Oshkosh, WI – Over a dozen community members rallied in downtown Oshkosh on Saturday afternoon, September 25, to demonstrate their support for a Civilian Police Accountability Council, or CPAC, in their city.

The rally took place at Isaiah Tucker Square, recently renamed by the community in memoriam of Isaiah Tucker, a father of three children, who was murdered by officers Aaron Achterburg and Kyle Roberts of the Oshkosh Police Department in 2017. Several grassroots community action groups united to organize the demonstration, including United Action Oshkosh, Food Not Bombs, and Hope Fridge.

Sophia Rose, an organizer with United Action Oshkosh said, “I helped to organize this event because I believe that it’s important that cities across the U.S., including Oshkosh, begin to look at solutions to the policing problem. CPAC is a great start to police accountability and community control.”

Rose continued, “We’ve gotten to a point where police are seen as above us when they are not, they work for us. We pay them, they are supposed to ‘protect and serve’ us.”

The event drew a positive response from the community and passersby who stopped to talk, learn, and enjoy hot food and refreshments from Food Not Bombs. The rally ended with a call to action, for people to support their local grassroots community organizations, join them and help them grow.

#OshkoshWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #UnitedActionOshkosh #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC

Oshkosh, WI – Over a dozen community members rallied in downtown Oshkosh on Saturday afternoon, September 25, to demonstrate their support for a Civilian Police Accountability Council, or CPAC, in their city.

The rally took place at Isaiah Tucker Square, recently renamed by the community in memoriam of Isaiah Tucker, a father of three children, who was murdered by officers Aaron Achterburg and Kyle Roberts of the Oshkosh Police Department in 2017. Several grassroots community action groups united to organize the demonstration, including United Action Oshkosh, Food Not Bombs, and Hope Fridge.

Sophia Rose, an organizer with United Action Oshkosh said, “I helped to organize this event because I believe that it’s important that cities across the U.S., including Oshkosh, begin to look at solutions to the policing problem. CPAC is a great start to police accountability and community control.”

Rose continued, “We’ve gotten to a point where police are seen as above us when they are not, they work for us. We pay them, they are supposed to ‘protect and serve’ us.”

The event drew a positive response from the community and passersby who stopped to talk, learn, and enjoy hot food and refreshments from Food Not Bombs. The rally ended with a call to action, for people to support their local grassroots community organizations, join them and help them grow.

#OshkoshWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #UnitedActionOshkosh #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC

Denver, CO – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) rallied here April 29, as a part of their campaign to disarm and defund the Auraria Campus Police Department.

SDS has been working to disarm and defund ACPD since the summer of 2020. Since then, police funds on campus actually did go down by 6%, but when compared to a 9.7% general budget cut due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the police are actually receiving a larger percentage of the total budget – despite only one in three classes being held on campus.

SDS demonstrations on campus were cited by the police as one of the key reasons for the establishment of a Police Advisory Board at the end of 2020. SDS demands were to create a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), but, instead, a toothless advisory board was created.

Kyle Burroughs, of SDS, quoted the ACPD Community Advisory Board’s mission statement in his speech, noting the claim the board has been founded “in an effort to increase dialogue.” Burroughs stated, “The main problem is that the mass demand surrounding police is not to increase dialogue, but, rather, to allow for punitive consequences for bad police, to prevent police violence, to put an end to racist policing and police injustice, and, ultimately, to have community control of the police.”

Further language in the Community Advisory Board’s mission statement indicates that the non-democratically elected appointees will “make recommendations,” “provide feedback,” “address topics,” and “generate new ideas or solutions for consideration” by the ACPD. The rally renewed the demands by SDS to establish a CPAC in place of the Advisory Board for the ultimate goals of disarming and defunding ACPD. Burroughs spoke on this, saying “The relationship between the police and campus community should be one where the campus community has complete control over the police, not one where the community has ‘open dialogue’ or ‘discussion’ or ‘suggestions for consideration.’”

Further concerns about the activities of the ACPD were addressed by Burroughs in his speech, who spoke of a Black SDS member experiencing the problems of police injustice firsthand after being banned from campus for voicing dissent against the police on his social media. The police went as far as obtaining a warrant to search the student’s home for weapons only to find nothing there. Even after winning his court case, the student is still banned from campus and has to attend weekly meetings with the dean which he has described as “belittling” and “dehumanizing,” and he says his experience is one of racial bias on the part of the university.

The ACPD enjoys a $4.2 million budget. It is unwilling to disclose what its expenditures are, even after students attempted to gain this information via the Colorado Open Records Act. It was deemed “contrary to public interests” to tell the public what weapons were held by the campus police. The police can apparently lie and withhold information from the community, but the community gets punished for speaking out against the police.

