Jacksonville, FL – Around three dozen cars joined a Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) protest on Friday evening, April 24, calling for a mass release of Duval County inmates in the overpopulated Duval County jail. Along with the JCAC, the New Florida Majority, Dignity Florida, Northside Coalition of Jacksonville along with other organizations and community supporters came out Friday evening for a caravan protest to demand that Melissa Nelson and Sheriff Mike Williams #FreeThemAll. The protesters taped signs to their vehicles that demanded the release of prisoners, to avoid the Duval County Jail becoming a death trap during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The protesters demanded: release all nonviolent offenders and the wrongfully incarcerated; constant testing of inmates and staff in the Duval County Jail; release of all inmates with compromised immune systems and those over the age of 60; release of the steps taken by Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to make sure sanitation of facilities is constantly taking place.

Protesters honked their horns and played protest tunes such as Fight the Power as the cars circled around Duval County Jail numerous times.

“Those locked up are subject to the most inhumane conditions and its impossible for them to practice safe social distancing incarcerated,” said Neal Jefferson, activist with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee. “The state attorney and Sheriff Williams should hear our demands and free them all.”

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #JacksonvilleSheriffsOffice #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #COVID19

Jacksonville, FL – Nearly 100 people gathered to hold a vigil demanding justice for Kwame Jones, January 17. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) joined with community members, along with the family and friends of 17-year-old Kwame Jones, at the intersection of 45th and Moncrief. It was an emotional night for many as the community mourns the loss of this child.

Kwame Jones was a 17-year-old who was pursuing his GED. Officer Lawson shot him multiple times the evening of January 5. In 2018, Officer Lawson was accused of failure to conform to work standards and “bias-based enforcement.” He received informal counseling. Jones’s mother was never notified of his death by JSO, and they have yet to cooperate with the family.

Folks gathered in a circle with candles and flyers while some shared poems, personal thoughts and songs. The people chanted “Justice for KK” as well as “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”

Jones’s death is one of many at the hands of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, most recently being Jamee Johnson who was shot by Officer Garriga in December 2019. Jamee’s family attended the vigil for Jones well in show of support to the family.

The JCAC and family of Kwame Jones will continue to demand answers, the release of all unedited body camera footage from the night along with continuing to fight for community control of the police through a civilian police accountability council.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleSheriffsOffice #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #KwameJones

In 2017 Sheriff Mike Williams and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) received a $4.4 million budget increase to “crack down on crime,” but the returns were insignificant. There was no drop in violent crime. The next year, Williams and the JSO received a $36 million increase granting them approximately 36% of the entire city budget. Not only did the violent crime rate not drop, it actually spiked.

This year, Mayor Lenny Curry’s proposed city budget for 2019-2020 would give JSO an extra $45 million in additional funding for a total police budget of $482 million dollars.

The JSO ranks second-worst in the state of Florida when it comes to solving crime. A staggering 83% of all reported crime and about 70% of homicides go unsolved. Jacksonville indisputably holds the title of Florida’s ‘murder capital' with a rate 51% higher than the national average.

Jacksonville also experiences high police shooting rates, though the number has decreased in the last three years. Ten years ago, JSO officers shot 62 civilians, killing 32 over a three-year period. Within the last three years that number dropped to 23 shootings with 15 fatalities.

There are debates over the reason behind this decrease. Some say new police trainings have been effective. Others, like Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police President Steve Zona, have denounced this, arguing that “while training can affect and produce different outcomes in certain scenarios, we do not believe that is the driving factor in the reduction of officer-involved shootings. The driving factor will always be the conduct and actions of the person who is committing the crime.”

The far more likely factor is the publicity brought to police crimes within the last three years, both nationally and locally. In May 2016, Vernell Bing Jr., an unarmed Black father, was killed by Officer Tyler Landreville in the largely African-American Springfield neighborhood of Jacksonville. State Attorney Melissa Nelson ruled the shooting ‘justified’ in 2017. In July 2019, less than two years later, Landreville made headlines again for shooting another civilian in the same part of the city. Bing’s mother and community activists continue to host public events demanding police accountability.

Countless examples of JSO’s police crimes have surfaced as Jacksonville’s movement for community control of the police grew. JSO made national headlines in the 2017 ProPublica investigation, “Walking While Black,” which exposed rampant racial profiling and police harassment in the city. Earlier that year, an anti-war protest turned into a vicious example of police brutality televised for the entire city to see. The JSO violently attacked and arrested five activists, dubbed the Jax 5 by supporters, charging them with bogus felonies like ‘inciting a riot.’ A mass movement pressured State Attorney Melissa Nelson into dropping all felony charges, aided in large part by graphic video footage, including live local news coverage, of police beating peaceful protesters unconscious. Incidents like these have made police crimes into a major public concern in Jacksonville.

