A prisoner who staged a 12-hour rooftop protest at Strangeways has previously posted videos on TikTok in which he rapped about his 'unjust' sentence.
Joe Outlaw sketched the words 'FREE IPPZ' on the roof of the high security prison and repeatedly shouted out the same phrase during his one-man revolt yesterday afternoon (Wednesday). The message is believed to refer to The Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence (IPP) sentence, which was abolished in 2012.
Outlaw, who was jailed for robbery for an indeterminate length of time in 2011, has previously shared videos on both TikTok and YouTube in which he discusses and raps about the 'injustice' of IPP sentences.
In one video - posted under the username 'FREELICENSE99Z' this month - he urged people to 'look into' the 'fundamentally flawed' sentences and vowed to raise awareness of them.
"The IPPs are getting forgotten about now," he said. "It's painful, man.
"It's sad because you've got to understand you've got nearly 10,000 people who got sentenced that sentence."
Outlaw added: "That's thousands, tens of thousands of sisters, sons, brothers, mums, uncles, family members. There's lads that are sat there suffering to this day badly."
Explaining his own circumstances, Outlaw said: "I'm 36 now and I've learned a lot.
"I was 23 when I come away. I'm in for an armed robbery, by the way, when I was a young little gang b****r. That's not me anymore.
"I've got my music. I want to get out and spend time with my family before I lose them, and have a bit of a life.
"For these people, they just want to keep them shackles on. They just want to keep you trapped."
In another clip, titled '84 Seconds of Truth', Outlaw raps: "Everybody on the IPP, put your mother f****** hands up."
While making gun finger gestures to the camera, he tells listeners that his "IPP debt's killing me".
"A 12 year from a four year," he spits. "Reck' that's eight years over, don't you think I've paid my debt?
"That's eight years over or a decade plus two, and trust me my boy you don't know what I've been through.
"The system has had a grab on this man different. Trapped in the system since I was an infant.
"But now I get it, your govs don't listen. You're making every single thing a f****** mission.
"And 'cause I speak up, I need managing. And 'cause I got a voice, you tell me that I'm challenging."
Outlaw first climbed on the roof of Strangeways at about 4.30pm yesterday. He remained up there for almost 12 hours as a crowd of spectators showed up to watch the incident unfold. At one stage, he was seen making a love heart gesture and wearing a makeshift poncho as the rain lashed down.
The protest eventually came to an end in the early hours of this morning (Thursday). Police said he "willingly came down from the roof" at about 4.15am and was "back in the custody of prison staff."
The Manchester Evening News understands that the prison, officially titled HMP Manchester, was put on lockdown during the incident. Prison bosses have vowed that Outlaw "will now face punishment" for his actions.
Less than six hours after having climbed down from Strangeways' roof, Outlaw appeared at Bolton Crown Court, where he was handed a further jail term for criminal damage to his prison cell.
He admitted to causing criminal damage to his cell at HMP Hindley on January 28 last year. The court heard that an 'irate' Outlaw spent the early evening making threats he would smash up his care and separation unit (CSU) cell to prison guards outside.
Outlaw then spent the night trashing his cell, causing more than £17,000 worth of damage. Outlaw, also known as Chris Attiller Hordosi, was given a 16 month prison sentence, to be bolted on to his existing jail term.
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