing its a life threathing problem if theres nothing that can be done here i dont kno what to do.
” Some of the requests referenced the coronavirus pandemic , not just related symptoms .
“ im feeling very sick and ive been throwing up bad couth i have had a fever i would like to see some one about this do to the sickness that is going on please , ” an incarcerated person wrote .
“ I have a serious cough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” another person wrote in Spanish on March 17 .
“ This is the third time that I have requested medical attention , which as of this date is being denied.
” “ i need a asthma pump iev been asking for almost a month and i be having trouble breathing , ” an incarcerated person wrote on March 17 .
Five days later , evidently nothing had changed , and he wrote again , this time in capital letters : “ I NEED AN ASTHMA PUMP ASAP.
” “ This is gunna @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical pertaining my left ear , ” someone wrote March 23 .
“ ive been in pain for 11 days already and now im feeling like im getting a fever and medical hasnt sent me down to check on me and now im feeling worse then ever and we been locked in for two day and ive been in a lot of pain now i have a fever im not sending anymore messages to u guys anymore this shit is incredible.
” “ i have had a persistant cough that just wont get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 28 .
“ i also have been sweating off and onn randomly… not sure what its from but ive written you about a week ago about it and still havnt been seen.. i hope this isnt the virus symptoms.
” On March 29 , another person wrote : “ i been caughing for a month waiting on sick call when im I going to see the DOCTOR ?
Not feeling good !
” In another submission for medical help on March 26 , the requestor noted that it had been at least a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for headaches and still hadn ’ t received any response .
“ I NOW HAVE A COLD THAT I CAN ’ T GET RID OF FOR THE LAST 4-5 DAYS , ” the person wrote .
“ MY MAIN CONCERN IS THE HEADACHES .
I NEED TO SEE SOMEONE ASAP .
I BEEN DEALING WITH THIS ISSUE FOR A MONTH NOW AND STILL HAVEN ’ T GOTTEN A RESPONSE.
” “ still having difficulty breathing , ” another person wrote April 6 .
“ allergy and asthma .
what else do i have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ i have a back pain and chest pain , ” another entry on April 10 said .
“ please i would like to get checked i cant breath well my whole body be hurting please i would like to be checked i have 12 days telling staff and no one do anything for me.
” “ I put one sick call in to no avail , ” someone wrote on April 13 .
“ I am having trouble breathing and getting good oxygen .
I wake up having breathing issues and go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had lung surgery in 2006 , and my capacity so compromised as it is .
I was referred to psych , and not taken seriously by the doc .
I am NOT a whiner and there is an issue here .
Could it please be addressed or at the least well documented that I tried ?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
” Though Kovner denied the request for a temporary injunction , the lawsuit alleging unconstitutional conditions at MDC Brooklyn is still before her court .
In the days since the ruling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at MDC Brooklyn under circumstances evidently unrelated to Covid-19 have come to light .
Jamel Floyd died June 3 after being pepper-sprayed in his cell by corrections officers .
On June 10 , it was reported for the first time that Kenneth Houck had died in custody May 19 under unclear circumstances .

A federal judge last week denied a request by people held in a federal jail in Brooklyn to order officials to improve their efforts to prevent a coronavirus outbreak in the facility.
The incarcerated people had alleged a level of medical neglect at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn that rose to the degree of unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. They sought a temporary injunction ordering jail officials to improve medical care and disease prevention at the jail, as well as appointing a special master empowered to oversee those changes.
Judge Rachel Kovner ruled against this request, finding that the people held at MDC Brooklyn had failed to show that jail officials had displayed “deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm,” the legal standard for a constitutional violation in this sort of case. Kovner acknowledged deficiencies in medical care at the jail but concluded that “the facility’s aggressive response to a public health emergency with no preexisting playbook belies the suggestion that these apparent deficiencies are the product of deliberate indifference on the part of prison officials.”
“Petitioners have not established a clear or substantial likelihood that prison officials have violated the Eighth Amendment through deliberate indifference to substantial risks of serious harm at the MDC,” Kovner wrote. “They are therefore not entitled to the extraordinary relief they seek: a preliminary injunction at the outset of this case that would release hundreds of prisoners and subject many aspects of the facility’s operations to judicial control.”
Kovner did find that the Bureau of Prisons had spoliated evidence — that is, knowingly destroyed evidence relevant to the lawsuit — when it persisted in an evidently longstanding practice of shredding the requests for medical care submitted on paper slips by people held at the jail. Homer Venters, an expert in correctional medical care who inspected the jail on behalf of the incarcerated people bringing the lawsuit, had pointed to this destruction of medical records as part of a systemic effort on the part of jail officials to track the incidence of Covid-19 among the patients in their custody, calling it “especially egregious and intentionally designed to avoid knowing the extent of the outbreak and providing the necessary care.”
“The fact that the MDC engaged in the destruction of evidence during the litigation is unprecedented finding against a BOP facility,” lawyers for the incarcerated people wrote in a statement on the ruling, “one that should stand as a reminder to other prison officials that they are not above the rules.”
In her ruling, Kovner found that the evidence before her “suggests that the MDC’s sick-call process and the related isolation determinations are falling short.” Shortly after denying the request for a temporary injunction, Kovner granted a request by The Intercept, which had intervened in the case seeking to unseal 210 medical requests — mostly submitted digitally through the jail’s online medical request system, though some on handwritten slips of paper — which had earlier been submitted as evidence in the case. The Bureau of Prisons, through its lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, had fought to block the disclosure of the medical requests, arguing that even with identifying information like names and inmate numbers redacted, the disclosure would still violate the medical privacy of the people in its custody. Kovner dismissed this objection and permitted the medical requests to be refiled publicly with names and identifying information redacted.
The picture painted by the now-public sick calls is a grim one. The full collection of medical requests revealed in the filing show just how desperate some of the incarcerated people became.
“i have a serious health problem and it can turn into life threathing if it doesnt get taken care of,” one person wrote in a March 4 medical request. “i was suppose to see a speaciliest at my last jail i was at the rash is coming all over my body again and im also having chest problems and wen i piss the last 2 times blood came out.” Three weeks later, the person’s request had evidently gone unanswered: “im still having the health prblom its getting worse wen i seen the nurse i was told nothing is going to happened untill i got to the jail im going unfurtuntllay its not going to be for a while i would like to get treated its getting worse i cant sleep at night without having alot of pain the rash is all over my body it burns it itches im having hard time breathing its a life threathing problem if theres nothing that can be done here i dont kno what to do.”
Some of the requests referenced the coronavirus pandemic, not just related symptoms. “im feeling very sick and ive been throwing up bad couth i have had a fever i would like to see some one about this do to the sickness that is going on please,” an incarcerated person wrote.
“I have a serious cough problem which causes me to bleed,” another person wrote in Spanish on March 17. “This is the third time that I have requested medical attention, which as of this date is being denied.”
“i need a asthma pump iev been asking for almost a month and i be having trouble breathing,” an incarcerated person wrote on March 17. Five days later, evidently nothing had changed, and he wrote again, this time in capital letters: “I NEED AN ASTHMA PUMP ASAP.”
“i have had a persistant cough that just wont get better. not sure what its from but ive written you about a week ago about it and still havnt been seen.. i hope this isnt the virus symptoms.”
“This is gunna be the last message i send to medical pertaining my left ear,” someone wrote March 23. “ive been in pain for 11 days already and now im feeling like im getting a fever and medical hasnt sent me down to check on me and now im feeling worse then ever and we been locked in for two day and ive been in a lot of pain now i have a fever im not sending anymore messages to u guys anymore this shit is incredible.”
“i have had a persistant cough that just wont get better,” another wrote on March 28. “i also have been sweating off and onn randomly… not sure what its from but ive written you about a week ago about it and still havnt been seen.. i hope this isnt the virus symptoms.”
On March 29, another person wrote: “i been caughing for a month waiting on sick call when im I going to see the DOCTOR? Not feeling good!”
In another submission for medical help on March 26, the requestor noted that it had been at least a month since he first requested medical care for headaches and still hadn’t received any response. “I NOW HAVE A COLD THAT I CAN’T GET RID OF FOR THE LAST 4-5 DAYS,” the person wrote. “MY MAIN CONCERN IS THE HEADACHES . I NEED TO SEE SOMEONE ASAP. I BEEN DEALING WITH THIS ISSUE FOR A MONTH NOW AND STILL HAVEN’T GOTTEN A RESPONSE.”
“still having difficulty breathing,” another person wrote April 6. “allergy and asthma. what else do i have to do communicate this problem?”
“i have a back pain and chest pain,” another entry on April 10 said. “please i would like to get checked i cant breath well my whole body be hurting please i would like to be checked i have 12 days telling staff and no one do anything for me.”
“I put one sick call in to no avail,” someone wrote on April 13. “I am having trouble breathing and getting good oxygen. I wake up having breathing issues and go to bed with he same. I had lung surgery in 2006, and my capacity so compromised as it is. I was referred to psych, and not taken seriously by the doc. I am NOT a whiner and there is an issue here. Could it please be addressed or at the least well documented that I tried? Thanks for your time and consideration.”
Though Kovner denied the request for a temporary injunction, the lawsuit alleging unconstitutional conditions at MDC Brooklyn is still before her court.
In the days since the ruling, the deaths of two people custody at MDC Brooklyn under circumstances evidently unrelated to Covid-19 have come to light. Jamel Floyd died June 3 after being pepper-sprayed in his cell by corrections officers. On June 10, it was reported for the first time that Kenneth Houck had died in custody May 19 under unclear circumstances.


theintercept--2020-06-21--Authorities Transferred Hundreds of People Between Shadowy Immigration Prisons, Ignoring Coronavirus

Authorities Transferred Hundreds of People Between Shadowy Immigration Prisons, Ignoring Coronavirus Threat

it was clear that the coronavirus thrived on physical proximity , particularly indoors , and that prisons were ticking time bombs of infection .
Around that time , the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced policies to temporarily cease transferring prisoners between different facilities , with the aim of stopping the spread of the virus .
This prohibition did not extend to Criminal Alien Requirement , or CAR , prisons , a shadowy network of facilities overseen by the Bureau of Prisons but run entirely by private contractors and used exclusively to house noncitizens serving federal sentences , often for immigration-related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under the radar in debates over conditions in federal prisons or ICE detention centers , owing to the gray area they inhabit between immigration and criminal detention .
As one such prison , Taft Correctional Institution in Kern County , California , was preparing to close at the end of April , hundreds of people were moved out and sent around the country , heedless of the Covid-19 threat .
People transferred from Taft and family members who spoke with The Intercept described packed airliners flown out of Bakersfield airport with hundreds aboard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan , run by the private prison giant GEO Group .
According to people inside , the prison administration was wholly unprepared to deal with the influx .
Gil , who says he was part of a group of 120 people moved from Taft to North Lake in April , asked a corrections officer if North Lake would be getting more transfers .
“ They said ‘ We ’ re not taking in no more people.
’ So we ask them why they brought us here .
He said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down the [ Taft ] prison , ” said Gil , who asked his full name not be used for fear of being retaliated against by prison staff .
“ They said they weren ’ t ready for us .
… One day they came into work , and they told them , ‘ Hey , we ’ re getting 500 people here , so you guys got to be prepared.
’ ” BOP spokesperson Emery Nelson said that while the agency had indeed halted transfers on March 12 in response to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to allow for necessary repairs and construction to be completed at the Taft facility.
” She added that people from Taft “ were screened in accordance with CDC guidelines prior to leaving the facility , ” and that they were quarantined upon arrival at new centers , with symptomatic detainees being tested for the virus .
However , people inside and their family members say that while new transfers are being kept apart from the general population , not much else is being done to control for the spread of coronavirus .
Ricardo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a group of about 130 inmates from Taft , said that the kitchen was staffed by a group of incarcerated people who served both the Taft transfers and the rest of the jail .
According to him , corrections officers had removed a coronavirus-positive person from the transfer population only to return him seven days later and place him with a new cellmate .
“ We were asking , ‘ Why are you bringing him if you know he ’ s contagious ?
’ and he said , ‘ We don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or not.
