These next 3 weeks are going to be very busy for the Movement for Black Lives here in DC. We get a lot of asks about how to get involved in the movement and the short answer is show up! At almost every event there is an announcement of the next one. Show up, meet people, move up when people call for support, bring your friends to the next one. The movement for Black Lives is beautifully diverse and fundamentally a call for ending all forms of oppression because Black people are affected by them all. It is a call for collective liberation so there is a place and a role for everyone. There are also places set aside just for Black people. If you are not Black, don’t be offended if you see *this is a Black Only Space* and respect the intentions for the space. Know that there are plenty other spaces that could use your talents and energy. We need thousands of collaborators to build the next stage of the movement. #GetInWhereYouFitIn
2. Come to the Black Lives Matter Spokescouncil Wednesday 26th
This is great place for join the movement, meet people and see what you or your organization can contribute. https://www.facebook.com/events/121364371543545/
3. Come to the “Week” of Action. September 1st-11th.
The BLM Spokescouncil will be hosting nearly two weeks of action throughout the beginning of September. Keep your eyes open.
6. Join or Support Black Youth Project [BYP] 100. http://byp100.org/
BYP 100 is a national organization with chapters in cities across the country. BYP is on the front lines of the movement for Black Lives, working to end state sanctioned violence against Black people through a Black Queer Feminist Lens.
7. Join a solidarity group.
Visit the Washington Peace Center’s solidarity page for links and contacts for various BLM Solidarity Groups in DC. http://www.washingtonpeacecenter.org/node/15405
8. Radical Structural Change, like Radical Cultural Change, takes time and masses of people. The #struggleisreal as is spiritual and emotional trauma. Take care of yourself, take care of your friends, take care of your community and keep coming out! #StayWoke
On the 15th of August, Blackout DC staged what was announced as a march from the White House to the Capitol to protest police murder of Black and Brown people.
Cops expected a direct march but got a surprise! The march diverted from Pennsylvania Ave, north up 7th Street to Chinatown, then proceeded east to block the I-395 tunnels before finally going to the US Capitol. At the Capitol, offerings for those murdered by police were placed in a cardboard coffin. This was intended to take place on the Capitol steps, but US Capitol police blockaded the top exits from the Capitol West Lawn against protesters—and only protesters. As a result, the offering ceremony took place on the spot where people were blocked.
The march began for many at Lafayette Park, but was joined by a second march to the White House from the Department of Justice. Once merged, the march headed back out and initially down Pennsylvania Avenue, the route most marches take when going from the White House to US Capitol. At 7th Street, marchers pulled a surprise left turn. It appeared the target would now be the 7th and H Street intersection at Chinatown, but protesters didn’t stay there long. Soon the march headed east on H Street. From there the march went down the ramp to I-395 and blocked both sides of the road. It took quite a while for the police to reach the march. At least one police car went the wrong way back up the freeway. As police started building up, marchers withdrew, heading towards the Capitol after all.
At the Capitol, a coffin was brought up as the march crossed the Capitol West Lawn, only to encounter a police barricade at top of the paved walkway on the south side of the Capitol lawn. Tourists walked freely behind the police lines, having entered by another route. The coffin, with a teddy bear in it for a 7-year-old murdered by police, was brought right up to the front line but police simply would not allow a remembrance for the fallen to take place on the Capitol steps. At that point marchers drew back a few feet and conducted the ceremony at the top South corner of the Capitol lawn.
Tributes given included a teddy bear for 7 year old Aiyana Jones, cigarettes and a turn signal for Sandra Bland, Skittles for Trayvon Martin, a cross for those murdered in Charleston, and so many others. Near the end of the program one speaker warned “Get ready for war.”
Family and Friends of Incarcerated People Present
The 10th Annual Public Safety Community Event
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Noon – 7:00 PM Anacostia Park, 1900 Anacostia Drive, SE East of the Sousa (Pennsylvania Ave) Bridge, near the roller skating rink
This will be a fun-filled day for the children of those incarcerated and those that may be at risk.
