Thread by @TornilloWitness

Yesterday began with an assault on the witnesses that conduct a vigil outside the largest federal child prison in the country. Outside the prison, which sits on the edge of an Air Reserve base in Homestead, Florida, street parking is scarce.1/9

To conduct the vigil, we have been parking on a verge that runs along county road, while the employees of the prison camp pull their cars into lots behind the tarped fences, showing their IDs as they drive past security guards.2/9

But yesterday morning employees were turned away as they showed up, and directed to park where we have set up our camp, along the county verge. And they followed those instructions and tried to crowd us out.3/9

This move by prison keepers followed a moving weekend of protest & worship by people who congregated outside walls of prison 2 bring attention 2 atrocity behind those fences. Good Friday & Easter Sunday brought people 2 pray, protest, & bring some love & hope 2 kids inside.4/9

We waved, raised signs & called out. The kids waved, made hearts w/their hands, & called back 2 us.And the delayed reaction 2 weekend of peace, by security firm Arma Global Services, was 2 try 2 shut us down. One EE raced through a crosswalk while one of us was crossing.5/9

Expressions of hostility R being encouraged. Harassment by guards was relentless. They R afraid; afraid that momentum is bldg & that people R learning about this atrocity that festers mere miles from FL’s Everglades, as heat builds & small flying, biting flies begin to swarm.6/9

As 2296 children R confined, & beds R prepared 4 a thousand more, as hurricane season approaches, as members of R government in unholy alliance w/corporate partners continue 2 make money from the desperation of refugee children... 7/9

...Their decision 2 pit EEs of prison against us is at best childish, at worst craven. As we left in the early evening, barriers were being placed 2 prevent us from finding alternative places 2 park.

But we will prevail. We have seen the children inside.8/9

We have looked at the faces of kids who R surrounded by prison walls. We cannot unsee what we have seen.9/9
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