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Weekly Update – July 22, 2022

Dear friends, check out some of the work we have been doing!

Last Saturday (7/16) the War on Youth Work Group held an interactive workshop at the Noname Bookclub. We discussed how policing frameworks based on the war on terror and the war on gangs have been weaponized against our youth. We also talked about how modern manifestations of this framework, like the LAPD Providing Alternatives to Hinder Extremism (PATHE) program, deputize educators and therapists to surveil and criminalize youth.

Participants developed their own collective understanding of counterinsurgency by constructing a word web. During the last part of the workshop, participants broke off into groups to develop an organizing strategy to expand their understanding of the harms of TVTP programs among their networks.

On Tuesday we continued our regular outreach to local unhoused community members by Echo Park Lake. We tabled alongside the Lotus Collective who provided harm reduction resources and education.

On Wednesday morning we conducted outreach in Skid Row with our good friend Adam Rice! We spent a great deal of time talking to Skid Row community members about their constant battles with LAPD and how nonprofits play a role in facilitating that violence.

This was our last week with our brilliant first through fifth graders from STEM to the Future’s Freedom Summer Camp. We explored abolition, policing, surveillance, and how we build power and we did it all while having so much fun. We want to shout out Rafa, the summer program’s instructor, for being an invaluable resource during our time there. Enjoy these delightful pictures.

To plug in with any of the work groups listed above, or for more information about the Stop
LAPD Spying Coalition, 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.