Dear friends, check out some of the work we have been doing!
The first half of our week was largely focused on the fight against the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant at City Council. The grant had been agendized for a vote on Wednesday March 9th. We spent the week mobilizing our base and projecting the community’s outright rejection of this grant.
Monday consisted of a day-long phone calling campaign directed at specific city council members with community members demanding their vote be in-line with the demands of community members, and that they reject TVTP.
On Tuesday the Coalition held a banner drop and press conference to amplify the community’s rejection of the TVTP grant. We were joined by speakers from Vigilant Love, Palestinian Youth Movement, BAJI, and Students Deserve. You can find footage from the banner drop and press conference here.
Our Tuesday War On Youth webinar began with a timeline of the fight against CVE and it’s recent manifestation as TVTP. We provided updates around our organizing efforts and participated in a call to action, allowing attendees time during the webinar to call City Council offices and make public comments opposing TVTP.
Ni concluded the webinar with a virtual art-making session where the group participated in captioning different political art templates.
During Wednesday’s City Council meeting, the Coalition called in to voice their opposition to the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant. But after an enthusiastic cosigning by councilmember Harris-Dawson, the grant was approved 11-2 with Bonin and Raman voting no. The Coalition and our partners released this statement in response to the approval of the TVTP grant. We will continue to organize against the racist targeting of our youth.
On Thursday morning, the Coalition met to discuss our upcoming fundraiser on March 25th! In case you missed it, the Coalition will be holding a fundraiser on March 25th, 2022 at 6 PM. We are thrilled to have musical performances by LA CAN Freedom Singers and Sonny Singh. Additionally, we will have a poetry performance by Claire Schwartz and a piece by Miranda Haymon from In the Penal Colony.
This fundraiser will be hosted in partnership with Resource Generation LA. You can donate ahead of the fundraiser date here, and you can click here to register for the fun-filled evening.
On Friday, the Coalition held our first Academic Complicity Work Group meeting. We discussed what Academic Complicity meant to each of us, and what issues we felt the Academic Complicity group needed to address. Shakeer, Hamid, and Leah also discussed prior victories the Coalition has secured on behalf of the community against institutions like UCLA. The group also discussed what the function of a work group would be in addressing issues within academia.
To plug in with any of the work groups listed above, or for more information about the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, email us at stoplapdspying@gmail.com.
If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report please fill out this google form.