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After a two-year effort by District residents who want the city to use violence prevention rather than aggressive policing methods like Stop and Frisk, the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act (or NEAR Act) was passed. If the NEAR Act is to succeed in giving communities control over how they are policed, community members must understand it. . . . → Read More: The NEAR Act and the Future of Policing in the District of Columbia 
Cross-posted DC Media Group by John Zangas Washington, DC — The Movement for Black Lives continued protests to denounce recent killings of Black men on Saturday night in Washington, DC. The Stop Police Terror in DC Project, BlackLivesMatterDMV, BYP100 (Black Youth Project) and allies met at the African American Civil War Memorial and marched through city streets and into Georgetown. Once there they blocked traffic on the main M Street thoroughfare and then blocked Rock Creek Parkway. The protest lasted over three hours, walking several miles through the city and resulted in no arrests. Many joined along the way, including activists, youth, and families. The new protests came as video reports came to light of more killings by police of Black men. Delrawn Small, 38, was killed by an off-duty police officer in a road rage incident in Brooklyn, NY. A video published online countered claims by an off duty police officer that Smalls had allegedly punched the officer in the face. Smalls was shot less than two seconds after approaching the unmarked police vehicle. Another man, Alva Braziel, 38, was shot 10 times by police in Houston, after he went looking for his horse which had gone missing. In that incident Houston police said that Braziel had brandished a firearm. Smalls and Brazeil are the 655th and 671th individuals respectively killed by US police in 2016. But Eugene Puryear, an organizer with The Stop Police Terror In DC Project, recognized that the Black Lives Matter movement had made progress. “It’s only been a couple of years since we’ve been pushing, and already we’ve brought this issue to the forefront of the country,” said Puryear. Yet a mass shooting of Dallas police officers during a protest Thursday night, which resulted in five police killed and seven wounded, cast doubt that unrest would end any time soon. Puryear said that the Dallas incident was an unfortunate tragedy but was “not unexpected.” “When you have a situation when over a thousand people are killed every year by police and no real resolution in the court system…it’s like putting a pot on boil and eventually it’s going to boil over,” said Puryear. He said the increased national tension is moving the country towards a boiling stage, and change must now happen both socially and politically. Reports of Black Lives Matter protests dominated the Sunday morning news. Protests were reported in major cities across the country as tensions rose over the spate of recent killings. Area groups planned to hold a vigil at the African American Civil War Memorial Sunday night.  Comments are closed  Justice System, Police Brutality  Alva Braziel, Black Lives Matter DMV, DC Media Group, Delrawn Small, John Zangas, protest, video 
Video coverage of the Black Lives Matter Movement’s Turn Up and Shut It Down in Chinatown event was fairly extensive, in comparison to other events sponsored by the District’s local progressive community. . . . → Read More: Turn Up and Shut It Down in Chinatown News Round Up 
On New Year’s Eve, activists from the Black Lives Matter Coalition gathered in Chinatown to protest the killings of unarmed African Americans by the police. . . . → Read More: Black Lives Matter New Year’s Resolution 
On August 27, 2015, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser publicly unveiled her plan to reduce violent crime in a press conference at the shuttered Malcolm X Elementary School in Ward 8. The rate of homicides within the District has been on the rise. To counter it, Mayor Bowser has proposed a series of initiatives with a focus on cracking down on crime and enhancing police authority. Highlights of the speech can be found in the video shot and edited by Joshua Rose Schmidt below. Her plan may sound reasonable to many who legitimately fear the rise in violent crime, but it did little to assuage those who have every reason to fear the police. Bowser claims that her plan will make Black Lives Matter more than just a hashtag. What the mayor fails to recognize is that Black Lives Matter is in fact a movement that recognizes that police misconduct and brutality are ongoing, systemic problems whose history begins long before the advent of the cell phone video. Those within the movement believe that doubling down on techniques that have failed in the past will not solve the problem now. Black Lives Matter activist and founder of the Stop Police Terror Project, Eugene Puryear has a plan that should be considered by the mayor and anyone who wants to see an end to murders committed by the police and murders committed by citizens. Download a pdf of Stop Police Terror Project DC’s alternative plan here: Response to Bowser’s Anti-Crime Plan Fact Sheet For more information about the Black Lives Matter Movement in the District of Columbia check out the following links: https://www.facebook.com/stoppoliceterrorprojectdc https://www.facebook.com/BLACKLIVESMATTERDMV http://blacklivesmatter.com/ The National Black United Front DC Chapter is also working on this issue and any number of organizations active within the communities most impacted by crime such as the Family and Friends of Incarcerated People and The Reentry Network for Returning Citizens. |
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