Category Archives: Sean

Dear Sir or Madam Re: Being Placed on a Security Threat Group List

Dear Sir or Madam:

To preface this, I would like to turn your attention to 3 United States Supreme Court cases. If you need copies of these, we can print them off in the law library:

Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners Labor Union, Inc.,433 U.S. 119, 97 S.Ct. 2532 (1977)

Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S.Ct. 2245 (1987)

Thornburg v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401, 109 S.Ct. 1874 (1989)

These 3 cases establish the First Amendment rights that prisoners retain. One principle theme that runs through all of those cases is that the prison officials—you–have a valid concern about what prisoners do in prison; you have a right and even a duty to address our conduct in prison; but you have no business at all digging into what we believe or think or feel.

What I do in prison can effect safety and security and prison functions. What I think or believe or even express to people outside of prison is, with all due respect, none of your business at all. According to the third case listed above, Thornburgh v. Abbott, I even have the right to expres to free-world people “inflammatory” racial, political, and religious views. And the cases make clear that, in affirming my right to hold and express even inflammatory views, you, as prison officials, cannot subject me to punishment or any other disincentive; in other words, you cannot treat me differently.

To be clear, this is not my concept of what my rights ought to be. This isn’t my idea of what the law should say. I’m only relating to you what your highest court has said your law is.

I would like you to abide by your law. I am, after all, in your custody because your government has said that I do not respect your law, and it is your job to engender in me a respect for it; I cannot foresee how that could feasibly happen if you have no regard for your own government nor your own laws.

Now, having said that, the problem I would like to address to you i smy placement on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list simply because of my beliefs. My situation is this:

I believe the hierarchical organization of society is wrong. I think it doesn’t work. I think plenty of anthropologists and archaeologist and all kinds of other “-ologists” who are smarter than you and me have effectively demonstrated that people lived without hierarchy for nearly 4 million years; and I believe the evidence is clear that their way of living made sense and they willingly maintained that way of living for a long, long time. I also believe that people will return to living without hierarchy because this way of living is UNSUSTAINABLE, which means it cannot keep going.

Hierarchy is unsustainable.

The absence of hierarchy is sustainable.

Because I believe this, that makes me and “Anarchist.” The etymology of the word “Anarchy” is “Ana-,” which means “against” or “opposed,” and “-archy,” which means structure.” So, an An-archist is someone who opposes hierarchical structure. Because I believe we are better off without imposed, top-down structures in society—structures that have proven not to work, have proven UNSUSTAINABLE—I am called an Anarchist.

For me, Anarchy is not so much a belief as it is a simple statement of fact: Your hierarchical system has never worked and it is not the way humans were designed to live; life is much better in non-hierarchic social structures.

Not only do I think that Anarchy (that is, social organization without hierarchy) is better than hierarchy, but I can prove it: By all available data, your hierarchy is cranking out idiots at a record pace and destroying the world, thereby bringing about its own inevitable doom. We would all be better off if we stopped dragging stones up the side of this pyramid.

Hunter-gatherers worked for about 3 hours a day to meet all of their human needs. That means they had 21 hours of free time every day. You work 8 hours a day, maybe 16, plus time driving through tangled traffic, plus time shopping and cooking and taking care of family members and paying bills and putting gas in the car, and on and on and on. That’s why all the kids are on Ritalin and all the adults are on Prozac. We all need drugs just to maintain because this way of living is killing us. It drives us insane. Hierarchy turns society into one big booby-hatch. A nut farm. A loony-bin.

I’m saying that if you and me and others had better imaginations, we would find a way to scrap all this and go back to working 3 hours a day. I’m saying you would be better off without this system.

Your life would be much more rewarding if you could turn your back on this pyramid scheme.

So, having demonstrated the rationality of my position, that hierarchy does not work and that it is in the midst of its own inevitable collapse, I have to ask: Why does my reasonable acceptance of irrefutable and objective facts about our unsustainable social system warrant placing me on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list? I ask this because there are hundreds of Hierarchs here at the prison whose beliefs do not apparently warrant placing them on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list.

There are democrats here who have an irrational belief that hierarchy works even though it never has, and they think if the maniacs at the top of the pyramid scheme simply geared the program to better help the little guy at the bottom, everything would be okay. No matter how many efforts prove to be an abysmal failure, they just keep recycling the same ideas.

There are also republicans. They think hierarchy works just fine, despite all available evidence to the contrary. They think if they just trim down the number of chairs on the deck of the Titanic, this thing can keep on floating. They seem not to notice that, no matter what they tinker with, the thing just keeps on sinking.

Then you have communists and socialists who think if you just exchange the maniac at the top with a maniac who has a better program, the donkey will plow the field for the good of the people, or some such nonsense that history has disproven time and time again.

All of these people are Hierarchs. All of their beliefs fly in the face of historical experience. Their 6,000 year-old program of hierarchy has driven all life on the planet to the brink of extinction. No matter how badly their ideas keep failing, they keep implementing them again and again, toxifying our world and leading to eventual disaster for everyone.

These idiots are dangerous. Perhaps they need to be placed upon a SECURITY THREAT GROUP list.

Hierarchs have started every war in the last 6,000 years.

