Wee Chalk the Walk Granville Station MKE!

As a continued sign of solidarity with National Black Lives Matter Week of Action, Wee Chalk Your Walk. Let’s chalk messages in our own neighborhoods, then let’s go to the chief of police’s neck of the woods. Bring yourself, chalk, and signs. We will start at the corner of 99th and Good Hope. We walk up 99th street and chalk the streets and sidewalks between 99th and 96th street with Black Lives Matter solidarity messages. We will end in front of Chief Morales’ house with a peaceful gathering. This is Family Friendly!

Four Demands of the National Black Lives Matter at School Movement
*Recruit and retain Black educators
*Fully Resourced Restorative Practices
*Black History and Ethnic Studies in all schools
*Fund Counselors, Not cops

https://www.aclu-wi.org/en

MILWAUKEE, June 1, 2020 – The ACLU of Wisconsin today issued the following statement pertaining to the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers against citizens participating in protests following the murders of George Floyd in Minnesota and Joel Acevedo in Milwaukee.

ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ott said:

“This past weekend, state and local law enforcement deployed violent and militant tactics against demonstrators, most of whom were peacefully exercising their First Amendment right to protest. Protesters already grieving the murders of Floyd and Acevedo, and the systematic murder of people of color at the hands of police, should not be met with rubber bullets, tear gas and other militarized weapons by the same government entity that they are protesting against.”

“Tear gas is a dangerous chemical weapon that is deemed illegal for use during warfare by many nations around the world. The use of it in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by a respiratory virus, is inexcusable. We have also seen the devastating injuries that have been caused by the use of rubber bullets. Neither weapon should be used in the streets against civilians, particularly when they are exercising their rights to protest.”

“Over the weekend, many people were arrested and ticketed during these protests, many due to the curfews that were put in place. These curfews provided another pretext for Black and brown men and women engaged in protest to be arrested. In Milwaukee, arrested demonstrators were taken to small holding cells, risking exacerbating the spread of coronavirus, which has already disproportionately affected communities of color.”

“The ACLU of Wisconsin calls on law enforcement to immediately stop its use of excessive force against protesters and ensure a safe environment for demonstrators to express their demand for justice. Curfews in general should be avoided because they make otherwise perfectly lawful behavior a basis for arrest and prosecution.  Any curfew should be time limited and have clear exceptions for members of the media, people without shelter, people traveling to jobs or those who otherwise need to be out. Any curfew must be reviewed on at least a daily basis to ensure that it is only imposed when absolutely necessary to prevent bodily injury or property destruction.”

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More information on the health consequences of crowd-control weapons is available online: www.aclu.org/report/lethal-disguise-health-consequences-crowd-control-weapons.

More information on protesters’ rights, including the right to record police, is available online: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/

A video from the ACLU on the right to protest while demanding justice for George Floyd is at: https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1266553313266368518?s=20

Milwaukee, WI / Photo: Joe Brusky

Photos: Ryan Brahmstadt

https://wisconsinprisonvoices.org/

Prison revolt on 5/30/20 at Waupun CI

“The guards and prison administration are treating us as if this lockdown is disciplinary and not due to a worldwide pandemic. They’re angry because now they have to do all of the many jobs that they took for granted when it was the prisoners’ duty to do them, such as cook, clean, pass out the food, the phones, toilet paper, etc, and they’re taking it out on us, the prisoners. They only give us one shower a week, they aren’t giving us daily cleaning supplies in the northwest cellhall. We haven’t had recreation in I don’t know how long. They’re restricting our communication to our families and the media. Certain staff have told us, blatantly, that they don’t care whether we ( prisoners) catch coronavirus and die or not. We (the prisoners) are desperate to know what is going on and why we are being treated this way, when we’ve done nothing to deserve this type of treatment and or isolation. Its so bad that the prisoners in the northwest cellhall began to revolt, on 5/30/20, and started setting fires and throwing fire bombs in an attempt to get the outside world to take notice of what’s going on in here, but the effort was suppressed by the WCI administration.” [ Message received by Milwaukee IWOC on 6/1/20]

5/31/20 Black Lives Matter chants at Waupun Correctional:

“On 5/31, Sunday, at Waupun Correctional 75 incarcerated people were chanting “Black lives matter! George Floyd-Say his name!” Guards threatened to shut off the blowers, people incarcerated continued chants for at least an hour. Guards have shut off the antenna for local station, the only way they’re getting news is through court tv. The North has no electronics or phones. ” [ IWOC informed of this via phone call between IWOC outside volunteer and person inside WCI on 5/31/20, chanting heard over the call.]….

https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

Thousands of participants in Deadly Exchange programs include ICE agents and past and current police chiefs of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, LA, Seattle and Washington DC

September 12, 2018 – From the acting Deputy Director of ICE to the current Chief of Police in Washington DC, from San Diego to Chicago to Atlanta, since 2002 thousands of American law enforcement officials have trained in Israel with Israeli police, military and the Shin Bet. And thousands more have participated in security conferences and workshops with Israeli military, law enforcement and security officials held in the U.S. But despite their branding as top-tier counter-terrorism experts, Israeli police and security agents regularly violate civil rights, and implement racist and deadly policies.

Released today, Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel, comprehensively documents how these trainings solidify partnerships between the U.S. and Israeli governments to exchange methods of state violence and control, including mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent.

Produced by Researching the American Israeli Alliance (RAIA) in partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the report is the result of dozens of FOIAs yielding hundreds of documents, exclusive interviews with American and Israeli personnel, and exhaustive academic and media research in English, Arabic and Hebrew. Accompanying the report, RAIA released the Palestine is Here Database, a search engine mapping Israeli trainings of US law enforcement across American cities and towns.

“American police already have a terrible track record on civil rights and racism – and then they go to Israel and train with Israeli police and security agencies that are documented human rights violators! We should be investing in our communities, not militarizing our police” – Jewish Voice for Peace Deputy Director Stefanie Fox

“The dangers of U.S. law enforcement training in Israel for communities across the United States make clear that U.S. policy on Israel is not just a foreign policy issue, but one of civil rights. This unholy alliance between the U.S. and Israeli governments and American military industries is creating an injustice that we must urgently address” – RAIA Executive Director Eran Efrati

Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel documents how these training programs contradict the heroic efforts of the civil rights movements in the U.S. to counter racist state violence – including counter-terrorism initiatives – in black, brown and poor communities.

CASE STUDY: On a police training exchange in Israel, the Boston Police Commissioner visited Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where he learned about Israel’s passenger screening process, including racial and ethnic profiling of passengers. Shortly after, Boston’s Logan airport became the first American airport to pioneer the Israeli inspired Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. Years later, SPOT not only came under fire for being ineffective and wasteful, but also for facilitating discriminatory racial profiling at airports around the country.

The report also details the financial incentives and trade-offs between Israeli and American security firms and technologies….

Remember to register your little freedom fighters for our Books and Breakfast program. The time in NOW to politicize and decolonize our younger generation. We’ll be reading about consent, feminism, activism, and so much more!

Due to Covid-19, kids and families can join our Books and Breakfast program virtually. Black, Khmer, and Hmong elementary-aged children in Dane County are invited to enjoy mind-lifting books this summer with Freedom, Inc. Goals include enhancing literacy and teaching life skills to young leaders in our community. We will post videos online every Tuesday and Thursday at 11am between June 23rd – August 6th.

Families who register for the program and attend the virtual parent/guardian orientation on June 12th at 5pm will get one set of books per family and activity materials for each child. if parents/guardians, can’t attend, please contact Bianca, bgomez@freedom-inc.org

Register online by June 11th: https://bit.ly/2TsR6Nt