How will we protect the frontlines of freedom from retaliation?
How do we protect those with distinct voices? That is a question worthy of careful thought. Police are powerful branches of government and retaliation can come in different forms , when it is least expected and can be fatal. How do we protect those on the frontline?
Let’s figure out:
1. Ways to help avert retaliation —TRAINING & EDUCATION
2. Offer technical assistance—LEGAL SERVICES
3. Offer monetary assistance to families for legal defense —CROWDSOURCING
Valuing the inalienable rights of ALL people, means helping those fight when necessary. Need varies with context so finding ways to communicate and identify safety needs. How do we help spread the fight and increase support for Individual Rights?
Too many “Recognized” well-funded organizations for human rights do not do their jobs well. Many lost opportunities because of pre-occupation with busy.
Ramsey Orta and Calvin Bryant, I believe are still imprisoned. Are they still imprisoned? How are they? They and the protestors in #Ferguson are soldiers of the infantry of freedom, fighting on the frontlines.
So, how do we protect the distinct voices of freedom from American tyranny?
Create an infrastructure of protection capable of tracking data and detecting corruption….. Let us brainstorm….
Related:
1. Ferguson Feeds Off the Poor: Three Warrants a Year Per Household
2. Ramsey Orta “100% Sure” Cops Arrested Him As Revenge For Filming Fatal Chokehold
http://gothamist.com/2014/08/05/ramsey_orta_eric_garner.php
3. FBI investigating ‘Anonymous’ for attacks against Ferguson police home computers
FBI investigating 'Anonymous' for attacks against Ferguson police home computers
Be clear. When confronted by armed law enforcement, you have no ground to stand.
You must control the majority of local government officials, those who hire police administration.
Challenging to control others…easier to find common ground and work from there….find a balance with the differences. Why should black and brown folks have to conform to anglo-values of human bondage?
Vote in overwhelming numbers. That is the value sorely lacking.
Hi Angela,
I think it has to be about disputing old myths, about how invaluable certain members of the population (or groups within a population are). I also think there needs to be work on masculinity, what it means to be men, aggression as a norm, who can be a target of aggression and who not, and how to work differently within an unequal system.
It may be helpful (but not easily accepted) to assist judges with exploring social myths regarding aggression, criminality and racial links or unhelpful beliefs. It may also be very helpful to ensure that there is an equal representation of race/gender/class groups within the courts and justice system as a whole. That way, it’s hard to maintain elitist beliefs or values.
From an alternate side, exploring dangers, difficulties and PTSD within the police force (which may result in people becoming hypervigilant and violent), asking for help, wellness within the work place, personality traits most helpful for people who are part of the justice system and so on.
Legal Aid and lawyers who work for social justice may also help. I know when I did trauma couselling, there was a lawyer who worked for refugee rights, and would help people with passports. Very often, networks of professionals can often contribute to a more just world. It would be about establishing what resources are available already, and what is needed.
Just some beginning thoughts.
I hope you are having a good weekend.
Nicci
Hi Nicci
Great ideas! Ihteresting perspective…. “From an alternate side, exploring dangers, difficulties and PTSD within the police force (which may result in people becoming hypervigilant and violent), asking for help, wellness within the work place, personality traits most helpful for people who are part of the justice system and so on. ”
What I discovered is there is so much variation to each of us and to each community that we only need to provide options and assistance on how… I love this line:
” It would be about establishing what resources are available already, and what is needed.”
Exactly, using the resources glaring at us, finding the diamonds in the ruff.
Nicci, How would you change behavior… as I just commented you can’t control behavior …but you can change it.
How do you approach communities to find out their needs and resources? How do you digitally capture those needs and resources?
I think change or transformation would come about by looking at the underlying assumptions, and getting to the roots of what we learn about the world. Within social justice, there are different ways of doing that.
I don’t know if you could find Andrew Faull’s work on ‘policing diversity’…I think it should be in the UCT library under student thesis. He looked at how important it was to question the underlying assumptions re race, gender, sexuality in a police station, and spoke about how to create a more equal society.
There are different ways of doing it. Appreciative Inquiry looks at how it has been possible to work differently in the past, and how to dream up solutions for the future. It is often very helpful in times of hostile conflict. There is an interesting book by Joanna Macy as well (it looks at environment, but the principles work for social justice too) called Active Hope, which works through the pain and searches for possibility.
It’s also possible to break down the ways that qualities such as ‘race’ have become interlinked with eg sexuality, violence, and show the historical roots of this, dig them up (oppression, slavery, victorian repressed sexuality which became projected etc) as Foucault and Derrida do. Whetherell and Potter have interesting work on this too. But it can meet some resistance (and appreciative inquiry helps when that happens).
Going into dialogue, beyond what we’ve learned, and into what people believe for themselves, what they would like for themselves within society, and how to try to produce that, beyond hopelessness and into possiblity can also create transformation, because ‘the system’ doesn’t seem overly powerful when people find their own inner voices and hearts.
People will normally tell you what they would like for themselves, if given an opportunity. Public participation workshops, focus groups, sometimes asking NGOs or youth organizations for some time means that people will speak. You could set up an evening and offer people the opportunity to share. If you record though, you would have to ask permission, and say how you were going to use it, and share what you would do with the informtion once it was edited etc, so that people would feel free to share only what they were willing to reveal to the public.
I don’t know if this helps at all?
Hi Nicci,
It does…your methods for public participation workshops, focus groups, NGOs and youth organizations are interesting…not the usual suspects. Thank you, what field are you in?
Got some interesting points from your links and reflected on the power of positive deviance.
Hi Angela, thanks for the message! I have a background in critical theory and facilitation, where the focus is on human rights, agency and the ability to respond to social injustice.
This is right up your up alley…your field of expertise. TY, Nicci.
http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-Radical-Change
This may also be helpful?
Actually, it about conforming with each other. Color should have no bearing. There is good and bad in all. But I’m troubled to see people in the USA asking for equal rights. They did it for men and women, why not people in general.