Hierarchs have imposed domestication and mass-production, causing human over-population by a margin of about 6.8 billion people, eroding topsoil,, fresh water, and oceanic plant life; leading to the spread of disease, drought, resource depletion, famine, political instability, terrorism, stratification, and wide-spread human suffering.

Hierarchs are a real problem. Their ideas drive us to the brink of extinction.

And while we’re in the realm of strange ideas that warrant your attention, there are a number of religions that promote this hierarchical madness. Chief among them is Christianity. I used to be a Christian myself. They think that two millenia ago, a special superman walked on water and magically pulled fish out of his hat and put lepers’ fingers back on, then he was killed by the local Hierarch and came back to life, bodily flying up into space but promising to return someday to punish everyone who doesn’t believe this wild story of incomprehensible mish-mash. He told his followers to sell whatever goods they possess and to buy a sword (Luke 22:36). Clearly a militant. Followers of this militant Jesus of Nazereth here at MANCI all possess the same book of instructions, that they should sell their Little Debbie snack-cakes and buy a shank. You should probably identify these militants and put them on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list and take away their books.

My point is, every organized religion out there has a set of irrational, goofy ideas, and they all fit very nicely into supporting this hierarchical madness driving us to extinction. If anyone should be on a SECURITY THREAT GROUP list on the basis of their ideas, it should be goofballs with irrational ideas leading to death and destruction. But if you’re going to put people on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list because of crazy ideas, you’re going to need some chips and beer—this undertaking is going to require a lot of time.

My ideas, in contrast, make far more reasonable, rational sense than the ideas of democrats, republicans, socialists, communists, or Christians. My ideas, by any objective measure, are far less dangerous than any of theirs.

Yet, you have me on what is essentially a “gang” list for my reasonable ideas, where I am grouped with nineteen year-old gang-bangers who form gaggles because they are cowards who cannot stand by themselves.

They are the opposite of me.

They rob and extort and drink and do drugs because they do not respect themselves or others.

They are the opposite of me.

They have no sense of principles, no philosophical foundation, no thoughtful approach to the way they live, no purpose.

They are the opposite of me.

They form groups to let others think for them rather than thinking for themselves.

They are the opposite of me.

They have no desire to have a positive impact on the world, to help others, to form healthy, functional, honest relationships for their own betterment and the betterment of others, resolved instead to form relationships based upon manipulation and force.

They are the opposite of me.

I would go so far as to propose that if you objectively look at my conduct over the course of the last 20 years, you will not find another prisoner who is more reasonable, more well-behaved, more conformed to the rules—even the really stupid rules—than me. In fact, by objective measures, I might be the best-behaved Ohio prisoner in penal history.

Why am I on a list with gang-bangers? Because I have a principled, thoughtful, reasoned, irrefutable critique of our fundamentally-disorganized social disorder?

Really???

I should think that if you are not a stark-mad, raving lunatic, you should want more prisoners who think and act the way I do. But you won’t get more prisoners to think and act the way I do if I get targeted and placed on a SECURITY THREAT GROUP list for it.

I should think you would want more people in the outside community who think and act the way I do. I should think that someone who thinks about how the community can be improved to benefit all of us is certainly better than the vast number of chuckleheads who would rather watch internet porn and eat potato chips.

I’m suggesting to you that you probably shouldn’t target me for wanting to be a good person and share ideas about how we can halt the death and destruction we see in the world, about how we can make the world better. I can’t think of a single good reason why you are doing this to me. I can only suspect that if you are not a stark-raving lunatic, you simply took issue with the word “Anarchy,” and you imagined the thousands of slanders that have been hoisted upon the word so that you thought Anarchists to be angry, thoughtless bomb-throwers. But if that is your idea of Anarchists, I’m not one.

Neolithic tribal people were Anarchists. They were organized without hierarchy. Almost the entirety of Native American cultures were Anarchist. Henry David Thoreau, the great American essayist whose renown is possibly second only to Thomas Jefferson, was an Anarchist. So were Jean-Pierre Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Leo tolstoy, and Max Sterner. Intellectual luminaries, none other than Emma Goldman, Voltairine DeCleyre, and Alexander Berkman were Anarchists. Errico Maletesta and Luigi Fabbri were internationally-revered Italian Anarchists. Buenaventura Durruti of Spain led the opposition to Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and died for the cause of human freedom, his funeral attended by literally millions. He was an Anarchist, and was the single figure in Spain who contributed more than any other to the defeat of Fascism and , by extension, the defeat of Hitler. The first Red Cross was established by Anarchists in Russia to provide support to political prisoners who were persecuted for their beliefs. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Noam Chomsky, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is a well-published Anarchist writer and philospher. The Wachowski Brothers, whose movie productions include “V for Vendetta,” and “The Matrix,” both movies that have been screened here at MANCI and shown repeatedly, are partners and founders of Anarcho Producitons; they are both Anarchists who films depict and promote their Anarchist ideals. The members of Green Day are Anarchists and their album, “Twenty-First Century Breakdown,” one of the best selling albums of 2011, is an Anarchist critique of modern society.

I imagine that, by extension, since my reasoned disbelief in the wonders of hierarchy places me on the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list, all of these other Anarchists are my fellow “gang” members. I suspect I will have to contact M.I.T. Professor Noam Chomsky in order to come up with some secret handshakes, or whatever it is that real gangs do.