But even though the number of people killed directly by cops has finally started to decrease, the numbers for violent crime in general have not. It raises the question: Do police prevent crime? The numbers suggest not. Crime has social roots like poverty, joblessness and poorly funded public schools. To address those, the Jacksonville community argues for measures like social and economic rejuvenation – not more police funding.

“Crime exists where conditions are desperate,” says Joshua Parks, organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee. “We can’t out-police crime. We need to create better living conditions for the areas labeled high-crime neighborhoods instead of over-policing them.”

Since the 2017 city budget debate, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) has pushed for police accountability and community reform. The organization has hosted vigils and protests with the families of the victims affected by the 23 police-involved shootings, along with events bringing attention to city spending and the nature of policing in high-poverty neighborhoods. The JCAC believes that Mayor Curry’s proposed 2019-2020 city budget is part of the problem – not a solution.

Under Mayor Curry’s proposed budget, the JSO would receive a $45 million increase – the most in the entire budget by far – bringing their total budget to around $482 million dollars. To put this staggering amount in perspective, Curry’s proposed budget allocates just $157 million for public transportation, $35 million for the Kids Hope Alliance, $35 million for public libraries, $48 million for public works programs.

If the city council – dominated by a Republican supermajority – approves the mayor’s budget, it will mark the third consecutive year they have ignored community needs in favor of JSO budget hikes – with no drop in violent crime.

Jacksonville’s high crime areas have common factors: aggressive gentrification by real estate developers, historical remnants of Jim Crow segregation, poor public infrastructure and the highest poverty rates in the city. The zip codes with the highest poverty rates in Duval County – which is consolidated with the city of Jacksonville – cover Springfield (34.91%), Riverside (26.68%), the Northside (25.88%), downtown (21.87%) and the northwest quadrant (19.46%). All of these areas are either now or historically Black-majority, working class neighborhoods.

The JCAC has proposed an alternative to Mayor Curry’s budget. Known as the ‘People’s Budget’, their proposal calls for reducing JSO’s share of the budget to no more than 25%. This badly needed reduction would yield $134 million city dollars for crucial social and economic programs aimed at the city’s multinational working class and Black community. JCAC organizers say that their proposal would do far more to reduce crime by tackling its social roots than another round of failed police budget hikes.

The People’s Budget Program includes plans to invest in the Northside by directing a portion of the extra funds to the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development fund while also relaxing restrictions and lowering interest rates for local Black entrepreneurs looking to develop the historically Black areas of town.

The People’s Budget also calls for creating public works programs through the city’s Parks and Recreation sector and hiring workers at no less than $16 an hour to upkeep and rejuvenate the Northside, providing both living wage jobs and safer, cleaner public spaces for children and families.

It states the need for rent control alongside building up these areas of town to avoid gentrification. While the community wants to see these areas flourish financially, it is also imperative that it thrive culturally and not displace the residents.

The program also calls for overall better quality of life for workers in the city with a call to strengthen unions. It demands the implementation of a union neutrality ordinance for all private contractors doing business with the city, meaning employers must take no position for or against a union if their workers want to organize and collectively bargain. It goes further to include ‘City Dollars for City Workers,’ urging officials to pass a local hiring preference prioritizing local businesses for city contracts while also strengthening public transit for the working class.

These vitalization efforts, again, can only be possible if the police are no longer prioritized over the community. With all JSO assets frozen at 25%, and an extra $134 million put back into the budget, the city can see a People’s Budget. This is why police accountability is the other focus of the proposed People’s Budget Program.

The program also calls for community control of the police, stating that the city council should direct its lobbyists in Tallahassee to push for a carve-out amendment to Florida Statute 112.532, which would allow for the creation of an all-civilian, elected council tasked with investigating complaints and allegations of police misconduct. This Civilian Police Accountability Council should have subpoena power of evidence, the authority to rewrite JSO hiring practices, review and revise police procedures and fire officers found guilty of misconduct.