SDS has resolved to continue fighting for CPAC on campus and in the surrounding community. Disarming and defunding are the main demands of the campus community surrounding the police and establishing community control of the police would get the campus closer to those demands.

#DenverCO #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #DenverStudentsForADemocraticSociety #AurariaCampusPoliceDepartment

(Fight Back! News/staff)”)

Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of April 9, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a rally at Spaights Plaza at UW-Milwaukee to call for a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) in Milwaukee and renew their demands to defund campus police and refund programs that support students.

“SDS is here supporting CPAC because it is an all-elected civilian accountability council with the power to draft MPD’s budget, a council that can and will conduct independent investigations into police crimes, a council that has the power to hire, fire and discipline Milwaukee’s police,” SDS member Jack Rongstad said, addressing the people in attendance. “As members of the CPAC coalition coordinated by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, we know that CPAC is the program we need to guarantee that the people have real control over the police.”

Rongstad continued by elaborating on the importance of CPAC to redirect public resources to community alternatives that address harm, instead of continuing to funnel them into an institution built to inflict it. For example, funding should be redirected to affordable housing, access to physical and mental health care, replacing police in schools with counselors, transformative justice models, youth programming, and investments into Milwaukee’s chronically underfunded public school system.

Another SDS member, Mike Nelson, said, “CPAC is good for students too because we don’t want to defund campus police only to have more Milwaukee police presence on our campus, who, without CPAC, have no true accountability to the people. We need CPAC now!”

SDS also used this rally to renew their demands to defund the UWM police department and redistribute their funds to programs that actually support students. Chancellor Mone has given flawed reasoning for why they should not and cannot defund the campus police, even though they have a $3 million budget (according to the UW Redbook). Meanwhile, services like mental health, multicultural student offices, and ethnic studies programs face budget cuts. If the $3 million budget of the UWM police department were redistributed, it would be enough to hire four new faculty across 15 departments. The solution is simple: defund UWM PD and redistribute its funds to programs that actually support students.

#MilwaukeeWI #StudentMovement #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #MilwaukeeSDS #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR) has announced their campaign to rename Lindbergh Park, at the corner of North 16th and Nash, in order to honor long-time activist, Lucille Berrien, whose life and work better represents Milwaukee than that of a Nazi sympathizer.

Lindbergh Park was dedicated to Charles Lindbergh in September 1927 following his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. Although Lindbergh’s piloting career cemented him as an international icon, his political involvement with the America First Committee (AFC) and repeated expressions of admiration for Hitler and his Nazi regime cannot be overlooked.

Lindbergh’s established connections to white supremacy and anti-Semitism have recently garnered more mainstream attention. There is no room for the commemoration of racist figures in our neighborhoods, especially in those near Lindbergh Park, which are predominantly Black.

While Lindbergh’s racist legacy remains crucial to MAARPR’s campaign, it is the connection between the origins of Lindbergh Park and the current movements to defund the police that are at its heart.

As the Milwaukee Sentinel reported on the day of Lindbergh Park’s inauguration, it was part of an initiative led by Mayor Daniel Hoan to protect neighborhoods and provide the youth with recreational possibilities in order to reduce “juvenile crime.” Hoan stated at the inauguration that, “parks are a saving, not an expense to the community. Four years ago, the city wanted to hire 150 additional policemen, but I vetoed the measure because we were opening many new parks, and we hired only fifty. Each policeman costs the city $2,000 a year, and we saved $200,000. We are putting that money into the establishment of more parks.”

In 1927, Hoan recognized that hiring more police was not the solution to successfully reduce crime. On the contrary, hiring more police would swallow up a significant portion of the city’s budget, resulting in less funding for fiscally responsible solutions like recreational opportunities and education. Nearly a century later, this remains true.

Today, Lindbergh Park is located in one of the most heavily policed neighborhoods in the city, which has some of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. Milwaukee has continually poured millions into the police budget, but such strategy has remained ineffective in reducing crime.

The lessons drawn from the history of Lindbergh Park teach us that Milwaukee was a pioneer in funding the people and not the police. We must carry these lessons as we address our present conditions. Prioritizing the needs of the people means a substantial reduction in the police budget.

MAARPR has found no better person to dedicate the park to than Lucille Berrien. Lucille lived across the park for many years, fostering over 120 children and acting as a mother for many more. She was a founding member of MAARPR, a member of the Black Panther Party, and the first Black woman to run for mayor in Milwaukee. Lucille has shown a relentless spirit in the struggles for justice in Milwaukee.

Much more could be said about Lucille, but even through the few aforementioned accomplishments, it is evident that her life and work truly represents Milwaukee. The time is now to rename the park, Lucille Berrien Park.

Make no mistake, MAARPR’s campaign to rename Lindbergh Park is not just about changing a name or disposing a white supremacist’s legacy. There is much more to come from MAARPR as we help lead the efforts to not just defund the police, but to establish community control of them.

