In August of this year, activists scored a victory when Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the New York police department’s stop-and-frisk practices were unconstitutional and racially biased. In an effort to contest the ruling, the city filed an appeal which mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has said he will drop. Still de Blasio’s appointment of William J. Bratton as police commissioner has people in the police reform movement concerned. Bratton is known for his expansion of stop-and-frisk under the Giuliani administration and during his tenure at the LAPD. How do activists and citizens keep promises from being more than just talking points? Joo-Hyun Kang, formerly of the Audre Lorde Project and now Director of Communities United for Police Reform, says that, “Safety doesn’t have to be at the cost of respect and dignity. Our job as activists is to make sure that (de Blasio’s promise of change) doesn’t turn into just something for a campaign.”
Lawsuits and politicians are key to ending stop-and-frisk, but so are communities implementing a more active role in their own safety and the safety of their neighbors. On Monday, Communities United for Police Reform issued a report titled “Safety and Civil Rights for All New Yorkers” which calls for de Blasio and Bratton to lead with just, effective and transparent police policy. On transparency Kang says, “The more transparent we are about how government works… and what government does and doesn’t do, the more everyday New Yorkers can take responsibility.”
She concludes, “When we talk about safety we need to talk about, not just law enforcement’s role [but also ] our co-production of safety [in our communities] . What we’re calling for is for all of us to take care of each other”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy