Thread by @APTPaction

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https://twitter.com/APTPaction/status/1383891594714107916

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James Burch, APTP policy director is on with @CatsCommentary, APTP co founder, and @ChaneyTurner. The purpose of the convo is to reimagine public safety and defund OPD.

Cat Brooks is now breaking down what @MHFirstOak is...

Cat just gave an overview of how we got MACRO in Oakland. It started w/APTP’s own project @MHFirstOak. We started this because we want to be visionary, not reactionary. We had a convo about how we can reduce police terror. Police didn’t always used to be the answer to everything.

This is about our work to Refund, Restore, and Reimagine Oakland. We will also talk a bit about MACRO.

The narrative the city is pushing is that this is new & started w/COVID-19, but those of us living here for decades know that's not true. APTP has been doing this work for yrs.

.@ChaneyTurner: "We’re seeing them co-opt the language & even the platform that yall have come up with? I’m seeing people who haven’t supported this at all."

@CatsCommentary: Yes this part of the story is important...

.@CatsCommentary: "How we got here is crucial. What gets lost in the all the politicking and bullshit and bureaucracy is all the dead Black bodies, and the incarcerated Black bodies, and the lost Black bodies that we’re supposed to be doing this for."

"In 2015, OPD killed 11 Black ppl. While they killed us 1 a month, Libby and OPD Chief Whent were touring the country bragging about Oakland's policing model."

Cat passes it over to James. James gives a rundown of our Defund OPD campaign that started about 6 years ago.

"At the time, we came up with the phrase #DefundOPD. We talked about a lack of acceptability when they're killing us not also not with the $ they get. We talk about a lack of accountability when they're killing us but not with the $ they get..."

"the more we looked at the numbers we found that millions and millions of $ going down a black hole of the OPD... We found the OPD has crept its way into every area of society and soaking up the majority of city funds doing things most people don’t even realizing they're doing."

.@ChaneyTurner asks James to give some examples of the ridiculous scope of work that OPD does

"6900 calls for service because of cars parked in front of someone’s driveway. Cost possibly overtime. So you end up spending millions of dollars..."

"Or 20,000 times calls for ambulance & a sworn officer
Or a call if someone’s suicidal or a wellness check it’s a sworn officer. Or animal control..."

"Defund OPD is based in abolitionist strategy, but also tries to look for points of unity with others in our community who aren’t as knowledgeable about what the police do and how much they overspend."

"Everyone wants to focus on the 4% of calls called violence crime and the 7% classified as property crimes, but what about the 89% that are not either of these categories?"

"WE are in a crisis mode. Almost 50 homicides. It is amazing that a policy that hasn’t even happened yet is being used as the scapegoat for the rising murders. OPD gets 50% of the general fund now, nothing has been defunded and the bodies are piling up." - @CatsCommentary

"DefundOPD is about getting to the gun before the bullet flies. It's about interrupting violence instead of responding. Police don't do that. We must invest in economic opportunities, mental health & trauma support. When a shooting happens they send cops but not 1 trauma worker."

Now speaking: TurHa Ak, co founder of APTP and founder of @CRCPOCC: "I think all of these convos have to start with white supremacy — we say white nationalism — white nationalism is a power system, white supremacy is an ideology. Primary white nationalists — USA."

Turha: "America is set up to facilitate the ideologies of white supremacy. When this happens you have a recurring phenomenon called atrocities. They have done things for centuries, so they exist in a constant fear of those they have oppressed pushing back & enacting retribution."

"WE’re living in a moment that threatens retribution like never before, and when these moments of massive upheaval happen, the state responds with counterinsurgency. WE’re also living in a moment where counterinsurgency is being exposed like never before. "

"That’s why we see about this narrative about Black people protesting against police terrorism. Black on Black crime vs Black lives matter.

This competition is a state-created phenomenon. To create an “either or” approach to something that should have a “both and” approach."

"Ultimately there is a coordinated effort to skew the #DefundOPD & its goals.Because the people are demanding investment in community-controlled programs that eliminate the need for policing to exist the way it does now. The state needs that militarized system to protect itself."

.@ChaneyTurner: "I think it’s imp to keep saying it and reiterating that. We have people who are harmed by white supremacy who are for defunding. But we also have a lot of people who look like us who believe we still need police. How can we bring people along with our goals?"

