All language subtitles for ATTICA.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

Why is it so dangerous
to be an environmentalist in Colombia?

Do you know who it is that wants you dead?

The Cuban government is still boiling down

on their legacy of repression
and surveillance.

Neuroscientists are finding new ways
to Fuze man and machine.

Would you call Cancer Alley
environmental racism?

It's just a whole different way
of telling the story.

I'm getting anger about conservatives
being persecuted.

Something always was ready to happen

that had occurred.

The population was tied.

Tired of lies of promises.

We would tie.

Someone picked a guard.

And after you hear God, he's over.

Then all hell broke loose.

I'm in the middle of shall

we start hearing these sirens going off
to hell as it is?

I was in the shower.
I came home soaking wet

and the place is

going crazy, and all of a sudden.

I seen the medical shop door open

and I seen guys come running in there
with great big pipes and knives

and before, you know,
everybody was running all over the place.

Then you started seeing people

sticking their faces to the broken windows

and saying, Grab the guards,
grab the guards, grand keys, get keys.

There's guards that are getting beat up.

Anybody that fell in your head

that was part of the administration
was, well, get a beat.

It was my opportunity
to fight those who beat me down now

because I'm
with a whole lot of killers now.

It's us versus them,
and I just jumped in it.

I didn't plan anything,
and I wasn't the type of thing

that was kicking the police.

I still feel good about it.

It would have ended right there

because they were in a confined area,
locks around the block tier.

Times Square was locked, but the prisoners
went back towards Times Square

and began to yank on the gates.

All the four blocks met at Times Square

and the Council
on the Layout of the Prison Times

Square as the hub,
the central hub of the prison.

The morning of the riot,
my father was in Times Square.

He had keys to all of the doorways

and unfortunately the inmates

that were in a tunnel continue
to push against

that cell door, and they began yelling

for my dad
to unlock the gate and cleanse out that.

I said,
Oh, sure, this is, and it hit their home.

Oh, they started banging on the.

And all the good and all the good
and unbeknownst to anybody.

one of the hinges had been.

Welded together
kind of jury rigged during construction

in 1932, that will brook a lot.

Says Popped.

And they
rushed out when the gate came down.

They attacked my father
and they took his keys,

which of course, gave them access
to all of the doors within Times Square.

He was beaten very severely.

Adobe.

And I put two knuckles on close calls
and then I could feel a pulse.

But it was very faint.

It was like a flutter.

And a minute or two later, another flood.

There were some inmates that knew my dad.

four Muslim inmates
who got a mattress out of a block

and put my dad on the mattress,
and they brought him from

Times Square and told them
that they have a correctional officer

that has been badly injured
and he needs medical attention.

At some point an ambulance did arrive.

During that time, my mother

was notified that my father was injured.

After they got the Queen's keys,

they opened up all four sites
and said we got the joy in their holiday.

We got the job.

It to everybody and do it.

We do,

but we can not only.

So we all the but d-black.

The place is blowing up
smoke pouring from five buildings,

the prison chapel
and laundry gutted by flames.

We only have control of our yard.

They had control of the system,
they had control of the gates

and the doors, and the walkways
did was up and walkway with guns.

But you can watch you.

I'm turning now from B Block,

taking in the group
on the roof of C Block.

Right

now, the
yard and D-Block is coming into view

shooting now through the 270 rifle scope,

and they're ugly and black,

and they grow gentlemen
I've ever seen in my life.

We knew they were out there
on the catwalks.

They were positioning themselves in a way,

although you knew they were there,
they positioned themselves

out of sight.

Most of the prisoners
have concealed their faces

by wearing scarves, towels
and what have you over their faces.

That was a way to guard

your identity from being exposed.

And if they came in, you know
you have protection.

Well, we thought we did.

In Attica, New York,
about 1000 long term convicts

today rioted and they gained control
of the maximum security prison.

They also seized 33 guards as hostages
and injured others in the fighting.

State police have regained
control of most of the prison,

but the trouble isn't over yet.

When we

got to deal with the hostages,
we hollered,

we got hostages and we had about 1000

men shouting at.

We know

Indian hostages to keep the police coming
and drop in on us, got our hostages.

That's the only that's the only leverage.

As long as they have the hostages,
they didn't have guns

and they didn't have this
and they didn't have that,

but they had hostages.

And they're your people
and you were responsible for your people.

You're responsible to protect your people

and do your job.

Sit down and negotiate with us

getting into the area
where the 21 hostages are being held

here in that main group room
because the prisoners

have taken their clothing away
and put prison clothes on.

They were blindfolded in a circle
in the middle of the yard.

They also had guards, inmate guards
that were around them, protecting them.

And we seen them as captives.

We seen as people who were in on the.

Our supervision.

So we couldn't do harm to them,
but understand that Islam

was that you don't harm a captive,
therefore.

It was decided.

To allow the Muslim brothers.

To look out for them.

I was so mad at them for not letting us
get to the police

because I wanted to put my hands
someone I wanted to get wanted

to give them a very fuck them up.

These are the same politicians
talking down to me,

dirty to me and tell me, get over it.

So I said, Yeah, now
what do you think about me now?

Yeah, yeah.

And the good thing that the Muslims just
did because London police would have been

on video.

It's hard for somebody that

has never been incarcerated
to understand how surreal

everything is at this point in time,
we nobody threatening us.

We had, you know, it sounds crazy,
but it was when you had it a little bit,

even this much control over your own life,
even for a short period.

You know, it's going to cost you,
you know, in spades.

You know,
it was a moment of exuberance. Of.

Somehow doing something
to have some control over your own life,

you do it up,

don't lose.

When you first got out,
there was totally just gave it up.

Guys are coming up.

Food, clothing, setting up tents.

Oh, it's a festive time.

We, we're free.

We came together as a community,

and that's when there was no such thing

as black, white, Hispanic,
whatever it was about.

We are inmates

and we

need to be able to survive
whatever's going on.

Oh, good.

Come on, buddy.

So we're you

to have, you know, what is it

we did about it?

We die.

Got we.

The guys that had been to Vietnam,

they said, let's make Hutchins,

who draws of ten kids,

took a stick
and put a sheet over all of that,

and I was just sleeping quarters

by the time guys started

having to go to the bathroom.

There was none will work

the crowd that had been to Vietnam
and been in the army, they said.

We got to make that a train.

They knew the latrine was.

I don't know what all the training was.

I'll give you a lap.

All right. All right.

Okay. I got to speak.

There was his

brother

and I said, Brother, he was white.

They call him tiny.

And he was like a nurse
before the article, before you happened

to set up a medical section of New York.

For anybody who had any problems to go
and in time you would take him

and the medical attention in your eye

was much better than the medical tent
you got throughout the years.

Oh, and he had a good time.

He was making wine
and cooking food outside.

It was like a big picnic,
like a chanty town.

You know, like that would belong.

When in Buffalo Bill was out there,

have you ever watched Gunsmoke

the West?

Well, Matt, Matt Dillon
was the show marshal at the Gunsmoke.

He kept order

and we didn't have a map.

Every man was a law unto himself.

He did whatever the hell you want to do.

There was no order.

The assignment

editor says there's
this place called Attica and there's

some prison riot up there
and we want you to go up and do it.

We're not sure about any of what

the details are specifically.

And off I went.

Up to Buffalo and then on to Attica.

This is John

Johnson, ABC News, Attica, New York.

It was just an extremely

fluid situation, to say the least.

And it was hard to get information.

I mean, we couldn't get inside,
and all we heard was

these inmates want to talk

and they have prisoners.

And this was something almost

that had never happened in history.

This huge institution
where the inmates have taken over.

Oh my goodness.

Atika, New York had never heard of Atika,
New York.

What's an etiquette?

Quite frankly,
I did not know what to expect

when I got to Atika.

