AFTER RAIDS, NYPD DENIED STUDENT PROTESTERS WATER AND FOOD IN JAIL
STUDENTS ARRESTED DURING the police crackdown on protests at universities in New York City last week were denied water and food for 16 hours, according to two faculty members at Columbia University’s Barnard College who collected reports from students who were inside.
Other students reported that they were beaten by New York City Police Department officers after their arrests and taken to the hospital for injuries before being returned to central booking. Photos of the injuries were provided to The Intercept.
#abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwiiter#NonProfits#Capitalism
Yesterday @majorlinux made an observation after years of raising money for charities through gaming: "The fact that charities exist because Capitalists horde all the wealth leaving the working class to pick up the slack by begging one another to donate while simultaneously providing the Capitalists to make themselves look good isn't great." Today I will talk about the nonprofit industrial compelx (NPIC). 1/8
#abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwiiter#NonProfits#Capitalism Usually abolition work is focusing on dismantling the prison industrial complex (PIC). But as groups start trying to rethink how to create safety, the question always comes up as to how to fund the work. In the US the thinking is you have to create a 501(c)(3) in order to raise money and then apply for grant funding. But capitalists create foundations (the source of grant funding) to shield their wealth from taxation. 2/ 8
#abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwiiter#NonProfits#Capitalism So rather than pay taxes so that communities can be properly supported by their own local governments, foundations put the money into charitable entities, thereby shielding it and then get a tax credit for giving it away! The question becomes if a grassroots group is really trying to radically change how their communities will be treated, will foundations be willing to fund such ideas? 3/8
#abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwiiter#NonProfits#Capitalism In a book that’s been out for a while, but I’m just getting to : THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE FUNDED, edited by INCITE! A collection of grassroots organizers wrote about how foundations co-opt and otherwise use their grants as a way to restrict the real work grassroots organizations do. The organizational leaders discussed how they ended up wasting time and resources “professionalizing” their work as demanded by the foundations. 4/8
#abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwiiter#NonProfits#Capitalism Examples: asking them to get office space and permanent staff they didn’t need. The “professionalization” push of the corporate foundations has created a category of nonprofit workers who are “professional managers.” Their whole effort revolves around keeping a high paying CEO or ED job in the sector as opposed to actually focusing on delivering services. I’ve seen good programs destroyed by nonprofit professionals EDs. 5/8
after #abolition many Black people who had nowhere to go, were charged rents by their former plantation owners if they didn't leave. if they didn't pay, they were either re-enslaved thru prison OR indentured into financial servitude.
when the numbers of indentured Black servants weren't enough, that's when poor migrant workers became key to this new form of renter slavery.
this is what GOP fascists want to bring back with #prisons & #farms
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter Those of you who have followed me for a while know I mostly post about the issue of abolition, information about webinars on community issues, and black cultural music and events. I comment on policing but don’t usually post on it. However, the university protests provide an excellent opportunity to highlight why abolition is needed in this country. 1/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter The movement in support of abolition has been in process for decades although most people only learned about it when “Defund the Police” was chanted during the 2020 protests against police murders of black people. White folks (and Obama) threw their hands up in horrow at the notion of getting rid of the police. A video reminder of what defund means: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/26/21303849/what-defund-the-police-really-means
2/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter While many whites were empathetic to cries to halt police killings of innocent people of color, their overall acceptance of the idea that police are a good thing for their communities did not change. You can use a free tool called the internet to look up some of those studies. Communities of color will always be the canary in the coal mine on the issue of militarization of the police. 3/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter When we say the police are militarized and don’t create safety, but come with their own levels of violence, many liberals will think, “not in our communities. For us they provide safety.” But that’s the thing, authoritarians NEVER stop with the people who are low hanging fruit. They get emboldened by going after the low hanging fruit when there are no sanctions. 4/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter On campus after campus, the long valued tradition of freedom of white speech has come into stark confrontation with the militarization of law enforcement. You can see that the police do not come for “safety.” They came for and with violence. Under what circumstances would it have been appropriate to put police snipers on the roof of a college campus where students are demonstrating? What safety would that have provided? 5/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter The police don’t even respond like that when there is a mass shooter on campus. It’s interesting listening to the white parents and the white residents of the neighborhood surrounding Columbia. The police have them under siege and they don’t like it. They don’t want their children in a sniper’s cross hairs. Well...welcome to the experiences of black and brown communities throughout the country. 6/7
#Abolition#CampusProtests, #Gaza, # BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter Now you know, the police will kill your kids too! They don’t care about your kids. Our nation is addicted to policing. It is costing us lives and unbelievable billions of dollars that could be used to make our communities more stable (housing, education, healthcare) and therefore more safe. If you didn’t understand why abolitionists call for reducing and eliminating police where possible, maybe you can see now. 7/7
the doomerism w/in the western "#left" just tells me that we need more #intergenerational organizing spaces. older activists tell me how far we've come. identifying #capitalism as a root cause to our issues was uncommon 10 years ago. #abolition wasn't taken seriously 5 years ago. most people didn't know about #palestine 5 years ago!