Through an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), the people of these communities have the final authority over who polices them and how they are policed. CPAC ensures that all matters related to law enforcement, including the budget, hiring and firing power over all officers, full authority on disciplinary measures against officers, and negotiation on police union contracts, are subject to the will of the people.

Milwaukee deserves better. The origins of Lindbergh Park and Lucille Berrien have shown us that Milwaukee has been and can once again be a pioneering city that places the needs of the people ahead of all else. This campaign to rename the park after Lucille is only the beginning.

For more information on MAARPR please write to us at: milwaukeealliance@gmail.com

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Milwaukee, WI – On January 9, nearly 100 people joined a car caravan starting at Kops Park put on by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR) to say no to the COPS grant and yes to CPAC (Civilian Police Accountability Council).

The COPS grant would give the Milwaukee Police Department $9.7 million to dedicate 30 officers to Operation Legend, a program that unfairly targets Black and Latino communities. The Milwaukee Common Council voted no to the COPS grant in December only to have Alderperson Nikiya Dodd put it back up for reconsideration. That revote is scheduled for later this month.

The People’s Revolution, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Los Brown Berets Milwaukee and the Martin Luther King Coalition all came out to join the caravan.

The line of cars stretched out three blocks with protesters honking to show solidarity. The caravan first stopped at Alderperson Nikiya Dodd’s house to demand that she vote no to the COPS grant. The crowd chanted “No justice! No peace,” and “CPAC! Fight back!”

“Today is a new day. It's a new age and the people are watching now. Every major vote from now on will be looked at,” said Ulysses Thomspon, a member of MAARPR and a rank-and-file trade unionist with Teamsters Local 200. “If your records aren't to our liking, the people will vote you out of office or make you want to leave office because there will be no peace as long as there is no justice.”

The caravan continued toward Common Council President Cavalier Johnson’s house. A speaker from The People’s Revolution, Kamila Ahmed, stated, “Cavalier Johnson has misled many people. He misled us. He told us his constituents said they wanted him to vote yes. We’ve been all up through this neighborhood, I’ve not met one person that says they need more police on these streets.” The caravan remained on Alderperson Cavalier Johnson’s block to make some noise and make sure his neighbors knew that he’s not listening to the community’s demands.

The caravan circled back to Kops Park to hear veteran organizer and founding member of the original Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Brian Verdin, give a speech. Verdin stated the importance of showing up to stand for what’s right. Verdin also gave praise to the Alliance.

“On the heels of the anti-war movement, there was the struggle to free Angela Davis. After that was the founding of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in 1972 and, when I heard that the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression was going to be refounded, I was so proud,” said Verdin. “We need unity more than ever,” he added, “and that is why I love the Alliance so much. It’s strong ideologically and it’s strong organizationally. And we need national organizations more than ever. Stick with the Alliance, stick with the movement because the movement will never let you down.”

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Minneapolis, MN – On November 14, over 150 people gathered in North Minneapolis to honor the five-year mark since Jamar Clark was killed by the Minneapolis Police department on November 15, 2015. It also marks the five-year anniversary of the heightened struggle locally against police terror and its progression to demand community control of the police to stop killer cops.

New and veteran members of Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) lead the protesters from the neighborhood that Minnesota Attorney General Elision lives in, to the memorial site of Plymouth and James Avenues, where Clark was killed.

Precautions against COVID were taken, including shifting to a well-organized car caravan protest.

In addition to the call for justice for Jamar and TCC4J’s longtime demand of community control of police, the demands for the march include calls to: -- Reopen all the cases against killer cops -- Free all political prisoners, such as Myon Burrell and the protesters who were jailed during the summer uprising -- Ban the use of memory-altering drugs and reassess EMT training, specifically addressing the racial bias within it; hold EMTs accountable for their complicity with the police in administering drugs such as ketamine, and their delaying treatment of victims.

Speakers from the movement, families and TCC4J echoed the lessons learned in the struggle for justice for Jamar and to continue to build the movement. TCC4J encourages people to attend the new member meetings to build the fight for CPAC!

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JamarClark #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #TwinCitiesCoalition4JusticeForJamarTCC4J

Chicago, IL – During a series of questions around racial injustice and law enforcement, the issue of community control of police was raised during the September 29 presidential debate, the first of three scheduled between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. An issue that only had strong roots in a few cities six months ago is now a topic of national interest in the campaign for the highest office in the land.

“The power of our movement manifests itself in the biggest and boldest way in the wake of the George Floyd protests. In the demonstrations that we called, we had over 100,000 people mobilized across this country under the Alliance banner,” said Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression. “That is what got us into the debate: cause and effect.”