If Anarchists are “gang” members, then so are Democrats and Republicans. Barack Obama is the leader of a “gang.” so is Speaker of the House John Boehner. You need to put them on your SECURITY THREAT GROUP list.

If you don’t feel absolutely ridiculous yet, you should check to see if you have a pulse.

The principle tenets of Anarchism are voluntary cooperation, direct action, and mutual aid. The idea is that working together is better than having a boss crack the whip. Solidarity rather than fear is the glue that holds the community together. Quite frankly, if given a fair choice between Anarchy and Hierarchy, I think only a psychological train-wreck could conceivable choose the kick-in-the-pants that hierarchy represents.

Why am I on the “gang” list again? Oh, yeah: Because I dream of a better way to live that would benefit you and me.

I saw the parole board in September. They gave me 5 years, in part, because of my “institutional conduct.” I didn’t know what they could possibly be referring to, given my stellar conduct record. I have something like 3 conduct reports in the last decade, none of them for violence of any kind.

Now I know: I am such a dangerous “bomb thrower” that my crazy conduct got me placed on a list with extortionists, robbers, and serial jackers. Because the parole board obviously assumed you were perfectly rational when designating me a member of a SECURITY THREAT GROUP, they simply deferred to your sound judgment of how dangerous I must be.

Thank you for the 5 years, but I would prefer to go home.

Since I have never done anything that could conceivably concern you, and your only problem with me is the ideas that I espouse which are, objectively, probably much better than the ideas that you espouse—no offense), can we take me off of the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list now so that I won’t die in prison for believing a better world is possible?

If not, and you require me to change my beliefs—like some strange “Inquisition” scenario—then I will attempt to write a renunciation of Anarchism that will satisfy you. And I’ll try to keep a straight face. Here is my renunciation of Anarchism so you can take me off of the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list now:

ON second thought, I think Hierarchy is phantasmorific. All those tribal people who rejected it for 4 million years just didn’t know what they were missing. The Native American tribes who would rather fight and die than have to live this way clearly never tried the cheese puffs.

I whole-heartedly support the complete toxification of the world and can’t wait to do my part to chew up the planet in order to produce useless junk for fellow zombies to buy. Yes! I want to drag stones up the side of a pyramid to support a ruling class of frat bankers and corporate greed barons who can drive by me at the bus stop in their limousines and splash me with mud, who can laugh and drink champagne and eat caviar while taking turns kicking me in the testicles just for sport.

All I aspire to do is live, work, shop, and die.

I want my kids forced to take heavy pharmaceuticals so the pressure of educational concentration camps don’t drive them to suicide. I want to teach them to play Monopoly so they learn that the sacred purpose of life is to swindle everyone else out of their money.

I want to work all week, get hammered on the weekends, and occasionally punch my wife in the face. If there’s time, maybe I’ll kick my dog…Surf the net for footage of a woman performing oral sex on a donkey…watch “Celebrity Apprentice” and admire Donald Trump’s hair…

I don’t know what I was thinking when I had those silly notions that Anarchy was objectively better than hierarchy. There could be nothing better in the world than being a mindless worshiper of hierarchy and getting my pizza in 30 minutes or less.

Hot diggity-dog.

Please take me off of the SECURITY THREAT GROUP list now. I have foresworn being an Anarchist. I am a completely-thoughtless, drooling, masturbating, hierarchy-worshipping ass-clown of the highest order.

Long live the bankers and executives who have their fists crammed deep into our rectums, and praise Jesus, our Lord and CEO. Amen.

I think that renunciation should do it. Please advise.

Sincerely,

Except When It Isn’t,

Sean Swain

Rehabilitated SECURITY THREAT

c: Andrea Reino, Legal Counsel

seanswain.org

Director Gary Mohr, O.D.R.C.

File

How A Comic Book Almost Took Down The Ohio Prison System

On May 8, 2012, Mansfield Correctional Mailroom Supervisor Lieutenant Reese and the moral, upstanding mailroom staff under his confident command saved the world from certain and devastating cataclysm. They prevented the comic book, V for Vendetta, from entering the prison.

You may say, “but Swain (if you really wrote this, and no is saying you did), a comic book is no danger,” and you may roll your eyes in disbelief. But that’s exactly what I would want you to think.

The U.S. defeated Japan with nuclear bombs and the Viet Cong used guerrilla warfare to defeat their colonizers. The Trojans employed a wooden horse to conquer their foes. Al Queda attacked the U.S., using planes as deadly projectiles.

I intended to bring down the entire Ohio Prison system with a comic book. Yes, a comic book. But I didn’t count on Lt. Reese recognizing the clear and present danger that this cartoon fiction represented. As former Fraudulent Bush would put it, I clearly misunderestimated him.

According to the Notice of Witholding, signed by Warden’s Assistant Scott Basquin, who also did his part to save the world from my nefarious plot, the comic book violated criteria ©(2): “Depicts, encourages, incites, or describes activities which may lead to, the use of physical violence against others.” Mr. Basquin cites an example from page 271 of the comic: “VIOLENCE AGAINST ANOTHER: ‘If you don’t tell us you won’t leave here alive.’”

From what I gather, Mr. Basquin is asserting that this quote (“If you don’t tell us you won’t leave here alive”) would provoke other prisoners and me to engage in physical violence against others.” By his reasoning, that quote is so provocative, I cannot read it.

