To everyone planning on heading to court on Thursday afternoon to support EK, here are the updated specifics:
When: Thursday, March 3rd, at 1:30 pm
Where: Courtroom 8A – District Judge, Gary A. Fenner
U.S. District Court, 400 E. 9th St.
Kansas City, Missouri
64106
Please note that valid photo identification is required to enter the courthouse and all persons and belongings are subject to search. Also, we’d like to encourage everyone who’s planning on attending the March 3rd court appearance to dress nice, and conduct yourself appropriately in the court room out of respect for EK, the person we are there to support.
And to everyone else thinking of EK right now, and wishing they could be there on Thursday to show him the support you carry with you every day, please write him a letter. He was put in solitary confinement (“the hole”) for 60 days, so he’d really appreciate that right now. You might be in another part of North America, too far to join us for court support, or maybe in Europe, South America, or some other part of the world holding EK in your heart and thoughts. Would you let him know?
Thank you to everyone from all over the world for your continued support. Letters, cards, and books mean so much.
After almost a year and a half of pre-trial detention in shitty conditions, court battles and other legal woes, and facing threats of forty years in prison, Eric King has finally decided to accept a non-cooperating plea agreement to ten years in federal prison.
If you live nearby, please consider attending Eric’s hearing in Kansas City, MO next Thursday, March 3rd at 1:30p.m. The media and cops are likely to be well-represented, and it would be a meaningful moment to show Eric that he is not alone. Having supporters there may also create some pressure for the court to conduct itself better. It will also be useful to Eric and his support crew to have more people in attendance taking notes and keeping an eye on the proceedings.
The hearing will be:
Thursday, March 3rd
1:30 p.m.
When: Thursday, March 3rd, at 1:30 pm
Where: Courtroom 8A – District Judge, Gary A. Fenner
U.S. District Court, Kansas City , Missouri
400 E. 9th St. 64106
Please note that valid photo identification is required to enter the courthouse and all persons and belongings are subject to search. Also, we’d like to encourage everyone who’s planning on attending the March 3rd court appearance to dress nice, and conduct yourself appropriately in the court room out of respect for EK, the person we are there to support.
Even if you cannot attend on this short notice, please consider donating some money to Eric’s new support fund . He urgently needs funds to prepare for his long prison term as well as immediate support needs. You can also send him a book or a letter. Check out his Amazon Wish List for ideas. Eric is currently in the hole and needs all the reading material he can get.
You can write to Eric at:
Eric King
#27090045
CCA Leavenworth
100 Highway Terrace
Leavenworth, KS 66048
Sometime in the next couple months, Eric will have a sentencing hearing where the judge will officially determine his sentence, after which he will be transferred to a federal prison . Please keep your eyes open for another call out asking supporters to attend.
Make no mistake, neither Eric nor his support crew take the decision to accept this plea lightly. Despite being far better than the other legal options available, ten years is way too long for our friend and comrade to be stolen from us. Eric is being steamrolled by the state and its functionaries, and there is very little we can do about it. Yet we can and will remain in solidarity with him.
From the beginning, Eric has been concerned about accepting a plea that may establish a legal precedent that other anarchists may have to deal with in the future when facing similar charges. Therefore, he has seen this legal battle as impacting not only himself, but all of us. Nonetheless, facing the possibility of a thirty or forty year sentence, Eric has determined that this is the best possible outcome that is available to him.
We are proud of Eric for how bravely he has faced these charges. He has refused to cooperate with the state, worked hard to maintain a vegan diet, and stood up for himself and his friends in prison in the face of violence and intimidation by the guards and administration. And he has done it with contagious laughter, joy and poetry. We now face the long, hard road of supporting our friend and comrade for the next ten years of his life. Please take some time to donate and write Eric a letter.
It has come to our attention through Eric’s attorney that he has been placed in the hole again during the shake-down of the facility. He has been told that he will have a disciplinary hearing next week to determine if he will remain in segregation. We ask for continued solidarity in blasting Eric with cards and letters.
As folks know, Eric’s mail is being censored and political letters and literature are being rejected. It is important to keep the pressure on
CCA Leavenworth to stop censoring Eric’s mail.
According to Warden Isaac Johnston, it is up to the guards to use discretion in deciding which groups can be labeled as hate groups and
have their correspondence rejected. This means that mailroom employees can use their own political ideology to decide what mail to allow and
what to block.
Unfortunately, due to CCA being a for-profit contractor, they are not
held by the same rules as state and federal prisons. Yet there is a very short list of regulations that CCA has to follow in regards to mail and one is that both incoming and outgoing mail must be held for no longer
than 24 hours.
Since being incarcerated, Eric has had both incoming and outgoing mail held for way longer than is dictated according to the “Performance-Based Detention Standards.” On September 15th, for example, the mailroom gave
Eric a large batch of mail that had been held for well over 24 hours.
If you write Eric, you can help by taking action in the following ways:
1) When you get mail from Eric, please check both the date the letter
was written and the postmark on the letter. If there is more than a
24-hour difference, please email us at erickingsupportcrew(a)riseup.net with either a photo or quick note of the date on the letter and the
postmark date. This can help Eric document these violations and allow him to file grievances for them as they occur.
2) Next, please take a second to let the staff at CCA Leavenworth and
CCA corporate know that they are violating the “Performance-Based
Detention Standards.”
a. Warden Isaac Johnston: 913.680.6801
b. Assistant to the Warden: 913.680.6804
c. Mailroom (ask for the manager of the mailroom): 913.680.6808
d. Call CCA Corporate and let them know what CCA Leavenworth is up to: 1.800.624.2931
Feel free to leave a message if they do not answer. If you feel comfortable and want to have a conversation, you can even leave a
call-back number.
In your message, state how long Eric’s outgoing letter was held before
being sent to you. Inform them that “Performance-Based Detention
Standard” number (G.3.5) says, “Excluding weekends and holidays or emergency situations, incoming and outgoing letters are held for no more than 24-hour hold.”
Help us tell CCA that we won’t stand for Eric’s incoming mail being
censored based on his political ideology or for him to be targeted by
his mail being held for more than 24 hours.
Lastly, we want to remind folks that Eric being pre-trial puts him in an
especially sensitive position. Any piece of literature he receives,
whether it is rejected or not, may be used against him come sentencing.
