Resources

To crystallize the concept of defunding the police, CNN posed three scenarios to experts and activists in the movement and asked how they’d be handled in an America without police. The participants are Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology and African American Studies at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability; and Alex Vitale, a professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and author of “The End of Policing”

This report illustrates specific steps the New York City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio must make to cut at least $1 billion from NYPD’s FY21 expense budget to ensure that monies can be redirected to protect and strengthen essential services, programs and infrastructure that address key needs of Black, Latinx and other NYC communities of color for an equitable transition in the COVID-19 period.

This list is by no means comprehensive. It was compiled by the volunteers at HEARD over a span of several years and last updated in June 2020. HEARD has been working tirelessly to bring an end police brutality against deaf/disabled people. HEARD created this English & Spanish Log of Police Violence Against Deaf People, and we are looking to collect more stories of police brutality against deaf/disabled people. If you want to add your or another person story to this list, please email us at hearddc@gmail.com.

As more and more school districts around the country are joining the movement to end the school-to-prison pipeline and remove police from inside of schools, we want to share more information about the realities of school-based policing in Chicago. This report examines the disparities in who is impacted by school-based policing, the misconduct records of the CPD officers assigned to CPS, and the ways funds currently allocated towards policing could be re-invested.

An interactive map tool of school police in the Chicago area. The “heat map” uses colors to show which schools & areas have officers assigned to them with the most misconduct complaints on their record.

Relax, Relate, Release: Meditations for the Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Revolution is a meditation project by Jana Smith that includes various themed audio tracks featuring empowering messages from Angela Davis, Dr. Maya Angelou, Lena Horne, Tabitha Brown, Nina Simone, Denzel Washington, and many others over soothing soundscapes. This project also includes a community-curated reflection/resource guide. (Meditation transcripts are included in the guidebook for persons who are deaf/hearing impaired.)

The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America. Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises. This video is a discussion with Bettina L. Love, Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad, Dena Simmons, and Brian Jones.

Current movements to end policing are happening in tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought into sharp focus the everyday public health crises of racism, poverty, and incarceration. To build abolition, this toolkit lists strategies and actions that students and educators can take up on campuses. This list is not detailed or exhaustive. Many of these ideas and practices are already in motion! The following highlights work that communities are doing, to generate more ideas, and to deepen existing movements.

This report, based on an analysis of data collected by D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), found that Black people (46.5% of the D.C. population) composed 72% of the people stopped by police. Researchers also found that 88.6% of the youth under 18 who were stopped were Black. The data reveal concerning trends suggesting that these disparities may arise from racial bias.