Greetings, listeners. My name is Bilal Hassan Mohammed, inmate number 9602939. I’m currently a pretrial detainee, illegally restrained of my liberty in the El Paso County Jail Annex, 12501 Montana Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79938.
So this has been going on approximately eight years in spite of Texas constitutional and statutory law, which demands that a pre-trial release within 48 hours after arrest. So basically, I’m a political prisoner of local personal politics and retaliation by the El Paso judges, DAs, and even my so-called defense attorneys. This is the only reason that I’m unjustly in prison. So, in my first interview, I gave a brief overview of the El Paso plea deal system and the six main tactics used by the judges, DAs, and defense attorneys, which made it more than or equal to 99% effective, meaning that 99% of the arrestees, they don’t go to trial, but rather coerced into signing plea deals regardless of their innocence as charged. And if they don’t sign these plea deals, then they are punished with the trial penalty and the kangaroo court, after spending years in jail.
So this entry was going to be about some of my experiences in jail and a campaign of harassment and retaliation against me for peacefully standing up for my rights and the rights of other inmates as a jailhouse activist, wrongly being placed in civil isolation for about two years, and being subject to long term starvation and malnourishment, lack of proper medical care, etc. But I decided against presenting such material at this point, as I believe there’s plenty of coverage on jail and prison conditions. What I want the public to focus on mainly is that police and guards, jails, and prisons are just the arms of the state. We, as a people, need to focus on the heart and the brains of the whole operation. The courts, the judges, and the defense lawyers, who, in the corrupt system, they do one or two things. They either uphold their own or the arms of the State’s bad policies and murders or two, turn the blind eye to such. They are the ones who are truly responsible for mass incarceration, wrongful convictions of innocence, and propagation of the institutional racism against our people. So my take is the strategy employed in any boxing match or combat situation, which is you don’t go after an attack for arms. No, you aim for the head or the center of the body. That’s my goal and mission on Prison Radio, is to expose the El Paso courts for really what they are and the power wrongfully and corruptly wield against us. So I will leave the former topic though with a quote from Nelson Mandela. And here’s an important thing: “prison is designed to break ones spirit and to destroy one’s resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality. All this with the goal of stamping out the spark that makes each of us human, each of us who we are. Our survival depends on understanding what the authorities were attempting to do to us, and sharing that understanding with each other.”
I say our survival as a people in a so-called free country depends on the factual and legal understanding of what the courts are doing to us, and sharing that understanding amongst each other. Therefore, I ask the community to analyze in depth really what goes on in the courts here and across the country, with judges, DAs, and defense attorneys. Our freedom and survival depends on it as a people and a nation. We have an unfortunate and extreme example, if the state can illegally imprison me with an eight year defect de facto census, without ever being found guilty by a jury and if the state can essentially make void our Bill of Rights and all our other constitutional and due process guarantees as applied to me, then please don’t think for a second that the state cannot do the same thing to you and/or your loved ones. If one of us is not safe from state government corruption and the courts, then none of us are not facing government corruption and the courts.
This should be headline news. The notion of the law on the so called American status quo, innocent unless proven guilty, is just an empty notion. My case proves it’s nothing but sophistry said to the public as propaganda without meaning of support. For about eight years and still ongoing, I have no rights, no jury trial, no assistance of counsel. The state clearly has treated me as if I am guilty, and illegally punish me, when I’m actually innocent. These corrupt politics are implemented by Judge Lizarraga of the 168 district court, in conjunction with DA Bill Hicks appointed by Governor Greg Abbott, and my own so called defense attorney. Lizarraga is currently under investigation for corruption in another case, but that is not doing me any good, when I have made the same allegation against him, but the state commission on judicial conduct completely ignored me simply because I’m just some Black inmate. So I need you the people to make an outcry on my behalf as concerned citizens in the interest of justice. Thank you for your time.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio
