Black Lives Matter Emergency Action List #2: Week of June 2nd

Hi everyone! We usually don't do lists this close together but we wanted to consolidate all the resources we have seen and created into one list. So this is a follow up! 
Please refer to our list from a few days ago for more starter actions. That list includes tons of links, resources, and more.

Our content elsewhere this week:

• ​This IGTV is a video version of the intro to our usual in-person workshops: The calling basics.
• This post and this post are lists of bail funds in different cities
• We made this NYC/NYS Police Reform Phonebank masterlist with Coalition Z (more below) 

Where to get protest info:
For NYC: @JusticeForGeorgeNYC on IG is posting daily schedules and compiling all the protests going on. Please be sure to find a near location to you-- don't go on the subway!!! 

Direct help to protesters from home:
If you can't protest, here are some ways to help from home:

• Bail funds. See above links to our posts with list.
• Jail support: going to jails where protesters are being released with food, water, cash, chargers, and masks. Here is more of an explanation. To find where to go, you can find calls on social media by searching precinct names on Twitter and seeing if help is needed. If you're in NYC, help is almost always needed at 1 Police Plaza. You can also download the signal app!
• Go on Scanner Duty for a little while! Download the Scanner Radio app and listen in on police radios. Then report what you're hearing on social media with the hashtag #[Your City]ScannerDuty to keep protesters out of harm's way. Examples are here.

Things in this list that are urgent:
- The repeal of 50A in NYS is being voted on imminently
- NYC Budget gets finalized July 1st! So defunding police is urgent.

Also: make sure you're taking some time to take care of yourself. If we all get burnt out, this will never work.
This Instagram post by Jenna Wortham includes lots of healing resources that are free for Black people right now-- if you are Black, please utilize!

A few key points before you dive in: 

• There are so many amazing resources already out there, disseminated far and wide by social media. In case you’re overwhelmed at all, we’ve tried here to consolidate, link, and share them in a streamlined way!
  • **If you have more good resources, please send them our way — either emailed to teensresist1@gmail.com or DMed to @teensresist — and we’ll add them!**
• If you want to hold yourself and others accountable for calling, emailing, signing, donating, etc., do it communally — FaceTime a friend, or multiple! On that note, we’ll be holding a joint phonebanking Zoom with Coalition Z tomorrow(6/3) at 5pm.
  • We’ll be calling to urge the New York City Council to defund the NYPD, to urge prosecutors to cease prosecution — specifically of protesters — and more.
  • Meeting link: https://zoom.us/j/97937349839?pwd=RXRuSnljOVpUVEdTTVJwK3N1Qm1JUT09, ID: 979 3734 9839, password CALL
  • Everyone (New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers) welcome!! Scripts will be accessible & relevant for everyone

say their names:

​



​David McAtee, a chef — the owner of YaYa's BBQ, a local restaurant in western Louisville — was murdered by police & National Guard early Monday morning as an unarmed protester. His body was left in the street for 13 hours. He was a beloved member of the community and a wonderful cook. His death is yet another reminder of the senseless state terrorism we are witnessing. (GoFundMe here.)

​On May 27th, 2020, Tony McDade, a black LGBTQ person, was shot and killed by a Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) officer. Many details surrounding this incident are unclear (read more here); police have not released the officer’s name. However, witnesses have said the officer in question was white. According to the Human Rights Campaign, McDade is the twelfth transgender or non-conforming person to be fatally shot or killed in 2020 alone. (GoFundMe here.) ​

First things first:  ​DIY PHONEBANK

We made this Masterlist with Coalition Z and it's full of resources. Take a half hour to guide yourself through this phonebank on your own or FaceTime a friend or host a Zoom and do it together.

Teens Resist x Coalition Z NYS Phonebanking Masterlist

legislation: Safer Ny Act

The SAFER NY ACT is a package of bills aimed at increasing increase NYPD transparency and accountability.
First component of the Safer NY Act: Repeal 50-A

• 50-A is a section of the New York Civil Rights Law which shields police misconduct records from public access. Only 2 other states in the US have laws that exempt police officers from public records law. (SEE BOTTOM OF THIS LIST FOR ANALYSIS OF POLICE MISCONDUCT LAWS STATE-BY-STATE)
  • How 50-A hurts: in the case of Eric Garner’s death, 50-A allowed the NYPD to refuse to release officer Pantaleo’s disciplinary history (has since been leaked: he had multiple complaints for abusive stop and searches), his internal police trial is still ongoing 
• SCRIPT (modified from Coalition Z’s)
  • For State Senate/Assembly Members (find yours here!) who have yet to cosponsor the repeal:
    • My name is [YOUR NAME] and I am a constituent from [LOCATION]. I am calling today to ask [MEMBER’S NAME] to co sponsor [S03695 (Senate)/A02513 (Assembly)] and support its passage when the [SENATE/ASSEMBLY] convenes for a vote next week. This bill would repeal Section 50-A of the New York Civil Rights Law, which shields police misconduct records from public access. [MEMBER’S NAME]’s leadership is necessary to bring it to a vote, as they are one of the members of the [SENATE/ASSEMBLY] who has yet to co-sponsor this bill. Governor Cuomo has stated that he would sign a repeal, so the [SENATE/ASSEMBLY] has the ability to take decisive action, and I urge [MEMBER’S NAME] to lead this charge. ​
• There are a wealth of phone numbers, emails, and more specific scripts/information in these two toolkits:

Coalition Z Toolkit

BHSEC JSA Toolkit

​Click here for a one-pager on the full volume of bills in the Safer NY Act. The other bills in it are:

• the Police Statistics & Transparency (STAT) Act, which would require police departments across the state to record & report demographic and geographic data on enforcement of low-level offenses
• the Special Prosecutor Legislation to strengthen and codify Executive Order 147, which would authorizes the Attorney General’s office with jurisdiction in all cases of police killings and deaths in police custody
• the Marijuana Taxation and Regulation Act, which would legalize marijuana & remove it from consideration under the Controlled Substances Act
• legislation that will Reduce unnecessary arrests for non-criminal offenses, which are minor, non-criminal, ticketable offenses (disproportionately impact communities of color)
• If you’re interested, create scripts referencing these bills with our basic template and call your reps about them!

OThER LEGISLATION: defund the police

• Ultimately, policing reforms fall short — we must invest policing funds in other community initiatives instead. Read “The Only Solution is to Defund the Police” by Alex Vitale for more info 
• The New York City Council is finalizing their proposed budget on June 5th. The budget makes atrocious cuts to vital community services, like youth employment and education (read more about it in one of our last lists), but cuts barely anything from the NYPD.
  • ​FInd your councilperson's contact info here!  You can also call Melanie Hartzog, Director of Office & Management & Budget of the Mayor, and Speaker Corey Johnson.
  • Brief script by @jfrejnyc to defund NYPD: Hello, my name is [Name]. [Insert line if you are a NYC/district resident]. I demand accountability for the NYPD’s abuse of protestors. I urge you to defund the NYPD in the 2021 city budget. The NYPD’s $6 billion budget is more than expenses on health, homeless services, youth development, and workforces combined. Can we count on you to vote for significant cuts to the NYPD in order to fund our city’s many other critical priorities in this crisis? ​
• Comprehensive scripts, numbers, and key dates across different cities aimed at defunding corresponding police departments found here (INCLUDES RESOURCES EVEN FOR NON-NEW YORKERS):

DEFUND PD

Minnesota: Chokehold Ban

On May 25, George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police department, as one of their officers kept his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes. 

Under Minneapolis regulations, chokeholds and neck restraints are allowed to be used by the Minneapolis Police Department. There is now a statewide chokehold ban being proposed. According to NBC News, the Minneapolis Police Department has caused people to become unconscious 44 times as the result of a neck restraint, within the last 5 years.

This restraint was made illegal in New York following the death of Eric Garner and in other places across the country, as it is deemed to be a use of excessive force and can often place the victim's life in danger. By putting a statewide law in place, it will prevent the use of this technique in all municipalities and will prevent this form of police violence from occurring in the future. 

However, this restraint should be banned everywhere. If you're in Minnesota, contact your state legislators and demand they make chokeholds illegal in the state. If you're in another state, check if there is a chokehold ban in place. If there's not, contact your legislators and ask them to write a bill and propose the ban in the legislature. This technique is unnecessary and excessively dangerous, and putting an end to it will prevent police departments from using it in the future and putting lives at risk. 