’ So I said , ‘ You ’ re bringing him and just praying he doesn ’ t infect us ?
’ ” Limón recalled the guard replying , “ I don ’ t have anywhere to put him , the clinic is full , and he ’ s the one with the fewest symptoms.
” Emilio Martínez described the same experience from the opposite perspective .
He said he ’ d been transferred from Taft to North Lake on April 2 , and by April 22 he ’ d tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks [ after arriving ] I started feeling feverish , my bones hurt , I was tired and very sleepy , ” he said .
He was taken away to an area reserved for symptomatic detainees , where he said he was kept for two weeks with only minimal supervision .
“ They ’ d come in , take my temperature , and say , ‘ It ’ s OK , you ’ re OK , ’ and then they ’ d close the door and leave .
They wouldn ’ t check @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the morning and the afternoon .
The whole night would go by without anyone coming to check in .
You could die there.
” Despite what he said was a litany of health issues including diabetes , high blood pressure , high cholesterol , and a hip replacement , he described only being given aspirin to deal with the aggressive respiratory disease .
Now back in general population , he still can ’ t taste or smell anything and remains fatigued at all hours .
“ They told me to drink a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he scoffed .
He ’ s not sure if he was still infectious when returned to the larger group .
In a meeting with higher-level officers and a member of the jail ’ s management , Limón and other people being held at North Lake suggested that everyone be tested , to which an official responded , “ We don ’ t have the budget to do test everyone , it ’ s not as easy as you all think.
” ( Nelson , the BOP spokesperson , declined to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North Lake and other CAR prisons . )
Limón is particularly anxious to avoid exposure given that he contracted Valley fever , a fungal infection that affects the lungs , while imprisoned at Taft .
“ If I get infected with the coronavirus with this Valley fever stuff I have , I ’ m going to die , ” he said .
Gil and some family members of people held at CAR prisons independently brought up concerns with people being put back into general population days after being removed due to Covid-19 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gil said one man in his pod was symptomatic for four days before he was removed and tested , and then brought back less than a week later .
Several people also brought up a lack of adequate cleaning materials , including being instructed to wash common areas with water containing just a little bit of diluted bleach .
While the bulk of recent transfers to North Lake were from Taft , some people were apparently transferred in from other prisons as well .
Amy ( who asked for privacy reasons to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whose husband is serving a federal sentence for illegal reentry after attempting to return to his U.S. family following a deportation , said he had been held at Great Plains Correctional Institution in Oklahoma until “ it all started outbreaking .
That ’ s when they moved him to Michigan.
” In Oklahoma , she said , he had met people who had recently left California , some of whom were on their way to Michigan .
Great Plains had the earliest acknowledged spike of Covid-19 cases among CAR prisons and now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which has had a reported total of 104 cases , 91 of them “ recovered , ” according to BOP , as of this week .
So far , at least two people imprisoned at North Lake have died from Covid-19 , and one more at the McRae facility in Georgia .
According to Gil , at least one of them was a transfer from Taft .
Both people who were held there and the BOP agree that there were no coronavirus cases at the Taft facility , meaning that those moved out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well have been put in harm ’ s way by the transfers , especially given the unpreparedness of the destination facilities .
The North Lake facility had just been reopened as a CAR prison late last year , after having operated as a maximum-security state prison until it closed in mid-2017 .
Part of the difficulty in coordinating an effective response to the coronavirus seemed to be a culture that retained the posture of maximum security , even though the prison no longer is .
A Canadian woman whose husband has been at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he has spent weeks in solitary confinement after being accused of helping organize a hunger strike inside the facility and lodging a complaint against a guard who threatened him .
“ He ’ s in there trying to advocate for these men and help them , ” she said .
“ They just basically threw him in a dungeon.
” Since the BOP began to use all-noncitizen prisons in the late 1990s , the centers have operated in a sort of blind spot for both immigration watchdogs who tend to focus on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who mostly concentrate on standard federal prisons .
The fact that the centers are all run by contractors but overseen generally by the BOP allows both groups to employ the strategy ( oft-used in the ICE detention context ) of deflecting blame to the other for any shortcomings .
Asked for comment about the preparations to move all the inmates out of Taft , a spokesperson for the Management and Training Corporation — the private contractor that ran the facility — wrote , “ The BOP determines and coordinates all inmate movement including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to.
” A representative of the GEO Group , which runs both Great Plains and North Lake , wrote “ as a service provider to the federal government , our company plays no role in decisions related to the assignment , release , or transfers of individuals from contractor-operated federal prisons.
” Asked about deaths at North Lake and the allegations that infectious people were put back into the general population , GEO Group and BOP each referred questions to the other .

By mid-March, it was clear that the coronavirus thrived on physical proximity, particularly indoors, and that prisons were ticking time bombs of infection. Around that time, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced policies to temporarily cease transferring prisoners between different facilities, with the aim of stopping the spread of the virus.
This prohibition did not extend to Criminal Alien Requirement, or CAR, prisons, a shadowy network of facilities overseen by the Bureau of Prisons but run entirely by private contractors and used exclusively to house noncitizens serving federal sentences, often for immigration-related offenses. CAR facilities tend to fly under the radar in debates over conditions in federal prisons or ICE detention centers, owing to the gray area they inhabit between immigration and criminal detention.
As one such prison, Taft Correctional Institution in Kern County, California, was preparing to close at the end of April, hundreds of people were moved out and sent around the country, heedless of the Covid-19 threat.
People transferred from Taft and family members who spoke with The Intercept described packed airliners flown out of Bakersfield airport with hundreds aboard. Many were sent to the North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan, run by the private prison giant GEO Group. According to people inside, the prison administration was wholly unprepared to deal with the influx.
Hundreds of people were moved out of Taft Correctional Institution and sent around the country, heedless of the Covid-19 threat.
Gil, who says he was part of a group of 120 people moved from Taft to North Lake in April, asked a corrections officer if North Lake would be getting more transfers. “They said ‘We’re not taking in no more people.’ So we ask them why they brought us here. He said that was an emergency because they closed down the [Taft] prison,” said Gil, who asked his full name not be used for fear of being retaliated against by prison staff. “They said they weren’t ready for us. … One day they came into work, and they told them, ‘Hey, we’re getting 500 people here, so you guys got to be prepared.’”
