Resources

This is a video collaboration with Project Nia & Blue Seat Studios. This four-minute animated video is made with young people in mind but can be a useful introduction to basic #DefundPolice concepts for all ages. People have a lot of ideas about policing. And our ideas about policing are shaped by our race, our genders, our class, and our parents. Dominant culture, especially mass media sells us the image of “Officer Friendly.” But whose experience is that actually based on?

This toolkit has been designed with a few goals in mind, one being to offer a theoretical grounding and political education around policing broadly and within the context of schools. Now is the time for school communities to implement what has been a growing national vision of removing police from public school systems. GGE hopes that this toolkit provides context and language to actively participate in that discourse and shift the dialogue from one of ‘bad apples’ vs ‘caring cops’ to one that addresses the systemic racism our young people are subject to on a daily basis due to the presence of police in their schools.

In December 1968, 14-year old Dorothy Belle Young and her 11-year-old sister Yvonne were arrested for “using profane language at school to white boys.” While Yvonne received probation, Dorothy was detained at the Regional Youth Development Center (a juvenile jail) in Sanderville, GA. Black residents of Sylvester, GA, a town of 5,000 where the girls and their family lived, mobilized in support of Dorothy. They claimed that the sisters and their other siblings were being punished for integrating an all-white school. National Civil Rights figures also came to Dorothy’s defense including Coretta Scott King and Dr. Ralph Abernathy who traveled to Sylvester to lead protests. This publication offers a glimpse at a history of the criminalization of Black girls. It includes beautiful illustration and some activities. The publication was created with high school students in mind.

Breonna Taylor is the only Black woman killed by police whose case is familiar to most Americans. And a Newsy analysis shows even the highest-profile women’s cases receive only a small fraction of the coverage generated by police killings of men. The #SayHerName campaign aims to raise awareness of the connection between race and police violence and make sure the stories of Black women are being told.

Historically, Black women, girls, and femmes have not fit the most accessible frames of anti-Black police violence. Consequently, it is difficult to tell stories about their lost lives that people recognize and remember. Their precarity is buried beneath myths, stereotypes, and denial. But the heartbreaking truth is that Black girls as young as 7 and women as old as 93 have been killed by the police. Explore a special zine issue highlighting the victims of police violence and an interactive webpage to learn more about the women that #SayHerName represents.

National and local research consistently demonstrates that the presence of police in schools serves as an entry point to the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous and LatinX students; students with disabilities; and students in need who are furthest from opportunity. We can take an important step to dismantling the school to prison pipeline by investing in a students’ success and in student support instead of a culture of criminalization in our schools.

The call “we keep us safe” reminds us that solutions should empower all people, including Disabled and Neurodivergent people, to exercise our self-determination with care and understanding. We all deserve the resources, support, training and education we need to love and protect ourselves and one another. This resource divides into three sections: Cripping Abolition, Guiding Principles Based on Disability Justice, and Reforms to Oppose.

Founded in June 2020, dontcallthepolice.com is an online directory of local resources available as alternatives to calling the police or 911, to provide easy access to alternatives to calling the police when faced with a situation that requires de-escalation and/or intervention, not violence.