Feed aggregator

Join Black Lives Matter DC for the first screening of Incompatible Allies, a documentary that compares local efforts to deal with gun violence with national activism. If the momentum of March For Our Lives turns out to be fleeting, where should those who are committed to ending gun violence direct their efforts?

 

The post Incompatible Allies: Black Lives Matter, March For Our Lives and the US Debate about Guns and Violence appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Brenda Hayes started pursuing her dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker at age 58. Now 62, she is releasing her first documentary – BackBurner Dreams.

BackBurner Dreams follows three women of color over a nine month period, as they bring the dreams they put on hold to raise children, work unfulfilling jobs, support the dreams and passions of everyone else except themselves, back to the fore.

During the production of BackBurner Dreams, Hayes spoke to many women for whom the film resonates and who find their dreams waylaid due to societal norms and social constructs. Can women have it all? Hayes is not sure, but she is sure that we’re expected to do it all.

BackBurner Dreams: A Woman’s Passion Project Premiere’s
Sunday, May 13, 2018
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Busboys and Poets
15th & K Streets NW, Washington, DC

CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.

The post BackBurner Dreams: A Woman’s Passion Project appeared first on Grassroots DC.



Washington, DC–Activists lit up Trump International Hotel with messages critical of the National Rifle Association lobby on Thursday night. The light show was timed to draw negative attention to the NRA annual conference being held in Dallas, Texas on Friday. Activists projected giant memes across the iconic bell tower of the hotel, reading, “The NRA paid Congress $2,401,020 For Inaction” – “Take Democracy Back” and “NRA Enables Domestic Terrorism.” Other light images included memes of an AR-15 and a skull and crossbones.

Trump Hotel security called police and within minutes DC police responded and ordered the activists to turn off the projector or face arrest. Police claimed the activists had no permit or permission to be on “private property” despite the equipment being staged on the sidewalk far from the building. Activists refused to leave and invoked their first amendment right to free expression. They also claimed they were in fact on a public sidewalk and needed no permit.

Hotel security stood silently in the background while police and activists discussed whether a permit was required and whether the light projector was staged on private property.

A few minutes later, CODEPINK: Women for Peace activists arrived. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the Woman’s peace group and Tighe Barry, a long-time member of the group, weighed in on the dispute. With extensive knowledge of the federal laws, rules and local statutes governing permits and protests, Berry showed on the sidewalk where the U.S. Government jurisdiction separates the DC jurisdiction. It was clear the activists were neither on private property nor required to obtain a permit for permission to demonstrate.

As the drama unfolded, passers-by stopped to take pictures of the light projection and encouraged the activists to stand their ground and not yield to police.

Shortly afterwards, police left and there were no arrests. The projection resumed for another 10 minutes until the projector batteries ran low.

The demonstration was timed to highlight the NRA conference and the hypocrisy of its being held in a gun-free zone while across the nation, mass shootings continue unabated. It also exposed a growing national resistance to the NRA money machine and its sponsorship of Congressional defenders.

The light projection was part of a historic nationwide effort to highlight the negative impacts of the NRA lobby. Backbone Campaign coordinated light projections in 15 other cities, including Dallas, Boulder, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tallahassee, Nashville, Spokane, Madison, NYC, Chicago, Portland, Atlanta, Detroit, Tacoma, and Seattle.

The anti-NRA movement has urged passage of “commonsense” gun regulations and a ban on semi-automatic weapons. Students and teachers who have seen first hand the carnage of mass shootings in their schools have rekindled efforts to pass gun legislation such as background checks and semi-automatic weapons ban.

Students from Marjorie Douglas Stoneman High School led a mass protest of the NRA in Washington, DC on March 24, drawing over half a million to the rally. They called for an end to sales of AR-15 semi-automatic weapons and urged voters to reject those elected leaders who take money from the gun lobby. Congressmen have been given over $2.4 million in contributions since 2015, according to Backbone Campaign activists.

The rally turned out to be one of the largest protests against the NRA lobby and its Congressional supporters.

The Trump International Hotel has been a lightning rod for protests since the GAO leased the property to Trump International Hotel, LLC.

The post “NRA Enables Domestic Terrorism” Projection Lights Up Trump Hotel Before Conference appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

Cross-Posted from the District’s Dime Written By Marlana Wallace

Far too many DC students face enormous challenges—unhealthy environments, housing instability, food insecurity, care-giving responsibilities, and the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. About half of DC students currently qualify for ‘at-risk’ funding because they are growing up in families struggling to make ends meet, or they are at risk of falling behind in the classroom.[1] Both DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools receive an additional $2,334 per-student in local ‘at-risk’ dollars.[2] But the underfunding of schools often results in the misuse of these extra resources intended to support students facing the greatest barriers. The District needs a better blueprint for the resources required to staff every school and the resources needed to support low-income students in particular.

‘At-risk’ funds were designed to promote equity: to ensure that low-income students get the same kinds of enriching opportunities and services as their higher-income peers, and to ensure that students who are struggling academically get the targeted supports they need to succeed in the classroom. These funds are supposed to help schools provide supplemental resources and expand important services for the students who need them most.

But tight school budgets have led to the misuse of ‘at-risk’ funds. Schools struggling to maintain current staffing or otherwise meet necessary requirements are often forced to re-direct dollars for targeted services for the students who need them most and/or de-prioritize enriching arts and afterschool programs—never mind make needed improvements. In this way, inadequate school funding limits the ability of schools to change the large and troubling differences in academic outcomes between the District’s low-income and higher-income students.

There are deeply distressing differences between the educational outcomes of economically disadvantaged students and their wealthier peers in the District. Less than a quarter of low-income DC high school students test college and career ready in English.Schools are also failing to prepare students of color for college and careers to the same degree as white students. In high school English, 87 percent of white students are considered college and career ready compared to only 21 percent of Black students (Figure 1). In fact, racial disparities in student outcomes are widening in the District. Although the PARCC scores of all DC students and subgroups have improved overall, the scores of white students improved five percentage points more than Black students.[3] Economic and racial injustice are distinct and yet intertwined, with particularly devastating consequences for low-income students of color. Addressing the injustice of these inequalities requires targeted resources, like ‘at-risk’ dollars.

Figure 1.

Every dollar of ‘at-risk’ funding should be easily identifiable, because all the dollars should be supplemental. But information on the school-level allocation of ‘at-risk’ funds is not made readily accessible in real time, and actual spending of ‘at-risk funds’ at the DCPS school level is not tracked. Of the $50.3 million that is supposed to follow DCPS students to their schools, only 59 percent ($29.8 million) was allocated in ‘at-risk eligible ways,’ according to Mary Levy’s latest analysis (Figure 2).[4]  The allocation of the other 41 percent ($20.5 million) of ‘at-risk’ funds could not be identified in the individual school budgets.[5] It is likely that a large share of these unaccounted for ‘at-risk’ funds are once again being used for functions that are required at all schools as part of DCPS’s staffing model, instead of supplemental services for the students who need them most. Even if every dollar of ‘at-risk’ money in the FY 2019 budget was allocated on targeted services as intended, these funds would remain far short of the levels recommended in the 2013 Adequacy Study.[6]

Figure 2.

School level leaders in both DCPS and public charters, alongside teachers and families, should be able to leverage ‘at-risk’ funds to serve their students’ specific needs in evidence-based ways. Whether school communities choose to use those funds on targeted supports or school-wide benefits, those resources should be supplemental.

Schools must be adequately funded so that basic needs are met, without having to tap ‘at-risk’ funds. Budget increases for DCPS and public charter schools in recent years have been arbitrary, and not connected to what it really costs to provide quality education.  Five years have passed since the 2013 Adequacy Study, and yet we still have not reached the level of resources it recommended, once adjusted for inflation– let alone the level needed to keep up with all of our system’s changing needs.  DC Council should allocate enough money in FY 2019 to revise the 2013 Adequacy Study and update our understanding of investments needed to support every school and ensure that we are meeting the needs of low-income students.

Read more about DCFPI’s FY 2019 education budget recommendations here.

[i] A projected 44,496 students in DC qualify for ‘at-risk’ funding in the 2018-2019 school year because they are a foster care student, experiencing homelessness, overage for their grade, or participate in SNAP or TANF, (DCPS FY 2019 Budget Chapter; PCS FY 2019 Budget Chapter) [ii] In the District’s proposed Fiscal Year 2019 budget, there are $103.9 million ‘at-risk’ dollars for both DCPS and public charters overall. [iii] These are scores in English Language Arts, (2016-17 PARCC Scores). [iv] This is actually a conservative estimate. It assumes that ‘at-risk’ funds are being used to support every staff person beyond those positions guaranteed to every school by the Comprehensive Staffing Model, when most schools should also have other pots to draw from, like Title I. [v] DCPS FY19 Initial School Budget Allocations [vi] With a weight of 0.37 as recommended in the 2013 Adequacy Study, qualifying students would have $3,943 in additional ‘at-risk’ funds, or $175.5 million total (based off of a projected ‘at-risk’ subpopulation of 44,496). That is $71.6 million more. If the ‘at-risk weight’ were increased as recommended, and all else remained the same, schools would have $71.6 million more ‘at-risk’ dollars (or $1,609 more per-student) to invest in supplemental services for students overall, than the current $103.9 million total in at-risk funds, (2013 Adequacy Study).