BOP spokesperson Emery Nelson said that while the agency had indeed halted transfers on March 12 in response to the coronavirus crisis, people were moved “to allow for necessary repairs and construction to be completed at the Taft facility.” He added that people from Taft “were screened in accordance with CDC guidelines prior to leaving the facility,” and that they were quarantined upon arrival at new centers, with symptomatic detainees being tested for the virus.
However, people inside and their family members say that while new transfers are being kept apart from the general population, not much else is being done to control for the spread of coronavirus. Ricardo Limón, who said he was moved with a group of about 130 inmates from Taft, said that the kitchen was staffed by a group of incarcerated people who served both the Taft transfers and the rest of the jail. According to him, corrections officers had removed a coronavirus-positive person from the transfer population only to return him seven days later and place him with a new cellmate.
“We were asking, ‘Why are you bringing him if you know he’s contagious?’ and he said, ‘We don’t know if he’s contagious or not.’ So I said, ‘You’re bringing him and just praying he doesn’t infect us?’” Limón recalled the guard replying, “I don’t have anywhere to put him, the clinic is full, and he’s the one with the fewest symptoms.”
Emilio Martínez described the same experience from the opposite perspective. He said he’d been transferred from Taft to North Lake on April 2, and by April 22 he’d tested positive for Covid-19. “About two weeks [after arriving] I started feeling feverish, my bones hurt, I was tired and very sleepy,” he said. He was taken away to an area reserved for symptomatic detainees, where he said he was kept for two weeks with only minimal supervision. “They’d come in, take my temperature, and say, ‘It’s OK, you’re OK,’ and then they’d close the door and leave. They wouldn’t check up on you all day, just in the morning and the afternoon. The whole night would go by without anyone coming to check in. You could die there.”
Despite what he said was a litany of health issues including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a hip replacement, he described only being given aspirin to deal with the aggressive respiratory disease. Now back in general population, he still can’t taste or smell anything and remains fatigued at all hours. “They told me to drink a lot of water, and to exercise,” he scoffed. He’s not sure if he was still infectious when returned to the larger group.
In a meeting with higher-level officers and a member of the jail’s management, Limón and other people being held at North Lake suggested that everyone be tested, to which an official responded, “We don’t have the budget to do test everyone, it’s not as easy as you all think.” (Nelson, the BOP spokesperson, declined to say how many people had been tested at North Lake and other CAR prisons.) Limón is particularly anxious to avoid exposure given that he contracted Valley fever, a fungal infection that affects the lungs, while imprisoned at Taft. “If I get infected with the coronavirus with this Valley fever stuff I have, I’m going to die,” he said.
Gil and some family members of people held at CAR prisons independently brought up concerns with people being put back into general population days after being removed due to Covid-19, and with a lack of testing. Gil said one man in his pod was symptomatic for four days before he was removed and tested, and then brought back less than a week later. Several people also brought up a lack of adequate cleaning materials, including being instructed to wash common areas with water containing just a little bit of diluted bleach.
“If I get infected with the coronavirus with this Valley fever stuff I have, I’m going to die.”
While the bulk of recent transfers to North Lake were from Taft, some people were apparently transferred in from other prisons as well. Amy (who asked for privacy reasons to be identified only by her first name), whose husband is serving a federal sentence for illegal reentry after attempting to return to his U.S. family following a deportation, said he had been held at Great Plains Correctional Institution in Oklahoma until “it all started outbreaking. That’s when they moved him to Michigan.” In Oklahoma, she said, he had met people who had recently left California, some of whom were on their way to Michigan.
Great Plains had the earliest acknowledged spike of Covid-19 cases among CAR prisons and now is second only to North Lake, which has had a reported total of 104 cases, 91 of them “recovered,” according to BOP, as of this week. So far, at least two people imprisoned at North Lake have died from Covid-19, and one more at the McRae facility in Georgia. According to Gil, at least one of them was a transfer from Taft.
Both people who were held there and the BOP agree that there were no coronavirus cases at the Taft facility, meaning that those moved out and to Oklahoma and North Lake may well have been put in harm’s way by the transfers, especially given the unpreparedness of the destination facilities.
The North Lake facility had just been reopened as a CAR prison late last year, after having operated as a maximum-security state prison until it closed in mid-2017. Part of the difficulty in coordinating an effective response to the coronavirus seemed to be a culture that retained the posture of maximum security, even though the prison no longer is.
Do you have a coronavirus story you want to share? Email us at coronavirus@theintercept.com or use one of these secure methods to contact a reporter.
A Canadian woman whose husband has been at North Lake since February told The Intercept that he has spent weeks in solitary confinement after being accused of helping organize a hunger strike inside the facility and lodging a complaint against a guard who threatened him. “He’s in there trying to advocate for these men and help them,” she said. “They just basically threw him in a dungeon.”
Since the BOP began to use all-noncitizen prisons in the late 1990s, the centers have operated in a sort of blind spot for both immigration watchdogs who tend to focus on ICE detention, and criminal justice watchdogs who mostly concentrate on standard federal prisons. The fact that the centers are all run by contractors but overseen generally by the BOP allows both groups to employ the strategy (oft-used in the ICE detention context) of deflecting blame to the other for any shortcomings.
Asked for comment about the preparations to move all the inmates out of Taft, a spokesperson for the Management and Training Corporation — the private contractor that ran the facility — wrote, “The BOP determines and coordinates all inmate movement including those transfers that you’re referring to.” A representative of the GEO Group, which runs both Great Plains and North Lake, wrote “as a service provider to the federal government, our company plays no role in decisions related to the assignment, release, or transfers of individuals from contractor-operated federal prisons.” Asked about deaths at North Lake and the allegations that infectious people were put back into the general population, GEO Group and BOP each referred questions to the other.
Correction, June 22, 2020:
This article originally misstated the gender of the BOP spokesperson.


theintercept--2020-06-21--The Movement for Black Lives Confronts the Confederate Legacy in Rural Tennessee

sweating as she pushed her son ’ s stroller up North Main Street in Covington , Tennessee .
