Host Davey D sits down with longtime organizer Minister King X and his attorney Eric Sapp to break down a federal lawsuit that exposes how California is criminalizing dissent and formerly incarcerated people under the label of “Black identity extremism.” The conversation centers on Penal Code 4571, a little-known statute that makes it a felony for anyone who has ever been in state prison to be on land adjacent to a jail or prison without permission from the warden or sheriff, even if they’re peacefully protesting on a public sidewalk.
Minister King recounts how undercover agents grabbed him outside his Oakland office after he helped organize a peaceful demonstration to free elder Ruchell Cinque Magee. He was told he’d violated parole, only to later learn he was being targeted for protesting and organizing against the “prison slave industrial complex.” Eric explains that 4571 has been on the books since the 1940s, rarely used but always there as a tool to make examples out of people like King and chill activism by formerly incarcerated organizers. Their lawsuit argues the law violates the First Amendment and due process because it’s vague, overbroad, and weaponized to silence political speech.
The discussion then widens out. Eric connects the “Black identity extremist” label to a long history of repression from the Red Scare and criminal syndicalism laws to COINTELPRO and today’s domestic extremism frameworks. He stresses that the legal standard is incitement, not vague notions of extremism, and that political advocacy — including calling for revolutionary change — is constitutionally protected.
Minister King situates his work in that lineage of struggle, highlighting elders who spent decades in solitary because of their ideas, not their actions, and describing current efforts to build unity across race and class, end violence and hostilities, and fight a system that still functions as modern-day chattel slavery. As they reflect on the birthday of Chairman Fred Hampton, King frames this lawsuit as part of a broader push for shared humanity, community power, and resistance to fascism, urging people to show up, stay informed, and stand with those being labeled and targeted for loving their people out loud.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.