Care not cops

A tragic shooting in Sunset Park, Brooklyn yesterday was exploited into a watershed moment for policing once again. But policing doesn’t keep us safe.

NYC is one of the most policed cities in the country. Altogether, NYPD’s budget of more than $10 billion a year — more than all but a handful of the world’s national military budgets — far outweighs essential social services. And over 1,000 cops were added to the subway system in the past couple months, totaling over 3,500 subway cops in NYC (more than many police forces around the country).

Yet police presence remains largely untethered to crime. Rather extreme poverty leads to increased crime rates. We need to think beyond police when it comes to safety. Most things that are policed are unnecessary. We don’t need armed law enforcement to direct traffic and issue tickets. Police don’t prevent violence & rarely solve crimes. And murder & corruption is often endemic among the forces.

The only way to stop police violence is to stop siphoning tax dollars to the NYPD and invest in the material conditions that actually impact the safety of our communities: healthcare, education, housing, and jobs that pay livable wages. 

The cops don’t make us safer. We make us safer.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @ryanlemere

1. To be Pro-Choice, you must have the privilege of having choices. It’s important to keep in mind that Roe never fully protected Black women — or poor women or so many others in this country. [click to tweet]

2. Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police. We can’t reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police. (This one by Mariame Kaba never gets old). [click to tweet]

3. What’s shame got to do with it? It isn’t shame but stigma that jeopardizes our constitutional rights, our human agency and our collective well-being. Stigma sorts and stratifies people, assigning them to categories against their will. [click to tweet]

4. Yes, colonialism caused climate change, IPCC reports. Finally, the world’s top scientists are acknowledging that decolonization must be central to the global response to climate change. [click to tweet]

5. The pandemic has trapped millions in unending grief. COVID is now the third leading cause of death—and therefore the third leading cause of grief—in the United States. [click to tweet]

Last week, Lizelle Herrera was charged with murder in Texas after medical staff called the police on her for allegedly self managing her abortion. The case came as Republican-led states across the country are passing a flurry of antiabortion legislation ahead of a Supreme Court decision this summer that could overturn or significantly weaken Roe v. Wade. Here’s what the country will look like if that happens.

DEFUND THE POLICE: Reproductive justice and abortion rights is an abolition issue. Police and the prison industrial complex do not protect pregnant people, nor do they protect children. Their function is to maintain systems of state control and supremacy. Start here.

SUPPORT REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM AND UNIVERSAL CARE: Everyone deserves access to quality medical care, freedom to choose, support for community care givers and respect for one’s bodily autonomy. Here’s how you can give.

VOTEPROCHOICE. We can no longer rely on the federal government to protect bodily autonomy. We must regain local ground and elect pro-choice candidates. Check out this voters guide.

PRACTICE ABOLITION. You can start by following the people who know the way. Check out We Do This Til We’re Free by Mariame Kaba, Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell, An Abolitionist’s Handbook by Patrisse Cullers.

Content @thesweetfeminist

Book bans are escalating across the country – part of a larger, coordinated effort to suppress marginalized communities’ history, presence, and future. States like Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Tennessee have introduced legislation that explicitly restricts books in curriculum, Texas has banned CRT from it’s schools and libraries, and South Carolina is making it criminal to feature books with “obscene content”.

Why does it matter?

“Book bans are about more than removing books. They’re an attempt to remove our existence, and we must fight against them fervently.” says George M Johnson. He’s speaking to the way banning books only makes schools less safe and welcoming for students with marginalized identities. When children don’t see themselves or other social groups represented in educational materials, it makes them less likely to have good self esteem and develop positive associations with kids from social group memberships other than their own. Protecting books is how we protect the truth and each other.

***Subscribe to Banned Books Book Club, a free resource for educating and mobilizing about banned books!

Art and action by @ardtakeaction

A Spell for the Spring Equinox by adrienne maree brown.

Art by @ctznwell

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