She wore gold hoops , flip-flops , and a surgical mask with “ I Can ’ t Breathe ” written on it in black marker .
Her other two sons walked slightly behind , in the same masks and carrying bottles of Powerade .
It was their first time protesting , and Brown ’ s too .
Her reason was simple .
“ I have three young black boys , ” she said , catching her breath .
The marchers had gathered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Crumpy ’ s Hot Wings , a local Memphis chain , next to the Family Dollar on Highway 51 .
It was around 80 degrees but felt hotter in the plaza parking lot .
Some carried umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun .
There were participants of all ages , mostly black but some white people too .
“ Pretty much everybody here is family , ” said Nathasha Olden , who had come with her aunt , Anita Wilson .
Covington is a small town , she said .
“ Everybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been billed as a “ unity walk , ” inspired by a recent event in Memphis .
One of the organizers , Queisha Harris , had made a point to meet with the Covington police chief right away .
She guaranteed that the march would remain peaceful .
“ We talked about how I would want them to cooperate , ” she said .
“ Protect and serve .
And no harassing , because you know , people really don ’ t want to see the police right now anyway.
” Around 3:25 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ addressed the crowd .
Black people had fought for fair treatment for years , he said .
But George Floyd ’ s death was a “ wake-up call.
” He often thinks about what it would be like if one of his own children or nephews was in Floyd ’ s position .
He urged people to seize on this moment to push back against all the barriers standing in their way .
“ Many people here today have no doubt thought about , somewhere in your lifetime , wanting to run a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a position or in office .
Now is the time.
” “ I ’ m not sure many more marches and demonstrations we ’ ll have , ” Harris added .
“ But they ’ ll go on and on and on until we ’ ve accomplished our goal.
” Former alderman John Edwards spoke next .
He recalled the numerous black men and women killed by police across the country , including Eric Garner , Breonna Taylor , and Botham Jean .
But he also invoked a local controversy .
Last year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the sudden demotion of two veteran police officers who were close to retirement .
One of them , Cavat Bass , was the first black police lieutenant and assistant chief in Covington ’ s history .
After almost 40 years with the department , the new chief eliminated Bass ’ s position , reducing him to patrolman .
“ In the city of Covington , when we have a police officer like [ Bass ] , that works his way all the way through the ranks to make it to assistant chief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Edwards said .
He was known for ensuring that community members were not mistreated and held accountable officers who did — “ and they still work for the police department and he doesn ’ t ?
Something is wrong.
” Following a prayer , the crowd set out , led by a group carrying a banner reading UNITY , with a raised black fist .
They turned right onto Highway 51 and crossed over toward Main Street as law enforcement followed closely along .
The police escort did not deter the chants that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ No justice , no peace !
No racist police !
” As the march neared the courthouse square , one man shouted to make sure I was recording his message for all to see : “ Get your knee off my neck !
” For a town with fewer than 9,000 residents , the march was sizable , roughly 150 people .
Outside of Tipton County , however , it was mostly eclipsed by the larger actions taking place in Tennessee ’ s larger cities .
That weekend , multiple events @ @ @ @ @ @ @ occupation of the Capitol grounds .
Activists declared an autonomous zone , named it Ida B .
Wells Plaza , and distributed free food and water before being pushed out by police .
In Memphis , where protests had been sustained for weeks , a man in a white pickup truck had tried to run over protesters who had blocked off a street — only the latest such incident .
While American cities have attracted the most national coverage and controversy since the death of George Floyd — especially crackdowns by police and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ popped up in areas that many would not expect .
Many have been remarkable for taking place in rural areas where the vast majority of the population is white .
In Tennessee , on the eastern side of the state , a protest in Clinton ( population 10,000 ) attracted 200 people , as did a prayer gathering in Athens ( population 13,000 ) .
In West Tennessee , dozens of people rallied in Paris ( population 10,000 ) .
But in places with a more even percentage of black and white residents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an entrenched power structure that still disenfranchises half if not more of the local population .
Inspired by the national movement for black lives , they have also clearly been fueled by long-standing injustices in organizers ’ own backyard .
Just 16 miles north of Covington , in Ripley ( population 7,879 ) , dozens of residents protested on June 4 , calling on a local sheriff to be fired after he was caught on tape using the N-word .
For Donnell Logan , who was born and raised in Covington and helped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such a march was happening at all in his hometown was a big deal .
He could not recall anything like it .
“ I think people never had the courage to talk to the white people to get it done , ” he said .
In Covington , he added , “ we go by old traditions .
We ain ’ t too quick to catch on to things.
” Located some 40 miles northeast of Memphis , Covington is the seat of Tipton County , founded on Chickasaw land that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The old cotton trade remains inscribed in the routes leading in and out of town , from cotton gins to the railroad tracks , to the car dealerships on Highway 51 : King Cotton Ford and King Cotton Chrysler .
West Tennessee held the majority of the state ’ s enslaved population before the Civil War .
Among the region ’ s most notorious traders in human beings was Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest , who ran a slave depot in downtown Memphis — and whose legacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the state legislature .
The week before the protest in Covington , an all-white House committee had yet again blocked efforts to remove the bust of Forrest that sits in the Capitol rotunda .
Driving from Nashville , the exit to Covington is also the exit for Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park , as well as the route to Fort Pillow , the site of an infamous massacre of Union soldiers carried out at Forrest ’ s command .
Yet like most parts of the state , Covington has not amended the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The city ’ s website boasts that “ the great American cavalry general ” made his last public speech to Confederate veterans at a reunion in Covington in 1876 .
That speech is etched in stone outside the Tipton County Museum , not far from the march ’ s route .
In the center of Covington ’ s historic downtown , a Confederate statue stands before the old Tipton County Courthouse .
Like many such monuments , it was built decades after the Civil War , as states sought to reassert white @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An inscription on the statue ’ s base honors the soldiers of the Confederacy as having “ illustrated the highest type of American manhood , ” followed by a line from “ The Sword of Robert Lee ” : “ Nor braver bled for a brighter land , Nor brighter land had a cause as grand.
” As in many parts of the South , white supremacy in West Tennessee was reinforced during Jim Crow by the resentment of rural white residents who struggled economically .
Although Shelby County had the highest number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tipton and surrounding counties were home to deadly acts of intimidation well into the 20th century .
Albert Gooden , 35 , was lynched in Covington in 1937 .
One town over , in Brownsville , 31-year-old NAACP leader Elbert Williams was forced from his home by a white mob led by the local sheriff in 1940 and found dead three days later .
Last week a petition began circulating to remove Brownsville ’ s own Confederate statue , invoking the name of George Floyd as well as Ahmaud Arbery , who was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year .
“ I ’ m signing for Elbert Williams , ” one supporter wrote .
Black residents of Tipton County have sometimes had to speak up to remind their neighbors of this history .
In 2009 , the Covington Leader published a letter to the editor from a woman named Tanya Jones in nearby Atoka , in response to an article recalling the infamous 1897 murder of a white farmer at the hands of a black man who reportedly confessed .
She reminded the newspaper that black people were often accused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in that era — including her own grandmother ’ s cousin , Harry Ross , who was lynched in Rosemark , just 17 miles south of Covington .
Having allegedly “ said something inappropriate to a white woman , ” she wrote , he was killed by a group of white men who “ forced him out of his house , tied him to their car , and dragged him to death.
” “ I ’ m sure there are other African Americans in this county , beside myself , that can tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lynched , assaulted , or mistreated in some way by whites many years ago , ” Jones wrote .
“ Would you like to print these stories ?
Some things are better left untold , aren ’ t they ?
” “ A lot of times , these smaller towns are quiet , you know ?
” Queisha Harris said .
“ So like they ’ re gon na keep their stuff under the rug .
Like , look , if nobody ’ s saying nothing , then we must be good.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covington ’ s courthouse square , police officers flanked the Confederate monument .
Entering South Main Historic District , home to some of the town ’ s most affluent residents , handwritten signs appeared prominently displayed on a lawn , with messages like “ Tolerating Racism IS Racism ” and “ White Silence is Violence.
” A bit further down , a white woman stood on her lawn and watched the march go by .
She was Rachel Witherington , 34 , the local city attorney .
“ I support the march , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m glad to see it happening in big cities but also small towns like Covington.
” Witherington also called this moment a “ wake-up call ” — or at least it should be , she said .
For a lot of white people , “ this is probably the first time in this community that they ’ ve actually seen it in their front yards and not on TV .
I hope they ’ re ready to hear the message.
” As the march turned onto Highway 51 — or Jefferson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ named in 1920 — an older white man in a red pickup truck sat parked along the route , where he had watched the protesters go by .
He was blunt in his assessment of the march .
“ I think it ’ s a bunch of crap , ” he said .
The man did not want to give his name .
But he said he owned a lumber business up the road and did not want to see it attacked .
He was mistrustful of the protesters across the country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were opposed to the good things President Donald Trump has tried to do .
He did not expect to see a march in Covington , and he ’ d come out to make sure there wasn ’ t a “ big stink ” over the statue downtown .
“ We didn ’ t take part in slavery 200 years ago , all the people that ’ s living now , ” he said .
By 5 p.m. the march was nearing Frazier Park , right around the corner from where it began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There was water and Gatorade , hot dogs and hamburgers , all donated from local businesses .
Participants signed the banner while volunteers helped register people to vote .
Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer said a few words .
On the Facebook page of the Covington Leader , which was streaming the march , a few white commenters had reacted negatively upon learning that she would be appearing at the march .
One said she was coming to spread “ her poison ” to Covington .
Another agreed Sawyer was very divisive .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shelby County since she was elected in a landslide in 2018 .
Since then — and following an unsuccessful run for mayor of Memphis — she has been targeted relentlessly by those who see her as a threat .
“ They are going heavy on her , unfortunately , ” a marcher from Memphis told me that day .
“ She ’ s just voicing everything that nobody else would .
But they just hate to see the change.
” To her supporters , Sawyer represents the leadership that ’ s long overdue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also represents something else .
Sawyer was born in Illinois and moved to Memphis when she was 12 .
In the summer , she would go to Mason , where her mother ’ s side of the family was from , and spent time in Covington , where she made lifelong friends .
Though she wasn ’ t really aware of it as a kid eating hot dogs and popsicles on the porch alongside them , “ there was a big class difference between me and a lot of my friends out there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no stranger to racism , but “ my parents had upper middle class , professional jobs and I went to private school .
So to white rural people , it ’ s like , ‘ How dare she talk about oppression ?
’ ” Sawyer was not naive about the way she might be received in Covington .
She made a name for herself by leading the charge to take down Memphis ’ s statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest , which was ultimately removed in 2017 .
But Sawyer did not come to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its Confederate statue .
She came to show solidarity with Harris , whom she ’ s known since she was a kid .
Still , she could see why some would be quick to make that assumption .
“ I think that there ’ s a fear that the world is is changing more rapidly than they can protect what they consider to be their ancestry , ” she said .
To Sawyer , there are other battles to fight .
Systemic racism still shapes the landscape in West Tennessee .
Since her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen firsthand how local jurisdictions have generated economic growth by criminalizing rural black residents has through traffic fines and other infractions .
“ A year or two ago my uncle had spent a weekend in jail , ” Sawyer said .
“ And when they pulled him over , it was because his car was too nice.
” A handyman who works for her parents and who lives off Highway 51 was accused of petty theft and put on probation , then repeatedly picked up by police for being outside an acceptable radius @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home after the march , Paul Whitley sat on his porch facing the park .
A longtime resident of Covington , he runs a barbershop out of his home .
He supports the police , he said .
But he believed the protest was a good thing .
“ We have never been measured up to the point where they treated us equal , ” he said .
“ Never .
Not in my lifetime .
And I ’ m 77 years old.
” I asked if he would like to see the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would .
“ Coming in from the South , that ’ s the first thing I see , ” he said , adding that he never understood who , exactly , it was supposed to be .
He had been glad to see the removal of the Forrest statue in Memphis .
“ I never thought that was going to happen .
”

Stephanie Brown was sweating as she pushed her son’s stroller up North Main Street in Covington, Tennessee. She wore gold hoops, flip-flops, and a surgical mask with “I Can’t Breathe” written on it in black marker. Her other two sons walked slightly behind, in the same masks and carrying bottles of Powerade. It was their first time protesting, and Brown’s too. Her reason was simple. “I have three young black boys,” she said, catching her breath.