His judgment is uncanny. It was my intention to pass around this comic book and share that quote from page 271 with 50,000 Ohio prisoners and provoke them all to go absolutely ape-shit crazy. The whole system would collapse, the fences would fall, and our unmitigated chaos would spill into the street. Global capital would collapse, civilization would burn, and dogs and cats would hump each other. Now, with the comic book withheld, I only have this quote written in Mr. Basquin’s handwriting to pass around and use as a potential weapon of mass destruction.

Foiled. Foiled again.

I never suspected the mailroom would catch on. After all, the movie V for Vendetta, which contains the exact same quote as appears on page 271 of the comic, has not only been played here on the MANCI movie channel again and again, but MANCI used prisoners’ own recreation money—my money—to purchase the movie. It is now in the video library and played on a regular rotation to the entire population. Moreover, the movie was shown on network television and potentially every Ohio prisoner saw it, along with the dangerous and provocative quote that Basquin cited (“If you don’t tell us you won’t leave here alive”).

You’re probably thinking, “But Swain (if you really wrote this, and no is saying you did), why not use the movie to provoke the system crash, rather than the comic—especially since the prison plays the movie over and over again? And I would, except you know how reading dialogue from a comic and looking at the cartoon images is far more emotionally stirring than seeing actors speaking the lines in flesh and blood. Comics are so much more realistic than portrayals on film.

So, I will have to go back to the drawing board. My archnemesis Lieutenant Reese has saved the Ohio prison system from impending doom, and has possibly saved the world. I think perhaps he should have a street named after him somewhere. Not all mailroom supervisors would have the wherewithal to seize a comic book.

But the Lieutenant Reeses and Scott Basquins of the world cannot rest on their laurels. There are millions of comic books out there, and if just one of them slips past the vigilant and courageous gate-keepers of the MANCI mailroom, it could be curtains for the entire Ohio prison system, and possibly civilization as we know it.2

* * *

2 I appealed this withholding to the Central Office Screening Committee, a group of fascist fuckweasels who used to keep the population of the Eastern Bloc from reading comic books until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the appeal I argued, “If a comic book can bring down the entire prison system, pack it up and call it quits.” It appears that if they will not give me this copy of the comic, I will just have to read the copy I already have.

I Am a Political Prisoner

By ____ _____¹

Nelson Mandela is perhaps the best-known and most-revered political prisoner in history. His imprisonment in the Union of South Africa began in 1961 and spanned 3 decades, his struggle for freedom inextricably tied to the fight against Apartheid. Nelson Mandela’s personal prestige undermined the credibility of the South African regime in the eyes of the world and 4 years after his release from prison in 1990, he became South Africa’s first Black president.

No one disputes that Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner. But now let me present the story with a different emphasis:

The Union of South Africa was a member in good standing in the United Nations with government officials elected through popular vote. Like all civilized governments, South Africa had laws against bombings and terrorist activities, and it had close diplomatic relations with the U.S.

In 1961, Nelson Mandela was the leader of the African National Congress (ANC). The U.S. State Department regarded the ANC as a specially-designated global terrorist group. Nelson Mandela was charged in his role in bombings that killed people and he was provided the opportunity to defend himself in a criminal justice process not unlike the one established in the U.S. Convicted, Nelson Mandela was provided a series of appeals where his conviction was upheld and his trial ruled to be fair. The government of South Africa considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist whose imprisonment was necessary for the protection of the public. He remained in prison for 30 years.

These are the facts. The same Nelson Mandela befriended by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who became a poster-child for racial justice around the world, who appeared on Oprah Winfrey to a standing ovation and tears of joy from a U.S. Audience is the very same Nelson Mandela convicted of treason in 1961 and imprisoned as a terrorist who planned bombings that killed people.

He was the same Nelson Mandela recognized the world over as a political prisoner.

Is this confusing? Are you scratching your head and wondering how someone can be convicted of terrorist acts and then not only gain political prisoner recognition, but become the most-prominent political prisoner in modern history, and one of the most-beloved figures in the world? If this troubles you, let me attempt to clear things up for you:

Governments lie. Governments lie in order to further their agendas and to benefit the careers of the individual officials who make up the government. They corrupt and abuse official processes like trials and appeals in order to produce the predetermined outcomes they want– if the system is not already rigged to produce such outcomes in the first place. No government ever admits to abusing power and imprisoning to serve ulterior ends, but they all do it.

Nelson Mandela’s universal popularity is premised on the universal knowledge that governments lie. Since everybody knows that governments lie and that all government systems are designed for selective repression, the world never accepted the validity of the official proceedings against Nelson Mandela. In the eyes of the world, the zeal to prosecute Mandela only demonstrated the government’s serious desire to silence and neutralize him. Whether or not Nelson Mandela ever actually participated in planning ANC bombings, government officials undoubtedly had an ulterior motive for saying he did– an ulterior motive wholly unrelated to any legitimate government interest (if such a thing even exists). So even if the government had a valid belief that Mandela ordered bombings, and even if the government had real proof of Mandela’s guilt, it did not matter. His guilt or innocence aside, the question of Nelson Mandela’s political prisoner status did not hinge upon what Mandela had done or had not done, it hinged upon what the government did to him and why the government did it.

