What Happened To Harold?

WHAT HAPPENED TO HAROLD HEMPSTEAD (ME) ON THE DAY THE DADE COUNTY FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY RELEASED THEIR DECISION TO NOT PROSECUTE DARREN RAINEY’S KILLERS

"At 3:30am on 3/17/17 I was waken in my prison cell at Hardee C.I. by Cpt. Schrank, Sgt. Hamilton, and Ofc. Cabrara.  After being told all my property was going to be thrown in the trash, I was taken to the front of Hardee C.I.  While in the front of Hardee C.I., Cpt. Schrank told Sgt. Hamilton “Serg. it’s on you.”  Sgt. Hamilton then slapped me with an open hand.  Ofc. Cabrara helped me get back up, as he was saying “get up Hempstead,” Ofc. Cabrara then held me from behind by both arms as Sgt. Hamilton grabbed my throat and said “you could’ve had a serious accident, but instead you’re being spared.  Don’t forget that.  You hear me?”

When the Sgt. let go of my throat, Cpt. Schrank said “you really pissed off the wrong person.  Think about what he said and think hard!”  When Ofc. Cabrara let me go he punched me in my lower back.

After the foregoing I was placed on a van with none of my law-work, Bible, property, pain medicine and wrist-support for my broken right wrist, pain medicine and back-brace for my hurt back, vision glasses and ADA equipment for my eyes, and without a urinal to urinate in on the four hour trip to Regional Medical Centre (RMC).

After we arrived at RMC, I was placed on another van and driven to an institution in Tennessee that is part of the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC).

I have no criminal charges in Tennessee.  Interstate Compact is when an inmate is sent from one state prison to do his prison time in a state he wasn’t convicted in.  The majority of time inmates request to be Interstate Compacted from one state to another state to be closer to their family or to have better living conditions in a different state.  I didn’t request to be Interstate Compacted.  I never knew I was going to be subject to involuntary Interstate Compact.

Why was I involuntary Interstate Compacted?  I was recently told that the Florida Department of Corrections told Tennessee that the reason why Florida involuntary Interstate Compacted me was for my protection.  In other words, Florida has alleged that I had a serious protection issue in Florida that made it where I wouldn’t be safe at any institution in Florida.  It is obvious that the only protection problems I’d have in Florida is with Florida prison staff because of my activism concerning the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.  Accordingly, the Florida prison system has tacitly stated they can’t trust their own prison staff in sending me to Tennessee for protection from Florida Prison Staff.  If the Florida prison system could trust their own staff I wouldn’t have been involuntarily Interstate Compacted to the Tennessee prison system.  I believe this should show the Department of Justice and everybody that the fact that the Florida prison system don’t trust their own staff to not physically harm me shows how bad the conditions are in the Florida prison system.

Now even though the Florida prison system contends I was involuntary Interstate Compacted for my protection, I believe I was subjected to the foregoing as punishment for my Civil Rights activism concerning the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.

I also believe that another primary reason I was subjected to the punishment of involuntary Interstate Compact and the events that happened on 3/17/17 was as a way of hindering my communications with the media and etc. on the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s decision to not prosecute Darren Rainey’s killers.  Obviously it is harder to communicate with Florida media from Tennessee than from Florida.  I believe I was battered and the other things happened to me on 3/17/17 as punishment for my Civil Rights activism on the Rainey case and Florida prison system and as a way of Florida prison staff trying to give me something to think about if I continue my activism in the Rainey case and against the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.

Please share this blog with your friends.  Also, please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."

Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. Caged Crusader, April 2017

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Historical Note:  Hardee Correctional Institution (prison), Florida, is in Hardee County, and both are named in honour of a former Governor of Florida who, like the notorious Governor Bilbo of Mississippi, claimed to be powerless to stop race-rioting and lynching on his turf and went out hunting while a white mob burned a black town, killing several people and 'ethnically cleansing' the area for years to come.   Governor Hardee also introduced the electric chair to Florida back in the 'twenties.  His name lives on.