A year ago those who didn't have any direct experience with Stop and Frisk hardly knew that they occurred at all. Those for whom the New Jim Crow was a daily reality thought there was nothing that could be done about it. There had been much exposure around stop and frisk, many things written, and civil suits in progress, but a crucial element was missing: mass resistance.
On October 21st, 2011, Cornel West and Carl Dix called for a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest the Stop and Frisk policy--and in response, a diverse and multiethnic cross section of New Yorkers put their bodies on the line to drag this immoral, illegal, and illegitimate policy into the spotlight. In a wave of direct actions spanning precincts in Harlem, Queens and Brooklyn with the highest numbers of Stop and Frisks, there were 83 arrests--igniting a spark plug of nationwide resistance to the policy. The message didn’t stop once they were arrested--as they defended the actions we took to "sound the alarm" and put the Stop and Frisk policy on trial in court through mass trials—sending a powerful message to the community and police that this practice can no longer continue, and they are determined to bring an end to it.
Last fall, the New Jim Crow met the New Freedom Fighters.
Now we face a transformed situation, where Stop and Frisk is quickly becoming a major social question in New York City. Mayor Bloomberg and Ray Kelly have dug their heels in and defended it, while mayoral candidates jockey for position to reform or scale back the policy. Cop watch videos and documentaries on Stop and Frisk are going viral on youtube, and thousands of people across the country are waking up to see the horror of mass incarceration and the tens of millions of lives it impacts. The actions taken by the Freedom Fighters, and the wave of resistance it has engendered, have created an atmosphere where the Stop-and-Frisk policy, mass incarceration, and all the horrors it inflicts are becoming widely known--and challenged--in mainstream society.
Come stand with the Stop and Frisk Freedom Fighters on December 6th at "A Night to Support Stop and Frisk Protestors: Raise the Roof on their Legal Defense Fund"! Help raise serious funds for their legal defense, which is $10,000 and counting. There are six more trials in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as a number of upcoming trials featuring Stop Mass Incarceration activists, Noche Diaz, Christina Gonzalez and Matthew Swaye. Let's come together to celebrate those who have been on the front lines fomenting resistance to Stop and Frisk and the criminalization of Black and Latino youth.
Most importantly, come and join in the fight to put an end to the horror of stop and Frisk and the New Jim Crow--because this is your fight, and you're a Freedom Fighter, too!
On October 21st, 2011, Cornel West and Carl Dix called for a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest the Stop and Frisk policy--and in response, a diverse and multiethnic cross section of New Yorkers put their bodies on the line to drag this immoral, illegal, and illegitimate policy into the spotlight. In a wave of direct actions spanning precincts in Harlem, Queens and Brooklyn with the highest numbers of Stop and Frisks, there were 83 arrests--igniting a spark plug of nationwide resistance to the policy. The message didn’t stop once they were arrested--as they defended the actions we took to "sound the alarm" and put the Stop and Frisk policy on trial in court through mass trials—sending a powerful message to the community and police that this practice can no longer continue, and they are determined to bring an end to it.
Last fall, the New Jim Crow met the New Freedom Fighters.
Now we face a transformed situation, where Stop and Frisk is quickly becoming a major social question in New York City. Mayor Bloomberg and Ray Kelly have dug their heels in and defended it, while mayoral candidates jockey for position to reform or scale back the policy. Cop watch videos and documentaries on Stop and Frisk are going viral on youtube, and thousands of people across the country are waking up to see the horror of mass incarceration and the tens of millions of lives it impacts. The actions taken by the Freedom Fighters, and the wave of resistance it has engendered, have created an atmosphere where the Stop-and-Frisk policy, mass incarceration, and all the horrors it inflicts are becoming widely known--and challenged--in mainstream society.
Come stand with the Stop and Frisk Freedom Fighters on December 6th at "A Night to Support Stop and Frisk Protestors: Raise the Roof on their Legal Defense Fund"! Help raise serious funds for their legal defense, which is $10,000 and counting. There are six more trials in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as a number of upcoming trials featuring Stop Mass Incarceration activists, Noche Diaz, Christina Gonzalez and Matthew Swaye. Let's come together to celebrate those who have been on the front lines fomenting resistance to Stop and Frisk and the criminalization of Black and Latino youth.
Most importantly, come and join in the fight to put an end to the horror of stop and Frisk and the New Jim Crow--because this is your fight, and you're a Freedom Fighter, too!
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