This can be said of any political prisoner: Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army was detained by occupation forces in Ireland because he rode in a car with illegal firearms, not because he was skilled in polemics. Mohandas Gandhi was detained many times for deliberate violations of British law. Mandela, Sands, and Gandhi were all political prisoners not because their conduct was legal; in most cases– if not all –their conduct was illegal. They were all political prisoners because the government motive to imprison them was not legitimate. Recognition of political prisoner status is not a referendum on the prisoner’s conduct, but a referendum on the government’s conduct toward the prisoner.

This is important to bear in mind. Without such an analysis, particularly when considering cases from our own country or state (where we have been indoctrinated to accept the integrity of the government system), as opposed to cases from other nations (where we naturally hold a suspicion of the government’s integrity), it becomes very easy to muddle the idea of what a political prisoner is. If we universally apply the standard for political prisoner status as it applied to Nelson Mandela– that it is the government‘s motive, not the prisoner’s conduct – then Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, and a whole host of others have unquestionably been held as U.S. Political prisoners. The question is never what the prisoner did or did not do; the question is whether the government’s motive was pure and legitimate.

It is on the same basis that Nelson Mandela was recognized as a political prisoner that I claim to be a political prisoner of the alleged “State of Ohio.”²

My Case

In 1991, I shared an apartment with Diane Chiow and her 2 young sons. Both children were from previous relationships. The younger child was fathered by Andrew Crouch who, during their time together, had beaten Diane, attempted to light her hair on fire, and kicked her down a flight of steps– all while she was pregnant with this child. He then fought responding police until stunned several times with a stun gun. He never served a single day in prison because his aunt, Collette Crouch, was the Clerk of Courts and a high-ranking official in Erie County’s Democratic Party establishment.

In April 1991, Diane and Crouch had a phone dispute and Diane denied Crouch visitation until after the holding of a domestic relations hearing scheduled in less than two weeks. Crouch became irate and threatened Diane, who told Crouch she was leaving the apartment and would not be there if he chose to show up.

Later that afternoon, Crouch broke into the second-story apartment while I was there alone. He had been drinking. He pushed me, saying he would blow my head off, and he reached behind his back. In a panic, I stabbed him several times and immediately called 911.

Under Ohio law, I had killed Crouch in self-defense in my own home and had committed no crime. While Crouch had a lengthy record of drunken violence, I had not even a record of minor traffic tickets. Still I was charged with pre-meditated murder, largely because police and prosecutors withheld photographs of the break-in damage and then falsely presented that no break-in had occurred. They also claimed no gun was found at the scene, that Crouch was unarmed.

Photographs of the break-in damage surfaced 4 years after I was falsely convicted.

The withheld evidence of the break-in damage speaks not only to my actual innocence, but also demonstrates that police and prosecutors knew me to be innocent, and knew it was necessary to conceal vital evidence in order to convict me of a crime I did not commit. This demonstrates that government officials operated from an ulterior agenda to convict an innocent man. Whatever the government’s motive, it was not a legitimate motive in service to the public.

The government lied. It lied and corrupted official processes, acting from a motive wholly unrelated to any legitimate government interest (if such a thing actually exists.)

I am a political prisoner.

At trial, jury foreman Richard Ehbar falsely claimed to be unemployed, concealing the fact that he was a manager at Periodical Publishers, a local business that I had been attempting to unionize as a volunteer organizer. He lied, concealing that he supervised several witnesses for the prosecution, some of whom were proven to have lied in their testimony. It is unclear whether Ehbar lied of his own volition so he could stick it to the union organizer, or if he was directed by court officials to lie so that the verdict would be predetermined. It is also unclear what influence his placement on the jury had on the witnesses he supervised, and what coercion Periodical Publishers used to solicit false testimony against me.

It should also be kept in mind that the jury pool list was formulated by the Clerk of Courts office– the very position previously held by Collette Crouch, the aunt of the man I killed– the same aunt who previously used her influence to keep Crouch out of prison during his drunken, violent escapades. That jury pool list from the Clerk of Court’s office was compiled from tens of thousands of registered voters, ostensibly at random. It should also be kept in mind that there were only 5 managers at Periodical Publishers, the firm I was unionizing. The odds of Richard Ehbar, a Periodical Publishers’ manager, getting called for jury duty, then being placed in the pool for my trial, then appearing in the first twelve called, are too astronomical to figure by using a standard calculator.

Returning to the standard applied to Mandela: Government officials corrupted the judicial process in order to imprison, for motives wholly unrelated to my legitimate government interest (if such a thing actually exists).

I am a political prisoner.

After I was falsely convicted, I appealed. The appeals court reversed my conviction, ruling that my rights were violated, and the appeals court sent me back to the same trial court, to the same government officials who had conspired to falsely convict me.

They refused to follow the higher court mandate. Instead, I returned to prison with a void conviction and sentence. When I again brought my case before the court of appeals, the judge who had ruled my initial trial unfair was inexplicably removed from the appellate panel hearing my case. He was replaced by a friend of Collette Crouch, the aunt of the name I killed in self-defense, the former Clerk of Courts. All of this was unprecedented under Ohio law.

I remain imprisoned now for twenty years without a valid conviction or sentence. I still await the trial that was ordered by the appeals court. My numerous attempts to compel the courts to apply their own laws and afford me the process afforded to all other citizens have been denied or, in some cases, simply ignored.

