Greetings friends! It’s been a busy week for the Coalition. Check out some of the work we’ve been doing!
On Monday (12/6) the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition held our Land and Policing Work Group meeting, and we were thrilled to welcome many new faces into our space. Tiff led us in an informative meeting where they updated us on the current undertakings of our Data Driven Policing fights. Other Coalition members provided updates around our report, Automating Banishment, along with news about future mapping and outreach efforts. The Coalition will be hosting a series of virtual and in-person teach-ins and group discussions on the report, Automating Banishment, the first of which will be held on Tuesday December 21st at 6PM! Check out the fliers below for more information! And if you haven’t already, log on to automatingbanishment.org to read our report!
Also on Monday, the Coalition in partnership with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) mobilized efforts against a $250K Targeted Violence Terrorism Prevention Grant for the LAPD being presented to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners on the following day. Our comrade Maraky of BAJI along with members of our War on Youth Work Group crafted a statement rejecting the approval of this grant. The TVTP grant is just the most recent rebranding of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) grant that Angelenos, primarily educators, rejected in 2018. This grant will be used to fund a program called Providing Alternatives to Hinder Extremism (PATHE) meant to develop and train a 500-person team of spies and informants to monitor youth using risk assessment tools and by monitoring “suspicious behavior.”
Unsurprisingly the useless LAPC approved the grant with Commissioner Briggs mockingly asking an LAPD Captain if these programs target Black or Muslim youth and accepting the notoriously dishonest LAPD’s answer (“No”) at face value. However, the fight is far from over. This grant has to go to City Council for approval and we will continue to build power to prevent the LAPD from surveilling and targeting our youth.
The Gender and Sexuality Work Group held a working meeting on Tuesday (12/7) night, during which Mariella and Chella led a reflection on some of the work the group has done this past year. Attendees were invited to share some of their personal highlights from past webinars and propose what topics they would like to see covered more. Mariella and Chella also shared some of their plans for the upcoming year and discussed some future topics G&S will address.
On Wednesday (12/8), the Coalition held its Coordinating Team Meeting. The Coordinating Team met to provide updates on the different Work Groups and to strategize around our goals for 2022.
On Saturday (12/11) the War on Youth Work Group held their special workshop for educators, school counselors, and youth. “Building Youth Power Against School Surveillance” informed attendees about how “Countering Violent Extremism” frameworks and national security surveillance are impacting Muslim, Black, Brown, Immigrant, and Indigenous youth in schools. This education is especially crucial at this junction with the city facing a TVTP grant that seeks to grow the LAPD’s PATHE program and turn the people we depend on to nurture our youth into informants.
The Coalition continues to build with the community on our recently released report: Automating Banishment: The Surveillance and Policing of Looted Land. If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report please fill out this google form. The first teach-in and discussion is scheduled for the third Tuesday on the month webinar on December 21st at 6 PM. Please stay tuned for zoom details.