Event activities are designed to:
• Create harmony among our children
o Rebuild our communities
• Pass on valuable information
o Express ideas on how to help at-risk-youth
• Share a wonderful unselfish act of love
o For the safety of our community
August 9th will mark one year since 18-year-old Mike Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Mike Brown’s death, and the subsequent non-indictment of the officer that killed him, resulted in a shockwave of marches, rallies, shut downs and die-ins all across the country. The recent deaths of Sandra Bland in Texas and Kindra Chapman Alabama, both at the hands of police, show the need to continue struggling against racist police terror and to show that we will not stand for the ongoing brutalization and killing of Black people in America. Join Stop Police Terror Project DC on Saturday, August 8th at the African American Civil Memorial to rally and march in the memory of Mike Brown and other victims of police killings past and present.
SHUT IT DOWN FOR MICHAEL BROWN!
Rally and March in Memory of Mike Brown
and other police terror victims. August 8th, 2015, 7:00 p.m. African American Civil War Memorial
DCFerguson, a group that’s done a great deal to confront police terror, has changed their name and expanded their mission. Learn more about the new organization Stop Police Terror Project DC below.
Formal statement on the dissolution of DCFerguson:
DCFerguson first emerged during a vital and spirited time in the burgeoning national anti-racist movement. The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York, and the subsequent non-indictment of the policemen that killed them galvanized the country, and after several successful actions, the organizers decided to form a coalition to address police terror locally. The organization was able to raise awareness about the jump-out squads and other militarized police tactics, collected testimonies of local police terror victims, and demanded that city funds being used to increase police presence on the street be redirected to community-led security efforts.
Recently, due to pressures created in part by our efforts, the Metropolitan Police Department, under the leadership of Chief Cathy Lanier, has shifted its tactics. The department will reorganize the seven individual vice units that are currently responsible for most of the recent misconduct, and create a central Narcotics and Special Investigation Division along with a Crime Interdiction Unit. Lanier claims these changes are a part of a shifting focus in the MPD from low level dealers to suppliers, along with a new focus on synthetic drugs, but we believe this is simply a cosmetic change being made to avoid changing the lethal tactics that lead to the death of people like Ralphael Briscoe and DeOnte Rawlings.
As they change and adapt, so do we, and as such, DCFerguson has decided to reorganize under a new name with new leadership. Ferguson brought us to where we are, but at this juncture so many tragic incidents nationally and locally have illuminated our understanding of these issues. As such we wanted our name to reflect that expanded reality.
The new organization, Stop Police Terror Project, D.C. (SPTP), will continue to function as an organization dedicated to ending racist militarized policing in our region. SPTP will continue to be structured as a set of volunteer committees who meet independently to complete tasks for the organization’s different projects. Everyone who was active on these committees in DCFerguson is encouraged to continue their work in SPTP as we intend to move forward with our plans as outlined in the last few months.
Since the state has reorganized itself in a fraudulent way for the problem to continue under a new guise, we intend to reorganize in a genuine way in order to put a stop to these abuses. So with a history rooted in addressing racist police tactics in a concrete way, SPTP will continue to expose the institutional violence perpetrated upon poor and working Blacks in the area, will continue to highlight the interconnectedness of forms of oppression related to police terror, and of course, will continue to be in the streets. The struggle continues.
Sincerely,
Tiffany Flowers
Sean Blackmon
Yasmina Mrabet
Eugene Puryear
The Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore went 400 days without a homicide despite record high crime rates. How did they do it? It wasn’t the police.
NEWSCASTERS: The deadly shooting of a one-year-old boy over the weekend. It happened Friday night in Cherry Hill. He was shot along Cherry Hill Road. Last week’s deadly shooting of a one-year-old boy in this Cherry Hill neighborhood.
JAISAL NOOR, PRODUCER, TRNN: A neighborhood once synonymous with crime, violence and murder in Baltimore.
MAYOR: I grew up knowing that Cherry Hill was, you know, notorious for the amount of violence.
NOOR: Is now being lauded for going over 400 days without a homicide at a time of record number of killings around the city. How did Cherry Hill residents overcome chronic poverty, unemployment, and crime to stop the killings?
SPEAKER: The police don’t do nothing out here. They never did and never will. You know what I mean, we police ourself.
SPEAKER: Myself along with Safe Streets and other leaders of the community, we just stay hands-on. We just stay engaged with the community, with the young people, we’re always out here. Constantly giving that message of no violence.
NOOR: How did Cherry Hill residents overcome chronic poverty, unemployment and crime to stop the killings? And how did things get so bad in Cherry Hill in the first place?
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