Resources

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?

The National Security Police State always uses crisis like this to expand oppression, to expand surveillance, accumulate new weapons, push boundaries and justify its violence. The second video of this topic will feature Queer and Trans community members fighting on the frontlines against the criminalization of their lives.

The coalition discusses the continuing fight to dismantle Data Driven Policing. This webinar includes the sharing of strategies and tactics to build community power that led to the shutting down of LAPD Predictive Policing programs – LASER and Predpol. Join in the grassroot knowledge exchange to continue building collective power in the journey toward the abolition of policing.

A discussion with Professor Bita Amani from Charles Drew University and Co-Chair, COVID-19 Task force on Racism and Equity at UCLA; Pete White from LA CAN; and Jamie Garcia from Stop LAPD Spying Coalition to address questions and concerns such as 1) what is the disproportionate impact of COVID on Black, Brown, and poor communities?, 2) what are the various “road maps to recovery” being proposed?, and 3) what is Contact Tracing, what type of public health surveillance apparatus is being proposed, what’s our defense?

From an April 2020 convening to hear from Black public health experts who have been leading research and Black organizers leading efforts to change the conditions that make Black communities vulnerable everyday and especially in the COVID-19 crisis. In an effort to learn how to better organize, mobilize and coordinate on behalf of Black communities nationwide and worldwide, this report highlights the work of D4BL Hub Leaders, partner organizations and policymakers. This report contains a review of the content of the event and an outline of D4BL demands associated with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we work toward dismantling unjust systems, there is opportunity to highlight the intersections of our efforts and identify shared goals. This resource includes a chart of related demands across criminal and immigration issues aimed at reducing the number of people that enter, and releasing as many people as possible from jails and prisons, and detention centers. This is not a complete list, but rather a starting point for us all to consider our demands more broadly.