Returning to the definition as applied to Mandela: The government lied. It acted under motives wholly unrelated to any legitimate government interest (if such a thing actually exists).

I am a political prisoner, I am an innocent man, known to be innocent by my captors (as demonstrated by their concealment of evidence), and held contrary to the government’s own laws. As the government has abandoned even the pretense of law, I am the victim of what amounts to a simple kidnapping, all without the standard process of law or the application of fundamental principles of justice.

Parole

I became eligible for parole in 2005. At my first hearing, I was continued until 2011 without explanation.

When I appeared before the board in 2011, board members were more interested in my political beliefs, writings, and activities than they were in my guilt or innocence. Questions related to my political writings and beliefs took the majority of the hearing time. Board member Jose Torres in particular grilled me in a hostile and combative manner about my public claim to political prisoner status. Several other questions related to the content of my published work in print and on-line, which includes scathing and justified criticism of this fascist police state. It was clear that my parole hearing was a referendum on my politics, not a referendum on twenty years of false and unlawful imprisonment and whether it should continue or not.

After referring me to a full board hearing where, by statute, the board would have to notify my counsel Andrea Reino and permit her to present my case, the board held my hearing in secret, contrary to law. So, while my counsel was preparing for the full board hearing, the board had already made a decision and a month later, it was slid under my cell door: my case was continued for 5 years.

At my every encounter with the alleged State of Ohio, the government has violated its own law in order to punish me for laws I never violated. The government is, if nothing else, consistent.

In its decision, the parole board continued my sentence for three stated reasons: 1 the facts of the case, 2 a lack of relevant programming, and 3 my institutional record. All 3 stated reasons are provably false justifications that conceal the government’s true motive for keeping me falsely and unlawfully imprisoned.

As to the stated reason of the facts of the case, these same facts were considered by the trial court that sentenced me to twenty years to life, rather than twenty give years to life. As such, those same facts could never conceivably be a justification for making me serve twenty-five years rather than twenty. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that the parole board, with those same facts before the, previously asserted that those same facts warranted a continuance from 2005 to only 2011. How could facts that only warranted a six-year continuance now warrant an eleven-year continuance, when those facts did not change?

Whatever the government’s real reason for continuing my imprisonment, it is not that stated reason of “facts of the case.” The government is a liar.

As to my relevant programming, the second reason that the government gave for my continuance, I have taken all of the programs made available to me. In addition to taking all available programs, I took the maximum amount of education permitted, to include obtaining my Associate of Arts (and then continuing education through the G.I. Bill when my grants ran out), and the administrative office technologies vocational computer course. In addition to taking all available programs and educational opportunities, I worked as a tutor and also logged thousands of hours of community service volunteer work.

Whatever the government’s real reason for continuing my imprisonment, it is not the stated reason of my “lack of relevant programming.” The government is a liar.

Having eliminated the stated reasons the government gave for continuing my false and unlawful captivity, we can only conclude that 1 the government has lied about why it is really holding me captive, and 2 the real reason for my captivity must be an illegitimate one, which is why the government keeps it concealed.

If we recall that I am the only Ohio prisoner who has been placed upon the prison system’s “Security Threat Group” list, not for gang activity and not for involvement in a “security threat group,” but based solely upon my political and social beliefs; and if we recall that the parole board’s questions dealt largely with my political and social beliefs, it is easy to conclude what the government’s true focus really is. In fact, the government dose not really work very hard to conceal the undeniable reality that the government lied and gave 3 false justifications to continue my captivity, and it is an open secret that I am actually being held captive for strictly political reasons.³

The government lied. It selectively engaged official processes to punish me for an ulterior motive wholly unrelated to any legitimate government interest (if such a thing actually exists). The government lied to keep me captive because of my political and social beliefs, because of my published views.

I am a political prisoner.

To sum up my experience, the government employed the court system to convict me of a crime I did not commit– a crime the government knew I did not commit, as evidenced by the government’s illegal conduct in concealing determinative photographs that prove my innocence. When higher courts found the process used against me to be unfair, I was still denied the fair process required by law, and I am singularly and selectively still imprisoned for more than two decades awaiting the “fair” process afforded to everyone else. When eligible for parole, the government focused upon my political and social beliefs and my published views, ignored the statutory law governing full board hearings, and continued my false and unlawful captivity on the basis of 3 reasons which are provably untrue.

By any measure, I am a political prisoner of the alleged “State of Ohio.”

***

¹The U.S. Courts stripped Sean Swain of all constitutional protections on the stated basis that Swain “promotes anarchy.” Sean Paul Swain v. William Fullenkamp, et. al., U.S. District Court Case No. 3:09-CV-02659-JZ, Circuit Court Case No. 10-3755, cert. Denied, Supreme Court Case No. 11-5704. As a consequence, Swain is the only U.S. citizen without free speech rights and cannot have his name assoicated with his published work for fear of reprisals from the fascist police state. So if he wrote this, and no one is saying he did, his name cannot appear in the by-line.

In a free country, this footnote would not be necessary.