"Part of our mission statement is about building small replicable models that serve as alternatives—all of us since the womb, are taught that the cops help us & then we watch them kick the shit out of us etc so we know, but there hasn’t been any other viable option..."

"It is scary to the state because we are proposing viable alternatives. The truth is the majority of what they respond to doesn’t require a badge and a gun. The truth is we NEED something. It’s not just about building something to replace the cops, it’s about..."

"creating a society where we don’t need that kind of response in the first place."

@CatsCommentary passes it over to @AsantewaaRn , APTP Black leader and master-mind behind @MHFirstSac...

"The reimagine piece is really important, because if you can’t answer the Q if not police, then what? For the elders who can’t think past the 'then what?' Our job is to show them, & to create the communities that we want to live in & assume those risks. Then that’s the only way."

"We are literally watching white supremacy crumble one brick at a time. But we can’t just watch it crumble, we need to build." - @CatsCommentary

.@ChaneyTurner: "I live in East Oakland, I'm from here, and it’s been hot for a while over here. Over the weekend, families have had loved ones murdered, I know a family whose 1-year-old daughter was murdered...

"We already know that certain elected officials are not going to show up, but for immediate street politics and beef and violence, people have been asking for decades, how do we respond to that?"

.@CatsCommentary: "The cops have the money now, they are the one option we have been given to end the violence, and it’s not happening. Police are not violence interrupters, they respond once the violence has been done. We need to look at metrics, data etc."

"So at what point are we going to get off the rat wheel and have a conversation about logic & data & actually talk about this prevent the violence..."

"Wouldn’t it make sense to give funding & support to the orgs who are trusted on the ground & look like us & who know us & love us? Our lives, for all the hashtags, as we have don't matter (to decision makers) & that’s why we need to support community organizations doing the work

TurHa Ak is now answering Chaney's question: "I think one of the things that we have to demand, you have to answer the question: why does this violence happen why are they never solved?"

"We cannot look to 1 orgn or 1 person to solve our problems. The solution is to have coordinated convos & organize, it’s a different story block-by-block. The 1st solution is to organize an our blocks. At BlackSolidarity.org we give people a template for how to organize."

"Let’s talk about the fact that the people have voted in a progressive city council. When people mobilize and organize we can see wins like this. And with progressives in council we can do this work of reallocating funds.

But Libby Schaaf’s Admin has been standing in the way"

Tur-ha tells the story of “freeway” Rick Ross and about how the CIA was involved, they supplied not just the drugs but the guns as well.

Primary & secondary predators: you don’t have gangsters and organized crime without permission from the state.

"...El Chapo of Sinaloa cartel had a deal with DEA in exchange for info, always mysteriously “escaped”. And 90% of drugs that came to Chicago in a time when people were calling it Chi-raq were pushed by El Chapo (with U.S. govt aid)."

"What do we have to do to create solutions? If we don’t recognize the primary predator doing the real harm, we’ll continue on this rat race. That’s why we always see spikes in violent crime whenever people rise up."

.@ChaneyTurner: "Thanks for telling that history, Tur-Ha, of the history of the war on drug in the U.S. I have my own opinions as commissioner on the Cannabis Regulatory Commission and cannabis business owner..."

"Since MJ is being legalized federally, they gotta figure out another way to re-criminalize a lot of Black and Brown ppl as they are trying to make $ in the cannabis legal market."

@ChaneyTurner: "We are seeing lots money spent on side shows, people would like to know how we can have a structured plan for those funds so that we see that most-impacted communities are being prioritized. So if we win, how can we successfully reallocate funds in a fair way."

.@CatsCommentary "I was the only candidate for mayor in 2018 that refused to demonize sideshows. It criminalizes our kids. Where can they go for culture? We don't invest in our young people & they demand to be seen. Yet we criminalize them & it’s a FATAL mistake."

James Burch explains the framework for #DefundOPD campaign today. We’re just coming off 6month task force process. Last yr city council faced huge pressure. So they formed a task force to kick this down the road so it didn’t look like they didn’t wanna do anything about it.

"The result of this task force is a number of recommendations for city council of ways to remove functions of the police and put them in the hands of the community. That can be as boring as getting a department of transportation worker to call tow trucks, or more exciting..."

"For instance, three recommendations to fund the community of workers in organizations and survivors in gender-based violence work. Those are recs that the council can do now to get to the gun before the bullet flies, as Cat said."

"We need to make it clear to the City Council that we expect them to move on these recommendations NOW. The city council is meeting on 5/4 to hear our recommendations for reimagining public safety, please come out & let them know."

CALL YOUR ELECTEDS AND TELL THEM TO #DEFUNDOPD

Rachel Kirkwood from @CURYJ, part of Defund Coalition: "Youth in Oakland are super impacted by policing and over-policing as well. On March 10 we held a community platform, we had about 60 folks join us to talk about their experiences with police. The youngest was 14."

"Getting arrested, getting assaulted, etc. Continuing to re-traumatize. There is this narrative that people who are from Oakland & POC do not want to #DefundOPD, it’s only the white gentrifiers. We know from talking to these youths & others in our community that this isn’t true."

.@CatsCommentary "We live in a city famous for selling 12-year olds. Where is the investment of preventing that? The talk about more $ for the cops — how about we give money to intervene and prevent the children being sold on E14."

.@ChaneyTurner: "This has been a long time issue, regarding our youth. And OPD isn’t the solution"

@CatsCommentary: "The police’s solution is to criminalize and molest and exploit. The primary way Black women experience state violence is police sexual assault."

.@liz_suk: "...this admin's efforts to split our communities against each other, in this case pitting Asian communities vs Black communities. She used a political moment & used fear as a tactic to try to split our communities when we were clearly aligned about defunding OPD"

"People don’t want more surveillance they want to feel safe. They want to know that ppl are more taken care of the next day and the day before.

Chinatown is only a few blocks away from OPD HQ & they have continued to fail to provide any support."

"When you look at the defund coalition, the work we’re doing, the multi-racial organizing that is happening, this is built off a history of multiracial organizing in the bay area for generations".

James Burch: "It's really helpful to have @liz_suk and Rachel here because it speaks to the growth of this movement. We never thought it would grow this big.

@CatsCommentary: "When we started this, we were LAUGHED out of rooms."

James: "It’s really telling about where we are here in Oakland and where other cities are. It takes a lot of time to build that momentum."

.@CatsCommentary: "We didn’t have to explain what #DefundOPD meant during last year’s uprising because we had already been doing this work. Let’s be clear, not everyone on the same page, but my point is we laid a foundation here in Oakland and when that time came we were ready."

"We called a Fuck Your Curfew action said “fuck your curfew and defund OPD.

@ChaneyTurner: "wanna shout out @BlackOrgProject for getting police out of OUSD. I never understood why we had police in our schools, instead of other programs like restorative justice and healing

"There’s a lot of unlearning that needs to happen as we’re calling for defund, that’s why there’s so much disagreement in the language. Action is still needed to reach certain folks when it comes to getting the city council to vote in favor of our demands."

Comment from listener, Million Kelati: "Roger Allen was killed by the police in Daly City on April 2nd while sitting in a parked car. Families made demands to the city officials, but the city has been trying to sweep this under the rug..."

"I just wanted to let people know about this effort and ask that you please support if you can. You can find info on these pages: @4DalyCity / South San Francisco Change (@SSFChange)"

#JusticeForRogerAllen

Question from @claudiaalick: "For the population stuck at home and want to amplify, how can we get involved? Especially for disabled community."

@CatsCommentary:we were alerted that clubhouse is not accessible to some disabled folks, which is why we are live-tweeting...

"Our general meeting is this Wednesday virtually. We have shit ton of campaigns everything from defund locally to state campaigns to expanding MH1 — the first and only non police non 911 mental health crisis line."

Subscribe for updates at: antipoliceterrorproject.org

.@liz_suk: @OaklandRising is also hiring some paid online outreach workers and doing volunteer phone banking too (which is all virtual).

Info here:

https://twitter.com/OaklandRising/status/1384223519316209671?s=20

.@CatsCommentary: "We’ve also been organizing mutual aid support of Black vendors at Lake Merritt who are being criminalized, you can check out our website to get involved and support."

INFO: antipoliceterrorproject.org/blog-entire/mu…

Cori (audience member): "I’m a teacher, it’s my 13th year doing special ed. This is a subject near and dear to my heart. My kids are often the ones who get misread by society, police, because they’re neuro-diverse. Not the same as MH diagnosis. Different issues.

"We work w/children that struggle w/sensory integration. Police misinterpret. I think about Elijah McClain. I think about Idriss Stelley.

This is personal to me. I want to support, and work with directly impacted people, and to get involved with MH First."

Tur-Ha Ak: "We are winning: progressive council, the public imagination and public opinion, on multiple fronts. Now we have to organize the hardest, cuz they will try to break up the wins. The usurpation, or taking away of power, of council members that the people have elected."

"They’re pushing things that the council is not able to weigh in on — then blaming city council. Critical to organize against the lies & the counterinsurgency of the Schaaf Admin. When we see these assaults on Defund that parrot these lies, we need to be united in one voice."

.@ChaneyTurner: "We need to support the ppl supporting us, e.g Council President Nikki Bas (facing a recall from white racist neighbors) Everything is virtual right now. We are in a battle. We can’t just sit back & say we want to defund the police, or cleaner streets."

"We all have to be in action and support the folks who are in action in numerous ways. There was a target fire that killed a family, East Oakland youth center was on fire. I haven’t seen one tweet from the Mayor talking about this."

This is powerful. Council Member @carroll_fife has joined the conversation 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

"This moment is so surreal, I can’t find the words. This is why arts are so important To express how deep this moment is. The extent to which they will go to undermine and dismantle this particular movement right now cannot be exaggerated."

When I hear people say they “can’t believe all the violence” I’m like, Do you know how this state operates? Have we not taken lessons from history? This is 1 of the most revolutionary cities & the state will go to great lengths to stop @CatsCommentary & Tur-Ha to have a voice?"

"We are about to turn the world inside out. Carroll Fife as chair of public safety? Who saw that coming! But it's imperative that we move with revolutionary discipline and unity. Folks that are sitting with me on the council are doing stuff to undermine us."

"This is probably the most progressive council in Oakland history but we still indeed ppl pushing from the outside. Cuz it’s going to get more intense but I’m so on fire about what we can accomplish. It’s our time. Step up!"

Liz w/ @OaklandRising adds: There’s city council meetings, but also calling council members, emailing them, etc, all of that becomes part of public record. So even if you can’t come out to meetings, you can drop an e-comment, call, email, and get people in your community involved

Chaney: there are so many ways to contribute. I encourage y’all to follow some of the many organizations and others doing the work for calls to action.

Chaney opens the floor for final comments from speakers

James w/ APTP: Between now and June we need to ramp things up. Next dates are May 4 for council to consider task force recs & May 10 for council to consider Mayor’s proposed budget. It’s either going to be the mayor’s budget or the people’s budget.

James Burch with APTP: As Tur-ha said, we are winning. But we need everyone’s support between now and June 30.

Rachel with @CURYJ on accessibility for Clubhouse conversations: would help to introduce yourself before speaking and let people know when you're done speaking so that people can keep track of who is talking.

Also, make sure to follow orgs in the Defund Coalition for more!

Liz Suk w/ @OaklandRising: we’ll be running phone and text banking programs to reach out to people before this budget passes.

Tur-ha w/ APTP and CRC: You can catch CRC in the streets with our food giveaways, we organize Black Solidarity week. But right now it’s important to look out for budget requests from this progressive city council. Before we had the conservative caucus beholden to Libby Schaaf.

Tur-ha (cont.): But now we have a progressive council — not completely — but that is fighting to get their power back since the mayor took it away. I’m not a fan of electoral politics but we can win if we organize. We should never underestimate what they’re capable of doing.

@carroll_fife: This whole system is a rig up, but the most power I’ve seen is in local politics. You can move local politicians. CRC is some of the best ppl we have doing community safety. The city admin is trying to stop me, but that means we are winning and they are scared...

Chaney: they should be scared. Folks are aware of history and how these things go down especially in Oakland. They've been wanting to break Oakland because of our revolutionary spirit.

Liz with Oakland Rising: it’s about taking care of us and the faith we have in us and in our strategy. Show up and show that faith in your community and your people!

James closes out space with: reminder to remember the context. So when we hear CM Fife — far and away the best ally an organizer could have — getting attacked, that is part of a history of state violence and we need to fight back against that.

James (cont.): Revolutionaries and visionaries like Carroll and Tur-Ha need to have space to move and we need to support them if we are going to move towards liberation.

Thanks for joining us, Oakland! the Clubhouse conversation has now ended. Good night ❤️