Dear folks who are donating online to @PFJ_USA right now--thank you. We are a small org trying to dismantle a deeply oppressive system and transfer power to people usually marginalized in that system. In a pandemic world, the future is always uncertain for small orgs like us.
But in the last week, we've gotten more small-dollar donations than we ever have (literally in our entire existence) at partnersforjustice.org, and some really generous donations as well. We are thrilled, and really honored to have your support.
We have a long way to go--we're trying to expand our services to impact a full 10% of arrested folks nationwide within a couple of years, and ultimately ensure that no one encounters the criminal system without wraparound support and fierce advocacy.
All of which is to say--if you want to fund really robust, expansive services AND fund a team that would like to render ourselves obsolete by dismantling the system in which we work, you've found the right place, and we're super grateful.
A short thread on what refusal to comply can look like, with specifics, examples, and ideas for what the future may hold.
Actually IDK if it's gonna be short, but it's gonna be specific, so read on if you're curious.
When people think of protest, or actions against authoritarian governments, they often think of people in streets yelling stuff and holding signs. And that's important, protest is a powerful way to show where the people stand! But
As a person who operates in systems that are extremely authoritarian (prisons, jails, criminal courts) let me tell you that many of the systems in which we operate simply *do not care* about protest.
As long as it costs them little, they can ignore it.
Just a reminder that $10 billion has been poured into this election, much of it in ads that line the pockets of media and social media companies. Changing the rules of campaign finance would also eliminate the financial incentive for media companies to drive us nuts every 4 years
Over a billion of this went to Pennsylvania alone. How much do Pennsylvania media companies benefit directly from both-sidesing elections and ensuring their state stays a key swing state?
And on a national scale, how much do all of our media companies quite literally profit from making the election seem like a non-stop horse race with higher and higher stress and drama?
It's the weekly video. For World Mental Health Day, let's talk about something you might not know---how health insurance providers may actually drive up mass incarceration.
Some context: here is the original law, from 2008, where the government tried to get insurers to provide the same level of coverage for mental and physical health. propublica.org/article/biden-…
But they...didn't. Sometimes, they might restrict what medicines they include in their formulary...
1. This is an awful tone to take, as a leader, when talking about government action to forcibly, sometimes violently, remove people from a place where they are seeking stability.
This tone is bad because it treats the circumstance of homelessness as if it were an overt, intentional action by the unhoused person. "No more excuses"? You think people saying "homelessness is not a crime, please don't treat it as such" are giving EXCUSES?
2. It's especially bad when you consider what sweeps do. Sweeps result in arrests, and displacement, but also strip people of all their worldly possessions.
The thing about the Trump immunity case is that yeah, to an extent it creates "King President" but tbh it much more creates "King SCOTUS." This is because what is an "official" act of the prez will of course be litigated and...
...who is waiting at the end of the road on all that litigation? King SCOTUS of course, who will get to decide what's official, what *evidence* is sufficiently tied to official acts to come in or not come in, and basically whether a case lives or dies.
And one more thing.
This whole idea of a job being so important that you get to be above the law? Yeah, that idea comes *straight* from the absolute mess of absolute and qualified immunity in policing and prosecution.