BK/NY – Letter Writing for Alvaro Luna Hernandez

What: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
When: 7pm (sharp), Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Where: href="http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/?address=885+Park+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11206">885
Park Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (see below for directions)
Cost: Free

href="http://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/alvaro-luna-hernandez.jpg"> class="alignleft size-full wp-image-387" title="alvaro luna hernandez"
src="http://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/alvaro-luna-hernandez.jpg"
alt="" width="195" height="200" />Do you ever feel like maybe, for
once, you got just enough sleep? The world looks a little less miserable,
life feels more...lifelike. Maybe it's the weather in NYC, maybe there's
some well-worn metaphor about renewal and new life that we should be
carting out. Whatever it is, there's work to be done and there's no other
time to do it. With that, we are hosting another of our every-other-week
political prisoner letter-writing dinners.

This week we are focusing on Alvaro Luna Hernandez. Alvaro Luna Hernandez
is a Chicano-Mexicano political prisoner sentenced to 50 years in prison
for aggravated assault on an officer when he disarmed a sheriff attempting
to shoot him.

Deeply effected by witnessing the murder of one of his friends by a known
racist cop (yes, it's redundant), Alvaro dedicated his life to fighting
police brutality, especially as it was manifest against the Chicano
community. From 1976 through 1990, Alvaro was falsely accused of murder
(and after public outcry eventually released) and severely beaten by
police, all the result of his work to end police brutality in Houston,
Texas.

In 1996 a sheriff's deputy came to Alvaro's house, allegedly to arrest him
for robbery (side note: the robbery charge was summarily dismissed). The
cop didn't have an arrest warrant and when Alvaro, unarmed, questioned the
cop's abuse of power, the cop pulled his gun. Before he could shoot,
Alvaro disarmed the cop without injuring him, and fled.

Upon his capture, Alvaro was found guilty and sentenced to an unbelievable
50 years in prison. Since his imprisonment, he has been denied access to
library materials, faced increasing censorship of his mail, and had to
deal with retaliation from prison staff over his filing of grievances. A
recent href="http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2011/04/05/call-day-free-alavaro-luna-hernandez-wedensday-april-6th-2011">call-in
campaign was announced to address these injustices.

If for some bizarre reason you can't make it to dinner, please write to
Alvaro from home. His address is:

Alvaro Luna Hernandez #255735
Hughes Unit
Route 2, Box 4400
Gatesville, Texas 76597

For more information, visit href="http://freealvaronow.blogspot.com">freealvaronow.blogspot.com