From We Will Free Us, by The Thing That’s Boiling
Read the full article here: https://www.wewillfreeus.org/theprisonisescalating/
For over a week, Malik Muhammed effectively vanished inside the prison system. No answers. No confirmation. Just a string of contradictions from the Oregon Department of Corrections and affiliated facilities, claims that they were “at court,” moved to a “confidential location,” or simply no longer there. (…)
Malik was only located after they were able to send a letter. They are now being held nearly 3,000 miles away at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center, an intake facility inside South Carolina’s prison system.
Moving someone from one state prison system to another across the country is rare. Doing so while refusing to disclose their location, and cutting them off from legal counsel and community support, signals something else entirely: escalation.
Alissa Azar, April 7th, 2026
WHO IS MALIK MUHAMMED?
Malik Muhammed is a Queer, Black, and Palestinian Radical Anarchist from Chicago, Illinois. They have a beautiful son and family back home in the midwest.
Their first memory of rebellion was refusing to stand for, or say, the pledge of allegiance; their first protest was after the murder of Trayvon Martin.
They travelled across the country, ending up in portland, oregon. Malik was one of many Black Anarchists part of the 2020 popular uprising, organizing and fighting ameriKKKan oppression. When local and national militias attacked, Malik allegedly resisted using DIY munitions.
“I believe it was a week or so before George Floyd was murdered, and a kid named Dreasjon Reed in Indianapolis was shot dead by some pigs… Then I saw the video of George Floyd, and I heard that ‘I can’t breathe’ again… I was literally hearing it again… it was so visceral, because that was a situation I was in, being choked to death and beaten by pigs… I knew that I needed to do something.”
Malik Muhammed, August 17, 2025.
They were subsequently taken political prisoner in an act of repression, violently isolating them from the movement and society both through imprisonment and state propaganda.
Originally, ameriKKKan prosecutors told Malik’s legal team that their case would remain in oregon state, but Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, urged the federal government to bring Malik’s case to the federal level to set an example across ameriKKKa.