[Attica Rebellion] Annual Report of New York State Police 1971

New York: New York State Police, 1971. 5 ½ x 8 ¼ in. Saddle-stapled in photographic wraps. 55 pp, xiii. 

The Annual Report of the New York State Police from 1971, the year of the Attica Rebellion. When prisoners at Attica rose up in spontaneous revolt demanding decent living conditions, they quickly instituted order and kept the prison guards safe except one who had been beaten in the initial violence. They clearly laid out demands and made repeated signs of good faith. Despite all of this, Governor Rockefeller refused to meet with them, and State officials fed the rumor mill with baseless claims of prisoner brutality. When the state decided to reclaim control four days later, the State Police led the charge, firing tear gas into the D yard of the prison and opening non-stop fire into the smoke. Many troopers, spurred by false claims of torture committed by prisoners, joined in the assault with their personal weapons and without official sanction, making ballistics and forensics research much more difficult in the aftermath. The State Police and National Guard killed ten prison employee hostages in the chaos, and thirty prisoners.

Though meant to provide a broad overview of the year’s activities, the booklet’s stark cover betrays an inability to escape the most violent day in the State Police’s history. In their telling of the events, this booklet implies that the hostages had had their throats cut by prisoners, a rumor perpetuated by the state and numerous members of the press, despite unequivocal evidence to the contrary.

A scarce document of police messaging from the biggest prison rebellion in modern history. We locate no copies on OCLC as of March 2021. Small abrasions to cover and spine, though nothing compared to the callous destruction shown in the cover image. Otherwise a tight, clean copy; very good.