Some background to Eric King’s case - another fucking travesty of justice - plus his statement which he made in court, below. Eric was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in June. You can read more about his case, as well as his poetry and other writings, and find out how you can write to him at supportericking.org.
Eric G. King, a 30-year-old vegan anarchist, was arrested and charged with an attempted firebombing of a government official’s office in Kansas City, MO in September 2014. Eric was being charged with throwing a hammer through a window of the building, followed by two lit Molotov cocktails. The criminal complaint states that both incendiary devices failed to ignite. Eric was identified as a suspect by local police because he had previously come under suspicion for anti-government and anti-police graffiti.
On March 3, 2016, he accepted a non-cooperating plea agreement to one count of using “explosive materials to commit arson of property used in or affecting interstate commerce.” Then almost three months later on June 28th, at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri. Eric King was sentenced to ten years, the statutory minimum and maximum for the charge he plead guilty to. His release date is June 2nd, 2023.
Since his arrest and subsequent incarceration, he has been extremely isolated from his loved ones and has repeatedly been targeted by the guards, who have regularly put his safety in jeopardy. At CCA Leavenworth where Eric was held in pretrial detention, he was kept in segregation for 6 months at one point and was often subjected to stints in “the hole” after the guards targeted him. Despite these struggles, he continues to maintain his good spirits and resolve to see this situation through to the end. He is also maintaining his dedication to struggling for a world free of domination and oppression.
[Eric is sentenced and is asked by the court if he has anything to say]:
“THE DEFENDANT: First I’d like to congratulate the Court on such a stellar job. Another graffiti homeless person is off the street. So I’m sure the FBI and Patrick are very proud of themselves. This is a good picture for the United States and they needed this. This is a solid win. You do an amazing job up there
This is supposed to be a chance for me to speak. I didn’t speak this entire time. You’ve held sentencing and punishment over me, and even now no matter what I say you can still hold that against me, not let me do things, not recommend things. That’s such a farce. This whole court’s a farce.
I stated what I did. I’m happy I did it. The government in this country is disgusting. The way they treat poor people, the way they treat brown people, the way they treat everyone that’s not in the class of white and male is disgusting, patriarchal, filthy racist.
You’re all a part of this. From the man over there who works the same corporation company that ran Prime Health Pro (ph) to you that takes away freedom and tears apart the community. You do that thinking that this is justice. This is no justice in ripping people from their homes. For what? Breaking a window? Ten years for breaking a window? And the cop that killed Freddie Gray got zero? The people that killed Trayvon Martin got zero? It’s so horrendous.
And I’m not sorry for what I did. I’m sorry that I got caught before I could do more things. I would have loved to attack more government buildings and make sure that bubble of safety that prosecutors and FBI agents and judges feel got shattered so that they stay in their safe pockets knowing they can’t touch me even though there are consequences to my actions. Same way we have consequences for our actions. If I throw a hammer out a window, I get ten years in jail. If you sentence a first-time offender to life in prison if he sold meth, you get a clap on the back from the President and a job for life. And if that’s justice, then you’re use of justice is so skewed and just horrendously immoral.
Further, this isn’t a victory for the State. This isn’t a win for any of you, any of you on this other side of the table. It’s done nothing but affirm my views, affirm my beliefs that the government is just disgusting. Even when I walk in I can’t tell my wife I love her. I can’t look at her and smile because, what, I broke a window? That’s justice? That’s fair? That’s not justice. There’s no rehabilitation in that. There’s no freedom in that. There’s no constitutional rights in that. It’s just bullying. It’s just the upper class saying we’re going to keep people who did not agree to our rules and then decide not to live by them, we’re going to keep those people shackled up so we can live comfortably in our own little bubbles and we never have to look outside of those bubbles to realize what’s really happening, which this class is set up to keep people down, and when people step out of that class system, they get punished horrendously, more than any other country, any other country on earth, the land of the free. It’s despicable.
This sentence has brought me closer to the community I really serve. That’s the radical view, the poor community. It’s shown me what solidarity means. It’s shown me what friendship means. It’s shown me what love means. It’s shown me what being a real human means, not standing by people when they’re knocked down, not further knocking them down, not going after poor people if they want to provide for their families and not do it the way that the white society thinks is appropriate. You’re disgusting.”
Below is the transcript in entirety