For those who missed it, moderator Chris Wallace asked this direct question, “I do want to talk about this issue of law and order though, and in the joint recommendation that came from the Biden-Bernie Sanders task force, you talked about quote ‘reimagining policing.’ What does re-imagining policing mean and do you support the Black Lives Matter call for community control of policing?”

Biden avoided the question, advocating instead for ‘community policing,’ and sidestepping the issue of putting communities in control of the law enforcement patrolling the streets.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #CommunityControlOfThePolice

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 25 statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Once again, the hour of tragedy strikes for another Black family, in another Black community caught in the grip of the pandemic crises of COVID-19 and racism.

First of all, we want to express our solidarity with the traumatized family of Jacob Blake, and the protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sometime after 5 p.m. on August 23, 2020 Jacob was returning to his car, unarmed, after attempting to break up a fight between two women. The police arriving, guns drawn, were pleaded with by bystanders not to shoot, yet they shot Blake 7 times as he was opening his car door. They shot him while his 3, 5- and 8-years old children were screaming. Blake was taken to the hospital where he is still struggling for his life. This morning, his father announced that Jacob is paralyzed from the waist down.

Protesters gathered at the site of the shooting, agitated by the militarized aggressive actions of the Kenosha Police Department, began to express their anger. They chased cops away and some police cars were burned. This uprising was greeted by SWAT team trucks and rioting cops resisted by people with arms locked, standing firm and chanting “No justice, no peace!”

It’s the same old tired pattern of state-sanctioned racist violence where the police wantonly murder us in the streets and when our people in justified anger rebel they call out the militarized police, the National Guard and set the stage for mass arrests with curfew.

What should be our response? To put more people in the streets in organized protests. We don’t reject rebellion, we call on all the various strands of the peoples movement, every friend and ally we have in the struggle for justice to join with the protesters in Kenosha and throughout this country to take it to the streets. Here are our demands:

We demand that the National Guard deployed by Governor Tony Evers to brutalize protesters be recalled.

We demand the Kenosha cop who shot Jacob Blake be immediately arrested, charged and convicted.

We demand real police accountability through an all elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) establishing community control of the police, shifting police funding to essential public services like education and regulating police to address the real demands for safety of the people.

We must protest until all the demands of the movement are met, until we have our unalienable democratic demand to determine who polices our communities and how our communities are policed.

#KenoshaWisconsin #KenoshaWI #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepressionNAARPR #KenoshaPoliceDepartment #JacobBlake

Minneapolis, MN – The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) was joined by community supporters and Jamar Clark’s family for a press conference demanding community control of the police and a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). After working on CPAC for years, organizing has been kicked into high gear by the uprising for George Floyd and empty responses from local politicians. Two months after nine Minneapolis City Council members declared a “commitment to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” even their empty promises have stalled out.

One such response was a city charter amendment proposal that hit a hurdle in city hall last week. As TCC4J’s Jae Yates said, “On Wednesday, August 5, the Charter Commission requested more time to consider the city council’s proposed charter amendment, effectively making it ineligible for inclusion on November’s ballot. While some non-profit organizations were in support of the amendment, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar maintains that the amendment is toothless, put forth mainly to placate and silence protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.”

“The proposed charter amendment was at best a symbolic gesture and at worst lessened police accountability for past and future crimes,” Yates continued. “In opposition to the charter amendment, TCC4J instead demands community control of police, which will meaningfully curtail the as of yet unchecked power of the MPD to terrorize Black, brown and low income communities. The CPAC legislation puts all oversight of police misconduct back into the hands of the communities that are being policed and provides continuous engagement for community members to address grievances. CPAC consists of a directly-elected all-civilian council, and has final authority over discipline, up to and including subpoena power and the convening of grand juries. In short, the CPAC legislation has all of the details that the city council’s proposal lacked.”

Jae Yates mentioned that efforts to defund the police can’t move forward without community control over the defunding process. “CPAC gives us that control. We are demanding that CPAC passes and is put on the ballot so that we can vote on it, so that we can get control over these violent police that are policing our communities. Essentially, what the city council has given us in response to a call for justice for these stolen lives is a rebranding PR attempt.”

In contrast, TCC4J’s Sam Martinez described CPAC, “We’re here today to talk about a people’s charter amendment, and that would be for community control of the police. Over the next year, we will be gathering our forces along with organizing in the community for our coming charter amendment in 2021.”

Longtime TCC4J organizer, Loretta VanPelt, said, “We still have work to do. We have work to do to make sure that we hold these killer cops accountable for what they’ve done to the countless families in the city that have lost loved ones to the police and have gotten no justice whatsoever. That’s the main focus of community control, is to hold the cops accountable. It’s to hold the people in city hall accountable too, cuz they didn’t do their job either. Just telling us that, ‘yeah, we’ll dismantle, we’ll defund,’ that’s just symbolic. You could’ve done that five years ago when Jamar Clark was killed, in 2013 when Terrance Franklin was killed, or in 2006 after Fong Lee, or 1991 with Tycel Nelson.”

