Jerry Fort is the son of Jeff Fort, leader of Chicago’s Blackstone Rangers, now serving an 80-year sentence at the Florence, Colo., Supermax, known as the stateside Guantanomo, where Imam Jamil Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown, and many other political prisoners are also held. This photo was taken in approximately 1976.

On Oct. 23, 2007, the Congressional House of Representatives passed HR 1955, otherwise known as one of the Thought Crimes Bills, when it is paired up with its counterpart, Senate Bill 1959. The official name of HR 1955 is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act, and it was authored by the Democratic Party's own Jane Harman from California and passed by 404 members of the House of Representatives, including most members of the Black Caucus.

Stay tuned as the Prisoners of Conscience Committee Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and myself, the Minister of Information JR, interview Jerry Fort of the Poor People's Campaign Inc.

Ch. Fred: How you doing, brother Jerry?

J. Fort: Oh, I'm OK. We at the Poor Peoples Campaign Inc. This bill here, brother, is a bill called HR 1955, called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act of 2007. This bill right here prevents you from protesting. That means marching, speaking against any level of government. Man, they're just taking away your freedom of speech. And now it's in the Senate. It's been in the Senate since Oct. 24, 2007, because it passed in (the House) on October the 23rd, 2007.

Ch. Fred: Even with the history of programs such as COINTELPRO (which is an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) and other pieces of legislation that was used to attack various movements and various organizations and just people's right to organize and resist, this piece is even more vicious, as you just pointed out, (restricting) the ability to march and protest and attacking the civilian community in general. Could you tell us who are some of the supporters of this legislation?

J. Fort: Well, it went through the whole (House of Representatives) and the only one who did not support this bill was Danny Davis. He is in Illinois. The rest of the men and women in Congress here in Illinois supported this bill. All of the Black Caucus supported this bill, and this is a shame. The only one who didn't support this bill was Congressman Danny Davis. And it's from the Democratic Party.

Ch. Fred: Interesting.

J. Fort: It came out of New York. The Democratic Party are the ones who formed this bill. They pushed it through, they lobbied for the bill, they got it all the way through. Then they got another bill that's kind of like HR 1955. But it's Senate Bill 1959. It's the same thing, just worded differently. And that's a Senate bill, so now we got two of them, so that if one doesn't pass, the other one will.

So we gotta start calling our senators and letting them know that we disagree with this bill, and we want them to kill this bill dead, in the Senate. We don't want nar' one of these bills coming through - the HR 1955 and the Senate Bill 1959 - because these bills, as you were saying, Brother Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., sir, is saying that if you stand up for justice in your community, if you say this is wrong, and were being unjustly treated, they are going to take you to jail. They will label you a terrorist or a radical terrorist, they're going to come to your house, lock you up and ain't nobody gonna say a word because they can't.

Ch. Fred: This bill is so draconian that it's been brought to our attention that even other legislators, who are not even seen as progressive, they even refer to it as the "thought crimes bill."

J. Fort: Right. (It criminalizes) even just a thought. If you are just sitting there talking to somebody and you're just letting your thoughts come out your mind, and you may say, "Oh well, this government is not ..." or "This alderman over there is not treating us right and we're not getting nothing for the community," if they feel that they need to report this to somebody and they do, they can come and just lock you up for that.

M.O.I. JR: So this is a step further than the crazy conspiracy charges that they got out already, right?

J. Fort: Right. All you gotta do is just type in bill HR 1955 and it will pop up and it will show you the whole layout of it. It will show you who all voted for this bill and all who did not vote for this bill. And I was shocked to see that Bobby Rush voted for this bill, knowing about the way people fought and struggled back in the day. He lived through this. He knows what this bill is capable of. You won't barely be able to get out in the streets and march.

M.O.I. JR: When you say Bobby Rush, who are you referring to? Because we are recording in California and a lot of people may not be in tune.

J. Fort: Oh, Congressman Bobby Rush; he voted for this bill too. And now it's in the Senate. All you gotta do, brothers and sisters, is search for bill HR 1955, then hit search. Or you could just put (Senate) Bill 1955 and it will still bring it up. We gotta get involved in what's going on in our community, because this bill right here is dangerous. And they have kept it quiet through every level of government.

Ch. Fred: And just for listeners, (we're) speaking of Congressman Bobby Rush, who was the former Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, which deepens the contradictions, the fact that a supposed representative of the organization that was victimized at that time by the federal government, such as (with) attacks by COINTELPRO and other attacks. So this deepens the contradiction, the fact that he stands in support of this piece of legislation, just so listeners know this because we will be playing this internationally and people should be made aware of the depth of this contradiction of Congressman Bobby Rush and the role that he has played in this.

Also we know that a lot of these bills that they put up, they don't just affect the individual, but entire families and communities. Can you tell us a little background on how it will affect the ability to visit, communicate with your loved ones and the relationship with your family?

J. Fort: Well, if you got anybody that's locked up for whatever, and they are considered as a radical or a terrorist, you won't be able to even communicate with them. Period. And I don't need to go into details about that, as far as my family. They will not let you communicate with people who are labeled as radicals or terrorists.

And what's so killing about it is that all this bill needs is for the senators to give it a yes. If the senators give it a yes, then it goes to Bush's desk. When it gets to Bush's desk and he signs it, before the ink is dry, it is already law. If you know about the King Alfred Plan, then you can be able to look at this bill and see where everything is coming in, and they are talking about the New World Order and everything.

You know, you got to watch all this here legislation that is going on now, because they are trying to bring it around in a different way. Now that everybody is getting familiar with bill HR 1955 and Senate Bill 1959, now from what I hear from Blog Talk Radio, they are trying to come around with another way of shutting us up. This is pitiful.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and visit www.blockreportradio.com, hiphopwarreport.com and myspace.com/blockreportfilm.

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