Resources

Authored by Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia González, this 2017 report provides – for the first time – data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5-14. The report builds on similar results that have emerged from studies of adult perceptions of Black boys. In 2014, for example, research by Professor Phillip Goff and colleagues revealed that beginning at the age of 10, Black boys are more likely than their white peers to be misperceived as older, viewed as guilty of suspected crimes, and face police violence if accused of a crime.

This update to our June 2020 #DefundPolice toolkit reflects victories won across the country, key strategies deployed, some lessons learned – including, tricks, tensions, and roadblocks along the way – and key questions communities are contending with in campaigns to defund police as we look forward to 2021. It contains some excerpts from the original toolkit, but is not intended as a substitute. Our hope is that this report will be read in conjunction with the original #DefundPolice #FundthePeople #DefendBlack Lives toolkit, along with our What’s Next: Safer and More Just Communities Without Policing report and Domestic Violence Awareness Month & Defund Fact Sheet.

A multi-part report series that explains this crisis of death and disappearance on the US-Mexico border and the policies that have created it. This serves to set the scene for reports which open a window to violent Border Patrol practices.

So what do we do when we inevitably run into conflict? This was the question on our minds when we wrote a new conflict workbook for groups working towards a shared purpose. As two people who come from community-building and social movement backgrounds, we have seen and experienced dreams crumble because we, or people we love, couldn’t find a way through a difficult interpersonal conflict with a comrade or a colleague. We care deeply about our communities and the ways they’ve been harmed by structural oppression. We put together Turning Towards Each Other because of all the times we found ourselves in gut-wrenching, sometimes relationship-ending tangles with people we depended on.

Andrea Ritchie joins the show to talk about her research with the group Interrupting Criminalization, specifically their new report looking back on the “Defund the Police” demand in 2020. The discussion begins with a look at the work that Interrupting Criminalization does, and their findings on the various successes and failures activists have had with the “Defund” demand over the last year. Perhaps most importantly, we talk about how the state has tried to undermine abolitionist efforts. Toward the end, we speak about the need to fund experimental approaches to harm, including those that might fail.

Families for Justice as Healing organizes to shift power and resources away from policing and incarceration and into Black and Brown communities to address systemic and racist abandonment, disinvestment, and criminalization. Residents are demanding healthcare, housing, treatment, education, arts, culture, community centers, community-led programming, and economic development through employment and cooperative business ownership. Families for Justice as Healing demands systemic change to policing in Boston, toward our long-term goal of removing police from our communities. Police are the first point of contact with the criminal legal system for our members, and the reason women and our families wind up on jail and prison bunks. While we are organizing against the most harmful policing practices and fighting to shift resources from policing into our communities – we are also doing the work to create ways of preventing, responding to, and healing from harm without police and prisons.

This curriculum resource is anchored in the following principle: that punishment actually undermines safety. I am defining punishment here as inflicting suffering on others in response to an experience of harm/violence/wrongdoing. The practice of punishment is harmful and destructive. We cannot effectively teach people not to harm others by harming them.

Chicago is one of the most heavily surveilled cities in the world. Cameras, automatic license plate readers, cell site simulators and many other surveillance devices are currently used in the city by the Chicago Police Department and its sister agencies. However, many Chicago residents are unaware of the scope of the surveillance systems, their huge cost, and the privacy implications of their use. Lucy Parsons Lab surveys the major parts of the surveillance system in Chicago with respect to costs, capabilities, efficacy, and legal and privacy concerns.

The US Crisis Monitor supports data-driven initiatives to build community resilience and facilitate efforts to track, prevent, and mitigate political violence in America. A joint project of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and the Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) at Princeton University, the US Crisis Monitor provides the public with real-time data and analysis on political violence and demonstrations around the country, establishing an evidence base from which to identify risks, hotspots, and available resources to empower local communities in times of crisis.