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N0KFQ > TODAY 13.09.13 16:12l 54 Lines 2521 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 4493_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 13
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 130913/1355Z 4493@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.55
Sep 13, 1971:
Attica prison riot ends
A four-day riot at Attica Prison comes to a violent end as law
enforcement officials open fire, killing 29 inmates and 10
hostages and injuring many more. The prison insurrection was the
bloodiest in U.S. history.
On the morning of September 9, 1971, a group of inmates at the
Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in
western New York, assaulted a prison guard and began rioting.
They took prison employees hostage and gained control of portions
of the facility. Negotiations between inmates and prison
officials followed. The inmates demanded better living conditions
at the overcrowded prison, which had been built in the 1930s. At
the inmates' request, a committee of observers that included
politicians and journalists was formed to oversee the talks.
When negotiations broke down, New York Governor Nelson
Rockefeller ordered Attica to be taken by force. Rockefeller was
planning to run for the Republican presidential nomination and
reportedly wanted to combat the perception in some circles that
he was soft on crime. On the morning of September 13, tear gas
was dropped over the prison and state troopers opened fired on a
group of over 1,200 inmates. In the chaos, 10 hostages and 29
inmates were killed by police gunfire and another 80 people were
seriously wounded, the majority of them inmates, in what became
the bloodiest prison uprising in U.S. history. Adding to the
death toll were three inmates and a guard who had been killed
earlier during the riot.
Some inmates later claimed that police took brutal revenge on
them and that they were denied medical care for hours afterward.
An investigation into the Attica revolt resulted in over 60
inmates being indicted and eight eventually convicted. One prison
guard was charged with reckless endangerment, but his case was
later dropped. A class-action suit filed in the 1970s on behalf
of over 1,200 Attica inmates was settled in 2000 when a federal
judge ordered New York State to pay $8 million to the surviving
inmates. In 2005, the state also agreed to pay $12 million to
the survivors and families of employees killed at Attica. Some
of the inmates who have done time at Attica in the years since
the riot include Mark David Chapman, who killed musician John
Lennon; "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz; and Colin
Ferguson, who gunned down six people on the Long Island Railroad.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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