The post A Closer Look at ‘At-Risk’ Funds: How Limited School Funding Can Lead to the Misuse of Extra Resources for Low-Income Students appeared first on Grassroots DC.

As I write this, there are only 34 seats left available. Don’t register if you can’t make it, but if you can REGISTER NOW!

 

 

 

 

The post Free DC Preview Screening of Black Cop! appeared first on Grassroots DC.

So, you want to enjoy the arrival of spring.  You’re thinking about checking out the cherry blossoms this weekend before all the petals blow away but aren’t thrilled about the crowds.  Consider the Anacostia River Festival at the 11th Street Bridge Park instead.

Take a canoe out to explore the River, ride in our bike parade, play lawn games with your family and experience Southeast D.C.’s local arts scene at this special FREE event. This year we are throwing a birthday bash for the 100th Anniversary of Anacostia Park.

The post Anacostia River Festival appeared first on Grassroots DC.



Washington, DC–Hundreds of Howard University students fed up with administration housing and campus policing policies have taken over and shut down the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administration Building near the main square of the historic black university. They say that demands for a change in leadership, affordable housing and oversight of campus police must be met before they will relinquish control of the facility. The occupation is in its sixth day.

Dozens of students are blocking the main lobby doors and admitting only Howard University students with an I.D. Streams of community supporters dropped by to donate water, food, bedding and toiletries. Students occupied all four floors of the building. Several security officers were stationed part of the way down 6th Street and were in communication with higher-ups by radio.

The glass doors were covered with neatly ordered signs, several of which read, “This Building Is Closed” and “Students Only (ID Required).” Other signs posted bore short testimonials of difficulties students were having with administration over housing, medical co-pays and applications for student aid, some of which have remained unresolved for several years. The students renamed the administration building “Kwame Ture Student Center” with a large poster board.

Maya McCollum of HU Resist says the occupation has been in planning since January./Photo by John Zangas

Students are free to come and go from the building, attend classes and take care of personal matters. “Everyone in the building is committed to seeing this through,” said Maya McCollum, a press liaison for the students.

The student occupation comes on the heels of a bombshell revelation that over a million dollars in student aid funding had been embezzled by members of the administration staff. The University reported that those involved had been fired.

At a minimum, University President Wayne Frederick would have to resign in order for students to cede control of the building back to a new administration, according to McCollum. Dr. Frederick is an alumnus who previously worked as a surgeon at Howard University Hospital. The HU Board of Trustees voted in July 2017 to extend his contract for five more years until 2024. With a salary of nearly a million dollars in 2014, Frederick was ranked 45 of 510 of most highly paid presidents of private colleges

Student concerns and grievances have gone unattended or ignored by university administrators, despite students requesting action be taken on them over the last year, McCollum said. One of the main issues students are focused on is access to affordable university housing.

Howard sold three of its dormitories to private developers, forcing students to contend with the high costs and shortage of local housing, according to a press release from the students. The sale of the dormitories severely limited student access to affordable housing and has caused significant financial hardship for many students, according to McCollum. And, she said, it has contributed to gentrification of the neighborhood.

“We can see our own university contributing to that when they sold off our dorms to be renovated into high quality lofts that the students and local community can’t afford,” she said. “That plays some part in the lack of housing.”

There are five major condominium projects underway near the campus in the vicinity of Sherman Street, which is near the edge of the campus. Over the last five years, there has been a surge in condominium development all over DC as foreign investors have poured billions into real estate development, impacting the local economy. This has in turn has driven up rents and curtailed affordable housing, especially for students of limited means.

Student demands are posted over the doorway of the administration building occupied by the students./Photo by John Zangas

Other demands include disarming campus police and initiating a student oversight board in matters related to campus policing. McCollum said that students felt unsafe with armed police on campus and had experienced unprofessional treatment in several circumstances. In light of recent high-profile national incidents involving police slayings of people of color, students were demanding an oversight board staffed by students.

Students say they are not using the occupation to get out of classwork. A tweet by the HU Resist group showed a sign inside the administration building indicating tutors were available to help students with their class studies.

Faculty have expressed their support for the students. A letter signed by 26 professors from ten HU departments castigated the administration over its handling of student concerns. “You raise important points about administrative and managerial matters that have not been adequately addressed,” the letter said. “You should be aware that we and many other faculty members share many of your concerns.”

Howard University is located in Washington, DC near Georgia Avenue, about a ten-minute drive from the U.S. Capitol. It had an enrollment of over 10,000 students in 2014, 6,000 of whom are undergraduates. Tuition, room, board and other fees cost $44,000 per year. It is the only historic black university ranked in the top 75 colleges.

The post Howard University Students Occupy Administration Building, Demand President Resign appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

Tired of endless community meetings about violence in our community that do not end in solutions? Come learn about the NEAR Act, something that’s new to some folks but has already proven to be effective in other regions.  You can help make it a reality in the District of Columbia!

There are very real concerns about the violence occurring in our community. Thankfully, the District has a very promising opportunity to reduce this violence significantly with the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Amendment Act of 2016 (NEAR Act).

The success of this effort depends on the involvement of the community. Only WE can save us.

We will be joined by:

Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie who championed the NEAR Act as former Chair of the DC Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety

Del McFadden, Executive Director, Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement

Marcus Ellis, Chief of Staff, Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement

This will be an interactive space, we don’t plan to talk AT you all night. We learn best as a community when we learn together.

The NEAR Act is one of the most innovative violence reduction efforts in the country. It is an evidence-based approach that embraces a pioneering program in Richmond California and builds on violence interruption models from cities as diverse as Chicago, Baltimore and New York. It addresses issues of community violence without resulting in the criminalization and mass incarceration we have seen since the 1980s.

Take Back Our Streets:  NEAR Act 101
Thursday, April 5, 2019
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ
3845 S Capitol St SW
Washington, District of Columbia 20032

The post What’s the NEAR Act and Why Is It Necessary? appeared first on Grassroots DC.



Washington, DC — High school students joined hands to lead over a half a million demonstrators in the “March For Our Lives” anti-gun protest on Saturday. They decried gun violence in their schools and criticized the National Rifle Association (NRA) response to mass shootings that have swept the country in recent years. They delivered a message to politicians funded by the gun lobby that they will “never again” let mass shootings happen because of easy access to guns.

“We’re determined–nobody’s backing down,” said Victoria Gonzalez, whose boyfriend Joaquin Oliver was one of the 17 victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School. “I think that’s what’s different. We’re not getting discouraged.”

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School organized “Change the Ref” to empower student leaders./Photo by John Zangas

A massive crowd packed Pennsylvania Ave., forming a sea of people in front of the stage erected for the noon rally. The youth-organized protest drew hundreds of thousands of protesters, and many advocacy groups lent their support, including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Black Lives Matter, CODEPINK: Women For Peace, HipHop Coalition and many others.

Students from MSD High School in Parkland, Fl. were front and center, along with victims of other previous school shootings. Emma Gonzalez–who gained prominence after the Parkland shooting for a searing “we call B.S.” speech–took the stage for exactly 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time the shooting lasted. She named the victims and mesmerized the crowd when, in tears, she let most of the 6 minutes elapse in silence.

Students wearing “Parkway for Parkland” t-shirts came from Parkway High School in north Philadelphia to show solidarity with the Florida students. The Parkway students say gun violence in their communities is epidemic–56% of students have witnessed shootings firsthand, according to a student poll.

The vast numbers and intense feelings pervading the march may signal that an absolutist view of “gun rights”—that the Second Amendment is inviolable and should be allowed to trump students’ safety at school—will no longer be tolerated in the mainstream.

Among the March’s demands are a moratorium on AR-15 assault weapons, a ban on bump stocks and other devices which render guns into fully automatic weapons, mandatory background checks and an increase in the age of eligibility to purchase guns.

All young people were encouraged to register to vote as soon they are able to. Many students emphasized that they will soon be able to vote, and they delivered a stern warning to NRA supporters in Congress: they should be ready to pay a steep political price if they continue to obstruct gun control legislation.

Click to view slideshow.