VanPelt also addressed a rallying cry of many proponents of the derailed amendment, “I’m for defunding the police. We have a huge homeless problem in this city right now. Several parks have tents in them with people who are living in them because there's no other place to go. I could tell you a better way – that the money that goes to overpolice all the Black and brown and low income communities could get those people homes. We could be funding our schools better. We could be funding all the other infrastructure.”

TCC4J has begun collecting endorsers for CPAC. Speaking for one of those endorsing organizations, the Anti-War Committee’s Meredith Aby-Keirstead said, “We are very concerned about the game that City Hall is playing, where they’re literally trying to put window dressing up. We have not had an outpouring of public outrage of literally tens of thousands of people since the Iraq War. I have seen firsthand how angry people have been and I feel like it’s important to listen to that anger. The people in city hall are more interested in keeping their jobs than they are in actually changing the conditions on the ground that affect people here in Minneapolis.”

Daphne Brown, a TCC4J member who’s been organizing against police murders since Terrance Franklin was killed by MPD in 2013 declared, “Nothing short of CPAC is what we need and demand. We don’t want no Community Safety and Violence Prevention Department! Council members, mayor and government in city hall, we don’t want that piece of shit y’all trying to give us. We do not want it. We want what we demand, which is CPAC. That’s the only thing that’s gonna give us the power back to protect our community, protect our families and protect ourselves.”

Brown was also critical of the backroom dealings that brought forth the proposed charter amendment. “To the council members that came up with this, you went behind our backs! Andrea Jenkins, Jeremiah Ellison, y’all know that’s not gonna help us.” She continued, “We still got killer cops out here y'all. How can we accept anything from these people, knowing we still got killer cops on our streets? The same police department that killed Jamar Clark, two of their officers killed Thurman Blevins. Y’all happy with that? They killed Travis Jordan. Y’all happy with that? We got serial killers in all of our departments out here, riding our streets out here, hunting us down. We not accepting nothing y'all offer. What y'all need to do before you come off of them round tables, you need to be discussing, you need to be having an action, firing these killer cops out here. That’s the first thing y’all should’ve done before you asked us to accept anything. You should’ve been getting these killer cops off the streets.”

Brown also blasted the process for community comments on the proposal, “When you put together this online event, we had teachers that couldn’t even get on! Because y’all railroaded us for this piece of bullshit. It’s crap. Y’all wanted us to accept it and stuff, but we not gonna accept it. I did everything I could to get on that online event, I wrote down every prompt that it was talking about doing, and still couldn’t get through. So that doesn’t work for our communities out here. It does not work for us. Before you come back with another online event, you need to make that…public. You need to make it public, so we can talk face to face, behind your glass window or whatever. But you get all of this offline because it’s not working for us. The way you all got this shit set up, can’t nobody get through. You make that public so people can get out and come to it. We’ll social distance if that’s what you want. Wear our masks if it’s what you want.”

The final speaker was Danielle Burns, “I stand here as Jamar Clark’s sister. Jamar was killed by the 4th Precinct police, November 15, 2015. When Jamar was killed, a lot of people came around us, and we thought they was around us to support us, we thought we trusted. But there was a lot of people that was lying to us. It was wrong, ok? Now it’s these same folks putting forward a fake fix with their city charter amendment. Changing the police department’s name, that’s not justice.” She continued, “It’s the community members like my family that knows what it’ll take to make real changes. We been through it, we’ve been through this. So they should hear us. No changes should be made, but through us. We stand with the people that stood with us. We demand community control of the police. Enough is enough! Why? Why do we have to continue to go through this wickedness? Why? But you know, it’s a fight, and we in for the long haul. We in it for the long haul. My brother had a purpose and his family gonna fight. Justice for Jamar!”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #TwinCitiesCoalitionForJustice4Jamar #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC

Chicago, IL – About 1000 people gathered at two locations August 9 and marched to Diversey and Halsted for a rally aimed at getting North Side Aldermen to sponsor the ordinance establishing an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC).

The focus was on the 2nd, 32nd, 43rd, and 44th Wards and Aldermen Brian Hopkins, Scott Waguespack, Michele Smith and Tom Tunny.

The action is part of the nationwide protests over unrelenting killings of Black and Latino people by police in Chicago and the United States, especially since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks.

