“Cosby slandered poor Black people in terms the worst white supremacist would admire.”
Bill Cosby is still getting settled into his new home at Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institute at Phoenix, a huge, 3,830-bed facility not far from the suburban Philadelphia courtroom where Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced the 81-year old comedian to serve “no less than 3 years and no more than 10 years" for aggravated sexual assault against Andrea Constand, in 2004. That was the same year Cosby delivered his infamous “pound cake ” rant at an NAACP awards ceremony, in Washington DC, marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown school desegregation decision. Cosby’s contempt for the Black poor and their propensity to wind up in prison was on shameless display.
"These are not political criminals,” Cosby told the tuxedoed celebrants. “These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
“Cosby’s contempt for the Black poor was on shameless display.”
Cosby, who was once wealthy enough to daydream out loud about buying NBC, the network where The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992, will find that safeguarding the few personal items allowed to inmates is problematic at the newly-constructed Phoenix facility, many of whose inhabitants are, like Cosby, just moving in. Prisoners complain that staff destroyed or vandalized prized photographs of loved ones or dumped paint on personal effects, religious objects and legal documents. "We were dehumanized. Our property was … treated as trash," inmate Steven Reph told a Philadelphia newspaper. "One elderly gentleman had his dentures taken or misplaced. How is this man supposed to eat now?"
The Pennsylvania prison system has been under extended lockdown , imposed after guards complained that something on the job was making them sick. The presence of synthetic marijuana was blamed -- which was sufficient excuse to disrupt inmates’ showers, phone privileges and email access, in the short term, and to totally revamp other aspects of prison life. The local newspaper reports:
“Inmate mail will be processed outside of the prisons, except legal mail, which will be copied by staff with the inmates present. The plan also calls for expanded detection of drones and use of body scanners.
“Visiting room staff will be doubled. Photos and vending machines will not be allowed for 90 days. A hotline for tips about drug smuggling or possession by inmates, staff or visitors was also organized.”
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