The post Students Lead ‘March For Our Lives’ Against NRA Lobby and Gun Violence appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

The ADAPT occupation has weathered wind, snow, ice and freezing temperatures highly unusual for March./Photo by John Zangas

Washington, DC — Disability rights activists have for the last two weeks made a tiny, nondescript park at 24th and I Streets NW into a temporary base of operations. “ADAPT Freedom Park,” as they’ve christened it, is nothing but a triangular sliver of grass bordered by tulip bulbs. Blankets, sleeping bags and inflated mattresses sprawl on the grass, and aluminum containers full of black beans, barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes and veggie casserole are neatly stacked on two park benches. Cookies, doughnuts, coffee and snacks pile up around them.

Banners, painted in black block letters, are what declare the park under occupation and the building across the street under siege. “Stop the Torture!” they say. “Director of FDA: Release the Regulations.”

The activists, from various chapters of the disability rights advocacy group ADAPT, have traveled from around the country to be here. A hardcore team of seasoned leaders, they fight for civil rights for disabled people. They are determined to do what it takes to convince the current FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, that abuse of their disabled and autistic “brothers and sisters” by aversive electric shock therapy will come with heavy political consequences. They have chosen the park outside his condominium to make their stand.

They plan to stay there indefinitely, until he meets with them to hear their demand: sign the order to end the electric shock of disabled persons at Judge Rotenburg Center (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts.

They have been in the park 12 days. Nobody thought they would be there this long or realized how much of a toll it would take on their bodies. The days pass slowly as they work, plan and wait for a response from the FDA. With each hour they grow closer and more committed to fighting for the rights of students at the JRC facility. Their costs are going up too, with the account funds dwindling, they must call in for financial help. They’ve put everything on the line for their sustained protest. This is their “Standing Rock” moment, they say.

Day 7, Thursday, March 15, Legislative Day of Action on Capitol Hill

Transporting a large group on motorized wheelchairs via Metro is no easy matter. One must pass through two elevators–one elevator to descend to the pay kiosks and another to access trains. The lifts are also narrow and barely fit two motorized chair vehicles. A special kiosk for motorized chairs works slowly. The elevator design is inherently ableist, remarked Priya Penner, an ADAPT National disability rights activist, when explaining the challenges of what should be a short trip to Capitol Hill from ADAPT Park.

What would Metro be like if it were designed with access for the disabled equal in priority with others? From her perspective, Penner sees some easy fixes: one elevator to descend to the platforms and payment made by a barcode or better yet, made online.

This is the essence of daily life faced by physically disabled persons in most everything they encounter. Combine that with crumbling infrastructure, cracked sidewalks and difficulty accessing many older buildings, and it becomes clear that despite progress, there is still a long way to go for the disabled to reach equality of access with others.

Transit from the park to Capitol Hill is challenging enough for 15 people in wheelchairs, but the real roadblock facing them is getting support for passage of legislation banning aversive electric shock. Even if a regulation is in place, a subsequent administration could gut it later. This is why such permanent legislation is needed, say the activists.

It was this very situation that drove ADAPT to protest the healthcare bill in June of last year, which is essentially a capping of Medicare support for people with disabilities. Dozens were arrested at Congressman Mitch McConnell’s office over this initiative. It passed the House but is not out of committee in the Senate.

Congressman Chris Smith (D-NJ) hosts them in his office and hears their request to end aversive electric shock therapy. He is committed to authoring legislation to end it, but getting such legislation written and passed will take time. And with the present administration working to gut disability rights already afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1995, it is doubtful such legislation would even make it to a vote on the House floor. Still, they persist. Their presence in his office at Rayburn House Office Building is a powerful statement in itself.

Day 8, Friday, March 16, ADAPT Park

On Friday night at 7:30 pm, as night falls and a cold stiff wind is pushing the activists to their physical limits, they form a circle for the nightly meeting. The last of rush hour traffic is dribbling back to the suburbs as they point their wheelchairs in toward the park center, meeting without using a bullhorn, and except for a few cars and buses, it’s quiet enough so passers-by can’t hear their plan of action for the next day. There is no hierarchy here.

The activists circle their motorized chairs, huddling around Mike Oxford, a tall, grey-bearded man dressed in khaki overalls. The cold from the wind causes them to lean in to him while the warmth of his voice assures and captures their attention. He guides them like an oracle as they discuss the plan for the night watch and what they will do the next day. Oxford is trusted and regarded as a seasoned organizer. He scribbles his notes in a small book and avoids using his cell phone for contacts. He rarely opts to use the apps, defaulting instead to recording contacts in a little brown book. A few of the activists joke about how lost he would be if he misplaced his book. But they trust his experience and judgement.

Air mattresses and blankets are spread on the park grass./Photo by Anne Meador

Oxford reviews the line up of the shifts and reads aloud the names of who is to replace who on the next watch. At night they must keep careful watch, since anyone can come by and remove equipment or personal items. The park is a dangerous place. A minivan was broken into the night before while the activists were nearby, but no one heard the glass break or was even aware it happened until the owner asked if they heard it.

Many of the activists have left jobs and their warm homes to be in this cold weather prone park to protest on behalf of the rights of the JRC students they have never met. Oxford admits that he’s not even sure the students at JRC know the activists are fighting for their rights. And as their protest goes into its second week, they didn’t expect it to last this long. Now they can’t go back. They refuse to quit, no matter what the weather does in the coming days. Tuesday night’s weather forecast is calling for a snow storm, and a few inches of snow and rain, the harshest conditions yet, but they plan to be here no matter what.

They have a willingness to do whatever it takes to be there for their disabled comrades. Fury and rage is in their voices when they speak of the electric shocks inflicted on the students at JRC. “How could they do this to our people?” asks Penner.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb holds the power to end the regulations which would ban aversive electric shock therapy, and he could do it with one signature. It is all but certain that their encampment can be seen from his second floor condominium in the modern building overlooking ADAPT Freedom Park. And if he isn’t looking out his window, he can hear their periodic chanting and drum rounds.

By far the biggest enemy they confront is the cold. It takes a toll on the motorized wheelchair batteries by limiting the charge, and drains the activists’ energy. It’s evident they are truly suffering from it. Despite being swaddled from head to toe with hats, scarves, blankets and uncounted layers of clothing and using hand warmers, their limitations of personal physical immobility allows the cold to penetrate their bodies. And it is painful. Several rock back and forth in their chairs to push out the cold. They struggle to stay warm and keep spirits high by listening to music and talking and joking among themselves. Whether or not their occupation fails or succeeds, they will be cold-hardened warriors when it is over.

Day 9, Saturday, March 17, 5 PM, St. Patrick’s Day

Tony sits on the grass making a poster board sign with a black Sharpie: “Stop the Torture, Free the Students.” He draws a large four-leaf clover in the corner using the same black Sharpie. He muses that it is black because it is a liberation shamrock.

A cold drizzle has begun to fall and several retreat under blue tarps attached to trees at the edge of the park. Priya Penner calls over to Tony and asks him when he is giving her raincoat back. “When I’m done using it,” he says, laughing. She isn’t even bothered by his laughter but could have been. Tony is too happy-go-lucky for anyone to get mad at him for doing anything they don’t like. She shrugs, as if she expects Tony to keep it the raincoat until it stops raining.

The drizzle falls harder and begins to wash away the chalk banner, “Welcome to ADAPT Park.” Some of the signs begin to sag while other chalk messages disappear altogether. There is a carton of thick chalk sticks under a bench. Someone will color the “Welcome To ADAPT Park” message once the rain stops and the sidewalk dries.

What the activists need and want won’t come in the form of signs, hand warmers, blankets or tarps. It will come in the form of freedom and liberation from the fear of abuse their comrades face at JRC.

Late that night after the rain has ended and a cold wind sweeps the park, the activists gather in front of Dr. Gottlieb’s condominium. They yell, “Stop the Shock, Stop the Torture!” while making noise with drums and air horns. A security guard comes out with a video camera to hush them up. But they persist. Police are called. It is 9:59 pm, and to avoid breaking a noise statute, they return back to the park across the street. Police arrive, but by then the activists have long returned to the park across the street. The police leave without approaching or speaking to them.

Day 10, Sunday, March 18, ADAPT Park Neighborhood Party

The activists decide to hold a party in the park and spread invitations for a barbecue to the neighborhood. On the menu are grilled hotdogs with a vegan option, potato chips, drinks and snacks. A few neighbors stop by and several activists explain why they are there. All the visitors react the same way, with stunned disbelief that electric shock is being used to discipline JRC students.

Jordan Sibayan, an organizer from the Denver chapter, Atlantis ADAPT, sets up his “Yellow Brick Road” display of a rewards and discipline system in use at the JRC facility. He lowers himself from his chair onto the ground and labors nearly an hour driving sticks to support four of his watercolor drawings into the dry dirt of the tulip bed. He asks for no help, but his diligence exudes patience and tenacity. His fiancée, Jacqueline Mitchell, another activist he met at a past protest hand him the sticks and bricks collected to erect the signs. Jordan and Jacqueline plan to get married this year.