Sponsors included the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Boricua Resistance, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), Black Lives Matter-Chicago, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), End Northside Racism, Northside Action for Justice, 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice, 33rd Ward Working Families, 32nd Ward United, 2nd Ward Neighbors for CPAC.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #antipolicebrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #CommunityControlOfThePolice

Mayor DeBlasio claims that several hundred million dollars cut from the NYPD will go to funding for education. However, the reality is that the money currently used to police NYC schools will simply get shuffled around so that it comes out of the Department of Education (DOE) budget instead. To make matters worse, this comes on top of plans to cut hundreds of millions from funding for the DOE. So what DeBlasio calls an increase in funding for education is in reality just a sneaky way to continue over-policing the schools, all while the city saves money on actual education costs.

The budget proposal also refuses to put in a NYPD hiring freeze, even though the number of officers has grown dramatically over the past several years. By contrast, months ago DeBlasio announced plans for a hiring freeze on teachers for the next school year.

While DeBlasio also touts the new budget as beneficial to low-income New Yorkers by moving funding from the NYPD to things like public housing, the budget will also cut $65 million from a program that provides low-income residents with half-price Metro cards for public transit.

People across New York City immediately recognized the lies embedded in the city’s plan to supposedly defund the NYPD. Protests continue daily across the city, and an occupation of City Hall still endures after it began almost two weeks ago. Despite violent police repression, protesters refuse to back down until their demands are met and the NYPD gets truly defunded.

If the recent budget decision shows us anything, however, it makes it clear that we cannot expect the mayor or the city council to ever meet the people’s demands around policing in a meaningful way. City officials will always come up with tricky ways to maintain police funding and resources, because as long as capitalism and private property exist, they will do whatever it takes to ensure that the police continue to protect the interests of the ruling class and the rich.

This is exactly why we need to fight for community control of the police. Organizers in the New York Community Action Project and other groups across the country are fighting for a Civilian Police Accountability Council (or CPAC), which would give elected community members power over the police budget, hiring and firing of officers, and the ability to investigate officers. Only by giving the people power over the police will we see real, meaningful changes that include defunding the police and convicting and arresting all the cops who continue to get away with their crimes against Black and brown communities.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NewYorkCommunityActionProjectNYCAP

The agenda was stacked with community members and organizers speaking out for greater police accountability, defunding the police, among other demands. Towards the end of the meeting Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan was slated to have a discussion with community members in attendance. Upon taking the stand he announced he wouldn’t be discussing anything at the meeting and that community members should join his Citizens Advisory Group which is controlled by the Tampa Police Department. Afterwards, he ran out of the room into an area closed off from attendees as attendees tried to approach him to ask questions.

“The Tampa Citizens Review Board has neither the interest nor the ability to properly protect the community, and Chief Dugan’s Citizens Advisory Group will almost certainly be even more toothless and compromised by police influence. We need a Civilian Police Accountability Council, only that will make the streets of Tampa safer for the African American community,” said David Jones of the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee

The Tampa Citizens Review Board was founded in 2016 in response to outcry over lack of police accountability. It has been heavily criticized in the community for the lack of power it has to hold police to account, as well as the influence the police department has in its staffing.

#TampaFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #GeorgeFloyd #TampaBayCommunityActionCommittee

Jacksonville, FL – For the third Saturday in a row, June 13, thousands flooded the streets in downtown Jacksonville to demand police accountability and community control of the police, uniting with the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression’s call for a day of action.

After a historic turnout of 10,000 people earlier this month, and feeling the pressure from the mass demonstrations, Mayor Lenny Curry mandated the removal of Confederate statues across the city and State Attorney Melissa Nelson dropped the charges for the majority of protesters arrested. Also, the state attorney issued a memo saying they’d release the body cam footage sooner with a definite timeline. However, that rhetoric didn’t fool the marchers.

Thousands showed up and filled the streets with chants like “Indict! Convict! Send these killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”

People marched in the heat and demanded that the government release the body cam footage of those murdered by officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and to implement a Jacksonville Police Accountability Council (JPAC).

“They tried to say they’d release the body cam footage and took down racist symbols of white supremacy to try and appease our movement, but we won’t let them,” said Hakeem Balogun, organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and an emcee of the rally. “They still have yet to meet the demands of our movement and we aren’t finished.”

Around 4000 people gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse and listened as speakers clarified demands once again for local elected officials. Representatives from Students for aDemocratic Society at the University of North Florida (SDS), Northside Progressive Coalition, Take Em’ Down Jax and Jacksonville Community Action Committee spoke and echoed the demands for the release of body cam footage and police accountability. Families of the victims of JSO murders were present as well. The mother of Reginald Boston, who was shot and killed by JSO officers in January, spoke and pleaded between sobs for information surrounding the murder of her child.

Organizers led the crowd back to the courthouse after the march, where Reverend Ron Rawls from Saint Augustine, Florida left everyone with a powerful and energizing message, finishing the rally for the day by reminding the crowd that we will win, “by any means necessary.” The demands were from the protest organizers were clear:

1. Drop the remaining charges against protesters from the May 30 National Day of Action

2. JSO and the state attorney release all unedited body camera footage for the community in all cases of police murder and police brutality.

