Author Archives: Sean Swain

SUPPORT UPDATE: Shotguns and Bureaucratic Ghost Towns.

On Wednesday Feb 11th, we decided to employ a “shotgun approach” after a week and a half of letting the ODRC jerk us around with false info and obnoxious lawyerism. No, we don’t mean the shotgun approach the insurrecto-trolls and ODRC officials might fantasize or accuse us of using. We’re using the word “shotgun” metaphorically: if they won’t tell us who to call to get Sean what he needs, we’ll just call everyone, unload willy-nilly at the full range of possible enemies and hope something sticks. Well, some weird things stuck… If you believe in democracy, it’s probably a good idea to look closely at what it produces.

THE GOOD:
The staff of the new chair of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) made some calls. This is an Ohio Senate + House Subcommittee, composed of elected politicians, and apparently Democratic Senator Sandra Williams’ staff is idealistic enough to think that means they oughta follow up on calls concerning the health, welfare and rights of captives in Ohio’s correctional institutions. She was very helpful, and given that Joanna Saul, the CIIC Executive Director has demonstrated that the responsibilities of Inspecting and overseeing Ohio’s correctional institutions can be totally neglected without consequence, we appreciate the trouble Williams’ office put into this. Continue reading →

Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain “Disappeared” by Prison Fascists, State of Health and Well-Being Unknown.

UPDATE: Email from Sean: “I’m out of the dungeon. Description of shenanigans to follow. I’m broke, so no $ on phone account to call. Thank you for everything. Sorry this is short, but I’m spent. Will write more later. You rock. Freedom, Sean.” Followed by this incomplete text. We don’t know if Sean’s demands have been met, if he’s off hungerstrike, or whether to make any more calls.

Ohio State Penitentiary administrators removed Sean Swain from population, according to a prisoner housed on Sean’s security level. He is now held incommunicado, without phone or email access, and likely without writing materials. When prison officials last removed Sean from population at Mansfield Correctional, he was placed in a torture cell with no heat, no bed, no shower, forced to pace 24 hours a day to stay warm. He left there sleep-deprived and hallucinating. Less than 90 days later, two other prisoners died on Torture Cell Row.

Sean initiated a hungerstrike on Monday, 02 February and refused blood pressure medication beginning Tuesday, 10 February. His health is likely already compromised, so placement in a torture cell, isolated from all other prisoners and cut off from the outside world, could only be initiated by prison officials for the obvious motive of eliminating Sean once and for all.

Sean, anticipating this possibility, explained, “The only thing to gain by isolating me is the opportunity to continue refusing me medications after I have agreed to start taking them again. In other words, isolating me gives them the chance to murder me without witnesses, something they can’t do while I’m in population.”

Prison officials would benefit greatly from the death of Sean Swain. Currently, Sean has a lawsuit filed through his counsel, Richard Kerger. This lawsuit threatens to expose the illegality of ODRC Director Gary Mohr’s JPay policy, that enriches a prison profiteer corporation; it threatens to expose the State’s recourse to torture, and a connection between the FBI and torture engineer Trevor Clark, who was disclosed as “agency liaison” to the FBI; it threatens to expose a not-so-secret dirty war waged by government against dissidents and critics, particularly of an anarchist perspective. Continue reading →

An Open Letter of Immense Gratitude to Everyone Who Has Extended my Life in Resistance.

Heard a singer on the radio late last night
Said he’s gonna kick the darkness til it bleeds daylight…
I… I believe in love…
–excerpt from “God, Part II,” by U2, from the album, Rattle and Hum

Dear Everybody,

Most of you, I don’t know your names. I have never seen your faces, and so long as my captors continue this selective video ban, you may never see mine. We are separated, you and me, by fences covered in concertina wire, by steel bars and concrete walls, by a patrol truck with a loaded shotgun designed to keep me in… and to keep YOU out.

In fact, if everything had gone as planned, the way my captors designed it, you would never have even been aware of my existence. I would have remained a population statistic in official government reports, for decades and decades until some guard making union-scale wages tossed me in a hole and buried me.

But, something happened.

YOU happened.

Despite the fences and bars and walls, despite the perimeter truck, my captors lost control of the situation. They lost control of YOU. Continue reading →

How to Support Sean Swain’s Hungerstrike

Sean’s been on hungerstrike since Mon Feb 2nd, and without his blood pressure medication since Mon Feb 9th. He describes himself as “angry, stupid, and turning purple” in recent communication, which also includes speculative personality types of various ODRC and state officials, and descriptions of his rectal flame-throwing talents. It’s clear he’s still got his sense of humor even after 9 days without food.

Rick Kerger, Sean’s attorney is working on filling a restraining order, which should resolve all this, but legal channels move slow while our friend is starving himself, so we’ve been calling fuckweasels all week… And getting nothing but run-around.

The fuckweasels keep passing the buck and refusing to accept responsibility or admit who cancelled the visits, why, or who can un-cancel them. We suspect they’re slow walkin us, dragging their feet and waiting for Sean to die, or surrender.

Sean doesn’t surrender.

So, since we can’t find a pressure point to target, we’ve decided to adopt a shotgun approach. Call any and all of the following phone numbers, write letters and emails, do whatever you’ve got time and patience to do. It’ll mean a lot to Sean. The bigger the flood, the more they’ll regret it.

NOTE: in previous posts we suggested requesting your own video visit with Sean, forcing them to cancel a flood of requests. That won’t work anymore. JPay has blocked Sean from getting video visits, so you won’t get through. But, the first step is to request to add yourself to Sean’s visiting list, using this form. This is still a great sign of support and solidarity, esp if you live in Ohio and can actually visit Sean. Also, writing him is a great idea. A flood of visit requests and letters will show the ODRC that by fucking with Sean, they’re only making him and his incendiary viewpoint more popular and widely known. Also, we can promise that Sean is infintely more fun to talk to than any of the below Government Officials.

ON TO THE CALL LIST! Continue reading →

Anarchist Prisoner ‘Angry, Stupid and Turning Purple’

Monday, 9 FEB.

Today was Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain’s first day without blood pressure medication. He is forced to continue his hungerstrike without the fuckweasels’ official recognition because Sean was informed that he would be placed in segregation and therefore cut off from communicating with the outside world if he did not accept trays. Sean now accepts the trays and the State denies his hungerstrike is happening since he refuses to jump through their flaming hoops and conduct his hungerstrike in a fashion that allows the fuckweasels to kick Sean in the face for it.

You know how fuckweasels are.

Sean intended to refuse blood pressure medication today when his medications were renewed, but medical staff forgot to renew his meds, so he went without them due to a simple glitch. He has to postpone his refusal of meds, accompanied with a waving fist and a statement way too serious for the occasion, for when his meds are offered to him. Continue reading →

Sherlock Paulie Supergenius Lawyers Up, Urges Callers to Contact Beerbong Tommy Regarding Investigation into Anarchist Prisoner’s Super-Powers.

[Wanna support Sean? http://seanswain.org/how-to-support-sean-swains-hungerstrike/]
In recent phone interviews regarding the “investigation” into Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain’s video visits (that did not happen), Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption Investigator Paul Schumacher, a.k.a. “Sherlock Paulie SuperGenius,” referred callers to legal counsel defending prison fuckweasels in the civil action filed by Sean’s attorney, Richard Kerger. Paulie SuperGenius, having reviewed the white noise of the 4 video visits he did not allow Ben Turk to have with Sean, came to the undeniable conclusion that he really, really fucked up by targeting Sean for no legitimate reason at all, and rather than giving callers the same ridiculous answer that tasted bad in his own mouth (a contrivance about BLACK LIGHTNING and burning down the Statehouse– as if anyone would miss it) Paulie SuperGenius referred callers to a lawyer.

That lawyer is BeerBong Tommy Miller, Chief of the State-Terror Defense Bureau at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. BeerBong Tommy, who is almost just like a real attorney, has defended the ODRC’s list of hapless villains who tortured Sean for being an anarchist (“anarchist: someone who recognizes we’re better off on our own rather than being oppressed by these hapless clowns”) and for telling the truth in public (“the truth: we’re better off on our own rather than being oppressed by these hapless clowns”). Continue reading →

Black Lightning Algorithm, the Fuckweasel Bozos of Ineptitude (FBI), and Ass Fire.

BLACK LIGHTNING ALGORITHM PROMPTS INVESTIGATION OF BEN TURK AND SEANSWAIN.ORG BY FUCKWEASEL BOZOS OF INEPTITUDE (FBI): AT ISSUE, ANARCHIST PRISONER’S SUPER POWER, SHOOTING FIRE OUT OF HIS ASS

In 2010, then-Mansfield Warden Terry Tibbals, during a Community Service shin-dig, told Sean Swain, a skilled painter for Community Service, all about Tibbals’ black Lexus. He was pretty proud of his car. In fact it was all he talked about.

Conventional wisdom says that men often use cars as phallic symbols to compensate for the size of their penises. This could not be the case for Tibbals however, since, at roughly 400 pounds, he has likey never SEEN his own penis.

So, whatever his motives for getting the car, he also acquired the personalized plate, BLACK LIGHTNING, his second favorite topic of banal conversation.

It would appear that Tibbals has blabbed his personalized plates to so many people that the Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption has included BLACK LIGHTNING into the algorithm they use to scan all prisoners’ outgoing emails. According to BeerBong Tommy Miller, the assistant attorney general defending the ODRC against Sean Swain’s lawsuit, it was Swain’s recent mention of BLACK LIGHTNING in an outgoing email that drew red flags and led to the investigation of Swain… requiring them to cancel Swain’s completely-unrelated video visits. [editor’s note: Sean may not understand that vanity plates can only be seven characters long, so BLACK LIGHTNING, at fourteen characters is definitely not even Tibbals’ actual licence plate in the first place.] Continue reading →

Freedom or Death- Call-in Today!

[UPDATE: These support actions have proven fruitless. Thomas Miller is slow walking us, dragging his feet and waiting for Sean to die. JPay has blocked anyone from scheduling video visits with Sean. Here are some better options. You can still call Miller, cuz he loves talking without saying anything. He talked to my retired elementary school, dyed in the whool bleeding heart liberal mom for twenty minutes the other day, and pissed her off. Ohio tax payers must be paying him to sit around throwing pencils at the ceiling most days. Also, you can still apply to visit Sean, and write him letters, cuz that shows support, but don’t bother with JPay.]

Contact Thomas Miller, who has been put in charge of answering all inquiries regarding Sean.

Phone: 614-644-7233.
Email: thomas.miller@ohioattorneygeneral.gov
Fax: 614-578-9963
Mail / visit: 150 East Gay Street, 16th Floor, Columbus OH 43215-6001

With fascist fuckweasels ignoring his hungerstrike, anarchist prisoner Sean Swain has vowed to refuse his blood pressure medication, beginning February 9. This medication keeps his blood pressure regulated. To stop taking this medication “cold turkey” is extremely dangerous, as it could cause a spike in blood pressure which can lead to heart attack, stroke or aneurysm.

“Freedom or death,” Sean said. “I’m not fucking around.”

Fuckweasels have engaged in a concerted, provable pattern of harassing every element of Sean’s communication, waging a war against anarchist expression.

Within 48 hours of suspending his medication, Sean will be in serious danger of medical problems and anticipates he will soon be held incommunicado in a torture cell, in a fuckweasel effort to break his will and cut him off from the outside world. But, as he pointed out, that will not stop his blood pressure from spiking.

“Clock is ticking,” Sean said. “To quote Emiliano Zapata, ‘Mejor morir en pie que vivir en rodillas’ (‘Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees’). If my choice is to surrender to tyrants or risk my health or even my life, then my choices are to live for the wrong thing or die for the right one. In that situation, dig my grave.”

There are two important ways you can show support for Sean at this time. Continue reading →

Phone Calls With Fuckweasels

You may not understand Sean’s hungerstrike and impending refusal of medication. “Freedom or Death” for the prison industrial complex’s monopoly equivalent of Skype might seem a little extreme to you. Well, this post is here to explain why this struggle matters and means more than that.

For the last week, many of us have been calling various prison officials regarding Sean’s hunger strike. If annoying them enough to get them to pass the buck to someone else is any indicator, this call-in campaign is working.

Warden Forshay at OSP told supporters that he had nothing to do with pulling the video visits. He said they were pulled by DRC Investigator Paul Schumacher. You can call Warden Forshay at 330-743-0700, ext 2006, and he’ll tell you to call someone else.

Schumacher told Sean’s lawyer a bunch of lies about how he cancelled the video visit because the automatic keyword search system used to monitor JPay correspondence flagged some of Sean’s emails. For funny stories about how we know this is a lie, see below.

Other than Sean’s lawyer, Paul Schumacher didn’t answer the phone or return calls to anyone until after an Anarchist News post invited people to call his voicemail and “say whatever you want”. Then he answered the phone and said he can’t say anything other than to tell people who ask about Sean Swain ought to call Assistant Attorney General, Thomas C Miller. Then we asked him a few more questions and he told us a few more things, things he’d just said he wasn’t supposed to say. He even slipped up and kinda admitted he was instructed to pull the visits. Which is obvious anyway. Anyway, if you wanna chat with Paul and see if he’s got anything else to say, you can call 614-728-1152, but if he answers, he’s probably just gonna tell you to call Thomas Miller. Continue reading →

Freedom or Death (sigh…)

This originally aired on The Final Straw. Who also did some interviews with Sean in this week’s episode.

Audio here.

(Sigh.) I could really use a pizza right now. I’m on a hungerstrike. You know, those useless, stupid, reformist actions that never result in anything good? Right. You can go back to segments on Reformism to figure out just what kind of hypocrite I am.

My last meal was Superbowl Sunday, and it kinda sucked.

Anyway, here’s what happened:

My good friend Ben Turk scheduled 2 hours of video visits with me. It works like Skype and it’s a feature that JPay offers for twenty bucks an hour. To arrange it, Ben has to be on my visiting list and JPay email list– which he is. I see prisoners on my security level having these video visits routinely and nobody has ever had one cancelled by the Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption… Until now.

Yep. We got the plug pulled on us. Ben is allowed to see me here in the visiting room, face to face, over and over, where there are thousands of safety and security concerns involved, but he can’t see me over a computer where there are ZERO security and safety concerns.

Does that make any rational sense?
Continue reading →