This week we have a special episode featuring a discussion between Derek Ford and our comrade Leon Benson—an artist, author, producer, exoneree, and a good friend of the people joins the show ahead of the official launch of "The Solitary Justice Project."

Before pivoting to the launch, which will take place at the Shri Thanedar Community Center in Detroit on February 28, they discuss the unfortunate circumstances that brought Leon to Indianapolis this weekend: the celebration of for comrade Kwame Shakur. About three years his junior, Leon recalls them growing up together. He tells one particular story in which Kwame attacked to Correctional Officers for mistreating a prisoner. He was charged with attempted murder and beat the case pro se. After his release, they kept in touch and Kwame dedicated his autobiography to Leon.

Leon served 25 years incarcerated for a crime the IMPD knew he didn't commit and was the first person exonerated after the Marion County Conviction Integrity Unit's founding. Much of that time was spent in solitary confinement, which brings the two to a discussion about the terror and trauma of the practice that is widely regarded as a human rights abuse and a violation of the UN's Mandela Rules. While the stories of making it through solitary are inevitably triumphant, the degradation and suffering the state subjects our people to must be put to an end.

Leon and Derek discuss their own trauma as Leon breaks down the different kids, including chronic and vicarious, as well as collective.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Solitary Justice Project, make it to their Detroit debut if you can, or wait until it makes its ways to Indianapolis as it inevitably will.

Show Notes:

Support Naptown People’s Radio Support the Indianapolis Liberation Center Shop the Indy Liberation Store Shop the Shaka Shakur Store Indianapolis Liberation Center Coalition to Free Vernon Bateman

This week, Jay Grillo gives a first-hand account of the sustained anti-ICE uprising in Minneapolis.

In the first segment, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford signal the potential danger in a likely alliance between Indiana and ultra right-wing Turning Point USA. Turning Point, founded by Charlie Kirk, is a project dedicated to silencing dissenting research and silencing faculty and teachers who stand up for justice by threats of violence. They next turn to the IMPD's violent assault and threats to kill 17-year-old Trevion Taylor, a Black student who was driving a car with friends after participating in an anti-ICE walkout and protest on Feb. 6 near Warren Central High School. They put IMPD's refusal to immediately release the bodycam footage of the attack to the family and public in recent historical context.

They end on a positive development: Shaka A. Shakur is awaiting transfer away from River North Correctional Facility, where he and other inmates have been on Marshall-law lock-down for months, to a lower-security prison. Derek references how Shaka ends the recent statement we just received, titled "Can Anyone be Illegal on Stolen Land?" Shaka calls for the struggle to connect ICE, killer cops, national oppression and national liberation struggles together with a revived anti-mass incarceration movement. After all, ICE has subjected our people to since its founding in March 2003, the cops have been subjecting our communities to on a greater scale for a longer period of time.

We're excited to hear from PSL Indianapolis member and videographer Jay Grillo, who recently returned from supporting the people of Minneapolis as they continue standing defiantly in the face of ICE's murderous rampage. After discussing Grillo's background and how they got involved in activism and the Party, Grillo relays the high level of energy and sophisticated degree of spontaneous organization and structures the people there quickly collectively built, the impact of the “No Business as Usual” tactic, and the issue of safety at mass uprisings.

Finally, this week's Circle City Shout Out goes to Hear Her Voice and particularly its founder, Tyrah Kingcade, or Nairobi X. Hear Her Voice is a transformative healing space dedicated to empowering individuals impacted by trauma, addiction, incarceration, and systemic injustice. They especially focus on issues of re-entry and fighting the impacts of the racist mass incarceration system in the U.S. They recently released a new workbook, titled Hear Her Voice Recover Workbook: She Rises, Her Time, Her Turn, available as an affordable paperback here and on Amazon.

Events:

Capital Class: Session 6 Circle City Sangha Liberation Yoga

Show Notes:

Hear Her Voice Store Support Naptown People’s Radio Support the Indianapolis Liberation Center Shop the Indy Liberation Store Shop the Shaka Shakur Store Indianapolis Liberation Center Coalition to Free Vernon Bateman

Vernon T. Bateman joins the show to discuss the latest developments in his fight for exoneration.

This week's Naptown Breakdown highlights a recent Mirror Indy/Indy Star investigation uncovering that, for more than a decade Mayor Joe Hogsett, used no-bid contracts that benefited his friends and those with ties to the Democratic Party. Hogsett won his first term as Mayor with a proposal called “Disclose Indy," which directly targeted then-Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican whose non-competitive bidding practices were regularly covered in the press at the time. In 2015 he promised that "betray the public trust, you deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law." Disclose Indy also included a two-term limit for the Mayor. Guest co-host and organizer Lindsey Holtgrave sheds additional light on the situation before turning to the recent inspiring anti-ICE protests. She highlights positive developments in the movement over the past two years, particularly in terms of the people's consciousness and leadership.

Artist, author, and community advocate Vernon T. Bateman joins co-host Derek Ford to discuss a major breakthrough in his fight for freedom. On January 13, the Lake County Prosecutor's Office headed by Bernard Carter admitted the State tried and convicted Bateman in 1998 without any evidence tying him to the alleged "crime." This contradicts trial testimony from the Prosecution's witnesses during the trial. Shockingly, however, the Judge sided with the Prosecution and denied Bateman's motion for DNA testing to confirm his innocence. Nonetheless, the State's admission they sent Bateman to jail for 30 years without any DNA evidence is a major step forward. Sign the petition to support Bateman here!

Finally, this week's Circle City Shout Out goes to the youth of Minneapolis, the country, and here in Indianapolis for walking out to protest ICE, even without any legal rights to do so. However, young people have always been at the forefront of social change and even revolutions. When Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, they were only 29 and 27 years-old respectively. Leila Khaled was just 15 when she joined the Arab Nationalist League and at age 23 was the first woman to join the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP. Huey P. Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party when he was 24.

That’s why we view everything here as an opportunity to train a new generation of fighters and activists. And we have several ways to do so this week. So shout-out to the youth eager to learn how to best fight for justice and to those willing to teach (and learn from) them!

Events:

Capital Class: Session 4 (virtual) Heart and Heritage: New Hispanic Cultural Hub Debuts with Group Show Circle City Sangha Sunday Liberation Center Yoga

Show Notes:

Support Naptown People’s Radio Support the Indianapolis Liberation Center Shop the Liberation Center Store Shop the Shaka Shakur Store Indianapolis Liberation Center Coalition to Free Vernon Bateman