3. The end of all excessive force by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office . Community control of the police through a civilian police accountability council, as well as the slashing of JSO’s budget and that funding redirected back into the community.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NAARPR

New York, NY – On Saturday, June 13, organizers in New York Community Action Project (NYCAP) joined the national day of action to stop police crimes that was called for by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

NYCAP members began the day at The Hub in the South Bronx, doing outreach for their campaign for community control of the police and the creation of a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). Organizers handed out flyers explaining the details of CPAC and were met with very positive community response.

NYCAP later joined a march of around 100 people at Fordham Plaza, which was organized by local community members.

#NewYorkNY #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NAARPR #NewYorkCommunityActionProjectNYCAP

Chicago, IL – Over 1000 marchers and 400 cars drove several miles through the Washington Park neighborhood of Chicago, June 12, to demand community control of the police. Hundreds of people came out of hair and nail salons, stepped out of homes, or came off of the sidewalk to chant and march as well. Cries of “Black lives matter” were alternated with “CPAC now!” CPAC is the Civilian Police Accountability Council, legislation in Chicago City Council which would establish control of the Chicago Police by the Black, Chicano/Mexicano and Puerto Rican neighborhoods in the city.

Organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the march began at the site of the murder of Ronald “Ronnie Man” Johnson. The 25-year-old father was shot in the back by a Chicago cop in 2014. His mother, Dorothy Holmes, spoke about her struggle for justice. “The police killed our RonnieMan and put us through hell. We gave them hell back and we know with you all here we will get justice for him and all victims and survivors of police brutality.”

From there the crowd proceeded to the police station at 51st and Wentworth. Mark Clements, who spent 26 years in prison after he was tortured by Chicago cops into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit, told the story of this torture hell hole. “Officers James O’Brien and Kenneth Boudreau, two of the gang of torturers led by Lieutenant Jon Burge, tortured Nate Fields and 17-year-old Carl Williams in the 1990s at this building. Then thousands of police street files were hidden from the eye of the public and concealed.”

Blocked by city salt trucks from reaching the station, protesters climbed up on a Metra train overpass and hung a banner with the names of many of the hundreds of victims of CPD over the years.

Kobi Guillory of the Alliance said earlier, “CPAC is about long-term power. We have the ruling class on the back foot right now but they still own everything and they’re thinking of ways to take back whatever we win during this rebellion. That’s why we need to [win CPAC] – to defund the police, and end police patrols as an occupying army in our neighborhoods.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #CAARPR #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #CommunityControlOfThePolice

Chicago, IL – Over 2000 cars, most with multiple occupants, and 1000 people on foot participated in a car caravan and march organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) on June 3. The caravan blocked streets near the Chicago Police Department headquarters for miles, while marchers went past roadblocks to confront around 100 riot police directly in front of the headquarters before continuing to congregate in a local park.

Frank Chapman, field organizer of CAARPR, wrote of the demonstration, “The demonstrations organized by Black Lives Matter and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression we had here in Chicago involving thousands of people are demanding more than indicting killer cops. We stand in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis for they are clearly trailblazing the road to justice for George Floyd's family and the people. Yet it is precisely the George Floyd case that makes it crystal clear that we need community control of the police.”

Chapman continued, “The task of our movement at this moment is not to simply raise the demand for community control of the police but to demand that the mayor and the city council pass into law our proposed Ordinance for a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) now! It is our duty to keep the momentum of the movement going until the people are politically empowered to decide who polices our communities and how our communities are policed. All power to the people!”

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

Milwaukee, WI – On the morning of June 4, the family of Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old African American teen who was killed by Wauwatosa Police on February 2, together with around 25 supporters, held a press conference. The family, led by Alvin’s mother Tracy and his sister Taleavia, made their intentions clear: they want justice, but not just for Alvin.

Until only days ago, the Cole family didn’t even know who was responsible for Alvin’s death, but when they learned who the officer was, it became clear the fight was bigger than just their family. Officer Joseph Anthony Mensah of the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) is the man who murdered Alvin, but Mensah also murdered Antonio Gonzales in July 2015, and Jay Anderson, Jr. in June 2016.

“Of course, a lot of things are going on in the world today, but we have to focus here for our people who are dying in the hands of these police officers,” said Taleavia Cole. “So we need to stand for our people as well.”

As a part of their conference, both Tracy and Taleavia Cole announced that the family called for a march on Saturday, June 6. The event will highlight the demand for justice for all the victims of Officer Mensah’s crimes.

