Thread by @stoplapdspying

1/ The City Council votes tomorrow on accepting over $425,000 in funds related to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) program.

Here's why we are talking about CVE and demanding that the City Council keep #CVA out of Los Angeles!

About #CVE

2/ “Countering Violent Extremism” or CVE is an Islamophobic program created by the Department of Homeland Security to justify increased surveillance of Muslim communities, and therefore increase criminalization.

3/ CVE infiltrates Muslim communities disguised as “mental health support” and “social services” through K-12 school programs and partnerships with universities, organizations, and mosques/religious institutions.

CVE often takes the shape of grant money.

4/ The LA Mayor’s Office @MayorOfLA is attempting to implement CVE through the guise of “community engagement efforts” with Black Muslim communities and refugee populations, who are among the primary targets of CVE grant money nationwide.

5/ CVE is not unique, but is part of a long tradition and history of racialized predictive policing and behavioral surveillance practices that are based on seeing communities of color as criminal by nature.

6/ In fact, the history of surveillance can be traced back to racial chattel slavery, and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Anti-Black logics and tropes created through the institution of slavery have persisted throughout history...

7/ ...and have structured US institutions and policies that deem Black communities, as well as Muslim and Brown communities, as “threats,” “criminals,” and “terrorists."

8/ These logics are core to the War on Drugs and Gang Databases, and have historically served to criminalize our communities; justify surveillance, policing, and punishment; and neutralize all political activity and rightful dissent!

9/ Now, Muslim, Black and Brown youth are being labeled “threats to national security.” #CVE does not make us safe!

10/ Rather, CVE programs pressure individuals and institutions to become informants to law enforcement, and tear communities apart by sowing distrust.

11/ CVE guidelines even assume that there are reliable “indicators” that can predict if individuals are “on a path to radicalization.”

Indicators have included
- growing a beard
- attending a mosque
- having criticism of American foreign policy

12/ These indicators clearly target Muslim daily spiritual practices and traditions, and criminalize any political speech or mobilization -

13/ #CVE thus operates on the racist premise that Muslims are inherently prone to “violence,” and connotes that any political speech, including critiquing US foreign policy, can be categorized as “extremism” - a notion we must interrogate.

14/ Programs related to CVE include “Preventing Violent Extremism in in Schools” (PVE), a set of guidelines issued by FBI which label certain behaviors as “suspicious.”

15/ Through PVE, educators are directed to categorize youths as potential “violent extremists” based on vague “indicators” including “being an immigrant,” “questioning authority,” or “living in poverty.”

16/ Another related program called “Black Identity Extremism” targets Black folks who are organizing their communities, promoting Black empowerment, and standing for their liberation and their rights and against policing and racist institutions.

17/ Yet another narrative being used criminalize youth and to justify programs like CVE? The narrative that uses MS-13 to justify ICE, and the police state targeting Latinx youth....

18/ ALL these programs are a major part of the war on Black, Brown, and Muslim youth, and an effort to mark folx as national security threats.

#CVE does not keep us safe

19/ Further, such programs justify the police state & separation of our families, harm our communities, and fill prisons so private corporations can make millions from our oppression, all while trying to destroy political activity thru increased surveillance and criminalization!

20/ Our coalition demands a complete rejection and dismantling of CVE, PVE, BIE and the MS-13 narrative. We don’t want a “properly-crafted” or “constitutional” CVE program that claims to fight fight white supremacist extremism, but in reality, targets and harms our communities -

21/ We reject the DHS and the larger police state, and we reject programs that criminalize us! Join us with folks from @PYM_USA, the Black Student Union at UCI, @immigrantpower, @jvplive, and other groups and individuals as we demand the City Council say NO to CVE!

22/ Other ways to support the fight against #CVE - tweet to the @MayorOfLA @ericgarcetti and let him know what you think of LA funding programs to further criminalize Black and Brown Youth, when we could be investing in programs to uplift them - say NO to #CVE

#SurveillingMayor

23/ Tell the City Council members what you think of racist #CVE programs:
@HerbJWesson @gilcedillocd1 @PaulKrekorian @BobBlumenfield @davideryu @PaulKoretzCD5 @CD6Nury @MRodCD7 @mhdcd8 @mikebonin @Mitch_Englander @MitchOFarrell @josehuizar

#CVE Has No Space In Our Communities!