Dear Friends, this week the Coalition finally released our report, AUTOMATING BANISHMENT: The Surveillance and Policing of Looted Lands! The War on Youth working group held an educational webinar on how nonprofits serve to perpetuate and execute the DHS’s efforts to criminalize youth through CVE grant programs.
On Monday (11/8) the Coalition held a press conference in front of LAPD HQ to announce the launch of our new report AUTOMATING BANISHMENT: The Surveillance and Policing of Looted Lands. Hamid, Tiff, and Shakeer spoke briefly about the content of the report, specifically how it highlights the conspiracy the LAPD, Land Developers, and policymakers are acting out to banish community members. Dr. Melina Abdullah, of BLM-LA then spoke on how the findings in the report validate the experiences of harassment felt by Black Angelenos, who have always felt this banishment. Pete White of LACAN then went on to discuss how LACAN, since its inception, has been combatting the analog surveillance that has plagued skid row. Specifically, banishment attempts through CNAP pursuits, and the complicit nature of private entities working with the LAPD. He then talked about how the arbitrary designation of a “crime hotspot” was once ascribed to the corner of 1st and Spring, next to the LAPD Headquarters.
Following the press conference, the Coalition led a twitter storm in coordination with Ricci of the People’s City Council to amplify the report. Our hashtag “#Automating Banishment” was the top trending topic in Los Angeles! We’re hoping this exposure will help disseminate the information we have compiled in the report and allow more folks to join our outreach efforts to better ingest its content.
Tuesday’s (11/9) War on Youth Webinar discussed the Coalition’s work in partnership with the Palestinian Youth Movement, submitting PRAs to learn more about DHS grants that target youth. We had a specific lens on how nonprofits are weaponized to target youth in varying spaces. Celine of PYM facilitated a discussion with NYU PhD candidate and author, Emmaia Gelman about the ADL. Emmaia discussed how the ADL’s history has included suppressing communist, socialist, and leftist Jewish traditions and rooting themselves in close alliance to US power, including the police state.
They are an integral part of a constellation of organizations that constitute the Zionist lobby within the US, and have campaigned extensively for the normalization of Zionism within US jewish communities and in the US as a whole, including by routinely conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Their alliance with power includes extensive ties to law enforcement, including by running @deadlyexchange trips with police to exchange tactics with Israeli forces. They have been pushing the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which criminalizes and stigmatizes Palestinian resistance by conflating criticism of Zionism with bigotry against Jews. Plug-in with the work Emmaia has been doing with PYM to educate groups about the ADL at droptheadl.org . Join the fight alongside the War on Youth group by plugging into our working group meeting on Wednesday 11/17 at 6pm. Contact us for the Zoom link.
On Wednesday (11/10), BLM-LA graciously centered their weekly End Police Associations action around the release of the Coalition’s report. The action’s theme “There IS a Conspiracy” touches on the fact that this report validates the experiences of Black community members. LAPD’s targeted harassment of Black individuals long preceded the creation of these Data-Driven Policing models, but the report elucidates the objective behind this harassment and the players it serves to benefit. Hamid spoke on the content of the report with Matyos supporting. The Coalition also shared visuals that illustrated the targeting of Nipsey Hussle’s store, and how CSP sites and LASER zones coincided with the murder of Black youth. We are grateful to BLM-LA for allowing us the space to amplify our message and grow our fight.