We’re back! And we’re excited to spend 2022 building power and dismantling the surveillance state! The Coalition hit the ground running this year, here’s what we’ve been up to.
On Tuesday 1/11, the Coalition’s webinar was split into two hours. The first was hosted by the War on Youth team, where Celine, Akhil, and Nadia discussed the concerted effort by academics, the Department of Homeland Security, and LAPD to target and surveil youth. The team described the burgeoning use of mental health assessments and pseudoscientific “risk assessments” to medicalize extremism and pathologize dissent.
The team also made a call to action around the Targeted Violence Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant that was awarded to LAPD this past September. The LAPD intends to use the grant to grow their PATHE program. They plan to train 500 community members including educators, counselors, faith leaders, and school therapists to serve as spies and informants monitoring our youth. The grant was approved by the Board of Police Commissioners and will be headed to the Los Angeles City Council for their approval. The Coalition in partnership with our comrades at the Palestinian Youth Movement have already started mobilizing against this harmful program that targets Black, Muslim, Indigenous, and Immigrant communities. We released an organizational sign on letter with our affinity partners at Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, Students Deserve, Vigilant Love, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. You can read our letter at tinyurl.com/RejectTVTP. If your organization would like to sign on to our letter email us at [email protected].
The team has also created a petition individuals can sign onto that will email city council members demanding they reject TVTP. You can find the petition at tinyurl.com/RejectTVTVPPetition.
The second half of Tuesday’s webinar was a continuation of our series on the Coalition’s landmark report Automating Banishment: The Surveillance and Policing of Looted Land. Check out a recording of part one from Dec 21st and the accompanying notes here! The Coalition will be placing in person teach-ins on hold while we monitor the spread of Covid but join us for our next virtual session on Tuesday 1/25 at 6pm.
On Wednesday 1/12, our Community Policing Work Group met to further develop our popular education materials. The community policing work group highlights how the reform of community policing is rooted in counter-insurgency and serves to perpetuate policing’s inherent violence.
After that we held another meeting reviewing SARA documents the Coalition retrieved through PRA requests with our comrades from Street Watch LA. SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) is an LAPD operational model and integral part of Data Informed Community Focused Policing, LAPD’s most recent rebrand of Data-Driven Policing.
Later that evening the Coalition’s Coordinating Team met to debrief on our current fights and share our goals for the new year.
On Thursday morning, the Coalition was thrilled to present our report (virtually) to a group of bright young students at Roosevelt High School. We want to thank the students for welcoming us into their space and sharing the expectedly difficult experiences they’ve had with police. We especially want to thank our comrade Mr. Bassey for inviting us to share this information with his class.
Later that day, our mapping group led by Cris, who famously built the site for Automating Banishment, discussed the different ways we could use mapping to create popular education materials. We also discussed the different mediums through which these maps could manifest themselves.
To plug in with the mapping group or any of the work groups listed above, email us at [email protected]. If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report please fill out this google form.