“We found out a couple weeks ago that the guy that killed my son – murdered my son – he has a history. He killed not just one, not two, but three people. This man is a murderer. You can say serial killer cause he still out here doing it,” said Tracy Cole. “Joseph is a killer, and I wanna see him tried. I wanna see his job taken from him. And I’m not gonna sleep until I’ve received justice for my son.”

The other main demand of the event is the call for community control of the police through the creation of a civilian police accountability council, or CPAC, something which has built up a lot of momentum in the city of Chicago, just south of Milwaukee.

“We need justice. We need the truth. We need laws changed,” Taleavia said. “We need CPAC here in Milwaukee, that’s what we need. We need to hold these cops accountable.”

The June 6 demonstration is set to begin at 4 p.m. The event is being co-sponsored by the recently relaunched Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

#MilwaukeeWI #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #AlvinCole #MilwaukeeAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

The people of Minneapolis have taken to the streets the past 72 hours, demanding the arrest of the killer cops who murdered 46-year-old African American George Floyd on Monday night, May 25. Eyewitness video was released Tuesday morning showing now former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pinning Floyd to the ground, with Chauvin’s knee directly on the back of his neck – the video shows Floyd’s last gasps for air. You can hear him telling the killer cop that he can’t breathe and calling for his mother before you see his body going limp. Three other cops on the scene stand by, with two other cops actively helping to restrain Floyd on the ground, all ignoring the pleas of bystanders to let him breathe. Since then, tens of thousands in Minneapolis and have taken to the streets, demanding justice and retribution, which prompted the Minneapolis police to immediately terminate the four officers involved with Floyd’s murder and finally to charge and jail Chauvin May 29.

We can’t forget that Twin Cities area police have been the target of recent high-profile struggles involving police murders, including the murder in 2015 of African American man Jamar Clark by two killer Minneapolis killer cops, which prompted a wave of protests; the murder of Philando Castile in the suburbs of Minneapolis on video, as well Justine Damond in 2017, which also prompted mass protests.

The question of killer cops targeting African Americans isn’t just a story of Black people being more oppressed workers, it’s also the result of the system of national oppression, a system that chains down African Americans and subjects them to the most intense methods of brutality at the hands of the ruling class and its police force. From Minneapolis to Louisville, we see a disregard for Black life at the hands of the police, with the Minneapolis rebellion becoming a breaking point for the Black liberation movement, sparking nationwide protests.

As Martin Luther King Jr, once said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

We must continue the call to demand community control of the police as well as the indictment and convictions of all killer cops, especially those who murdered George Floyd. We must also, as what we’ve seen in Chicago with the LaQuan McDonald cover-up, fight to kick out government attorneys and prosecutors who refuse to prosecute killer cops and racist vigilantes, as they did initially in the case of Ahmaud Arbery’s lynching in Brunswick, Georgia.

On May 30, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is calling for a day of nationwide protests against the murderous policies of police departments nationwide as well as demand the mass release of inmates in prisons due to COVID-19. We unite with this call and know that the more people that hit the streets, the shakier the foundations of national oppression in this country becomes. Protests have already started taking place in cities like Memphis and Los Angeles, with many cities planning protests through the week leading into the weekend.

Our job is to organize, agitate and connect the struggle for Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Breonna Taylor to our own local struggles for justice and community control of the police. We need to build organization on both local and national levels to consolidate the power of the people into a fighting force against national oppression and the criminal injustice system.

The streets are on fire for action and our job is to continue to fan the flames.

Justice for George Floyd! Indict and convict the killer cops! Community control of the police now! All power to the people!

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HawaiianNation #IndigenousPeoples #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Socialism #FRSOJointNationalitiesCommission #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Alliance requested a meeting with Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot regarding the proposal for an all-elected, all-Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) on March 11 on behalf of the 68 community organizations and leaders who support the proposed legislation. They have renewed that request, and demand to know why, as of May 24, she has not acknowledged their request for a meeting.

Over 60,000 people have signed postcards addressed to their aldermen urging passage of this ordinance. In addition, 31 law professors from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University law schools have signed a letter urging the mayor and the city council to pass CPAC.

Meanwhile, throughout the first year of Mayor Lightfoot’s administration, killings by police have continued, with seven people killed by Chicago police: Michael Elam, Sharell Brown, Myles Frazier, Curtis Stagger, Mariano Ocon, Tyree Davis and one name unknown.

Since her election, the mayor has not said anything about fulfilling her pre-election promise to enact community control of the police. Nor has she held a single community hearing on the issue.

“Time is dragging, and police killings and torture continue,” declared Frank Chapman, Co-Chairperson of the Chicago Alliance. “The families of these victims want to know when change will come. Millions are being paid out to victims and survivors of police crimes, but no amount of money can restore the lives of those who’ve been taken or imprisoned through torture and wrongful convictions.”

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #PoliticalRepression #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #CommunityControl #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC