Resources

The killing of Black people at the hands of the police is taking place against the backdrop of a pandemic that is taking Black lives at an alarming rate. Our communities continue to be disinvested in and our people continue to be vulnerable to every harm in our society. This is why we call to defund police departments across the country and demand an investment of those resources into the needs of our communities.

We know what is happening in Minneapolis is a product of what has happened to Black people for decades. We are paying attention and we are ready to rise.

Join us for M4BL’s National Call to Action Call, hear from Organizers in Minneapolis and across the country. We will share our demands and ways for folks to take action!

Equity and Transformation along with the support from other community groups and individuals have designed this “Life Kit” as a way to offer what we can to help anyone that maybe struggling right now as well as providing them with useful information and resources in order to stay healthy. We must rely on each other to take care of US! This pamphlet includes the necessary information to help you get through COVID-19.

This document was first created in May 2020 and is an ongoing work in progress! We hope this can be a living and collaborative document. We recognize that there are many existing resources and google docs before this one on alternatives to calling the police. Our goal for this document was to compile some of these resources and place them in the context of anti-Asian racism, in Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic—and what we hope can be a broader dialogue around interracial solidarity.

A discussion with Professor Simone Browne, an educator and author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness and We Like to Watch: Race and Sociology of Surveillance; and Pete White, Executive Director – Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN).

Two sets of guidance addressing law enforcement’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These documents follow early reports from New York and other cities that raised concerns of uneven, sometimes discriminatory enforcement, and confusion about how to reach isolated and vulnerable groups. Vetted with community organizers, academic experts, and law enforcement officials, this COVID-19 guidance compiles best practices for state, municipal, and policing leaders as they navigate this ongoing public health emergency.

A joint letter to Mayor de Blasio from more than 50 advocacy organizations urging him to impose an immediate moratorium on police enforcement of low-level and quality of life offenses; unnecessary summonses and arrests, including fare evasion arrests and drug arrests for marijuana.

This white paper notes the novel law enforcement challenges created by COVID-19 and describes the different approach police must take. Traditional law enforcement practices such as stops, searches, and arrests currently create a substantial risk of infection for police, suspects and community members alike. This paper concludes that until stay-at-home and social distancing orders have been lifted, law enforcement agencies should suspend enforcement measures requiring close proximity or physical contact between law enforcement personnel and members of the public, except in cases where the failure to stop, search, or arrest a suspect creates an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to police officers or others.

To better understand the disproportionate impacts of the NYPD’s COVID-19 related enforcement, the Legal Aid Society analyzed social distancing complaints made through 311 between March 28 and May 12, COVID-19 related summonses reported by the NYPD between March 16 and May 5, and internally-tracked COVID-19 related arrests that took place between March 27 and May 2.

A discussion with Professor Dorothy Roberts, an acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law. Her work focuses on health, social justice, and bioethics as they impact the lives of women, children and the Black community; Professor Bita Amani, Ph.D., M.H.S from Charles Drew University and Co-Chair, COVID-19 Task force on Racism and Equity at UCLA; and Jamie Garcia R.N., BSN and organizer with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. This discussion will address questions and concerns such as 1) how does race get disguised as a biological category versus a political one?, 2) how is racial science programmed to “reconfigure” race rather than abandon it. And what it means in time of Covid-19?, and 3) how do “immunity passports” figure in the current scheme of surveillance and contact tracing?