The Jacksonville Community Action Committee hosts public meetings every third Thursday of the month at the Springfield Wells Fargo Center. The group will be attending city council budget hearings to challenge Mayor Curry’s proposed budget starting August 13. Follow the group on social media to stay updated and learn more details about the proposed People’s Budget Program as well as other alternatives to the bloated police budget.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #JacksonvilleSheriffsOffice #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC

Jacksonville, FL – It was a very violent weekend in Jacksonville. There was a shooting at the Raines High School versus Lee High School football game on Friday, August 24, and the following day, August 25, there was a shooting at the Jacksonville Landing during a video game tournament, leaving families and friends all over the city mourning. The Jacksonville city council typically meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, and although rescheduled due to voting in the statewide primaries, the city council meeting on Wednesday, August 29 was attended by many angry community members and activists that wanted answers.

People from all over Jacksonville attended the meeting to demand accountability from the police. There were over 50 uniformed Jacksonville Sheriff Office (JSO) officers at the Raines v. Lee football game and they did not stop the triple shooting that left one person dead. JSO also failed to protect people at the Landing, where three people were killed, including the gunman, who fatally shot himself after injuring a dozen others – proving more cops isn't the answer. This directly contradicts what Sheriff Williams and Mayor Curry keep telling people will stop violence in the community.

Government officials are already opportunistically using the events of this past weekend to try to push a budget that many residents oppose, allocating yet another $30 million to JSO’s already outrageously overfunded budget. JSO’s budget, encompassing almost a third of the entire city budget, has not put a dent in the over 70% unsolved crime rate here in Jacksonville. Instead, we see JSO and the state protecting the white vigilante murderers of people like Keegan Roberts, whose family has still yet to receive justice. JSO has also failed to make an arrest in the murder of a local musician, Maurice Hobbs, and has not investigated the murder properly.

City Council President Aaron Bowman sought to silence public discussion about these issues by suggesting that any council member who would like to respond to a resident should go into a private room, keeping the information discussed away from the public. Councilman Garrett Dennis proposed an appeal of this decision, that these discussions should be allowed to happen in a public setting. Out of 19 council members, only four voted in favor of the appeal.

Upon seeing the vote results broadcast on the screens around the council chamber, the community decided it had finally seen enough. Leader of the Northside Coalition, Ben Frazier, asked the council “What about the voice of the people?” and as the City Council President Bowman directed JSO officers to harass the audience, many people began to walk out, chanting in unison “No justice! No peace!”, as well as “No new JSO!”

“What a slap in the face to Black and other marginalized communities who see poor roads, zero to little programming for our youth and no public infrastructure,” said Michael Sampson, a lead organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, adding, “yet we can give another $30 million to JSO? That is wrong and the city council needs to stand against it. That money should go towards creating good jobs, housing, education and programs designed to improve people’s lives and neighborhoods – things that families really need.”

Protesters vowed to continue fighting against over policing and underdevelopment in African American neighborhoods in Jacksonville, as well as the 2018-2019 city budget, which allocates $30 million to the JSO, and which already takes a third of the city’s total operational budget. The activists all agreed that residents want better access to health services, better infrastructure, better jobs and better education – not more police or racist incarceration.

The Jacksonville Community Action Committee is calling on all those who oppose an increased police state in Jacksonville to rally with them outside Jacksonville City Hall this Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 6 p.m. on the National Day of Action Against Police Crimes.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #JacksonvilleSheriffsOffice #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommittee #JSO #NoNewJSO

Jacksonville, FL – Around 30 community members gathered in Bruce Park, in Jacksonville, to speak out against police crimes, for community control of the police, and a Jacksonville Police Accountability Council (JPAC).

Members of the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) gathered with supporters in the Bruce Park area of Arlington, a working-class African American neighborhood on the Southside of Jacksonville. Just weeks ago, Devonte Shipman was harassed and profiled by Officer J.S Bolen, which sparked national outrage and a grassroots efforts around demanding Officer Bolen be fired for his actions – which took place just down the street from where folks gathered at Bruce Park.

Community members shared their different experiences of dealing with police violence. Members of the crowd spoke about why it's necessary to build a mass movement against police crimes and why community control of the police is necessary.

The crowd chanted, “No justice, no peace, people power over the police,” as well as, “What do we want? JPAC, when do we want it? Now!”

JCAC organizer Connell Crooms talked about his experiences with being attacked by Jacksonville police officers at a protest against Trump's intervention in Syria on April 7.

Devonte Shipman reflected on his experiences with JSO just a few weeks ago and how happy he was with how supportive the community has been to him.

“It's a blessing, because this movement is gonna lead farther then just tickets being dropped; it's gonna lead to JPAC,” said Shipman. “It's gonna take time but we'll get there.”

#JacksonvilleFL #PoorPeoplesMovements #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleSheriffsOffice