by JR Valrey
One of the people that Black Panther political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal asks me about regularly, on the rare occasion that I get to converse with him, is Chicago-based political prisoner Aaron Patterson, who did two stints in prison totaling almost four decades for offenses that evidence proved he was innocent of. He is due to be unleashed on Sept. 15, and he needs the community nationally to help him get on his feet.
He was responsible for getting the death penalty overturned in Illinois after it was exposed that he was put on death row under false pretenses, after being tortured by former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge with electricity, inside the infamous House of Screams, and forced into confessing to crimes that he was innocent of. He won a lawsuit after the torture was exposed, and he immediately took a loan out to bail out another prisoner, who had been falsely accused. In the early 2000s, his story was everywhere on television, from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to numerous appearances on “Democracy Now!” We urge people around the nation and the world to know about this freedom fighter who has never folded or stopped fighting on behalf of the people. Here’s a piece of his story in his own words, as well as his future plans.
JR Valrey: Can you talk about the circumstances surrounding your political imprisonment in this most recent case that had you locked in the concentration camps for 22 years?
Aaron Patterson: Well, I can’t go into details on how and why I was targeted for this case and why so much time, and life supervision!
All I can say is I pissed off the powers that be, and they blitzed me from all sides and took me down. I don’t know if it was for one thing or a few things I was doing then, but I’m back! The revolution continues, it don’t stop.
I do know they accused me of traveling to Africa unauthorized and wondering why I was there without going through customs and use of a passport! That bothered them enough for Homeland Security to arrest a comrade of mine, demanding that he reveal what I was doing there!
Or it could be my investigation into former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge’s silent partnership in a security firm that had a contract to provide security at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Maybe because I kept disrupting then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, then-Mayor Daley and State’s Attorney Dick Devine at events, at their homes and offices also.
JR Valrey: After you were unleashed from death row and the concentration camps, can you talk about the kind of community work that you engaged in between the two cases?
Aaron Patterson: The things I did when I was released were many. I addressed issues that went on too long, not addressed fully until checked.
My main focus was never to be a sound bite or armchair revolutionary; heard but with no effective results.
1) We bonded people out of prison and jails with funds we had or didn’t have, by getting high-interest “juice” loans that I later paid back twofold.
2) We ran for political office for state representative to challenge, at the very least, those that put me on death row, as well as the ongoing cover-ups of police terrorism and corruption.
We lost that election in 2004, but we also filed a complaint on Pat Bailey for not living in the district, and we were successful in getting her indicted, charged and convicted of voter fraud, and got her kicked out of the state representative position.
We registered and empowered poor and oppressed people in the hood to vote.
We chased Mayor Daley and the U.S. attorney out of the hood in Englewood during a press conference they had in a fieldhouse in a park, and shut down their press conference.
We protested war numerous times in downtown Chicago and shut down traffic on my street, Lake Shore Drive, and various other streets.
We shut down a few police stations around the city of Chicago because of police terrorism and wrongful detention.
We helped get rid of the crack law in New York, and contributed to the 100/1 ratio to get the law repealed.
We got rid of the death penalty in Illinois by lobbying politicians in Springfield, Illinois, to abolish the death penalty.
JR Valrey: What are your plans for when you finally reach outside of the gates of the concentration camp system on Sept. 15?
Aaron Patterson: Well, I don’t know exactly what will be done first, but it will be all hands on and it will be done in a timely fashion.
We’re going to start a third political party outside of the Democrats and Republican Party. We need a complete overhaul of both parties because they don’t serve the people’s needs, wants and desires.
We definitely will be doing community gardening and farming on the outskirts of Chicago, and in other cities on the West Coast, down South and the East Coast. We need to grow and raise our veggies and fruit trees pesticide-free in fertile organic soils. We will raise chicken for eggs and meat on natural corn and alfalfa feeds, and the cows and cattle beef will be raised on natural grass and alfalfa.
We will have ponds to raise fish in the same way, as well as use bees to get honey naturally.
We will have our own grow houses and dispensaries to grow marijuana and things related to marijuana and hemp, etc.
You can support by donating to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-aaron-pattersons-return-home
