By Melinda Kukaj
OAKLAND, CA – A lawsuit has been filed against the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation by community activist known as “Minister King,” a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and All of Us Or None (AOUON).
The lawsuit challenges Minister King’s “unlawful” arrest on Aug. 9, 2021, during “Black August,” for allegedly violating Penal Code section 4571, which, King claims, criminalizes people who have felony convictions standing near prison facilities.
“CDCR’s report for Minister King’s arrest describes King, and many other activists, public figures, and organizations, as “Black Identity Extremists” and “Black Supremacist Extremists,” said the complaint, noting these “racist terms were used to label organizations such as Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations and their use was abandoned by the FBI in 2019.”
Minister King, according to a news conference in Sacramento last week, was arrested and imprisoned by plainclothes CDCR officers because of a July 2021 protest calling for the release of a political prisoner named Ruchell “Cinque” Magee.
King’s charges were dropped without a hearing, but Minister King and AOUON allege in their complaint that these arrests were a form of retaliation for his activism as well as a violation of his First Amendment rights.
The press conference addressed the constitutional issues associated with PC 4571 that prohibit individuals who have been previously convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a CA state prison from being present on any grounds of carceral facilities or anywhere near those grounds without warden or sheriff permission.
The lawsuit seeks to “prevent CDCR from using Penal Code 4571 to target formerly incarcerated individuals for exercising their rights.”
