Resources

May 25, 2020 was a both a personal tragedy for the Floyd family and a community tragedy. But it was also a watershed moment locally and nationally in people’s understanding of police violence, the racism and classism that underpins it, and the systems that enable it. This document seeks to provide specific recommendations for addressing police brutality, misconduct and abuse of authority in the state of Minnesota. Many of these recommendations are not new—our organization has presented them many times over the years. Prior failures by leaders at the city, county and state level to adopt these evidence-based solutions are what brought us to this place.

NoMoreCopMoney is a national database that documents campaign funds current state and local politicians accepted from law enforcement-affiliated PACs since 2015. We provide contact information to make it easy to ask your representatives to donate these campaign funds and to pledge to refuse them in the future. Our goal is to decrease the influence of law enforcement in our government.

A human rights documentation of Commander Jon Burge’s violence against more than 100 Black people, from the 1970s-1990s. The centerpiece of the site is profiles of police torture survivors, most of whom were represented by the People’s Law Office, which donated its case files to this project.

Beginning in 2021, the City of Portland will start its next round of negotiations with the Portland P olice Association over the labor contract covering sworn police officers. Amid a historic uprising against police brutality in the streets of Portland and across the country, we, the undersigned, call upon the City to keep the needs of grassroots Portlanders at the center of the bargaining process. As outlined in the demands, the current City contract and side agreements with the PPA contain barriers to effective oversight of policing, and make it virtually impossible to fire officers for using excessive force or engaging in biased policing. While strengthening the City’s contract with the PPA won’t fix every issue in policing in Portland, it is an important part of the broader fight to hold police accountable for the harms they cause our communities.

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.

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.

On November 20th, Triad Abolition Project, Hate Out Of Winston, and Drum Majors Alliance co-signed a letter to city council, which did not receive a response from any Council member nor the city’s Mayor. On November 29th, the Winston-Salem Journal published “Police-spending critics call on city to discuss their concerns.” The People’s Report is a community dialogue in response to the Journal’s story, and continued conversation on the topic of divesting from WSPD as our city approaches the FY2021-2022 budget cycle.

This report is a review of the community safety process in Brattleboro, Vermont. This community safety review process sought to understand the current state of the community safety systems in Brattleboro and their impact on community members’ actual experiences of safety, danger, or harm. The process was led by two core facilitators and informed and guided by a nine-member committee, who each brought their own identities, perspectives and lived experiences. From October through December, this team sought input from community members about their experiences with safety, danger, harm and safety response systems. All community members were welcomed to share their experiences and visions, and engagement efforts were focused on connecting with individuals who carry marginalized identities and who are most impacted by policing and police-like systems. We heard from over 200 community members and professionals working in over 25 organizations. We also performed a quality review of the Brattleboro Police Department policies, practices, and some areas of data collection. The Town of Brattleboro has embarked on a courageous and imperative process of evaluating community experiences with safety, danger, harm and policing/safety systems. This step must be followed next by action.