Police

Letter to House Committee on Appropriations: Cut UASI funding!

As our communities mourn the lives lost in the mass shooting at Pulse queer club's Latinx night this weekend, we affirm our struggle for a safety beyond hate and militarism. As politicians and ideologues of various stripes manipulate this tragedy, we remember the refrain: "our grief is not a cry for war." We refuse to allow the deaths of those in Orlando to justify increased police presence in our communities across the country. Today, WRL and AFSC, joined by thirty-two other civil liberties, religious, and peace and social justice groups called on the House Appropriations Committee to maintain the President’s cut to Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) funding as a “step in the right direction.”

Media Advisory: Groups Decry Notorious Islamophobe to Address NY State SWAT Teams This Week

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For Immediate Release

April 26, 2016

Contact:

Ali Issa, War Resisters League, ali32123 [at] gmail.com, (718)310-9968

Ursula Rozum, Syracuse Peace Council ursula [at] peacecouncil.net, (315) 414-7720

COMMUNITY GROUPS FROM ACROSS NY STATE HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO OPPOSE MILITARIZATION OF POLICE AND SYRACUSE PD PARTICIPATION IN VERONA SWAT EXPO

Groups decry extreme anti-Muslim views featured as keynote at New York Tactical Officers Association Conference this week

 

On MLK Day: A Special Message from Arun Kundnani

Arun Kundnani

On this MLK day, let us recall Dr. Martin Luther King's deepest legacy. He understood that denouncing the violent extremism of young, angry men in the ghettos could not be done without hypocrisy unless one also condemned the far greater violence of the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. When governments decide political problems can be solved through violence, it is no surprise their citizens reach the same conclusion.

Stop Urban Shield 2015!

WHAT IS THE STOP URBAN SHIELD COALITION?

Stop Urban Shield is a broad coalition of grassroots community and social justice organizations primarily based in the Bay Area but with partnering community groups across the nation who have come together united against Urban Shield. Urban Shield, a SWAT team training and weapons expo that brings together local, regional, and international police-military units to collaborate on and profit from new forms of surveillance, state repression, and state violence.

Tear Gas - What You Need To Know

From 2012 to 2014, War Resisters League ran the Facing Tear Gas campaign aimed at exposing the tear gas industry: who's making it, who's buying it, and where it's used. Tear Gas, unsurprisingly, was found to be a common tool for state oppression from the United States to Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, and elsewhere.

Now in 2020, the use of tear gas is back on the forefront of people's minds for its use against Black Lives Matter protestors across the United States. Not only are police using a chemical weapon on protestors, but they are also using it during the context of the COVID-19 pandemic - compounding the danger to people's lives.

While some cities across the United States have implemented a 30-day ban, War Resisters League continues to push for a total ban of tear gas.

For more information on tear gas, including domestic and international testimonials, research behind companies, and a workshop you can use to educate others, visit our website here. We've pulled some key information below:

Militarized Response Tracker #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

We’re heartbroken and outraged and like so many of you, refuse to allow the systematic killing of Black people in the United States to continue without a fight for justice. There is a lot to be outraged about: from how the politics of COVID-19 pandemic put the lives of Black and indigenous folks at risk, to how calls for release of prisoners still haven’t been met, to the fact that police brutality has taken the lives of Ahmaud Arbury, Dreasjon Reed, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Taylor McDade, and far too many others. 

What We’re Tracking: Militarized Responses to #Justice4GeorgeFloyd

When we talk about police militarization, there is still belief in the notion that if police weren’t militarized, then we wouldn’t have a problem - even within the antimilitarist community. That's not true. We need to push back on this idea and the myth of “a few bad apples in the police force.” The truth is: “regular policing” has always and continues to harass, detain, brutalize, and terrorize Black people. It’s why there are virtually never repercussions for police officers who commit murder. And the militarization of domestic policing isn’t entirely new either - in fact, the history goes back decades.

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