The marchers had gathered on Sunday, June 14, outside Crumpy’s Hot Wings, a local Memphis chain, next to the Family Dollar on Highway 51. It was around 80 degrees but felt hotter in the plaza parking lot. Some carried umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. There were participants of all ages, mostly black but some white people too. “Pretty much everybody here is family,” said Nathasha Olden, who had come with her aunt, Anita Wilson. Covington is a small town, she said. “Everybody knows each other.”
The march had been billed as a “unity walk,” inspired by a recent event in Memphis. One of the organizers, Queisha Harris, had made a point to meet with the Covington police chief right away. She guaranteed that the march would remain peaceful. “We talked about how I would want them to cooperate,” she said. “Protect and serve. And no harassing, because you know, people really don’t want to see the police right now anyway.”
Photo: Liliana Segura
Photo: Liliana Segura
Around 3:25 p.m., Harris’s father Mike addressed the crowd. Black people had fought for fair treatment for years, he said. But George Floyd’s death was a “wake-up call.” He often thinks about what it would be like if one of his own children or nephews was in Floyd’s position. He urged people to seize on this moment to push back against all the barriers standing in their way. “Many people here today have no doubt thought about, somewhere in your lifetime, wanting to run a business. You wanted to be in a position or in office. Now is the time.”
“I’m not sure many more marches and demonstrations we’ll have,” Harris added. “But they’ll go on and on and on until we’ve accomplished our goal.”
Former alderman John Edwards spoke next. He recalled the numerous black men and women killed by police across the country, including Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, and Botham Jean. But he also invoked a local controversy. Last year, many in the community were angered by the sudden demotion of two veteran police officers who were close to retirement. One of them, Cavat Bass, was the first black police lieutenant and assistant chief in Covington’s history. After almost 40 years with the department, the new chief eliminated Bass’s position, reducing him to patrolman.
Former Covington alderman John Edwards addresses the protesters before the march. Photo: Liliana Segura
“In the city of Covington, when we have a police officer like [Bass], that works his way all the way through the ranks to make it to assistant chief, with a spotless record,” Edwards said. He was known for ensuring that community members were not mistreated and held accountable officers who did — “and they still work for the police department and he doesn’t? Something is wrong.”
Following a prayer, the crowd set out, led by a group carrying a banner reading UNITY, with a raised black fist. They turned right onto Highway 51 and crossed over toward Main Street as law enforcement followed closely along. The police escort did not deter the chants that have echoed at protests across the country: “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” As the march neared the courthouse square, one man shouted to make sure I was recording his message for all to see: “Get your knee off my neck!”
For a town with fewer than 9,000 residents, the march was sizable, roughly 150 people. Outside of Tipton County, however, it was mostly eclipsed by the larger actions taking place in Tennessee’s larger cities. That weekend, multiple events were happening in Nashville, including an occupation of the Capitol grounds. Activists declared an autonomous zone, named it Ida B. Wells Plaza, and distributed free food and water before being pushed out by police. In Memphis, where protests had been sustained for weeks, a man in a white pickup truck had tried to run over protesters who had blocked off a street — only the latest such incident.
While American cities have attracted the most national coverage and controversy since the death of George Floyd — especially crackdowns by police and damage to property — smaller marches have popped up in areas that many would not expect. Many have been remarkable for taking place in rural areas where the vast majority of the population is white. In Tennessee, on the eastern side of the state, a protest in Clinton (population 10,000) attracted 200 people, as did a prayer gathering in Athens (population 13,000). In West Tennessee, dozens of people rallied in Paris (population 10,000).
But in places with a more even percentage of black and white residents, black-led marches are powerful for confronting an entrenched power structure that still disenfranchises half if not more of the local population. Inspired by the national movement for black lives, they have also clearly been fueled by long-standing injustices in organizers’ own backyard. Just 16 miles north of Covington, in Ripley (population 7,879), dozens of residents protested on June 4, calling on a local sheriff to be fired after he was caught on tape using the N-word.
For Donnell Logan, who was born and raised in Covington and helped organize the event, the fact that such a march was happening at all in his hometown was a big deal. He could not recall anything like it. “I think people never had the courage to talk to the white people to get it done,” he said. In Covington, he added, “we go by old traditions. We ain’t too quick to catch on to things.”
Photo: Liliana Segura
Under the Rug
Located some 40 miles northeast of Memphis, Covington is the seat of Tipton County, founded on Chickasaw land that was overtaken by plantations in the 1800s. The old cotton trade remains inscribed in the routes leading in and out of town, from cotton gins to the railroad tracks, to the car dealerships on Highway 51: King Cotton Ford and King Cotton Chrysler.
West Tennessee held the majority of the state’s enslaved population before the Civil War. Among the region’s most notorious traders in human beings was Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, who ran a slave depot in downtown Memphis — and whose legacy remains the perennial subject of bitter fights in the state legislature. The week before the protest in Covington, an all-white House committee had yet again blocked efforts to remove the bust of Forrest that sits in the Capitol rotunda.
Driving from Nashville, the exit to Covington is also the exit for Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park, as well as the route to Fort Pillow, the site of an infamous massacre of black Union soldiers carried out under Forrest’s command. Yet like most parts of the state, Covington has not amended the official narrative of Forrest as a hero. The city’s website boasts that “the great American cavalry general” made his last public speech to Confederate veterans at a reunion in Covington in 1876. That speech is etched in stone outside the Tipton County Museum, not far from the march’s route.
In the center of Covington’s historic downtown, a Confederate statue stands before the old Tipton County Courthouse. Like many such monuments, it was built decades after the Civil War, as states sought to reassert white supremacy in the backlash to Reconstruction. An inscription on the statue’s base honors the soldiers of the Confederacy as having “illustrated the highest type of American manhood,” followed by a line from “The Sword of Robert Lee”: “Nor braver bled for a brighter land, Nor brighter land had a cause as grand.”
