When the Million Mask March first erupted in 2012, I was still in prison. Regardless of my disposition, it was high time for such a movement to burst forth, especially in the aftermath of an entire planet that was suddenly bravely participating in activism.
In 2009, OpIran had pathed the way for the Arab Spring in 2010, and then the Occupy Movement exploded across the United States in 2011.
Activism became the global norm seemingly out of nowhere. #OpIran aka #ProtestorHelp was the last great protest I participated in before I was unceremoniously severed from cyberspace for the next 11 years.
However, a year later, the Million Mask March emerged, as the hacktivist group Anonymous poured into the streets around the world to assemble on the 5th of November, a holiday known historically as Guy Fawkes Day.
Guy Fawkes is famous for the failed attempt to blow up Westminster Palace infamously known as the Gun Powder Plot, in an attempt to assassinate Parliament and King James I, in retaliation for James’s persecuting Roman Catholics.
It is fitting that Anonymous has adopted this holiday. As the hacktivist group is renowned across the world for taking a stand against corruption in government and is vocal in its opposition to police brutality and support of human rights, the Million Mask March symbolically tips its hat to Guy Fawkes and opens the door to anyone willing to march with us.
The Dallas Protest: Injustice Awareness
I am an activist at my core. It’s not something I do. As I live and breathe, it’s who I am, and that cannot be tortured or beaten out of me. I took my protests behind prison walls, even during my time in solitary.
This march is for anyone who has ever been framed for a crime they didn't commit or accused of criminal acts they had no part of. This is for the 3,200 individuals exonerated for crimes they weren't guilty of. Moreso, for the people who may never be exonerated.
I am a surviving eyewitness of the unthinkable atrocities of the United States Prison Industrial Complex. According to a 2011 UN special report, solitary confinement for as little as 15 days causes irreversible psychological harm and can constitute torture under international law.
I spent 13 months in solitary confinement.
According to a 2020 statistic, nearly 1 out of every 100 people is in prison or jail, amounting to 0.7% of the US population behind bars. That’s somewhere around 2.2 million people behind bars in the USA.
Guess how many Americans have criminal records? You’re going to love this: 80 million. Needless to say, America is a prison State, and #JusticeReform isn’t exactly top of the priority list. That’s because the system isn’t really broken. It’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: prey on members of society, for money.
If that doesn’t hit home, let me put it to you this way. The US government actually has contractual relationships with private companies like The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) that build private prisons, and are privately managed. Why, you ask? Why do you think? It’s profitable. Inmates aka “human beings” are chattel and tradable commodities.
Simply put, this is one of the biggest profiteering rackets the US government operates under the guise of “justice.”
Other prison stocks include CoreCivic (NTSE: CXW), Serco (OTC: SCGPY), and Palantir Technologies Inc. ( NYSE: PLTR). Privatized prison stocks are traded on the stock exchange like any other stock.
If you think everyone in our jails or prison system is actually guilty, think again. In recent memory, Annie Dookhan, the Department of Public Health Drug Abuse lab falsified drug tests of up to 34,000 cases.
That means that 34,000 individuals were sent to prison based on drug tests she fabricated. She served only 3 years.
I myself was coerced into admitting guilt for things I never committed, such as Witness Intimidation. However, this isn’t about me. I am marching for a friend of mine, Shukri Abu-Baker, who is factually innocent of the crimes he is said to have committed.
That is why I am protesting Injustice, under the banner of #JusticeReform. The judicial system is unbelievably draconian, and patently wicked, and stands as an enemy of the members of society is claims to be serving.
It laughs in the face of the very Oath of Office each of its members must swear, spitting upon the US Constitution, that sovereign document that declares us free from such practices of a government out-of-control, when the Watchers fall in rebellion against the People.
The Earle Cabell Federal Building
The location of the Dallas Million Mask March is symbolic for us. This building has existed as the very nexus of social injury inflicted by judicial powers that have a very little conscience for the virtue of justice.
From this very building, the FBI escalated their war on Anonymous by arresting Barret Brown, a freelance journalist and unofficial spokesperson for Anonymous.
Prosecutor Candina Sharon Heath attempted to push a sentence of 105 years for merely receiving a link to the Stratfor data dump in one chatroom, and copying/pasting the link to another chatroom.
Ultimately, he ended up serving 63 months in federal prison - a dangerous precedence for any journalist similarly situated in the United States.
He later ended up exposing her after it was revealed that Candina Heath engaged in amateur hot wife porn, which raises the question of whether these kinds of activities are ethically acceptable for a person who also handles national security cases.
I was sentenced at this courthouse, and so was my co-host for the march. Not only us but also Matthew Weigman, the blind phone phreak. Also, this is the building where the illegal convictions of the Holy Land Foundation 5 took place.
This location is personal, as the things that happened in that place ultimately altered the trajectory of our lives, the course of our emotional and mental health, and sadly, devastated our families.
In cages, we aged. We lost loved ones while we sat confined in our cold prison walls, unable to intervene or sociologically evolve alongside the evolutionary course of society.
My own life nearly ended multiple times on account of the long duration of my sentence. A sentence that was engineered to “send a message” to the hacking community abroad.
A March That Welcomes All
While #JusticeReform courses through my veins, all are invited to march for any matter they are passionate about. We personally will also be marching for #MahsaAmini and women’s rights.
We will be marching for #BLM. We will stand in solidarity for #OpLove. For kindness. For peace. For all agendas, we will march side by side with anyone, no matter the protest you bring, masked or unmasked.
Raise your voices and your banners, because the cries of your march will ring in triumph, and give inspiration and courage to all who hear it. Your war cry will be heard around the world.
This is your moment, ye people! For at this moment in time, you pave the way for future generations and write a new chapter in the annals of the history of what we will have done in that day and hour.
As I end here, know this: In such a moment as this, the younger generation will stand up and judge the older generation on account of all the things we didn’t stand up for. Our inability to act will cause ripples, but the fire from our actions will cause waves that will be felt by generations to come.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
Expect Us.
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