ADAPT activists hold a block party and barbecue to attract people to the park./Photo by Anne Meador

He encourages her to repeat a chant about the FDA, but she doesn’t want to repeat it out loud. It has a bad word in it, she says. He keeps on asking her until she finally yells it out. Everyone laughs. Sibayan smiles because he got her to say it.

The wind keeps blowing down the signs but he persists in putting them back up. The drawings depict scenes of abuse at JRC. He uses them to explain to visitors the yellow brick road scheme of shock punishments in use at JRC. Most visitors are surprised to hear about it and listen intently to him.

All except one. A tall grey-haired man approaches the activists with an admonition about the nightly noise they make outside his condominium. He argues with two of the activists for a while, telling him how much of a disturbance they are. “How would you like to be shocked?” asks Colleen Flanagan, a disability rights activist from Boston. She hears his concerns about the noise, but he does not listen to her explanation and reasons for the protest. He leaves in frustration. Flanagan is upset by the man’s response, but admits it is part of what ADAPT does to be on the cutting edge of the movement for disability rights. ADAPT has earned its achievements through pushing the boundaries of civil disobedience, she says.

Another visitor stops by, curious about the signs. Paige Bradford teaches students with disabilities and is working on her Ph.D. at George Washington University. She encourages the activists. She says that all the research involving aversive electric shock, also known as “positive punishment,” shows it only works when it is being used in an institution. Once the student is released from the facility and returns to the community, they go revert to the same behaviors. “Positive punishment does not extinguish behaviors,” according to Bradford. The solution is to work with the students in finding ways to help them find ways to cope with stress, not to force them to behave in a certain way through punishment and fear.

She speaks about the fact that a special report on abuse and torture published by the UN has cited JRC as violating its convention. No one should be subjected to this, she says.

ADAPT will celebrate its 40th anniversary in Denver in June. The activists and organization takes credit for grassroots efforts to achieve many rights for the disabled, such as lifts on buses, improvements in building access, sidewalk access ramps and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1995.

ADAPT activists hold a sit-in at the FDA office building.

Day 12, Tuesday Night, 8:30 pm, March 20th, 2018 FDA Headquarters in Silver Spring

The activists travel en masse to Silver Spring for a civil disobedience direct action at the FDA headquarters building. In short order, they block entrances while others lay on the floor for a die-in. Twelve activists are inside and refuse to leave unless they are arrested and taken away. They chant loudly, bringing all evening business to a stop. Police respond and security stand by unsure what to do. Two hours later they are still chanting, “Dr. Gottlieb shame on you!” and “Release the regulations, end the torture!”

One of the protesters, Cal Montgomery, has fallen asleep in their chair, exhausted. Montgomery says they are proud to be with this group of activists. The occupation has given Montgomery a new purpose, one they had not experienced before.

The ADAPT activists continue chanting for three and a half hours in the FDA lobby. They live stream the action until midnight. Then they leave the office but block traffic in front of the FDA building on New Hampshire Ave. Police have had enough. They arrest eleven of them and ticket them for obstructing traffic. They are released at 3 am and return to DC, exhausted.

Montgomery reports that police sent a Metro bus equipped to pick them up because there are no accessible cabs in Montgomery County.

They arrive back in DC in the predawn hours. It has begun to snow. If the FDA was ignoring the activists, they must have finally taken notice now. They’ll be back. The battle is just beginning.

ADAPT National organization is raising funds to support the occupation at 24th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW. They also need food and supplies on a daily basis. More than anything, they need donations to pay for equipment and other supplies.

The post ‘Stop the Shock’: FDA Director’s Home Beseiged by Disability Rights Activists appeared first on DCMediaGroup.

In the weeks following the mass shooting in Parkland, FL, communities called on their legislators and school administrators to effectively address gun violence. In addition to conversations about gun violence, the Parkland shooting sparked dialogue about mental health, safety, police in schools, and the alarming move to arm school faculty. To the detriment of Black and Brown students, the national conversation fails to acknowledge that an increase in police and guns in our schools harshly impacts young people of color. Many youth also wondered where was this support when they were protesting for their lives against police gun violence and for solutions to intra-community violence. While thousands will flock to the District for the March for Our Lives, Black Lives Matter DC wants to uplift the concerns of DC youth. So lets come together and discuss the real solutions for DC.

The post Black Lives Matter DC Hosts Intergenerational Community Conversation on Gun Violence appeared first on Grassroots DC.

We often think of the District of Columbia as a liberal enclave but have the liberal positions of the city’s council members led to the justice and equality sought by the residents they represent?  This Saturday’s candidate forum and a political scorecard provided by Jews United for Justice might shed some light on those council members whose positions lean left of center.

It’s An Election Year! Candidate Forum On Education 3/17 & Political Scorecard

Cross-Posted from Education DC
written by Valerie Jablow

Tomorrow, Saturday March 17, the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) is holding a candidate forum starting at 10:30 am in room 150 at McKinley Tech high school (151 T St. NE). Sign up is here, with an information sheet here. Candidates are expected to speak about issues surrounding public education in DC.

Council candidates from wards 1, 5, and 6 are slated to speak between 10:30 and 11:30 am. Then, at 11:30-12:30 pm, candidates for the two at large council seats will speak.

From 12:30-1:30 pm, candidates for the council chair will speak, followed at 1:30-2:30 pm by candidates for mayor.

[Confidential to DC voters: Our mayor has challengers! Now, maybe we will see whether politically “credible” = something other than a few million $$ in the bank.]

And just in time for primaries, the Jews United for Justice Campaign Fund has created a handy political scorecard for the DC city council, wherein the votes of council members on a variety of social justice issues (affordable housing, economic justice, etc.) are tallied.

The post How Progressive Is the DC City Council? appeared first on Grassroots DC.

For those following the ins and outs of District of Columbia Public Schools, here in it’s entirety is the March 2018 edition of the Citizen Reader. I  PUBLIC EDUCATION

The Association of School Superintendents (www.aasa.org), joined by more than twenty other national education organizations, is hosting the National Public Schools Week March 12 through 16, 2018. The week’s events are being co-chaired by six members of Congress who will give speeches in the Senate and House of Representatives and hold a press conference.

A statement on the above website explains the purpose of Public Schools Week saying “With the mounting changes in the education landscape, this campaign creates a platform for Americans to join together and express their strong feelings toward public education and why its success is a key determinant when it comes to our country’s future.”

The senators and representatives are Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA), Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator John Testor (D-MT).

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK March 12 – 16, 2018

● Morning of TUESDAY (3/13): Speeches on the floor of the Senate celebrating the great things happening in public education.
● Evening of TUESDAY (3/13): 1-minute speeches during which House Members share a story about the great things happening in a public school or with public schools students in his/her Congressional District.
● Afternoon of WEDNESDAY (3/14) at 2 pm in the Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 430: Press Conference for Public Schools Week. House and Senate Co-Chairs of Public Schools Week will share their support for public schools and specific legislation that supports public schools.
● Morning of THURSDAY (3/15): Speeches on the floor of the Senate and House if applicable celebrating the great things happening in public education.
● THURSDAY from 1-3 pm (3/15): Tweet storm using #PublicSchoolsWeek! We will be lifting up the floor speeches via social media.
● FRIDAY from 10-11 am (3/16) at the Rayburn House Office Building Room 2044: Panel Discussion “Understanding the funding streams that impact public school students” featuring: Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus; Stan Collender, Executive Vice President at Qorvis MSLGroup; and Sharron Parrot, Senior Fellow and Senior Counselor, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Moderated by Lauren Camera, National Education Reporter U.S. News and World Report.

For more information, including social media resources, visit http://www.aasa.org and/or http://lovepubliceducation.org.

More Important Dates

Monday, MARCH 19, 10 am in Room 412, at Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Committee on Education will hold a Public Oversight Roundtable on The Future of School Reform in the District of Columbia. The purpose, according to the announcement on the Council’s website, “is to focus specifically on improvements to the D.C. Public Education Reform Amendment Act and other cross-sector issues.”

In addition, “it will be the first in a series of roundtables that will be scheduled during both daytime and evening hours to get the full engagement of the public.”

To testify, sign up online at http://bit.do/educationhearings or call 202-724-8061 by 5 pm Friday March 15. Written statements for those who can’t testify in person can be submitted by email to astrange@dccouncil.us or postal mailed to Committee on Education, Council of the District of Columbia, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW 20004. Closing date for written statements to be determined.

On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today. March with us in Washington DC or march in your own community. On March 24, the collective voices of the March For Our Lives movement will be heard.

See https://marchforourlives.com/ for more information and to sign Petition.

 

 in conjunction with Ward 6 DC Council Member Charles Allen
Ward 6 Representative Joe Weedon, State Board of Education, and
Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization
Monday, April 9, 2018
6:30 to 8:30 pm at the North East Neighborhood Library, 330 7th Street NE
The information in this workshop will be provided in three ways.
1–Know Your Rights Discussion–lead by the Office of Student Advocate Team. 2–Individualized Mini-Sessions–to help answer your specific questions about the needs of your student(s).
3–Special Education Resources–list of special education resources including 504 plans v. IEPs (Individualized Education Plans), how to make a request for evaluation, annual reviews, and connections for organizational support.
RSVP at http://bit.ly/2g4BeJU For more information, email student.advocate@dc.gov or call 202-741-4692.

 

DCPS Performance Oversight Hearing Government Witness, March 1, 2018

Interim chancellor Amanda Alexander gave the government witness testimony on the performance of DCPS during Fiscal Years ’17 and ’18 to date. In her prepared statement she spoke of her experience in DCPS beginning as a kindergarten teacher in 1998 and going on to serve as principal of Bunker Hill and Ross Elementary Schools. She also led the redesign of DCPS’s principal supervision structure and served as an instructional superintendent of a group of elementary schools. From there she became deputy Chief of Schools, managing literacy initiatives and a district-wide task force to identify and implement strategies to improve student performance. Most recently, she served as chief of the Office of Elementary Schools leading the system’s elementary support and early childhood programs.

She gave three examples of changes in DCPS over the past decade—the overhaul of all aspects of the teaching corps, implementation of Common-Core aligned curriculum to determine if students were mastering basic skills, and increasing enrollment and opening of new schools.

While acknowledging the many problems that still exist, she said “DCPS is definitely not the

same district it used to be.”
In response to a question from committee member Robert White as to how, in light of

recently revealed problems, people can be confident that DCPS is on the right track, Ms. Alexander reported some information from a recent meeting between her team and the Instructional Superintendents.

The purpose of the meeting was to review the middle of the year (moy) literacy data. She explained that the data is viewed in quintiles, or five segments, that range from Well Below Average to Below Average to Average to Above Average to Well Above Average. They found that 23 schools had hit the Above Average and Well Above Average mark.

The schools are: Brightwood EC, Burroughs ES, C.W. Harris ES, Dorothy Height ES, Drew ES, Houston ES, Ketchum ES, Lafayette ES, Lasalle Backus EC, Malcom X ES, Marie Reed ES, Patterson ES, Payne ES, Ross ES, Seaton ES, Simon ES, Smothers ES, Thomson ES, Trusdell EC, Tyler ES, Walker-Jones EC, West EC and Whittier EC.

She concluded her response by saying that those increases in students’ literacy skills are the basis for her confidence that DCPS “is on the right track.”

Her full testimony can be read at www.dcps.dc.gov under the Testimonies tab at the bottom of the home page. In addition to the Oversight Hearing, the Committee on Education also sends questions to DCPS each year which it then responds to in writing and sends them back to the Committee where they are posted on the Council’s website www.dccouncil.us near the top of the home page. They provide many pages of detail on the inner workings of DCPS.

 

Recent education blog must reads

● At educationdc.net, https://educationdc.net/2018/02/28/gun-violence-our-dc-schools/ by blog master and DCPS parent Valerie Jablow and https://educationdc.net/2018/03/02/this-is- not-a-boat-accident/, a guest post by school advocate Peter McPherson comparing the mayor in the town depicted in the 1975 film Jaws with DC mayors’ needs for a certain narrative on school reform.

● From Guy Brandenburg at https://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/. Retired DCPS math teacher in a March 10 post entitled Ten Years of Educational Reform in DC—Results: Total MathCounts Collapse for the Public AND Charter Schools recounts his recent experience as a judge for the math competition for 7th and 8th graders which has dwindled to two students from past times when teams of four were common and won over private schools such as National Cathedral and Sidwell Friends. In addition he provides links to more than a half dozen articles detailing DCPS’s problems. One of them was written by Natalie Hopkinson, DC resident and writer, in the Atlantic magazine of September 15, 2010.

Also not to be missed

The Public’s testimony on the performance of DCPS at the Oversight Hearing on February 21, 2018 can accessed by video on the Council’s home page under Watch Hearings Live www.dccouncil.us. Some of the written public testimonies can be read at https://chpspo.org/. Scroll down past the Meeting Notes for February 20, 2018 to find them.

 

Speaking freely… A letter to the editor

Thank you for including the Network for Public Education’s “A Call to Action on April 20, 2018 for school safety against gun violence.” It is in the form of a letter from Diane Ravitch, a former education official in the federal government and the president of the Network.

I agree with the Network that gun violence in this country must be stopped, and I would urge that we, as citizens of the Nation’s capital city, show up on April 20 as Ms. Ravitch recommends.

I recommend, in particular, that those of us pushing for more effective gun regulations

press home the points to Congress and the White House that the crux of our gun problem is the easy availability of guns.

Within the Supreme Court’s guidance regarding the Second Amendment in the Heller v. District of Columbia case, written by Justice Antonin Scalia in 2008, it is legal and possible for the national government to take the following affirmative actions:

(1) Authorize and support research by the Centers for Disease Control into the incidence of death and injury attributable to the number of guns stored in residences, the number sold in a year in particular jurisdictions, or other measures which can inform us of the effects that guns have on our society;

(2) Establish, maintain, and at yearly intervals make available a national database, administered by the Department of Homeland Security with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, of registered gun sales and ownership;

(3) Require background checks for all gun purchasers, irrespective of whether guns are sold by individuals, by stores, at gun shows, or by any other means.

Similarly, I recommend that we focus on the following prohibitions:

(a) Carrying or transport of guns in or near schools, day-care centers, medical facilities, college campus grounds, concert venues, public parks, government properties, shopping malls and areas, and houses of worship;

(b) Interstate transport of guns or other weapons, except by military forces or state or local police forces which are in the process of collaborating in pursuit of one or more suspects across jurisdictional lines;

(c) Sale, possession, or use of AR-15 or other assault weapons, bump stocks, large

magazines (more than 5 bullets capacity).

I believe these affirmative steps and prohibitions would bring down the incidence of gun- related deaths and injuries in this country. They ought to be regarded as a manifesto for our April 20 activities, moving the country in the direction of improved public safety. If enacted, these steps and prohibitions would constitute an effective resumption of our path toward “a more perfect Union” as contemplated in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States.

C. Ellis, DC father and grandfather

Citizen Reader is a project of Livingview Communications—a citizens’ information service that is dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of democracy and the honor of all who have fought and died to equally participate in and protect it.

Contact ess.livingston@gmail.com with corrections, letters to the editor or request for email subscription. Thanks!

The post Citizen Reader: Information about DC’s Schools, March 2018 appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Cross-posted from The Citizen Reader

“Commemorating the History of the United States of America”

Photo of the Carter G. Woodson House National Historic Site at 1538 9th St. NW. The red brick house on the left is the Woodson Home, the yellow buildings on the right were incorporated into the site when the National Park Service, with the help of Delegate Norton and many others, undertook the preservation of this location of American history. Guided tours are offered on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9, 10 and 11 am and 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm.  

Visit www.nps.gov/cawo or call 202-426-5961 for more information.

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”

James Baldwin, Black English: A Dishonest Argument”

From Council member McDuffie’s Ward 5 Report of February 8, 2018:

“We have already honored Robert C. Weaver, who was born and raised in Brookland and would later become the first African American to serve in a cabinet-level position in United States history. We talked about Lucy Diggs Slowe, a pioneer in education and women’s rights who was the first dean of women at Howard University and lived on the 1200 block of Kearny Street NE. We learned about Woodridge resident William T. Fauntroy, a Tuskegee Airman who Councilmember McDuffie honored with a Ceremonial Resolution from the D.C. Council last year. And we highlighted the fact that blues and rock ‘n roll icon Bo Diddley lived and recorded in a home on Rhode Island Avenue NE.”

More commemorations around the city “Malcom, Martin, Medgar” February 22nd at 10 am and 1 pm
THEARC Theater, 1901 Mississippi Avenue, SE
Written and Produced by A. Peter Bailey
Directed and Produced by Carol Mumin of OFTON
& starring members of the Shabazz Family Ticket Price: $15.00. Contact OFTON at 202-387-5100 Discussion: History of Place: Barry Farm/Hillsdale, a Post-Bellum African American Community
Friday, February 23, 2018
11 am to 12 pm
Sumner Museum and Archives
1201 17th St. NW at M St
To register, call 202-633-4844

“Approximately 40,000 African American refugees came into Washington during the Civil War. They were destitute when they arrived, and the majority of them had to settle first on the streets and later on makeshift housing built from discarded materials. Anacostia Community Museum curator, Alcione Amos examines the establishment of the historic southeast community of Barry Farms/Hillsdale by the Freedman’s Bureau in 1867 to help with this problem.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education. “
                               MLK, Jr.

The post Celebrating Black History Month in the District of Columbia appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Developer Geoff Griffis wants to turn a rent-controlled Congress Heights apartment complex that he bought from Sanford Capitol into high-end, luxury condominiums.  Before he can do it, he has to force all the current residents out.  They will not leave without a fight.  Residents like Robert T. Greene, who participated in a march to the home of Geoff Griffis on Saturday February 10, is the featured in the video below.

Robert and the other tenants have formed the Alabama Avenue/13th Street Tenant Coalition.  The organization intends to buy the property themselves under the District’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA).   With the help of nonprofit housing developer National Housing Trust, they would turn the complex into 200 affordable apartments.  But Geoff Griffis is doing his best to make sure they can’t buy the property.

ONE DC explains the case and asks that you join them and other anti-displacement activists like Justice First and KeepDC4Me.  Show up and …

Help the Alabama Ave./13th Street Tenants Association
Secure the Right to Buy Their Building Friday, February 16, 2018
DC Superior Court
500 Indiana Avenue NW
Room 518
Noon – 3:00 PM

The post Congress Heights Residents Bring Fight Against Slumlord to Cleveland Park appeared first on Grassroots DC.

The post How To Use the Media Before It Uses You: The Police State Edition appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Grassroots DC, in collaboration with Reclaiming Our Bodies DC and Collective Action for Safe Spaces, will be screening the documentary Triggered:  Street Harassment and Rape Culture in D.C.’s Ward 8, because the #MeToo movement is different East of the Anacostia River.

trailer

Since revelations about Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein came to light, there has been a​ ​litany​ ​of​ ​men​ ​​accused​ of, or admitting outright to ​being sexual predators.  An alien studying the planet by monitoring the mainstream media might ​believe​ ​that​ ​only​ ​white​ ​women​ ​are​ ​victims​ ​of sexual​ ​harassment​ ​and​ ​assault.​  In truth, Black women and other women of color are valued less in our society and so their stories rarely make it to the airwaves.  But something began in the summer of 2017 that challenges these assumptions about Black women.

On July 23, 2017, community activist Schyla Pondexter-Moore and her two teen-aged daughters attempted to get a meal from a food table in the Bellevue neighborhood of Ward 8.  A local nonprofit, founded by Black men native to the District, set up the table once a month in the parking lot of the neighborhood shopping center.  Instead of getting a meal, Schyla’s 16-year-old daughter was harassed, followed and threatened physically by a group of men.   Rather than stopping the harassment, the men from the nonprofit running the community food table joined in.

The incident led to a Speak-Out Against Street Harassment organized by a group of Black women who came together in the same parking lot where the incident occurred, to speak out against street harassment and rape culture.  Grassroots Media DC documented the event on video, capturing the perspectives of people who were there—those who agreed, those who vehemently disagreed and those somewhere in the middle.  The result is the 30-minute documentary Triggered:  Street Harassment and Rape Culture in D.C.’s Ward 8.  The event itself was both powerful and telling.  Should Black women and girls have agency over their bodies and lives?  ​For many, the answer is not so obvious.

The organizers hoped that women from the neighborhood, being all too familiar with street harassment, would be able to speak about their experiences, validate each other and come together to demand change.  As is clear in the video, it starts out that way but ultimately, the forces in play that keep rape culture firmly entrenched in low-income, African-American communities, overwhelm everyone’s best efforts.

The​ ​premiere​ ​screening​ ​of​ ​Triggered​ ​took​ ​place​ ​November​ ​9th​ ​at​ ​the Greenleaf public housing complex in Southwest​ ​Washington,​ ​D.C.​ ​ The​ ​film’s​ ​evocative​ ​subject ​allowed​ ​many​ ​women​ ​in​ ​attendance to​ ​share​ ​their​ ​personal​ ​stories​ ​of​ sexual harassment, abuse and assault.  ​The​ ​post​ ​screening discussion​ ​lasted​ ​for​ ​almost​ ​two​ ​hours.

The ​dialogue​ ​​needs​ ​to​ ​continue.​  ​Clearly, the Speak-Out touched on issues that reach beyond that one incident.  While most of the media focuses on sexual harassment among the political elites and Hollywood insiders, the rest of us are dealing with it in the streets.  More safe​ ​spaces​ ​must be made ​available​ ​for​ ​women​ ​and​ ​girls​ to discuss not only victimization but also survival. Grassroots DC invites you to join the discussion.  We intend to hold more screenings and discussions starting in 2018.  Together we will uncover the truths behind street harassment and the wider problem of rape culture.

Our next screening will be at Covenant Baptist Church, just two blocks from the location of the original incident of harassment and the speak-out.  Join us.

Triggered:  Street Harassment and Rape Culture in D.C.’s Ward 8
Screening and Panel Discussion
Thursday, February 8, 2017
6:00 – 8:30 Pm
Covenant Baptist Church
3845 South Capitol Street SW
Washington, DC 20032

Scheduled Panelists Include:

Schyla Pondexter-Moore: Affordable housing and anti-harassment activist with Reclaiming Our Bodies DC.

Aja Taylor: Affordable housing advocate at Bread for the City and an anti-harassment activist with Reclaiming Our Bodies DC.

Tony Lewis, Jr.: DC native and author of the book Slugg: A Boys’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Steve Hicks: Co-director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces’ Rethinking Masculinity Program

Dr. Pamela Brewer: Clinical Social Worker and Therapist, and host of long-running podcast MyndTalk.

For more information or to request a screening for your organization contact liane@grassrootsdc.org.

The post #MeToo in D.C.’s Ward 8 appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Cross-posted from The Next System Project

Introduction

While it might be fair to say that the police enjoy support among the majority of the white population, the police enjoy no such support among the majority of Black people, who endure more frequent and harsher interactions with cops than whites.

To be sure, white support for the police decreases proportionately with income. That is to say, poorer whites tend to support the police less because the police interact with them differently than with their wealthier white counterparts. By the same token, support for the police among Blacks tends to increase proportionately with increases in income, wealth and other privileges. Overall and within each economic stratum, however, white support for police is higher than Black support.

Similarly, largely as a consequence of physical or sexual assaults by men against them, many women find themselves in need of protection against assaults and most often turn to the police because there are few other legal or viable options. At the same time, low-income Black, Latina and Native American women can find themselves in need of protection from assault and, simultaneously, fear being dismissed, belittled or even assaulted by the very police they turn to for protection from assault. In instances of familial or intimate partner violence, women often fear that instead of acting as a third party mediator, police will brutalize the person that they want protection from and—simultaneously—want to protect.

This tension between needing an institution for protection and living in fear of that same institution is compounded among gay, lesbian, and transgender people, who experience scorn and sexual assault at the hands of police at even higher rates than cis-gendered women. While these tensions are disproportionately visited upon under- and working-class people, they exist across class lines based on identity or perceived identity.

One’s relationship with the police, then, is not merely a function of personal preference, but is deeply rooted in realities of class, race, sex and gender, or perceived gender, identity. One’s disposition towards the police, then, is not merely an individual choice, or a trend fueled by social media, but rather a consequence of lived class and group identity experiences. The pandemic of police brutality, therefore, cannot be addressed on the individual level, but only on the structural level.

For the majority of American history, the evolution of the structures and institutions of policing occurred not just outside of the participation of Black people, but in a manner and direction that is fundamentally antagonistic to the development of the Black community. The institution of policing in what would become the United States began as private patrols of white men tasked with capturing runaway slaves. Not incidentally, those patrols were often rewarded with the bodies of Black women. After the Civil War, slave patrols morphed into an organized government structure tasking white men with enforcing the Black Codes, a series of laws crafted to criminalize and control the population of former slaves, including any imagined infringement upon the sanctity of white women.

One’s disposition towards the police is not merely an individual choice, or a trend fueled by social media, but rather a consequence of lived class and group identity experiences.

The police are not simply here to stop crime and make our neighborhoods safe. The police as an institution with a defined role in society cannot be properly understood outside of the context of class, race, and gender.

Black Communities as a Domestic Colony and Police as an Occupying Force

In his groundbreaking 1967 “Where do we go from here?” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. argued that beyond the laws and customs of segregation, “the problem that we face is that the ghetto is a domestic colony that’s constantly drained without being replenished.”

That same year, the seminal book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, by Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and V. Charles Hamilton forcefully argued that Blacks “stand as colonial subjects in relation to the white society. Thus institutional racism has another name: colonialism.”

While traditional colonies are lands geographically distant from the controlling metropole—think of African or ‘new world’ colonies and their European metropole—the primary aspects of colonialism are not distance, but exploitation and oppression.

Majority Black communities in counties or cities are forcefully segregated and provide advantages for those in power and those who identify with that power. These communities are sources for cheap labor in factories or government jobs. They serve as a dumping ground for cheap or unsafe products, such as the meat no longer good enough for nice neighborhoods, used clothing that can be resold instead of trashed, and housing that turns a profit without the need for repairs. They provide the functional equivalent of raw materials in the form of ‘customers’ in for-profit prisons or as bodies to justify government contracts in health, social services, or a number of other sectors. And the residents of Black communities provide the powers-that-be and middle class white communities with an eternally useful bogeyman for any range of social ills.

In form and in function, Black communities are a domestic colony inside of the United States. If Black communities are a domestic colony, then that colonial relationship of exploitation and oppression is maintained by an occupying force: the police.

The harsh reality is that the relationship between US police forces and residents of low-income Black communities more closely resembles that of the US army and citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan than of the police and residents of wealthy majority white gated communities. In both ghettos and invaded countries, residents fear—even hate—the occupiers, but have no say in how that force carries out its mission to ‘protect’ them. In both instances, the job of the occupying force is to defend business assets from poor people. Most telling, when cops or soldiers murder a colonial subject, the entire occupying force protects their own, the media demonizes the dead while humanizing the murderer, the colonial government protects their armed representative from any semblance of justice, and citizens of the metropole, who benefit from this colonial relationship, rally in support of their troops.

In form and in function, Black communities are a domestic colony inside of the United States.

In practice, the police serve as a hostile occupying force, enforcing the colonial status of Black communities in America. The undemocratic nature of policing undermines the ambitions of Black and other communities to exercise self-determination.

Because colonial occupation is inherently unjust, attempts to reform the occupation is inherently futile. This is why proposed “solutions” like community relations boards are fundamentally flawed.

Working at peak effectiveness, community relations boards help the occupiers better communicate the terms of occupation with the occupied. When granted teeth, civilian oversight boards help insure that the occupiers adhere to the rules of occupation established by the occupiers. Even if all police were properly trained to the highest standard imaginable, the result would be an occupation by a well-trained force.

End the Occupation and Shift Power

Virtually all theories of democracy and laws governing international human rights concur that functional democratic institutions must be firmly grounded in the informed consent of the governed. By definition, however, no people grant consent to colonization or occupation. In practice, Black people in America have never been afforded the opportunity to grant consent to an armed force empowered to stop, detain, arrest, and even take the life of members of our community.

This historic moment calls for something more significant than additional training or even civilian oversight boards.

 In the face of protests against police brutality and abuse, the real question, then, is not about community relations, civilian oversight, appropriate levels of training, or even well-intentioned slogans. The core issue is one of democratic power. For all of the complexities of this time in history—and there are many complexities—the underlying issue is one of power.The fundamental function of police in any society is to enforce the will and mores of those in power, whether that will is formally encoded in law or informally ingrained in social custom. Because they are the enforcement wing of the system, any campaign whose primary objective is to convince the police to disobey the will of those in power—to disobey their boss—and, instead, adhere to the wishes of those with no power, is not only illogical, it is doomed to fail.

The only way the police can represent and enforce the interests of the Black community—rather than the interests of outside colonial powers—is to shift power so that the Black communities have power over their own police departments. This historic moment calls for something more significant than additional training or even civilian oversight boards. We must fight for Community Control over Police.

Community Control over Police

Community Control over Police is both a principle of democratic self-determination and an objective of a social movement determined to end abusive practices that are inevitable in the context of colonial domination. However, while most support the concept of local democratic rule, that abstract idea must be converted into concrete proposals around which the Black community, and the broader social justice movement, can coalesce.

Ending the rampant abuses at the hands of police, and the criminalization of entire segments of the population to feed the prison industrial complex, is entirely dependent upon the creation of institutions and mechanism that enable low-income Black communities to control the priorities, policies, and practices of the armed forces patrolling their neighborhoods.

The drive towards Community Control over Police begins by organizing the target city (county or town) into clearly identified policing districts. These districts can be identical to existing commission districts, wards or other political boundaries, or can be drawn up entirely from scratch. The districts should be physically, economically and socially contiguous, enabling Black communities to have their own policing district or districts.

Once each district is delineated, the next phase is to launch a Community Control over Police ballot initiative, wherein each policing district faces a choice: keep their existing police department or start their own. While the rules for launching a ballot initiative differs from one locale to the next, the overall objective is the same in that each community or section of the city has the right to vote for the police department they want.

The process is identical to voting for commissioners, council members or alderpersons for single member districts. Voters in each district receive unique ballots that apply only to their district. Residents of District 1, for example, have no say in the determination of residents in District 5. Residents of the two districts can reach identical or opposing conclusions and one will have no impact on the other.

Do you like how your local police treat you and your neighbors? Vote to keep them. Do you think the police are unfair to you and your neighbors? Vote them out. Both voices can prevail without infringing upon the aspirations of the other.

For the first time, people will have a direct say in who has the right to carry a gun, detain, arrest, and use force in their community in the name of the state. For all of the controversy surrounding this proposal, there are few clearer examples of democracy in action. As such, this is a contest all sides of the debate should be eager to wage.

Do you believe Black communities support the police? Great! This is the chance to prove it and temper the voices of dissent. Do you believe Black communities want self-determination? Great! This is the chance to offer a direct vote on an alternative, a choice never offered by the two-party system. In the end, some communities will vote out the existing police department and vote to build a new one from scratch.

For those who scoff at the vision of multiple agencies, it is important to note that most county police departments already work with multiple city agencies, and that many large jurisdictions already contain a plurality of different police forces operating side-by-side.  For example, in addition to its own police department with jurisdiction throughout the county, Miami-Dade County, Florida has over 30 municipal police departments, at least two university departments, and a railroad police force. Beyond that, there are multiple police agencies with jurisdiction throughout the entire state of Florida, not to mention the federal departments, such as the FBI, with jurisdiction across the country. Far from an exception, the presence of multiple police departments is currently common practice throughout the country.

For the first time, people will have a direct say in who has the right to carry a gun, detain, arrest, and use force in their community in the name of the state.

Because democracy is a process and not a destination, the plebiscite on policing will reinvigorate political participation in many communities as both supporters and opponents of the local police mobilize their bases. Those organizations engaged in electoral politics and ‘get out the vote’ efforts will witness a record number of newly registered Black and Latina voters (“So let me get this straight, you are telling me I can vote out the police?”).

At the end of the vote, districts satisfied with their police will see no difference in their department. In districts that vote for a new department, the police will retreat to within its new boundaries to allow the new force to serve their new bosses.

To be clear, this vote is not to take control over an existing police department, but to establish a new one. No colony seeks control over the occupying army, they pursue an end to colonialism and realization of self-rule. In this instance, the vote is to establish a Civilian Police Control Board.

A Model: The Civilian Police Control Board

The primary institution for the exercise of Community Control over Police is the Civilian Police Control Board (CPCB).

To be clear, the power of this body is to exercise control and power over the police, not review or oversight. This is not a review board: at this stage in history, review boards represent a step backwards and one that further entrenches existing power relationships instead of upending them in favor of the oppressed. We are no longer satisfied with the ability to review abuses of our communities, we are in pursuit of the power to end those abuses.

The CPCB must be empowered to establish police priorities, set department policies, and enforce practices of the new police force.

Even though they do not make the laws, every police department, and even each district inside of a department, establishes policing priorities. For example, police districts serving downtown areas often prioritize preventing human beings without homes from damaging alleys, sidewalks, and parks with their urine, even though they have nowhere else to respond to calls of nature, and aggressively seek to arrest those who transgress these priorities. The CPCB, by contrast, can prioritize the protection of  human beings without homes over the protection of  sections of cement from those humans.

We are no longer satisfied with the ability to review abuses of our communities, we are in pursuit of the power to end those abuses. 

Policies can include uniform specs, appropriate interactions with civilians, required levels of training around courtesy with people, and a use of force matrix. In order to enforce these policies, the CPCB must have the power to hire and fire individual police who are not serving the public interest.

With such a broad range of powers, the CPCB would likely consist of a bi-cameral board, with one half  dealing with establishing priorities and policies and another with enforcement of these policies in practice.

This is Community Control over Police.

The CPCB must be comprised entirely of civilian adult human beings—not corporations or human representatives of corporations—residing in the police district. To be explicit, residing means living in, not just owning property in. And this residency requirement should be evaluated without regard to citizenship status or criminal history.

While some envision an elected board, we propose something entirely different: a board selected entirely at random among residents of the policing district.

There are two main constraints to an elected board. First, elections in the US are thoroughly corrupted by influences of corporate finance on one side and two party electoral politics on the other. Even if multiple communities were to win control over their police, it is not difficult to imagine that after one or two election cycles, your local CPCB would be a corporate board brought to you by [ insert name of powerful corporation here ]. For this board to shift power, instead of becoming another institution to maintain power, it must break through the limitations of electoral corruption.

Second, even elections with minimal levels of corporate or party influence, still occur in a social context. In this social context, elected officials are disproportionately white, male and wealthy—the exact population with the highest level of support for the police. We must devise democratic systems that encourage active participation from those least likely to engage, not those most likely to benefit.

Sortition—government by random selection—is the best way to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to exercise power. The rich and poor, straight and gay, male and female, white and Black all have an equal shot at making decisions through random selection. If we believe that democracy is for everyone, then random selection of officials is the best way to ensure each person can exercise power.

Not incidentally, there are numerous studies on sortition, including a few theories that suggest the practice would instill better government in Washington, DC than the current practice of corporate elections.

However, for those with deep reservations about allowing randomly selected people to judge police or engage on this level of decision making, we are willing to meet you halfway. We are prepared to concede the point, and publicly support the position that ‘randomly selected’ people are not qualified to make these decisions and work to find a viable alternative that does not involve unqualified randomly selected individuals.

Right after we empty the prisons.

Guilt and innocence, imprisonment and freedom, even life and death are determined by unqualified randomly selected individuals that we call ‘jurors.’ Anyone who is not qualified to determine how their taxes are used to arm officers of the state or to decide if those officers have behaved inappropriately towards the people they serve, cannot possibly be qualified to determine if someone represented by an overworked public defender or prosecuted by an unscrupulous district attorney is guilty or innocent in a case with any level of complexity. Empty the prisons and we will work together on a better system for both.

Randomly selected board seats, refreshed on a regular basis, make subversion of the democratic process virtually impossible. Special interests would be forced to bribe entire communities in order to assure some level of voting pattern stability. If bribery is special treatment or rewards for the official in question, randomly selected board members would compel the corrupting force to provide special treatment for every adult in the given community, an act which more closely resembles a perk or amenity than bribery. Kind of like a neighborhood pool or rec center.

Equally as important, the job of ‘qualifying’ community members for board service will fall to social justice organizations. Building robust and wide reaching political education and leadership development programs will make community organizing relevant like never before as we attempt to reach the next board member before their appointment. The person with the deciding vote on the priorities of the police might be the undereducated high school dropout who hangs out near the corner store most of the day. In order to get justice, we would have to politically educate and organize our entire community.

Vision

This movement moment, in which people are rising up against police abuse, presents this generation with a unique historic opportunity to shift powers on numerous levels.

The fight for Community Control over Police has the potential to remove us from the indignity of having to manage the public relations aspects of colonial occupation. A Community Police Control Board holds the potential to not only shift power into the hands of the Black community, but to transform the very definition of power itself. The levers of power will no longer be protected behind velvet ropes, with guards ensuring the exclusive nature of the club by checking for education, diction, and money to make sure only the ‘right’ people get close. Every member of the community will have the power to decide how the armed force of the neighborhood is supposed to act.

Once we are able to secure Community Control over Police and ensure that entire communities are empowered to exercise such control, we will be free to re-imagine and re-envision the very nature of policing itself.

We suspect that this vision, and its implementation, might be so radically different and unrecognizable from what we today call ‘policing,’ that we just might be forced to rename the institution.

 Imagine, a low-income Black community with 100 full time, paid community workers with sophisticated communications equipment, access to government information, and even vehicles. Now imagine those community workers operating under the control of low-income Black women who form the majority of the control board.  By unleashing our power and creative energy, we can build a new vision of what police can do to truly serve and protect our communities.We suspect that this vision, and its implementation, might be so radically different and unrecognizable from what we today call ‘policing,’ that we just might be forced to rename the institution.

But to get there we must fight for power. We must fight for Community Control over Police.

Max Rameau is a Haitian born Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, organizer, and author. more

The post Community Control Over Police: A Proposition appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Cross-Posted from DC Area Educators for Social Justice

We invite you to endorse and participate in the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools from February 5-9 to bring social justice issues into the classroom and empower students of color across the D.C. area. Sign up, download resources, and more: http://www.teachingforchange.org/black-lives-matter-week-action

Teaching for Change, Center for Inspired Teaching, Washington Teachers’ Union, D.C. area educators, as well as community members are collaborating on D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools. This week of action builds on the momentum of the The National Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Our Schools campaign taking place in cities across the U.S. to promote a set of local and national demands focused on improving the school experience for students of color.

In these times of emboldened racism and xenophobia, we must listen to and elevate the voices, experiences, and history of our fellow citizens and communities under attack. The thirteen guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement will be highlighted during this week of action as a means of challenging the insidious legacy of institutionalized racism and oppression that has plagued the United States since its founding. The Black Lives Matter movement is a powerful, non-violent peace movement that systematically examines injustices that exist in the intersections of race, class, and gender; including mass incarceration, poverty, non-affordable housing, income disparity, homophobia, unfair immigration laws, gender inequality, and poor access to healthcare.

Each day will explore two to three of the Black Lives Matter movement thirteen guiding principles. In school, teachers across the district will implement Black Lives Matter Week of Action curriculum designed for pre-K through 12th grade classrooms. In the evening, there will be events for educators, students, stakeholders, and community members to actively engage in the movement.

The goal of the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools is to spark an ongoing movement of critical reflection and honest conversations in school communities for people of all ages to engage with critical issues of social justice. It is our duty as educators and community members to civically engage students and build their empathy, collaboration, and agency so they are able to thrive. Students must learn to examine, address, and grapple with issues of racism and discrimination that persist in their lives and communities.

If you are interested in obtaining curricular resources, learning about the events and or exploring the different ways you can get involved visithttp://www.teachingforchange.org/black-lives-matter-week-action

The post D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools appeared first on Grassroots DC.

Guest Contributor:  Black Lives Matter DC

“Martin Luther King Jr’s life’s work was the elevation, honoring, and defense of Black Lives. His tools included non-violent civil disobedience and direct action. Dr. King was part of a larger movement of women, and men, queer, and straight, young and old. This movement was built on a bold vision that was radical, principled, and uncompromising. The freedom fighters who believed in this vision were called impractical, rash, irrational, and naive. Their tactics were controversial. Some elders distanced themselves from what was then a new movement for change. Some of the older generation joined in. Our movement draws a direct line from the legacy of Dr. King.

Unfortunately, Dr. King’s legacy has been clouded by efforts to soften, sanitize, and commercialize it. Impulses to remove Dr. King from the movement that elevated him must end. We resist efforts to reduce a long history marred with the blood of countless women and men into iconic images of men in suits behind pulpits.

From here on, MLK weekend will be known as a time of national resistance to injustice.

This MLK weekend we will walk in the legacy of Dr. King and the movement that raised him. We will #ReclaimMLK.”

                                – Ferguson Action

Three years ago, the #ReclaimMLK Week of Action was the first public event Black Lives Matter DC put on. Every year the week is phenomenal, touching hundreds of people and highlighting issues unique to Black DC communities. Kicking off each new year with a sense of purpose, focus, and a solid group of folks ready for strategic, principled, and organized resistance is amazing. This year will be no different and we hope to see you all there!

In addition to coming out to enjoy the events (listed below and attached to this email), we are looking for volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering please fill out this form as soon as possible. We would love your help collecting more items for the Silent Auction on Friday 1/19. If you or anyone you know wants to donate, please have them fill out this form.

Lastly, critically important events like these cost money to put on. We are an all volunteer grassroots chapter and need your help to cover the costs associated with this week. We have been able to secure many in-kind and other donations through hard work and relationships we have built. However, we still need your support to cover what remains. Please donate generously here today and encourage your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to do the same! Your help is greatly appreciated.

MLK Holiday DC Theme: Where do we go from here? Chaos or community?

FACEBOOK EVENTS (full flyer attached):

Blackout 2.0 Party

#BlackJoySunday

MLK Holiday DC Peace Walk, Parade, and Holiday Health Fair

2018 Theme: Where do we go from here? Chaos or Community.

Revolutionary Mothering: Mothers Building Community After Loss

Emotional Emancipation Circle

Resisting Chaos Through Organized Resistance: A Direct Action Training

Where do we go from here? Community Open House Fundraiser and Silent Auction for BLM DC and MLK Holiday DC Committee

#J2018- Year Anniversary of the Inauguration.

In Love and Solidarity,

Black Lives Matter DC

Text “KeepDC” to 91990 for alerts, updates, and urgent actions.

The post Third Annual #ReclaimMLK Week of Action! appeared first on Grassroots DC.