As in many parts of the South, white supremacy in West Tennessee was reinforced during Jim Crow by the resentment of rural white residents who struggled economically. Although Shelby County had the highest number of recorded lynchings in the state, Tipton and surrounding counties were home to deadly acts of intimidation well into the 20th century. Albert Gooden, 35, was lynched in Covington in 1937. One town over, in Brownsville, 31-year-old NAACP leader Elbert Williams was forced from his home by a white mob led by the local sheriff in 1940 and found dead three days later. Last week a petition began circulating to remove Brownsville’s own Confederate statue, invoking the name of George Floyd as well as Ahmaud Arbery, who was murdered by white vigilantes in Georgia earlier this year. “I’m signing for Elbert Williams,” one supporter wrote.
Black residents of Tipton County have sometimes had to speak up to remind their neighbors of this history. In 2009, the Covington Leader published a letter to the editor from a woman named Tanya Jones in nearby Atoka, in response to an article recalling the infamous 1897 murder of a white farmer at the hands of a black man who reportedly confessed. She reminded the newspaper that black people were often accused of crimes that they did not commit in that era — including her own grandmother’s cousin, Harry Ross, who was lynched in Rosemark, just 17 miles south of Covington. Having allegedly “said something inappropriate to a white woman,” she wrote, he was killed by a group of white men who “forced him out of his house, tied him to their car, and dragged him to death.”
“I’m sure there are other African Americans in this county, beside myself, that can tell of a story when a relative was lynched, assaulted, or mistreated in some way by whites many years ago,” Jones wrote. “Would you like to print these stories? Some things are better left untold, aren’t they?”
“A lot of times, these smaller towns are quiet, you know?” Queisha Harris said. “So like they’re gonna keep their stuff under the rug. Like, look, if nobody’s saying nothing, then we must be good.”
Photo: Liliana Segura
White Silence Is Violence
As the march made its way toward Covington’s courthouse square, police officers flanked the Confederate monument. Entering South Main Historic District, home to some of the town’s most affluent residents, handwritten signs appeared prominently displayed on a lawn, with messages like “Tolerating Racism IS Racism” and “White Silence is Violence.”
A bit further down, a white woman stood on her lawn and watched the march go by. She was Rachel Witherington, 34, the local city attorney. “I support the march,” she said, adding, “I’m glad to see it happening in big cities but also small towns like Covington.” Witherington also called this moment a “wake-up call” — or at least it should be, she said. For a lot of white people, “this is probably the first time in this community that they’ve actually seen it in their front yards and not on TV. I hope they’re ready to hear the message.”
As the march turned onto Highway 51 — or Jefferson Davis Highway, as it was officially named in 1920 — an older white man in a red pickup truck sat parked along the route, where he had watched the protesters go by. He was blunt in his assessment of the march. “I think it’s a bunch of crap,” he said.
The man did not want to give his name. But he said he owned a lumber business up the road and did not want to see it attacked. He was mistrustful of the protesters across the country, whom he referred to as radical socialists who were opposed to the good things President Donald Trump has tried to do. He did not expect to see a march in Covington, and he’d come out to make sure there wasn’t a “big stink” over the statue downtown. “We didn’t take part in slavery 200 years ago, all the people that’s living now,” he said.
By 5 p.m. the march was nearing Frazier Park, right around the corner from where it began. Marchers arrived tired but cheerful. There was water and Gatorade, hot dogs and hamburgers, all donated from local businesses. Participants signed the banner while volunteers helped register people to vote.
Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer said a few words. On the Facebook page of the Covington Leader, which was streaming the march, a few white commenters had reacted negatively upon learning that she would be appearing at the march. One said she was coming to spread “her poison” to Covington. Another agreed Sawyer was very divisive.
Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer addresses the protesters in Covington’s Frazier Park after the march. Photo: Liliana Segura
Sawyer has shaken the white establishment in Shelby County since she was elected in a landslide in 2018. Since then — and following an unsuccessful run for mayor of Memphis — she has been targeted relentlessly by those who see her as a threat. “They are going heavy on her, unfortunately,” a marcher from Memphis told me that day. “She’s just voicing everything that nobody else would. But they just hate to see the change.” To her supporters, Sawyer represents the leadership that’s long overdue in a majority-black city. But she also represents something else.
Sawyer was born in Illinois and moved to Memphis when she was 12. In the summer, she would go to Mason, where her mother’s side of the family was from, and spent time in Covington, where she made lifelong friends. Though she wasn’t really aware of it as a kid eating hot dogs and popsicles on the porch alongside them, “there was a big class difference between me and a lot of my friends out there,” she said. She was no stranger to racism, but “my parents had upper middle class, professional jobs and I went to private school. So to white rural people, it’s like, ‘How dare she talk about oppression?’”
Sawyer was not naive about the way she might be received in Covington. She made a name for herself by leading the charge to take down Memphis’s statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, which was ultimately removed in 2017. But Sawyer did not come to Covington to advocate for the removal of its Confederate statue. She came to show solidarity with Harris, whom she’s known since she was a kid. Still, she could see why some would be quick to make that assumption. “I think that there’s a fear that the world is is changing more rapidly than they can protect what they consider to be their ancestry,” she said.
To Sawyer, there are other battles to fight. Systemic racism still shapes the landscape in West Tennessee. Since her summers spent in Mason, she has seen firsthand how local jurisdictions have generated economic growth by criminalizing rural black residents has through traffic fines and other infractions. “A year or two ago my uncle had spent a weekend in jail,” Sawyer said. “And when they pulled him over, it was because his car was too nice.” A handyman who works for her parents and who lives off Highway 51 was accused of petty theft and put on probation, then repeatedly picked up by police for being outside an acceptable radius of his house.
As participants headed home after the march, Paul Whitley sat on his porch facing the park. A longtime resident of Covington, he runs a barbershop out of his home. He supports the police, he said. But he believed the protest was a good thing. “We have never been measured up to the point where they treated us equal,” he said. “Never. Not in my lifetime. And I’m 77 years old.”
I asked if he would like to see the Confederate monument come down and he said he would. “Coming in from the South, that’s the first thing I see,” he said, adding that he never understood who, exactly, it was supposed to be. He had been glad to see the removal of the Forrest statue in Memphis. “I never thought that was going to happen.”