We parked right in front of the prison,

so consequently we just set up and started

filming as much as we possibly could

of the activities outside of the prison

. We had no idea what was happening
inside.

Your instructions are that
your weapon is not to be taken by you.

To be taken,
you're to meet force with force.

There have been some of the prison
personnel severely injured here

this morning, and we certainly don't
want to see any right

people hurt.

The state police officers

were being handed out weapons.

They were making sure they had gas masks.

It looked to me like they were ready to
go in and retake the prison.

The inmates
circumstances, might you go inside?

Pardon me.

Might you go inside
under some circumstances?

Well, one doesn't know.
I'll have to fill this out.

The inmates made any demands. one me.

I don't know.

They say that they only want to speak
with the governor or me.

There seem to be some sense at the time

that we are going to have to negotiate
something

to save the lives of the hostages

because of the hostages that they have.

There's the possibility that negotiations

will begin.

And we're looking at a man

using a loudspeaker on a bullhorn.

Well,

there appears to be a large meeting
going on in this area,

although we can't hear anything from that
section.

That's right.

And inmates

decided that,
you know, they're in a situation that,

you know, that required man
a little bit more focus,

a little bit more discipline,
how to combine the actual population.

Who do you want to represent you? You

mean we had elections, blah blah blah.

That's where we got our leaders from.

Hell.

Now some guys have some juice in.

They already.

The guys that have been there, while

all other inmates respected

what they were saying made sense to most,
everybody was in the yard.

And they had a plan

and they had a plan about making things
different for the prison system itself.

All we want is the basic necessities
of being treated like human beings,

even though we're in prison,
we're human beings and stuff like that.

The prisoners

in the yard must have had a radio.

They heard I was outside.

So they ask for me to come in.

I said, sure.

And they then said

we would like Commissioner
Oswald to come in, and

some of his assistant

said, Don't go, don't go
that you can't trust them.

And Oswald said,
Of course, I'm going to go in.

We are glad to have someone
from the administration

point blank
coming in and view it as fact, now

we're making some kind of headway
beginning here.

We got some contact with somebody.

We've got some negotiations for you
listening to us.

I've never heard of this before
negotiating

with inmates, and I just assume

that this was going to be
in a landmark moment in American history.

I thought that this was going
to be negotiated

to a decent humanitarian end.

It seems to be a little misunderstanding
about why.

This incident developed at Attica

in this declaration here
will explain the reasons

the entire incident that has erupted
here, Adam, is not a result.

Well,
in college towns and their factory towns,

there's all kinds of towns in this country
and this is Attica, New York.

It's a prison town.

Most of the people
in the village of Attica

make their living,
working at the state prison

for 40 years.

Most have lived within
sight of the prison wall.

They have never feared.

The village of Attica

was a great place to live was

very typical.

I think small town

where you knew everyone,

you were related
to probably half of the town.

We've ride our bikes through town,
go to the park,

we go swimming at the public pool,
we go hiking up in the woods.

Erica is a company town.

Many of the people who work there
and have lived in our town

worked as either civilian employees
or corrections officers at Attica.

My grandfather worked there.

My dad worked there.

And between six or

eight of the houses that were on
our street had correctional officers

or civilian individuals
working in them with their families.

These were the only jobs in the area,

dairy farming and the prisons.

So there was this culture clash
that came together to Africa.

You had all white guards.

And a population of prisoners,

there was 70 or more percent
black and brown.

What could go wrong?

And the reputation was called
the last stop.

This was the most strict prison
in the state of New York.

It was known the word was dead

that when you got there,
you knew where he was in for a hard place.

Last place,
the last place, Attica was the last place

that was that was that that was last.

And you've got to really be there
to see why

there was no, no black guards in Attica.

There was no Spanish guards.

They were all white people, man
that come from the local neighborhoods

that don't know
nothing about people who come from broken

people who come from Manhattan,
people who come from the Bronx.

They don't know
nothing about this culture.

Most of
them don't even want to talk to you.

They're giving you just straight.

Don't talk to me.

And it was like that Don't talk to me.

They were hit the state bar.

And this is a metal.

A metal tips that.

And it rings out, but and you walk

and then when they want you to stop,
they said. But

that was their communication.

The only thing was right was being right

and I mean it in all sincerity

where everybody was sort of like
not so much mixing with other countries

would stand together
for the purpose of the.

Survival,

I was white, so I got the best jobs.

I was always given a little bit

more leeway than the Blacks.

I can get an extra meal if I want to one
because I was a white guy.

I'm a I'm a white guy, you know,
give me a little extra.

And I got it.

I always was able to manipulate the system

inside the prison
because I was a white guy.

I'm almost ashamed to say
that I took advantage of that back then,

but it was the only way to survive.

It really, really was.

A roll of toilet

paper would have to last you a month.

You have to be a magician
or tear up papers

out of the books and stuff like that
to wipe your behind and stuff like that.

Guys were complaining
about basically things like toothpaste.

Toilet paper.

A change of sheets.

More than once a month.

Things like digging clothes being cleaned.

Personal hygiene, things
being treated like human beings.

No school program, Atika, was.

I can't describe it to me.

It was dead.

It was just dead.

There was no religious freedom,
particularly

for the burgeoning Muslim movement.

They were denied the right to worship.

They were fed pork because the prison
also had a farm where they raised pigs.

So that's what you god.

If it isn't $0.60 a day,

so that's $0.24 a meal.

If saw money on $0.21.

I swear to God,

one time I got my head opened up by God

and I was put into a segregation cell.

And a doctor came, you know,

just out of I was bleeding all over.

So it's like they cracked my head wide
open.

Put it over here,
but they had a feeding hole in the cell.

And so I put it that he put a

flashlight like, I swear to God,
he hit me with the flashlight.

Right, right where the cut was.

And walked away.

They wait
until everybody is locked up at night

and then they come for you,
come for you as a goose.

These are the beat up police.

These two guys, they come nine, ten.

Real big guys

with real big sticks when they come in
and they beat you up in your show

and then they take, you say, gation
and sometimes you don't come back.

Attica was.

It's.

Fear they they ran the prison would fear.

Being scared of them were their means

of running a prison.

You either shut your mouth
or you were in big trouble.

Some people died.

Somewhat crippled,
somewhat psychologically damaged

for life. And.

It was a bad place to be.

They wanted to to institute

and instill that fear
and that they were in control,

even though they knew
they were losing control.

My generation

that came into Annika at that time,

we felt that we was in broken Malabar
as we wasn't

shuffling our feet,
we would walk with our heads up high.

We would talk in our own lingo.

Who's your daddy?

That's what we were going to take.

Nothing from nobody.

We want to respect.

You had to give it to us,
would you want to do or not?

I'd read Algiers Cleaver Soul on Ice.

Huey Newton and, you know, the path of
Piety and George Jackson story.

I read all that stuff.

George Jackson was revolutionary.

He's got to get busted for a ten dollar
on gas station robbery and gang life.

He ended up in the system
in the soul of the prison.

He showed us. And I mean us.

The younger guys that came into Attica

there was OK to say no.

It was OK to be rebellious.

Understand
they may be consequences to saying no.

But it was OK

and it was uplifting, it was uplifting.

I think racism is a controlled
of control would

create an atmosphere whereby then

petroleum, of course, here in prison
we see the repression

and the exploitation,

the victimization of.

Lower class people's.

A lot of Black Panthers
were coming to prison.

I started hanging out with them
and they politicized me.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
calls upon the American people in general

and the black people in particular
to take careful note of the racist.

Police agencies throughout the country
are intensifying the terror,

brutality, murder
and repression of black people.

Of course, you had black Muslims
and his message to a black man really?

Well, a lot of guys that were in jail.

You want one thing?