²Ohio is not legally a state in union. The U.S. set aside most of Ohio as “Indian Territory” in the Treaty of Greenville, 1795. By Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, this treaty trumps any act undertaken by any state and renders any contrary state action void. Just 6 years later, Ohio included that Indian Territory as part of the incorporated “State of Ohio.” Because states are not permitted to abrogate federal treaty and take Indian Territory, the ratification of the Ohio Constitution and the establishment of Ohio as a state are void acts. See Worcester v. Georgia (1832), 31 U.S. 515, 6 Pet. 515, 6 Pet. 515, 1832 WL 3389, 8 L.Ed 483, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state cannot violate U.S. treaty and assume authority over Indian Territory.

U.S Attorney General Francis Biddle admitted that the U.S. has no claim to the area now called the State of Ohio. See, U.S. Senate, Terminating the Existence of the Indian Claims Commission, Washington, DE: 84^th Congress, 2d Session, Report 1727, April 11 1956. The legal existence of the alleged “State of Ohio” is currently challenged in the Inter-American Court of the Organization of American States, Sean Paul Swain vs. The United States of America and the Alleged “State of Ohio”, Case No. P-688-10. If successful, an international treaty organization will declare that Ohio has never legally been incorporated as a state of the United States.

³For anyone who doubts that this rogue state would engage in political repression against prisoners, see: Timothy Reed vs. State of New Mexico, ex. Rel. Manuel Ortiz, 947 P.2d 86, 124 NM 129, 1997 NMSC 055 (September 9, 1997(. Former Ohio prisoner-writer Timothy “Little Rock” Reed was granted asylum by New Mexico’s Supreme Court after proving the Ohio Adults Parole Authority conspired to have his parole revoked in retaliation for Reed’s published criticism, so that Reed could be returned to prison and killed. Reed was granted asylum because he proved the parole board had plotted his murder to silence his free speech.

Reed died in a single-car crash on an empty New Mexico highway not long after he proved Ohio government authorities planned to murder him.

On Katy

“Keep the Faith, Brother/Kin– the system is sinking fast, though not fast enough. Soon things will be very, very different. You’ll see and so will I. XO Katy.” That’s how Katy closed her last letter to me, only days before she died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 62.

Katy had worked as a nurse and had taken other jobs, but identified specifically as a midwife, one who assists bringing life into the world. Katy served as a midwife in many ways, some more obvious than others. She certainly brought life into the world.

Katy and I corresponded for many years but we had never met face to face. We had the depth of friendship that occurs between people when they slowly and deliberately reveal themselves through words on paper. Katy had planned to visit though. She had filled out the paperwork to be added to my visiting list. In her next to last letter she wrote, “I plan on coming there real soon. I’ll spend the whole day– we can talk– I don’t know about what or how it’s going to look– I HATE PRISONS!!!!!!! but I’m coming anyway– I’m so excited about meeting you in person– we will have a face to face visit– Coyotes was behind glass– please tell me a little bit about it to prepare me…”

But as things went, Katy couldn’t visit. In her last letter to me, she explained, “I had misunderstood the visiting thing and thought you could tell them I was coming on 5/25 so I didn’t call myself… So I called the visiting office to begin with to check on the reservation status, and the guy there said everything was booked up til the 29^th…” The problem was, Katy planned to leave Michigan for California before the 29^th.

I felt bad that we had missed an opportunity, but I knew she could always come to visit whenever she was back int his area again. There was no rush. We always have next week and next month and even next year.

Katy was a midwife.

She brought life into the world.

I will miss her.

***

A Brief History of The Sean Swain Corporation®

By The Sean Swain Corporation®***

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that so-called “super PACs” or “political action committees” can spend unlimited money on television ads promoting political candidates, acting as a kind of out-sourced hatchet-man for the candidates themselves. As a consequence, while mere humans are limited by campaign contribution limits and the size of their wallets, corporations can infuse unlimited amounts of money into the political process. The Supreme Court’s rationale is that corporations have a right to free speech.

Funny, but that’s the same court that ruled that Black people didn’t even have the right to get their votes counted in 2000.

Corporations have far more rights than people. Corporations don’t need passports to cross borders. They don’t have to pay taxes. They can conceal information that leads to the preventable deaths of mere humans– just like the Ford Pinto scandal and the concealment of the link between tobacco and lung cancer. They can’t be arrested. Now, they have the right to free speech while mere humans across this country are blasted with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, bludgeoned by billy-clubs, and herded into “free speech zones” called jails, all for speaking truth to power.

Being a mere human isn’t what it used to be.

When I got locked up, I was unionizing mere humans who worked for a corporation. As a mere human, I was told I did not have the right to defend my own life. I was denied the same benefit of the law enjoyed by the incorporated entity known as “The State of Ohio.” As a mere human, the State could destroy my property, assault me, torture me, punitively transfer me, and engage in repression that violates the government’s own laws in order to prevent my access to courts. When as a mere human I proceeded to court, federal Judge Jack Zouhary said I have no rights because I “promote anarchy and rebellion against authority.” No kidding. If you are a mere human and the government doesn’t like your views, you have no right to express them.

State courts are no better. I can’t get Judge Buron Duhart to issue a ruling to make a sociopath named Tracey Thomas, who claimed to be a paralegal, give me back my case file, my own property. As a mere human, you aren’t entitled to property. Government agents can lie to stick it to you.

