George Pollock State KidIssue 34

Storming the Bastille

“What a mess,” House said, opening the cell door and walking in.“Man, oh, man,” said Hawkeye, following him into the cell.The cell looked like a killer twister had descended upon it, sucking up everything -- bunk,shelves, clothes, two human beings -- then dumping it all in a pile, though miraculouslyleaving the little radio untouched and undeterred, still emitting Mozart.A human hand and foot poked up grotesquely from the rubble. The two guards pulled atdebris to retrieve the bodies. They uncovered the still form of Billy Stone first. He waslaying face down crossways on top of an inert Roger Stansky. House yanked, managingto roll Billy's body off Stansky.“Man, nothin's worse than a dead weight,” House said.“You know,” said Hawkeye, taking his cap off and scratching his head, “where's the blood?”“Hey, you're right. Something's not ...”***Billy Stone and Roger Stansky sprang to life. Stansky went for House, Billy for Hawkeye. Stansky gave House a ferocious head-butt and blood bubbled out of the hugeguard's nose. Both hands flew to his bloody face and he roared in pain. Swinging House'sown truncheon like an ax, Stansky delivered a mighty blow to the guard's legs, fellinghim like a tree.“You broke my legs! You broke my legs!”“Shut up, pig, before I break your head,” Stansky snarled, driving his knee into House's back as he cuffed the guard's hands behind him. He relieved him of his keys.Hawkeye dropped to his knees, begging with clasped hands. “Don't hurt me, don't hurtme. I had nothing to do with it.”Billy took his keys and cuffed his hands behind him. “Don't worry, nobody is going tohurt you,” Billy said. But Stansky came over and axed Hawkeye's legs.“My legs! My legs! Help me, help me! I need a doctor! I need a doctor!”“Shut your mouth,” Stansky said.Billy and Stansky chained the two guards to each other and to a cell bar.“No more of that,” Billy said. “That was the deal.”“I didn't kill'em. That's all I promised.”Billy unlocked cells. Enraged by Carson's crackdown, inmates stormed out and, in a blindstampede, literally overran the few night-shift guards. Within minutes, all inmates were

freed except for those in the maximum-security “shoe,” despite their yelling and bangingto be let out. Even inmates believed that these lowest of the low were best kept caged.All the pent-up fury at the crushing punishments had spontaneously exploded into ageneral inmate uprising. Coming in a flash, without plan or warning, it blew through the prison like a hurricane -- and achieved total surprise. Nobody was more surprised thanthe inmates. Most had burst out of their cells craving a smoke and bent on demandingreinstatement of weight-lifting, basketball and TV.Instead, they found themselves in control of the prison.***The first thing they did was grab cigarettes from guards, light up and take long, exquisitedrags. The second thing they did was to start fighting amongst themselves. Inmateviolence is almost always directed at other inmates. In the absence of any other logic, this behavior is most likely a sad extension of self-loathing. With inmates going about settlingscores, and with pushing, shoving and name-calling giving way to fist-fights, and withsome brandishing newly-seized guns, Billy moved swiftly.Amidst all the noise and confusion, Billy and his cohorts went around admiring the gunsand asking to hold them. As soon as a proud inmate handed his new weapon over to beoohed and aahed over, it was gone -- with the Billy Stone operative getting an urgentsummons and running off absent-mindedly with the weapon.Some less gullible gun-toting inmates had to be relieved of their weapons forcibly. Theywere then given a choice: a cell or the door. All chose the door. As far as Billy wasconcerned, each one was a problem walking out the door. By one means or another, whileinmates were too busy fighting each other to realize what was happening, Billy sooncontrolled every gun in the place.What weapons Billy and his cohorts didn't keep, they locked up in the storage room. Billy personally confiscated all the keys to the storage room. The last thing he needed was gunsin the wrong hands, meaning, in the hands of anybody he did not want them to be in.Billy Stone was AWOL no more.***Inmates converged on the dining hall as a raging mob. They screamed, threw punches,wrestled on the floor and threw chairs and slashed at each other with knives and other hand-made weapons. Violence is contagious; once it starts, it feeds on itself and spreads.The dining hall turned into a gladiatorial arena.“Get the hoses,” Billy said. Underlings ran off and come back with the hoses. “Full blast.” Powerful jets of water sent inmates sprawling, cursing, coughing out water.Billy jumped up on a table. He screamed, “YOU IDIOTS! STOP! STOP!” Inmates whohad other inmates pinned to the floor or by the neck looked up. Some paused in mid- punch. “Dammit! Stop being stupid! We don't have time for this. Now everybody shut upand listen.”The fighting petered out. The noise subsided. In a booming voice, Billy said, “The firstquestion we all have to ask is,

Do I go

out that door or do I stay

? Now, some guys havealready left. That's fine. We wish them luck because they will need it.”

Among those who had left was Roger Stansky who had immediately bolted for theoutside. That was Billy's offer to Stansky -- immediate freedom instead of a murder rap.For even the dim-bulbed Stansky, the offer had been too good to pass up. As for Billy, hehad made the deal of a lifetime, excusing himself just as a putrid hand reached for him.Orating like a young Mussolini, Billy said, “Anybody who wants to take his chances onhis own, there's the door. No one will stop you and no one will blame you. But before youwalk out that door, think hard. You will be alone. You will be an escapee after taking partin a prison take-over. When they catch you -- and they will -- you get a belly full of bullets or you rot in prison. Either way, you're a stupid loser.”Shouts around the hall:“They'll storm the place!”“And then what? They shoot us down like dogs!”“Stay here? We're

dead

here!”Very slowly, Billy said, “NOT ... if we ... use ...our heads.” He tapped his forehead withan index finger. “NOT if we use our numbers. NOT if we play our strengths to their weakness. NOT if we give them only choices they can't take. NOT if we stay together. NOT if we throw stuff at them that they've never seen. NOT if we do what has

never

beendone.”“Like what?” someone shouted.“Like we don't sit here waiting for them do their usual charge, break-heads, shoot-the-animals thing. Instead,

attack. We hit them with things they'll never expect.” Hetapped his forehead again. “Such as this.”He paused, looking around the hall, daring anyone to stand up to him. There were notakers.“Okay, all stupid losers get out of here. You're in our way.”Billy waited. Inmates looked around. No one made a move for the door.“Okay,” Billy said. “no settling scores, stealing, messing with guards, or destroying property. Anybody who does, gets kicked out the door. No colors or signs. We're notKnights or Kings or Aryans -- we are one, united, powerful force. Kali?”Kali jumped up on the table with Billy.“Durk?”Durk joined Kali and Billy.“Angel?”Angel got up on the table.Flanked by Kali, Durk and Angel, Billy said, “Anybody not a hundred percent with us,get out of here now. We don't want you. If you stay, you're in and you're in to the end.”Billy paused. Giving it plenty of time, he looked from face to face around the hall, whichhad become almost quiet. Again, no one made a move for the door.“Smart.”