We declare our right on this word

to be a man, to be a human being,
to be respected,

every human being,
to be given the rights of a human being

in this society, on this Earth,
and this day what we intend

to bring into existence
by any means in the city.

Officials at

California's San Quentin
Prison still are trying to piece together

exactly what happened and how inmate
attempted prison break yesterday,

in which three convicts and three guards
died.

one of the dead convicts was George
Jackson of the self-styled

Soledad Brothers. Jackson was 29.

Joy Jackson was that final straw?

I don't give a fuck no more.

You're going to kill us anyway.

We can't get out when it's fucking cage.

So where we're going.

So if we're going to die,
let's die as men.

And brother just got frustrated.

We'd go into the mess hall

with a black band on Iran.

And just sit there,
take a spoon when you come in.

Take no food.

We didn't speak.

During the whole time,
we didn't pick up any food.

That I think kind of alerted

the institution that we are in solidarity.

They're probably seen that type

of solidarity before.

There was a lot of talk

discussing the situation

because the inmates were very upset

and things were happening here

and there was great concern.

It was a time bomb ready to blow,
and we live with it

every day in my house
and every day I say goodbye to my dad.

And I knew it might be the last day
I saw him.

It was open conversation.

Things were getting worse,

and so they had a meeting
with the administration

in the administration,
essentially dismissed their concerns

and said everybody back to work.

However, we think maybe it's a good idea
if you left

your personal belongings at home
like wedding rings, wallets, et cetera.

So my father absolutely knew
that something was going on.

I was having breakfast with him
and he was talking to me,

and I knew he was nervous.

When he said something's going to happen,
he said, I just don't know what or when,

but I think I'll be OK.

There was a fight

in a yard on September eighth,

and the guards promised
nothing would happen as a result of this

because they could feel the tension
building up.

Then that night, they broke that promise.

They came and pulled them out of cells
and about three or four of them.

And then.

He was thought to embarrass
Barroso would have a glass.

May have had or cans or whatever they may
had, and it was a disturbance that dear.

So the inmates decided at that moment,
Man, this is a man we tied.

I mean, they killed Josh Jackson.

They did this throughout the years.

We tie, you know, and they they went off.

I was in school that day.

And the whistle

from the prison just kept going,
and we could hear it.

We got calls from somebody from the prison

saying that your dad, you know,
is definitely being held.

You know, I was scared,
I was worried for my dad.

I love my dad, but we didn't really
know what was going on.

Understanding about what?

This incident developing it added
in this declaration here will explain

the reasons for the entire incident
that has erupted here at Attica

is not a result of the dastardly
bushwhacking of the two prisoners.

September eighth of 1970
11 of the unmitigated oppression wrought

by the racist administrative network
of this prison throughout the years.

We want the government to guarantee
that there will be no reprisals

and we want all facets of the media
to articulate this.

We needed the media in there
because we needed

to let the world know what was happening.

We know this is one of the turning points

in the whole thing.

We would like the press to come in,

including the television cameras

that transformed everything.

Because now
the prisoners had a worldwide audience.

Whatever happens here at Attica
State Prison,

I'm not sure how they heard
that there was a black journalist outside

that they wanted me to be

on the group that went in with us.

Suddenly, I'm on in this group

going into the prison with this.

Head of the prison system.

I was surprised
that they had asked for me.

But I guess
because of the fact that they had watched

the news, my reports were factual

and I was not taking anybody's side

in the whole thing.

We went in

and it was completely surreal,

like, you're walking down a tunnel
and suddenly

you walk into this huge yard

where there are men everywhere
like thousands of men.

And I remember

some people yelling, Hey, J.J..

I said hello to people

that I knew from Bed-Stuy and Harlem,

and they were in Attica.

Once inside,
we were brought along through the yard

with a member of the inmate security force
constantly at our side.

We were allowed to go
where they told us to go.

We were all allowed to film.

Only one of the prisoners told us
we could.

Inmates faces were covered
so as to keep their identities secret.

Our first concern on entering was to learn
how the hostages

were going to see the hostages, but

I was able to ask.

one question before I was moved

to the negotiation table to read it,
all right.

Yes, I have so far,
but very no, no complaints, but

no problem solver so far and treat it
very good.

Shortly thereafter, one of the inmates,

a young man by the name of l.D.

Barclay, started to read

the demands of the entire prison
population.

That means each and every one of us here
have set forth to change forever.

The ruthless brutalization and disregard
for the lives

of the prisoners here
and throughout the United States.

He was saying,
What we all want you to scream.

But he was explaining it
so that everybody could understand

so that when you were sitting
in your living room,

you could say, Well, the guy's a criminal.

Yeah, but.

He is saying something that's.

That's

that I understand that.

How could we do that, you know,
he was waking up America.

And he was the best one to do it.

We are men.

We are not beasts and we do not intend
to be beaten or driven effort.

Audi is only going to be here for 90 days,

he'll be getting out, but he wanted to
the outside world and noted.

The prison is inhumane.

What has happened here is but the sound of

for the fury of those who are oppressed,

we will not compromise on any terms

except those terms
that are agreeable to us.

We call.

You felt it.

And at that moment,

I heard it and I seen it.

And that reaffirmed

why we was data, why I was there.

It was a feeling that this was big.

This was huge.

Corrections Commissioner Oswald maintained

that he had done

quite a bit of the things

that the inmates had requested.

I've,

uh, complied

with the several things
I said I would do as my part.

I brought the press and other media

in here to listen as we talk.

And now my question is I asked earlier,

when will you release the hostages?

Now the table was turned

and we had the power,

so when we asked him for something,

he had to give it to us
because he had no choice.

We wanted some assurance that we weren't

going to be retaliated against.

So we ask Herman Schwartz

to go to District Court in New York.

And I get an injunction

that would assure us
that we wouldn't be retaliated against.

I sat down and wrote an injunction.

Which barred any kind of retaliation.

It had been agreed that there would be

another meeting the next morning.

The time is now ten minutes late.

We've been shooting this tape
for approximately two hours.

We started about 6:00 p.m..

Light is almost gone now

we can see lights in cell block D.

Oh. The guy next to me

was named Raymond Wei.

You open up in the air.

Gardner still remain way, your way,

your smear

ain't been out at the dog and 22 years.

And we was talking

singing songs, it was
it was a festive night.

I loved it. I loved it.

Then I was out in the nighttime
looking at the stars.

I was drunk.
I was happy. I was. I liked it.

Yeah, I was having a good time
and it was good.

I feel free.

You know, I mean, prison was dead,
but you know, I felt free.

And you had to hear

the doors not locking.

And if and if it was a good feeling
that that first night

when it got dark

and everybody was talking
about finding somewhere to sleep with,

you know, don't sleep alone
and you know, that type of thing.

There's a lot of psychopaths
and sociopaths

in those facilities, so you know you
had to protect yourself from

from your peers, even.

Well,
I knew this was going to last forever.

I knew they would.

It would be an end this.

But just because he was incarcerated

didn't mean that we were less than human.

Somebody had to take the stand.

At dawn,

a smoke from yesterday's fires lingered
over prison walls, a federal injunction

was obtained prohibiting physical reprisal
against those involved in the riot.

When I brought in the injunction,

we talked to the prisoners
at opposite ends

of a rather long tunnel.

They said where where the administrators.

I don't know.

I'm here about know where they are.

Finally, at 10:00, Oswald

and the others show up.

The prisoners were furious.

They had been,
as they would put it, dissed.

They're supposed
to meet at seven or 8:00 and.

It was very clear

the air was very tense.

You had the table spread out.

We were on one side.

The inmates were on the other.

And I gave the document

that the judge had signed this.

It's nothing.

I'm sorry, I spent hours of

of and got no sleep and trouble

declaring that a federal judge
has signed off on an injunction

saying that there would be no reprisals,
anything that can.

Waving that at us

and they're free to do so was the same.

There was no judicial seal on it.

I have received injunctions
from the Southern District,

which are judicial fields.

This paper is an empty gesture.

Jerry, did you?

That was his nickname.

Jerry Rosenberg was a hell of a guy
and he was well respected.

He had a law degree.

Any new law he would help

all the inmates,
she was a jailhouse lawyer.

You can take this piece of paper
and throw it away

because this is no protection.

Geoffrey Rosenberg God bless him, sir.

Charging scientists.

There's
no there's no lost in district court

stamp on this document
saying that, you know what?

Nothing will happen to worse and torn up.

You know, we know you mean well,

but don't come with the bullshit here.

We want a judicial seal and a continuing

restraining order
until the litigation is finally ended

without any reprisal or brutality
against any inmate

of this institution.

Well, lawyers know

that seals don't mean anything

so long as the signature is there.

I could have kicked
Jerry's ass, and I should have

read because

he he just started to grandstand.

You know, he was caught up in the moment.

Good, smart as he is

and a shrewd as he is, he over reacted.

And we lost an opportunity there.

And then somebody said, let's hold them.

Let's add to the hostage Cal.

I speak everybody here,

I want to to you as well.

When you come in here covering the game,

I know you don't give a fuck about no max
that they somehow give a fuck about you.

Nothing I know.

Nothing, you know?

And I'm gonna to leave you.

It seems to me that you are

saying to me that you,
you are an artist at pretty rare occasion.

I bear witness
to your evil deeds, Mr. Art.

Now I repeat,

as I told you yesterday,
we are being lenient with you.

We are negotiating.

We are talking. We shouldn't be.

We should be demanding.

So why?

Because we have 35 lives, not hostages.

And I repeat Mr.

Oswald, a moment's
hesitation would cause you delay.

The meeting in the yard got very tense

because Oswald would talk to you
from one side of the mouth.

And then when he left the yard
and go outside,

he talks from the other side of the mouth

of the inmates made any demands
that, you know, there are all kinds

of demands, you know, for the change
of change in the whole world.

But what he forgot
was that he was being seen on TV.

Come on, how could you do that?

We watch you

and you stated it yesterday on the news
media, in a huff, in a panic, you said.

Well, I don't know what they want.

They want the world and what you like.

You walk away from reporters.

Would you reply that the sidewalk?

Yes, I did say that.

Let him finish.

I don't say that.

Can't bullshit a bullshitter.

You can't do that.

The first time he came in, I'm going to do

this, a b, c, d e f g

and people said, All right,
going back to business, get it done,

came back in and started talking
and you know,

it was going around about hearing around
about then this scenario.

Not that the hostages go.

But you be hostage,

whatever, you know, power

and water.

We haven't got that.

We're going to get Mr. Harper for himself.

So we got to.

We're not letting him out of here
and keeping him in Austin.

We all we shut that down.

We're not going to be like them.

We're not going to break our word.

And it says, well, inmates
would be more honorable than them.

Yes, we were because we gave him my word
nothing would happen to him.

Everybody starts

screaming at him, go, let him go.

Don't.

He got out of Dodge.

He never came back.

In New York State,

some 500 inmates of the Attica maximum
security prison are still in revolt.

Authorities tried unsuccessfully
to reach a settlement with the prisoners

over demands for reforms and to obtain
release of more than 30 hostages.

We have a report on what's been happening
at Attica from ABC's John Johnson.

Fires were still burning at Attica
State Prison,

despite a small army of police and state
troopers.

The prisoners continue to call the shots
at Attica.

Commissioner Oswald announced that

prison officials
were attempting to bring to the prison

those people requested by the prisoners
in areas under where the group

was basically people

whom they knew people like Tom Wicker,

who had written a column about prisoners.

Senator John Dunn was chairman

of the Prisons Committee and sympathetic.

He was asked to come.

Bill Kunstler, a lawyer for the Chicago

seven, asked him to come in

and Clarence Jones,
publisher of the Amsterdam News.

Have a driver was

driving me up,
the ampersand is the driver, says Boss,

they're calling your name on the radio,
so what you mean?

Called Rockefeller,

and lo and behold,
the governor picked up the phone.

He said, thank you so much.

Mr Jones, we have a major situation.

A number of the inmates

have called your name.

We'll have a car and pick you up.

And taking him to a private airport.

We're a state private

plane is waiting for you.

And there are more.

Atika, you be part of the.

Observers committee.

My wife and I were off on vacation
at the time

and we got a call

that they had asked me to come there,
and I felt that with my prior experience

and my responsibilities as a chairman
of the prison committee ought to be there.

I was optimistic.

I thought.

Give it a shot.

For the rebel prisoners of Attica,
the encouraging appearance,

the people, they consider friends.

A 30 man mediation committee,
including a congressman for newsmen

and most importantly, lawyer
William Kunstler.

Have you heard anything from Governor
Rockefeller's office?

I mean, has he put any time
limit on these negotiations?

No, but I understand that
there is no present

plan to use force in this prison,
and I hope that continues.

I just hope that they realize
that this is a unique situation

and that it may take time
and that if everyone has a good faith,

something will work out.

It was scary, the tension was tremendous.

Eager to cut the air with a knife,
it was terrifying.

I remember going into the yard
and saying to Mel, Where was I?

Do you have a cigaret?

And he said,

You have one on you, one in your hand,
one in your mouth and one in your.

I was scared.

When you see a tower
with people with rifles,

I kept thinking

we should stay close to Tom Wicker
and Herman Badillo

because they would be the least likely
to be shot.

Frank Big Black

Smith was the overall security leader.

He took that job on himself already.

He was the guy.

Here's the big man.

I mean, this is big.

That was responsible to make sure

that the observers that came in.

They the same way
they can't manage the same way

they did
that, you know, no harm come to them.

He said, Well,
we've got to have a security force.

So we were looking for volunteers.

You, you.

Along the way for her,

can't be all black as we need
black guys, white guys and Puerto Ricans.

We would line up and create a corridor,

and they would walk down the middle
of the corridor with us being a barrier

between general population
and the negotiators.

So we would just
stand shoulder to shoulder and give them

that safe space to walk through.

We begin to talk with them

about what they wanted,
and they had their their

their list of things that they wanted
already written.

You know, everybody wanted a voice.

Good, bad.

And it worked out,
so nothing went easy, but it went.

We got to a point where we had
what we thought might be possible.

Their demands were, you know,

reasonable demands
about living conditions.

They wanted medical care.

Decent food,

fair disciplinary hearings.

Basically,

they wanted to be treated
like human beings,

prisoners late last night met
with a civilian committee

in an attempt to clarify demands
ranging from better prison

life conditions
to more religious and political freedom.

I injected into the two demands

for some people
to go to non imperialistic country.

You have to be frightened flight out.

We thought Cuba
was going to come and get us.

You ship
troops to Vietnam to stop the men.

Go to all these five countries
to press the button.

You can bet why these helicopters
in air and ship

on this country.

We didn't seeing people snatch airplanes

and all like dead and go to Cuba
and Algiers and all other places.

Why not get out of jail?

An Air France
jet was hijacked by Palestinian girls.

17 year old girl hijacked a twb jetliner

I have for years
and on a 25 to life sentence.

Why not get out of jail?

Why not?

We all do that.

I wasn't going to happen.

We weren't going to go to

Algeria on the plane.

I knew that everybody
in the back of their mind knew that.

But we need it, obviously.

We want the federal

judiciary to guarantee complete amnesty
to each and every one of us

has taken part in the struggle
here at Attica to ensure that this amnesty

will not be just a groping in the win, but
a reality for each and every one of us.

They were not looking to be relieved
of the prison sentences

to which they have been sent by the courts
after being convicted.

They were looking to be freed from any

prosecution or any penalties

for their engaging in the riot.

Besides the normal beatings
and everything else

they're going to do to us, which is,
you know, automatic.

We knew that they could also take us
and bring us to court and,

you know, and turn us into the monster
inmates who took over the prison.

We are not advocating violence.

We all want to live.

All right.

If you get one on dog.

You're treating them
better than we have been treated

the last.

They were fiercely

trying to convince prison authorities
that they didn't cease

being a human
being merely by the fact that they were

incarcerated because they had broken.

A law society,
and that's a profound thing.

I am somebody.

I'm not a thing.

You can't treat me like a dog.

I may be a prisoner, but I have dignity.

And that's what they insisted.

I'm getting the.

Power structure of Africa to recognize.

That they continue to be.

Somebody.

All of you have seen

the observers,
they all were listening to us.

I feel that they were supporting us.

We see.

And that meant a lot to us.

This is our situation.

Please listen to us.
And that's what they were doing.

They were listening.

It felt like they were somebody
that believed in us.

It felt that way.

If somebody believe that you know,
you did have some rights,

even though you were a convicted felon
or whatever.

Would we able to get

a better mailing
privileges, better medical privileges?

We tried to nail it down to that,
which was realistic and possible over

distinguished from a plane waiting for us

outside the cellblock, flying us to Cuba.

That's what it was like it was
it was realism

from fantasy.

We want to be treated as human beings,

we will be treated as human beings.

Yeah, we have come to the conclusion.

That's the study.

After much suffering.

After much consideration.

But if we cannot move

people.

We will at least try.

Today, let me.

That statement was sounded

everywhere.

In that yard,

when he said that a roar went up
like no other.

This was this day, and I saw that

I really none of us
were going to be observers,

we were going to be mediators ,
whether we wanted to be mediators or not,

whether we were called up to be mediators.

This prison uprising had to be mediated.

Otherwise it was going to end in disaster.

If you people do not understand.

If you people do not pick what?

If you people can not make the commitment

that we have made here.

We all did.

All right.

We'll take you all

to stand with us.

Not necessarily.

I know you want to

hey, hey, before.

Things were growing on the outside,

don't take.

There were more journalists.

There were more police.

And it was just getting bigger

and bigger and bigger.

People are coming night and day

vans with reporters and police

and things are building up.

Among those keeping a vigil outside

the prison walls, the families
of some of the 38 men held hostage.

I was just home watching the TV.

I just kept looking for my husband.

Maybe he'd be killed or brutalized
in some way

because the inmates at that time
had the power there, you know,

and if they didn't like somebody
who who knew

what you were scared to death that,
you know,

they'd just kill him or something
and they didn't get their way.

Families of the 31 hostages wait for word

as part of the prison remains
in control of the inmate.

They were upset.

They were angry and they were scared

standing out there while their loved ones
are being held hostage

and they are waiting
for any scrap of information

to hear something.

And many of those families

stood vigil day and night out there.

A bunch of people crying,

the wives and brothers and fathers

freaking out to his panic.

People are afraid to talk
in the parking lot because they thought

that any reporters or anybody, even
they did it on the privacy

because they didn't want the relatives
targeted, singled out

by the inmates.

I had sympathy for them.

They were elsewhere, you're going to get
a job if you lived in that

area and you had no

training and no understanding

of what it was like to grow up in

a poor black urban area.

You used these were aliens.

These were people from a different world

and your family members.

Maybe you're going to get killed

because of them.

Sure, you were.

Infuriated.

All these dogs up there with

all those rifles are trying to kill us.

Well, we ain't gonna quit the inmates
that we're giving microphones.

I'm on TV.

I mean, the very upsetting.

They should have resolved it right away.

It just went on too far.

We all just wanted it to end.

What I what you hear over the radio

and the TV was and it's inspiring to me

because it seemed to
me that what I was hearing.

I didn't think

they were doing the right thing.

It just seemed sort of limp to me

and it was frustrating.

You'd hear stuff from people.

That's where it got a little scary too,
because you could see how the inmates

were considered like less than human
kind of like animals.

There was people saying,
You know, don't worry about your dad,

you know, they'll get theirs type thing.

And so that kind of made it
even more scary.

You realize how emotionally charged
the community is getting.

The tensions got worse and worse. Worse.

Emotions got worse and worse and worse.

Sadly,

I think that the hope was stronger
than any doubt because after three days

Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

They had came in

we had like 30
demands and most of them what

possible,

and we will still be doing about it.

I've never seen anything like this.

The people in here are treated like dogs.

Not only the Black Lives Matter, white.

And we're going to get what we planned.

Are we going to die? Try.

But we thought that whatever happened,

we may maybe really walk away
with some improvement

in our lives.

Point was, is that whatever happened,

it just had to make a difference.

Change had to happen.

You had to embrace who.

There's a report

that prison officials
have yielded to most of the demands

by the rebelling inmates
of the Attica state prison in New York,

where more than 30 persons
have been held hostage for three days.

As you know, during this ordeal.

I have personally met with inmates

on several occasions
in areas under their control,

and they have demonstrated my commitment

to deal with the issues they have raised

by accepting 28

of the three major inmate proposals.

The second is like
any time of what's going to happen now.

Well, we hope negotiations will

start this afternoon and continue
until they reach a solution.

Huey Newton or Bobby Seale,
are they coming?

They were asked.

Or we hope
we understood that they were en route.

We had.

Kind of settled in on the demands

we had negotiated with Oswald

for his commitment to 28 of them.

The commissioner and the whole point of
Bobby SEALs coming there would be for him

to bless and support and urge the inmates

to accept them.

Bobby

Seale was our hero
because he was speaking out

about the brutality
that was happening in the prison system.

He was doing what we were trying to leave.

He was a panther.

The second in command.

I really thought it would help us out
of everything

we ever demand.

Bobby didn't stay long.

Bobby to stay long, came up to it and go
shake table was made a little speech.

You walk around your.

Well, we won't read about the jail.

A lot of times we're going back in time.

It was quite a letdown.

There is no remember me
at all, about three minutes.

At that point,

everybody's just sitting around
waiting for something to happen.

But then Billy Quinn died.

And that transformed everything

the state prison in Attica,
New York, is at the crisis point.

The death of one of the guards as harden
the position of prison officials

and there are
you don't get amnesty for a murder.

I immediately knew.

That the

process of negotiations

just became far more difficult.

I knew that was.

I was the worst
possible thing that could happen.

How could they peacefully negotiate?

With inmates
who they held responsible for the death

of a guard.

Prior to his passing on.

There was a hope and even an expectation

because people were listening.

People were coming to understand
what we had been living through

and suffering as prisoners there.

We know that it was a new ball

game was depression.

And fear.

And, you know, anxiety and yeah,

everything you can imagine.

We had to drop a lot of issues

and focus on amnesty

as one as the main issue

because we want to be charged

with murder.

We said.

As a group.

That we was going

to stay in solidarity with anyone.

They could not give amnesty to everybody.

Then was not going to leave
anyone in the clutch in

to take a towing back on the bus
or speak to take this.

We acted together
that we understood that this was us,

that if we didn't stand together now,
we never would.

And it would.

We would live
like dogs for the rest of our lives.

We understood that.

Did I wish that we could somehow
back away, but not without amnesty?

How do the inmates feel
about the current situation?

I will.

A group of us were in with the inmates.

We met with them.

We had two and a half hours.

Some of the people are here,

but we really have nothing to say about
it, except they are firm in their demands.

And that's it.

In other words,

they're not going to let the hostages
go until they're granted total amnesty.

That was their last position.

The flag at half staff
for the injured guard who had died

the night before
set the mood this morning,

it was clear that the troubles of this
troubled prison had grown worse.

That Sunday,
you had that fall that came over

and it was a certain chill in the air.

Something didn't feel right.

It didn't feel right.

There are strong indications tonight
that police will be sent

into the cellblock in an attempt
to rescue the rest of the hostages

by force.

Water was cut off.

Food was getting scarce.

Patients were getting shot
and people were totally

wondering what is going to be the outcome

of the situation.

There was enormous pressure,
and I witnessed

that as I took a breather
and went out to the public space

just outside the prison,
where a lot of correction

officers, their families, troopers
and other officials

were gathered together.

I mean,
the news was completely about that.

You know that the state troopers
and everybody were poised

on the top looking and

it was all about these rumors

that the prisoners were castrating

the hostages,
that they were torturing them.

And it's going to end in bloodshed.

And that was the storyline
that was terrifying, people.

Could you turn around
this way to the camera?

I think I did a few interviews

and the people were

made it very clear
that these are bad people in there and

they shouldn't be doing this.

You know, they should be taken care of.

You know what I mean?

And hang them and

crazy stuff.

I mean, they're just really crazy.

It was a very hostile environment.

And I just

don't I

don't think that Jaime,
I'll stick up your hand.

I'm a father of eight children
and my boy is the oldest,

and I wouldn't
want to see any one of them die.

Whatever he is going to die,

I want that whole damn thing
bound right to hell. OK.

And while we're talking went
on, the state police

kept reinforcing
at least 500 men in and out of the wall.

No indication that any of this force
will be used at the police already.

Well, any

time you went in and out of the prison,
there was an army

and they were armed
with every conceivable type of weapon .

And it really looked like

they wanted to use those weapons.

You had the sense of their anger

and they've been held back and

they wanted to move.

They wanted to to to attack.

Yeah, they were very impatient,

very unhappy.

They were all thrown into a situation
in which they are not prepared for

and about which
they had basically an animosity.

And I wish to

would any of the men that a lot us off
the roof?

Adobe that group is out of here because
if you get these shaky guy shooting off

or getting up, and all of a sudden
somebody is going to get excited

and then we're all going to say now,
this is not a joke.

This is not

some kind of a little tea party
we've got here.

And I just hope that the commissioner

and the other people in the committee
that they've gathered together

can come up with a solution

to solve these people's problems

and ours.

Thank you very much.

Late Sunday afternoon,

Commissioner Oswald
and the officials were prepared

and intended to retaking.

But I pressed Israel to agree

to give them until 7:00 on Monday

morning, by Sunday morning,
everything else had failed.

And so the the the final shot

was going to be
to try to get the Roc-A-Fella.

And there was there was a committee
of people put together to do that.

Good morning.

We wanted four friends of the governor

to call him and please as your friend.

Let me ask you to come to Attica,
not to meet with the prisoners,

but to come and lay your hand
on approving these measures,

Sergeant Cunningham.

Now, would you give us a message

for Governor Nelson Rockefeller?

I certainly would.

one of the recommendations is
and he said, No, I'm dead.

I and some of my fellow members
of the Service Committee felt

very strongly that if Governor Rockefeller
were to come to and identify

with finding a solution,
it might have broken the logjam.

So I placed the call, the governor
Rockefeller, somewhere around 3:00.

Governor, what about your
personal feelings right now?

On one level, it was a Hail Mary.

On the other level
it was more than a Hail Mary.

These were prominent people.

People
that you would think Rockefeller respected

making a sincere pitch come up here,
you don't have to go in.

You don't have to agree to anything
your presence will have mean.

Maybe if he came, that would be an opening

that would have allowed us to negotiate.

Maybe.

Some other

negotiators could be brought in
who would help the negotiation,

maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.

But no known donor or man.

Death, death, death, death.

Prisoners had been demanding from the very
beginning that I come into the yard,

and I frankly felt
that the idea of governors

any time there was an uprising
or any time there was a prisoner

taken on a prisoner, but a hostage
taking being involved in the negotiation,

the next thing would be, we don't want
the governor, we want the president,

and we get to a situation
with an impossible one for this country.

By the time they spoke to him,
he had made up his mind.

He listened carefully,
he listened politely.

But by then, he had made up his mind.

We didn't understand the background of us

having consulted on an ongoing basis
during those days with the White House,

the administration in Washington
encouraged Rockey

to take a strong hard line position,

which was unfortunate.

It was all a part of President Nixon's
law and order agenda.

They were putting the pressure
yesterday on me all day

to go up there and it up
because everything else had failed.

And did you go?

Of course not. Of course not.

But I had the time.

Rockefeller wasn't calling the shots.

Because he was on the phone.

With Richard Nixon.

Rockefeller wanted to be president.

But the word on him was that

he was too soft on crime.

Where was he recommending amnesty?

Oh, yes.

Oh God, I tell you, is

this was the great this is separated
the sheep from the goats.

And if he wanted the support of Nixon
and the Republican Party, then

he needs to go along.

And so he wouldn't come.

You know, not that Rockefeller

wasn't coming in.

It's like slamming the door on you.

You know, I slammed the door
and we were locked in this room

and we didn't know what to do.

You were to a great degree,

despondent
that we had no solution to this.

We didn't know what to do.

Made one last chance
to convince the inmates

to surrender.

That last night, Cell Block D.

As we were trying to negotiate.

Demands that we thought.

But realistic.

Was. A come to Jesus moment.

This is what you wanted the demands.

This is what we were able to achieve.

This is where we stand now.

I'm not going to mislead you.

And believe
that you can get anything better.

I do not believe you can get

anything better.

I think we have to make

a peaceful accommodation.

Ready to be shot down like dogs.

I said this is what we achieved. OK.

And turn around, look,

cellblock, then you see all those guns
there, just waiting to kill us.

They want to kill us.

Do you understand that they want to show

that they have the power
from the barrel of a gun?

That's what they want to do.

Oh God, I don't know
what's happening to me.

We were warned by the observers

that if we didn't settle,
even without the amnesty,

they were going to come in
and it could get very bad.

And of course, we talked among ourselves,
and we just couldn't

go without the amnesty
because it would have been literally

sending all our leaders.

To the dogs to be

tortured, murdered.

Convicted of crimes and

who knows what else, we had observed

the organization
and preparation of the troopers to enter.

Hundreds of them with their shotguns

just outside the immediate
area of the yard.

We witness the stationing of sharpshooters
on one of the ledges

looking down into DAAD.

Fear overtook the observers committee.

It seemed like they felt
something was going to happen.

They were more.

Hesitant to leave,
they left with a solemn mood.

He left us with a solemn like.

But is this better, just take care.

I remember seeing them leave, and,

you know,
it was a scary moment to see them leaving,

you know,
knowing that there wasn't coming back.

I remember

Big Black saying, I want to thank you
for what you guys tried to do.

We really appreciate it.
So there was a lot of that.

When we went out of

that yard that night.

There were tears.

Tears.

And I think all of us were hoping

that something happened
at the last minute.

Stop it.

I felt complete failure,

a failure that I had let them down.

one of the most painful things.

As inmates begin to.

Hand me
written notes, the telephone number.

Of their of their

next of kin.

In case they didn't make it OK.

They wanted me.

They they I mean, a couple of them
looked me in the eye with tears

for the Jones, but I don't make it.

You're going to call right.

I said, You have my word.

I will call you

any way optimistic that this thing
could be settled by tomorrow.

I think I'm much too tired to be either
optimistic or pessimistic at this moment.

I'm kind of just freaked out.

Randall, I know

it didn't stop ran until about

six in the morning.

Cold Mountain, right?

And we were not prepared
for those little hunches that we had the

that people had built a yard up

in every day,
all alone started collapsing.

And you had to get on

solid ground concrete and huddled together

because everybody was shivering
and everything else.

It was a miserable night,
one of the miserable nights

I ever spent in my life.

I could feel the tension in the air,
the tension was so strong

that I could just basically grab it
and hold on to it

. Am I going to make it?

Am I going to to this?

And that tension was so strong I could touch it, I could cut improperly in my hand.

There was an air.

We've been out there for about four days.

Wake up that morning and it's

wet and dreary out there,

and you could always smell the fumes

of Guy's body
in that trench that we dug in the yard.

You use the bathroom.

Right there in front of You
Breathe initiative nowadays,

so you want out.

What was really bad?

People's moods was that way, and

it was crowded.

It started to rain a little bit.

You know, it was dog.

The sky was dark gray.

We heard that

we would be part of a medical evacuation.

And early on Monday morning,

we loaded into trucks
and headed for Attica prison.

In the three years
that I was in the National Guard,

I had not seen any kind of action
in which violence was involved.

But we had a sense of dread,

and we had a wish
that we could kind of not go.

And there was the hope,
even at the last minute, that

by some miracle, maybe

Rockefeller would intervene.

His refusal to come

here is a monstrosity, because what he is
saying is kill these men.

I have no concern.

All I want to do
is assault, law and order,

and I think that's a rotten
in exchange for life.

And we got to the prison

and saw the lines of state troopers
and deputies

with their raincoats
on and their weapons in hand.

They looked exhausted.

They had been there, many of them
for a couple of days at least,

and they really didn't look up to the
task that was given to them.

He was coming in, you could tell.

You can see them starting to get
more people I wasn't able to count on.

What I saw was.

We got another matches
to put up on that table committee, there's

going to be rubber bullets
and I say that's what that's

what the word was.

I thought they were going to be
a real old fashioned game for you.

David, you want to call it,
you know them versus us.

They've got the crowd.

We've got a few bats and stuff in here,
so we're going to

best guy win.

We started making preparations

and putting Vaseline
on every part of our body

that could be exposed to gas
and get burnt and stuff like that

padding ourselves with clothes.

Somebody saying

if they come in here,
then that's good because I know my sheik.

It became apparent to me

that the situation
was seriously deteriorating

and that the inmates,
many of whom are confined to this maximum

security facility
under light and long sentences.

We're not going to participate
in a reasonable negotiation.

Tensions within the walls

have steadily increased.

The action now underway

was initiated with extreme reluctance

only after all, attempts to achieve

a peaceful solution failed.

We were told that our mission
was protection

for the medical battalion
during the commander's briefing.

We were told that to our knowledge,

the inmates had no guns.

They had Spears.

They had some knives.

They had pipes
that they were using as clubs.

But that was the extent of the threat.

So we knew that going in for,

you know, 5:00 a.m.

September 13, we're on the roof of a block

waiting for the assault to begin.

This is a team of 270 rifle shooters.

The center of our pictures, men
distributing

baseball bats to the other prisoners.

We had no guns. We had no real weapons.

We had bullshit pieces of stick
or a piece of iron

or shank
that somebody made up on the sidewalk.

It was. It was pathetic.

Just four days, almost to the minute
after the convict insurrection started,

state police reinforced by sheriff's
deputies, National Guardsmen

and correctional officers moving in on
the prison time is 150 5:00 p.m.

We're on the roof of C Block
looking at a detail of 270 marksmen

with instructions
to clear the catwalks upon command.

They took some of the

hostages on top of the catwalks,
which is on top of the hallways,

and some of the inmates held knives to the
to their neck as a result.

In an effort to try to stop the assault,

the hostages are armed with knives
with their throats.

It was all just to show.

The try to get them to say, Oh,
wait a minute, it's my cousin, my brother.

All he's got.

We were hopeful that if they saw this,
they would back off

and try to renegotiate
so they could protect their own people.

The notion of sending

in correctional officers

who didn't love the prisoners
to begin with

and state police who were stressed
out was a serious miscalculation,

somebody should have said, wait a second,
wait a second, these people are on edge.

There is hostility

and it's going to get out of control.

We know that now, did we know that

in real time?

I guess not.

I seen this as a glorious fight.

They would come in with batons

and stuff like that,
and we would be fighting the brave battle

with baseball bats and stuff like that, I.

I did.

I just never expected.

The the coverage through
what actually happened,

I'm sorry.

Helicopter, two helicopters and a.

We're talking now going overhead

and over the wall into the prison.

It just disquieted,
and Sky was getting dark,

and then we heard
the helicopters does a dance.

This is fucking strange.

The helicopter comes up over the wall

and it's hovering over the yard.

I seen this.

I thought it was a monster.

It was a helicopter, a green helicopter.

It was flying low.

You see this.

It's like a sickly green gas with.

Sparkly stuff, minute coming down.

It tightens your chest.

Where you can hardly breathe.

That gas knocked me down.

Oh, what that was.

And they had me so weak I could not.

Your eyes are just all burning,

your nose is burning,
your mouth is burning.

I mean,

we are.

And you got on the microphone,
everybody in D-Block, yeah.

Put your hands in the air.

And you are not behind.

Go to the nearest police officer
and you will not be home.

You would not be home. We will not be.

You would not be here for that was.

Do just ended up

doing this to get blown away.

They blew his head off and then.

Has all of a sudden
there was all this popping all around us

and all these little pops

all around us were actually bullets.

Oh, and you could really see
because the CO2 public first heard

you blah, that you can hear the boom
going by your ear.

The hostages can't be seen in any.

I'm trying to stay on the ground
as long as possible,

just like
they were shooting down the barrel

and they started shooting
point blank range, blowing guys away .

I got shot in the arm up there right
through the back macroeconomist on.

I I felt something.

Go to my head,
it must go, and it was burning,

no was shot.

I felt something hit my arm

and we're all numb and realized needed.

I got shot in the arm
about two inches from my heart

and also a one to a football helmet
on Spanish food.

Now the guard is up on the catwalk.

He jumps out with a hammer
and throws it up and it hits the catwalk.

And you can hear the sound clip
and all of them turn looked at him,

and all of them turn their guns
on a brutal dashboard body.

I'm assuming that you guys got anywhere

from 20 to 50 shots
because his body was doing like that.

I'd never seen no shit like that.

Not as a nasty shoot in the street.

I'd never seen them. I did.

I mean.

This was a holiday for the.

We got no guns to shoot back.

You know what?

It is a shoe store man and it's a shoe,
but that's just a holiday

slow motion and all it was

that was save money.

That's what
they will follow to each other.

I was scared.

I've done bad things,
but I never did this bad.

As no.

These guys are real fucking cold blooded

killers and shit.

Until that moment came,

what is killing really started,
and I realize that

you're not that fucking bad guy, no more,
man, there's more power with his words

new, every bullet that missed by me,

if he could move.

Close to me, I winced,

then all of a sudden, it just stopped.

There are

people throwing off their smoke gear.

They ran out
screaming niggers, niggers, niggers

and two of them pointed their guns at me.

Negative niggers.

And I said, Don't shoot, don't shoot.

Don't shoot.

Well, I'm coughing with all the gas.

I've been gassed.

It's an awful thing.

William Kunstler

has said that people are dying in there.

And I agree with that.

But that people are dying
and then a shooting went on forever

and then it was like the shooting subsided

and then I heard some.

After the shooting subsided,
I heard some single shot

bang and bang.

After they took over the prison,

all those books
that had been speaking to the cameras

were all targeted and tortured.

So yes, yes, yes, yes, they were targeted.

Andy Barclay.

They were calling his name.

Going to that, Bob, looking for him

and threatening him
with what they were going to do to him.

When they when they found him
and they found him,

he was yelling.

No, no, but it's too fucking late.

They had him do acting, actually
dragging him towards a

block far yard over there.

He's Holland new agreement and the acuity.

You can see because the gas is so thick,

but all of a sudden a puff of wind comes

and disperses the gas.

And then I could see.

And what I saw was fright.

Hundreds of bodies just laying there.

Some were moaning, some wasn't moving.

Blood was everywhere.

We were given stretchers
and told to go into the prison.

It was really an unthinkable scene.

It was dead and wounded and simply

starting to carry them out.

It was far beyond anything

I had imagined when they said
we would be doing medical evacuation.

We were basically civilians

put into a situation where state troopers

and correctional officers
had created a war zone.

There was a pile of bodies,
maybe eight or ten people,

and the man on top,
it had his eyes shot out.

Right below us,

there was a huge pool of rainwater

and it was blood red.

And I looked down on down at it

and they said, Those are false
teeth down there, aren't they?

And somebody said, Yeah.

The attitude of the people

who should have been concerned

about what had happened
was simply that they were

pleased with what had happened

and had no qualms or second thoughts

or anything but satisfaction

with Walker wants to go back to.

Why white power weight,

right, right?

They had control.

And once they had control, you would think

that things would have stopped.

They didn't.

It was clear that at that point
it was all about revenge.

It was all about reestablishing
who was in charge.

And the most violent ways possible.

Everybody had to crawl through shit,

human waste.

But what do you do?

Do you live to tell your story

like I'm doing today
or do you fucking die?

I made a choice.

I want to live.

Chrome nickel chrome

for like a dog.

If you look up, nigga,
I'll blow your motherfucking brains out.

What the
fuck they care about calling you a nigger?

That was your name.

They had us marching

around the yard with our with our hands

interlocked like this on top of our heads,

abject surrender.

When I saw these naked bodies

lined up, snaked around the area,
it reminded me

of portrayals of of African-Americans
being heard it on the slave ships.

That was just horrendous, just horrible,

horrible.

We're next in the middle of fucking yard.

God's going around with like baby bats.

It was seven remote guys
as I'm laying here and I'm hoping

they don't come my way.

Frank Schmidt,
Big Black, was put on a table

with the football under his throat.

People stood up above him on the catwalk,

aiming their guns down at him,
throwing cigars and cigaret butts on him

. And

it said, Do said football falls, nigger,
we're going to shoot you.

He was told to get to his feet.

He tried, he stumbled, he fell.

He was hit with clubs

on his back between his legs.

And he was crying out.

You know, don't do this. Don't do this.

And then you could hear him screaming as

he went up to the prison.

It felt good
that I had survived this shit.

And now I got a look out

because some motion is coming.

The inmates were entering

these corridors off of the yard

and the guards were like

five or six feet apart with their clubs

and they would hit them against the wall
and there was just this

dull drum like sound.

And then they were hitting the inmates
as they ran a gantlet.

We could hear the screams coming out

so that we knew they were being tortured

and that we were somehow
part of this unthinkable scene

that there was no escaping from
but was completely wrong.

They had guards on both sides,
and they would be hitting you

as you were running through beating you

with hoses and batons
and whatever they had in their hands.

I'm ducking, trying to get through,

protecting my head,
so I hit all of my all the elbows.

My knees still hurt, beating you
and they're making you run

through the gantlet with it,

took all the glass out the fucking windows
and put it in the middle of the floor.

So you had to run through grass
with bare feet.

Nobody came out of that yard.

What with picking without having to pick
a shot of your feet for four weeks?

Couldn't walk, nobody could walk anymore.

But we had to run
because if you didn't run,

they just kept beating you
with these clubs.

The families of the hostages,
a lot of them waited

just outside the prison wall.

Then news began to filter out of Attica.

Names of freed hostages
were called out to the loved one

by Curtis Lieutenant Colonel

Robert

Elder.

Some didn't see their men come out.

All they learned
was the name of the hospital

where the survivors were being treated.

There were no time to wait.

They ran off to see their man.

People couldn't seem to run fast enough.

My mom came home
and she was with her sister,

and my mom was crying, obviously upset.

I was outside sitting on the front porch,

you know, praying and worrying,
and where's dad?

I respect him to show up, you know, and.

I again, my mom was dead.

What's what's
why are you crying, what's going on?

Well, my mother came back in the house
and, you know, he

she said, nobody to play with me
now, are you?

I mean, you know,
because I didn't want to believe it.

And she finally said, I saw him.

I saw him.

Finally,

she blurted out, Your father's dead.

So it ran.

We're in for a while, and I came back

and I was sitting on the front porch
trying to be strong and not cry.

And I could hear everybody in the house
crying

and I was trying to be so tough and.

All right.

Yeah, right.

The National Guardsmen
were told to get back in their trucks,

and we did that
and were taken out to the parking area.

And the colonel then addressed
the battalion, maybe several hundred men,

and he said, essentially you saw things

that were excessive and wrong today.

And I have to ask you
not to speak of this to anyone

because the world will not understand
what happened here today.

The most violent
rebellion in modern American penal history

came to an end today at the maximum
security prison in New York.

In the final hours of the revolt,
led primarily by blacks,

the inmates murdered
nine of their white hostages.

28 convicts were killed

by state troopers, and sheriff's deputies
will regain control of the prison.

The storming of the prison had the full
approval of New York's governor,

Rockefeller, who earlier had rejected
a prisoner demand for complete clemency.

The White House said that after the prison
was retaken, President Nixon telephoned

the governor to express his approval
of Rockefeller's action.

We went in we couldn't tell whether all 39

hostages would be killed
and maybe two or 300 prisoners.

So we were able to pick off

either
from the wall or as our men went in.

The man who had the

knives at the throat of the hostages

and they did a fabulous job.

I mean, this is this

are these primarily blacks?

Know, and the whole thing
was led by the black cabinet,

are all the All Blacks?

I haven't got that report,
but I have to admit I just out.

Yeah, yeah, we've got to have any.

We just not tolerate this kind of

anarchy.

Yesterday, officials at the prison said

eight of the hostages
had had their throats cut.

But today,
the Monroe County medical examiner,

having looked at the bodies, said no
throats were cut at all.

The medical examiner says the hostages
were apparently killed by a large caliber

ammunition
and shotgun blasts from a distance,

which immediately raised the possibility
that some of the hostages may

in fact have been shot down
by the lawmen who broke in to rescue them.

Some of the hostages were actually shot

running towards the state troopers
thinking,

I'm saved, I'm saved.

And the hostages were dressed

the same way the inmates were.

Anything that inmate garb on it.

They just started shooting at.

What Rockefeller had done was treat.

The hostages

as no more real live

human beings who deserve to be respected
than the prisoners.

And so you kill them all
and you restore order

and you make me into a major

figure who believes in law and order

at a time when that concept is beginning

to really take hold.

We should have entered

in a negotiated settlement.

No, they were they were interested
in that, they were interested in showing.

The naked fist of power law and order.

The national mindset of the nation
was law and order.

And law and order does not permit.

Any challenge?

To his authority whatsoever.

God willing, a few more months in
January will be 90 years old.

I will never, ever, ever, ever,

ever, ever, ever.

We get Atika.

Ever.

It didn't have to be that way.

All eight cases.

Died of gunshot wounds.

There was no evidence of slash throats.

We're sure

your. The.

I have never received an apology.

I've never received an apology,
and for me,

that's a pretty big deal.

What is money

do when you don't have your dad

or your brother or your uncle who?

How does that replace anything?

And I think it was the state's
way of saying,

we're going to give you this money
and we want you to go away and.

This is my.

True.

Well, she.

He threw

for nearly 30 years, former Attica
inmates have waited for justice.

Today, it finally came in the form of a 12

million dollar settlement.

Be. There's no justice.

All we got was money

and money wasn't enough.

Then you can't justify all the killings
that happened in Attica.

You can't justify that.

So there's no justice.

There is no justice.

We shall.

Be. And.

They might.

True.

Well, I'm sure.

Me, too,

do so.

And. Be.

You. Some

foolish. Oh.