Tuesday, April 7th – Letter Writing for Ramsey Orta

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, April 7th, 2020
WHERE: YOUR HOME
COST: Free
For well over a decade, NYC ABC has organized around the idea of keeping anarchists involved in political prisoner organizing and political prisoner support communities working with anarchists. We are one part of a movement to free our folks and see the end of prisons. Until those days come, we provide every other week support via political prisoner letter-writing events. Due to where we are in history, and the importance of keeping everyone safe, those events will be organized here, but you will have to take on the work of writing letters from home. Please send us a photo of your addressed envelope (with your return address blurred out, which we can also do for you) and we will share this via social media, building digital community while our analog community stays indoors and washes its hands. This week, we focus on Ramsey Orta, currently locked in solitary confinement without basic safety measures in place to curb coronavirus, as it enters New York state prisons.

Ramsey Orta filmed the killing of Eric Garner by NYPD cops. The video traveled far, but it wouldn’t get justice for Ramsey’s dead friend. Instead, the NYPD has exacted their revenge through targeted harassment and eventually imprisonment — Orta’s punishment for daring to show the world police brutality.

Please take the time to write a letter to Ramsey (and send us a photo of your completed envelope):
Ramsey Orta 16-A-4200
Mid-State Correctional Facility
Post Office Box 2500
Marcy, New York 13403-0216

BK/NY – Tuesday, April 30th – Letter Writing Dinner for Ramsey Orta

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, April 30th, 2019
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free
For well over a decade, NYC ABC has organized around the idea of keeping anarchists involved in political prisoner organizing and political prisoner support communities working with anarchists. This weekend, we are co-sponsoring a talk by Lenny Foster about Leonard Peltier, while also supporting fund raisers for Books Through Bars and Ramsey Orta. We are one part of a movement to free our folks and see the end of prisons. Until those days come, we provide every other week support via political prisoner letter-writing dinners. This week, we focus on Ramsey Orta.

Ramsey Orta filmed the killing of Eric Garner by NYPD cops. The video traveled far, but it wouldn’t get justice for Ramsey’s dead friend. Instead, the NYPD has exacted their revenge through targeted harassment and eventually imprisonment — Orta’s punishment for daring to show the world police brutality.

We expect to see you on Tuesday. If you can’t make it, please take the time to write a letter to Ramsey:
Ramsey Orta 16-A-4200
Groveland correctional facility
Post Office box 50
Sonyea, New York 14556

BK/NY – Tuesday, July 4th – Letter Writing Dinner for Josh Williams, Krow, and Ramsey Orta

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, July 4th, 2017
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free

While the rest of the country happily turns the other cheek to the daily atrocities committed under the name of the USA in order to get wasted and light off fireworks, NYC ABC will be doing something a little different.  Join us at this Tuesday to enjoy some vegan barbecue, relish in our disgust at the state and celebrate folks who have recently been captured.  This week we’ll be writing three individuals who have gone down for their participation in the Ferguson uprising, No DAPL, and cop watch actions.

Josh Williams became a vocal regular participant in the anti-police demonstrations following the murder of 18 year old Mike Brown in 2014. Later that year, Joshua was arrested for the arson of a convenience store that was located across the street from the fatal police shooting of Antonio Martin just days before. In December 2015 Joshua pleaded guilty to arson and burglary and has been sentenced to 8 years in state prison.

On April 12, Krow was taken into custody, to Morton County Jail, where she awaits extradition. True to form—always thinking of others— she spent her last day on the outside supporting other No DAPL prisoners and rescuing a cat.  On February 4, 2017—her 30^th birthday—she was assaulted and arrested by a member of the Bureau of Indian Affairs while in North Dakota supporting the resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline. She was held in Morton County Correctional Center until February 27. She is being charged with violating felony probation. Krow’s legal case set a precedent in North Dakota as the first case to release someone on bond preceding a formal extradition hearing.  For Krow’s statement after her initial release from jail on February 27, and before turning herself in on April 12, visit http://supportkrow.org

In July 2014 Ramsey Orta was in front of a corner store on Staten Island when vicious murdering pig David Pantaleo wrapped his arm around Eric Garner’s neck and squeezed until his final breath. Having dealt with police before Ramsey had the forethought to grab his camera phone and start recording. He captured the final moments of Eric Garner’s life, in which he uttered the now infamous phrase and rallying cry, “I can’t breathe.” Ramsey released the video, which instantly went viral and inspired folks to hit the streets across the country against the police. Given the State’s goals of maintaining white supremacy it should come as no surprise that the only person who both walked away from the scene of Eric Garner’s death alive and faced any real consequences handed down by the State is Ramsey. Since the uploading of the video, Ramsey has been harassed non-stop by the NYPD and was arrested numerous times. On one occasion when the police were targeting and arresting him, they even pulled out their phones and said “You filmed us, now we are filming you.” One of these charges stuck and Ramsey surrendered himself to begin a four year sentence on October 3rd.

If for some reason you can’t make it Tuesday, please take a moment to write these folks on your own time:
Josh Williams #1292002
E.R.D.C.C.
2727 Highway K
Bonne Terre, Missouri 63628

Krow*
Iron County Jail
300 Taconite Street
Hurley, Wisconsin 54534
*address envelope to Katie Kloth

Ramsey Orta 16A4200
​Franklin Correctional Facility
Post Office Box 10
Malone, New York 12953-0010

BK/NY – Tuesday, November 8th – Letter-writing for Ramsey Orta

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, November 8th, 2016
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free

As the laziest form of “politics” is finally drawing near its end for another four years and your racist aunts and uncles stop pretending to think about the world outside their tiny bubble and go back to filling up your social media feed with cat memes and candy crush invites, you are invited to come support political prisoners and prisoners of war against the white supremacist State with us this Tuesday.

This week we are writing to local newly incarcerated Copwatcher and anti-police activist Ramsey Orta.  Cops targeting and murdering people in an effort to decimate communities of color is a practice as old as the institution of police itself.  It is not new.  However, now that technology has progressed and more people have video recording devices in their pockets ready to film in an instant, some cops are being caught in the act and documented.

In July 2014 Ramsey was in front of a corner store on Staten Island when vicious murdering pig David Pantaleo wrapped his arm around Eric Garner’s neck and squeezed until his final breath.  Having dealt with police before Ramsey had the forethought to grab his camera phone and start recording. He captured the final moments of Eric Garner’s life, in which he uttered the now infamous phrase and rallying cry,  “I can’t breathe.”  Ramsey released the video, which instantly went viral and inspired folks to hit the streets across the country against the police. Given the State’s goals of maintaining white supremacy it should come as no surprise that the only person who both walked away from the scene of Eric Garner’s death alive and faced any real consequences handed down by the State is Ramsey.  Since the uploading of the video, Ramsey has been harassed non-stop by the NYPD and was arrested numerous times.  On one occasion when the police were targeting and arresting him, they even pulled out their phones and said “You filmed us, now we are filming you.”  One of these charges stuck and Ramsey surrendered himself to begin a four year sentence on October 3rd.

For more information, visit ramseyorta.info

If you are unable to attend, please take the time to write Ramsey a card or letter:
Ramsey Orta #16-A-4200
Downstate Correctional Facility
121 Red Schoolhouse Road
Fishkill, New York 10309