Minnesotans and others can use the chokehold ban script from our NYS doc (earlier in this list) and obviously sub in Minnesota or your state name.

​antiracist resources, orgs to donate to, & some new petitions

Organizations and antiracist resources are found extensively in the relevant sections of our last list (though they're by no means exhaustive), as well as in some of the resource docs linked in the buttons below. 

**Before donating, make sure that an org is still accepting money!**
One addition: if you don’t have the means to donate, Zoe Amira, a Black woman, posted a video to raise funds for BLM causes — just clicking on the link and letting it play will generate ad revenue. 

- For nonblack allies, another important "place" to donate is to the Black educators helping you learn right now. Black educators on social media like Rachel Cargle will often include their Venmo, CashApp, etc. in their bio and posts. If you're learning from them, financially compensate them!

Some more petitions:

• https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#petitions — a ton of petitions
• Advocate for the City Council’s passing of the chokehold bill
• Advocate for the Hands Up Act, which would punish police for shooting unarmed citizens 
• Demand that Amazon stop selling facial recognition software to the government, which disproportionately impacts people of color
  • Earlier this year, Amazon came under fire for supplying ICE with surveillance information in order to aid agents in terrorizing immigrant communities and deporting individuals​

​

some other phenomenal resources worth checking out

​George Floyd action doc (via @botanicaldyke): 
Legal aid and places to donate to, indexed by location.

Resistance Resource Hub (via @avyisabel): 
Extensive research on how police departments nationwide are funded; live and constantly being made more comprehensive by a coalition of organizers.

26 Ways to Be in the Struggle Beyond the Streets

Who’s Taking Cop Money?: A living document aimed at exposing which NY state legislators have taken money from police institutions. Has already caused five NYS incumbent politicians to swear off taking contributions from the PD and pledge to donate the funds to BLM causes.

Neighbor Handout (adapted from @kristadelany): A note calling neighbors to action, basic statistics about police brutality in the US, petitions, places to donate to, script to defund NYPD.

Student Anti-Racism Resources (from @hchsgo): Concrete actions, orgs to donate to, and books, shows/movies, articles, and podcasts to educate yourself.

Campaign Zero (@campaignzero): website for this amazing organization, which is dedicated to finding effective policy solutions to fight police brutality.

Some Background (further reading) on why 50-A is relevant: examples of how different police misconduct laws function in 2 other states

Records of police misconduct are confidential in 23 states; the relative level of protection of these documents varies across those states. For example, some states make the personnel records of any public employee exempt from disclosure, while New York, California, and Delaware have specific laws that prevent the public from knowing if a law enforcement officer has a history of misconduct. 

In California, there is a specific procedure that a defendant in a criminal case must follow in order to gain access to an officer’s record. This is called a Pitchess motion, and all of the following criteria must be met:

• Description of the type of information sought and where (which government agency) it can be found
• Proof that there is “good cause” to release the records, i.e. an explanation of why the records are relevant in an affidavit​

However, in September 2018, a California Senate bill was passed which makes a Pitchess motion unnecessary in some cases; these include records relating to an incident, or investigation: 

• involving a police officer shooting his gun at a person;
• involving a police officer using force against a person and resulting in death or great bodily injury;
• in which there was a finding that a police officer engaged in sexual assault; and,
• where there was a finding that an officer acted dishonestly.​
  

In Washington, the “use of force” bill (House Bill 3003, signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in March, 2018) helps hold officers accountable and prevents the use of deadly force in police altercations except under certain specified circumstances. 

• While such bills help prevent deadly interactions, especially in the midst of current protests going on in Seattle, there have still been violent and abusive altercations between protesters and police officers. 
• In Seattle, over the weekend, a police officer maced a child, and used black tape to cover up his badge number so bystanders could not file a complaint against him, despite officers being required to show their badges all the time. However, through photo analysis, individuals have identified the officer as Officer Jared Campbell and are working to get a complaint through to the police department.  
• Email the Seattle Police Department at opa@seattle.gov or call 206-684-2489 in order to demand that Campbell face repercussions for his actions, including macing a child and refusing to show/supply his badge number when requested.

With that, we'll sign off. 
Peace & Power,
TR