Once my free speech rights were stripped, I couldn’t risk having my name associated with any printed article, so I had to attach this footnote to everything I wrote:

“The U.S. Courts stripped Sean Swain of all constitutional protections on the stated basis that Swain ‘promotes anarchy.’ Sean Paul Swain v. William Fellenkamp, et. al., Case No. 3:09-CV-02659. As a consequence, Swain is without free speech rights and cannot have his name associated with his published work for fear of reprisals from the fascist police state. So if he wrote this, and no one is saying he did, his name cannot appear in the by-line.
“In a free country, this footnote would not be necessary.”

As a writer, I lived in constant fear that by telling the truth, I would be dragged away and again subjected to tortures that federal judge Jack Zouhary had now given his stamp of approval. It was the same fear felt by writers in Nazi Germany and under the Stalin regime.

But that was back in my human days.

Back before I became a corporation.

Once I realized corporations have all the rights I would like to have, I decided to incorporate myself. I know, that sounds very painful. But trust me, it isn’t nearly as painful as having the prison complex’s thugs grinding your face on the concrete because you told the truth about their nefarious agenda.

To incorporate yourself, you just have to draw up incomprehensible legal papers with a Crayon. I used Burnt Sienna, but you can choose whatever color you like. Then you file that stuff with a government office who will never read it. You can even make your corporation name a registered trademark. Maybe tattoo it on yourself.

I’m a corporation now. A political action committee promoting anarchy and rebellion against authority. As a corporation, I can spend millions of dollars making campaign ads.

To be successful, I think I’m going to need a billion-dollar bail-out. I think I should write the government and tell them I’m too big to fail.

I’ve also thought about going public, getting traded on the stock market. You would be able to invest in me. Buy stock. If I made myself into several subsidiaries, you would be able to buy specific parts of me.

I probably shouldn’t tell you, but some parts of me might be over-valued. Consult your broker.

I need a board of directors. They can sit around a mahogany table, smoking cigars, and discussing my quarterly whoozee—whatsits.

I have to remember to stop referring to myself as “I.” I’m no longer “me.” I’m not “we” because I speak for the corporation. That’s a minor annoyance when you consider all the rights “we” have now: We can’t be arrested or held accountable for our actions in any way, and we can say anything without repercussions, and we’re eligible for a bail-out. I’d be happy with $50 and a large pizza.

“We” have lots of rights you mere humans only wish you had.

A lot of you out there who used to respect what “Sean Swain” stood for (if there are a lot of you) probably think I sold out and went over to the dark side when “we” stopped being a human and became a corporation. You probably think that corporations run the world and now “we” are siding with the enemy.

“We” get it. “We” used to think that way too, back when “we” were mere humans…

*** The Sean Swain Corporation® is not the mere human formerly known as Sean Swain, and is not responsible in any way for actions, expressed views, or debts incurred by the mere human formerly known as Sean Swain. The Sean Swain Corporation®, incorporated in an off-shore tax haven, as a political action committee, promotes “anarchy and rebellion against authority,” exercising the right to free speech that mere humans, like the one formerly known as Sean Swain, do not possess.
The Sean Swain Corporation® is soon to be a registered trademark of The Sean Swain Corporation®.
The Sean Swain Corporation® promotes the Occupy Movement, arming the homeless, and burning down courthouses. None of these ideas can be attributed to the mere human formerly known as Sean Swain.

Preliminary Reports of a Riot at Mansfield Correctional. Sean Swain in the Hole.

We have received preliminary reports that on Wednesday, September 19th, a riot occurred at Mansfield Correctional Institution where Sean Swain is being held. According to the prison, fire hoses were used against those involved in the uprising. As of now, we have no details as to what conditions instigated the riot or what Sean is being charged with.

Sean is being held in segregation in the medical wing of the prison. According to prison administrators, he is being held there because the normal segregation cells are all full as a result of the riot. But we also know that the administration likes to use the suicide cells in the medical wing for disciplinary purposes (as have done with Sean in the past).

The prison claims that Sean is unhurt and that he is not in the infirmary for medical reasons. We have little reason to believe anything they say, but we hope that this is true.

We are asking everyone to put pressure on the prison administrators. The goal is to draw attention to Sean’s situation, to demonstrate that he has support and that their attacks against him will not go unnoticed.

In calling the prison, our tactic is to ask, as many times as possible, to as many different people as possible, Where is Sean Swain? Why is he being held in solitary confinement in the infirmary? When will he be released?

If they do not pick up, leave voice mails asking these questions.

Mansfield Correctional Institution

(419) 525-4455

Greg Morrow- Caseworker

ext. -4310

Maryland Christopher

Health Care Administrator

ext. -2100

Tom King- Unit Manager

ext. -4300

Terry Tibbals- Warden

ext. -2005

Scott Basquin- Assistant Warden

ext. -2004

You can also call Central Office at 614-752-1164

or the ODRC Legal Affairs Office directly at 614-728-1920

Also, please take a moment to write to Sean. He likely does not have access to reading materials and certainly has no access to the warmth of his comrades. Even a short note saying that you are thinking of him would have a huge effect. A photograph of something pretty or an article you enjoyed, an embossed envelope and a few sheets of writing paper would be even better.

Sean Swain #243-205

MANCI

P.O. Box 788

Mansfield, OH 44901