activists have made such great strides. the ruling class is running out of excuses. why else are they using such violence twds us right now?
#abolition#FreeHer#BlackMastodon Today was the 10th anniversary of the National Coalition of Incarcerated and Formerly incarcerated Women & Girls march in support of the over 150,000 women and girls incarcerated in the US. Beautiful day for a march and rally. Write to Biden and encourage him to grant clemency to Michelle West (31 years in) and other women locked in cages. Petition your governors as well. Trapping women in cages does not make our societies better. FREE HER!
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition
I posted two previous panel discussions on Alternatives to Policing that were happening in Detroit. The third one is April 17th and focuses on community groups and what actions they are taking to help create safety. I'm attaching the flyer for the program. You can register at http://tinyurl.com/alternatives2police
When the toxicity of #Fascist#ChristianNationalism causes strangers to respond to my #Episcopalian belief/praxis with unfettered contempt,
I feel sad & angry that hateful #MAGAts are demolishing an alliance that empowered #Abolition#CivilRights#PeaceNotWar
in times past
I would prefer that strangers unable to see any person of faith as an ally or intelligent, feeling human being just mute me now, ok?
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition#Communities#OurFutures I was watching our partial eclipse yesterday with my daughter in a local area. There's a row of food shops, cleaners, credit union and nail salons where we were sitting. The employees were getting permission to come outside and see the eclipse but of course none of them had any eye protection. We signaled for them to come over and share ours. In about 10 minutes we were surrounded by workers from four different ethnic groups. 1/5
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition#Communities#OurFutures We were a group of Black American, Asian, Latino, and various Africans . It was a wonderful and heart warming experience. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with #abolition. But it was the beauty of the human community coming together to experience something phenomenal that made it relevant to #abolition. There is a new series on PBS that also is not about #abolition but has everything to do with it. 2/5
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition#Communities#OurFutures The series is called: A Brief History of the Future. The host of the show presents the idea that we have moved into being a society that just plans for today without thought to the consequences our actions today will have on our future families. He sets off to talk to people around the world who are trying to envision the world they want for their great grandchildren and then talking steps TODAY to help build it. 3/5
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition#Communities#OurFutures You can stream the series if you are a PBS contributor or just wait for it to air in your area. He and the activists he interviews share a common thought. You have to envision the world you want and then build it. That’s what my daughter and I were doing. We envision a world where people treat each other as humans no matter what they look like or where they come from. That is the #bolitionist goal. 4/5
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition#Communities#OurFutures We want a world where people are free from the Prison Industrial complex (including a corrupted criminal legal system), from predatory capitalism and free to live in safe wholesome communities where our future families can thrive. Everywhere people are trying to envision what that might look like and to take steps TODAY to help make that reality come into fruition. We are envisioning a new world so that we can help build it. 5/5