A donation has been made in your name to the Human a
Fund.
Lobbying for some federal data collection on this stuff? Jaeah Lee, one of the people filling in on Kevin Drum's blog, mentions that just like there isn't good data on shootings by police, there also isn't data on deaths in custody. That's bullshit, and it shouldn't be too hard to fix --every local PD must be getting federal money somehow to use as a lever.
What keeps on hitting me is that the last year has been the most police-brutality/killings I've ever heard of in a similar timespan, and I kind of assume that the difference isn't an upswing in the actual numbers, it's that there are cellphones and Youtube, so the video gets out. I want there to be solid official numbers, so that we can pressure the particularly bad local police forces.
One of my friends posted this to their facebook wall. I don't know how reliable it is one way or the other but if it's mostly on the level it would probably be a good thing.
I want there to be solid official numbers, so that we can pressure the particularly bad local police forces.
Yeah, that makes sense. But who is doing that? I was thinking also something like legal aid to protesters who got charged with stuff, maybe? But it mostly seems like people aren't getting charged, just beat up and/or detained.
My friend Josh says that this homeless youth shelter on his block got trashed pretty bad by looters; I'm sure that they could do something good with ten or twenty bucks.
A senior living center that was under construction and close to complete was burned down. You check whether there's someplace to donate for rebuilding it (assuming it's going to be rebuilt).
There's a bail fund for protesters being passed around on my facebook
https://www.crowdrise.com/legalbailsupportforbaltimore/fundraiser/tremurphy
9 is the same as 3 but I can't figure out anything about that organization.
Oh, so it is. I trust the people who've posted it but don't have any other information.
Crazy day, so I have no time to post links, but
- Pratt Library in Baltimore is doing great work to try to stay open and serve kids. They have a donation page that is floating around
- Operation Help or Hush is a St. Louis based org that is on the ground in Baltimore. They are very grassroots but do have a PayPal.
- The National Lawyers Guild is doing some jail support work and I'm sure would accept donations
Oh, and also:
http://www.wetheprotesters.org/
I've been really impressed by the work done by Dream Defenders since Trayvon Martin, and I suspect Philip Agnew (a founder) is as good a bet as anyone for being a historically transformative civil rights leader among millennials. This interview killed me last summer.
There's also the Baltimore Community Foundation.
Kinda depends what the purpose of the donation is. If it's community rebuilding or community organizing, some good links already. If it's groups that are working overall to promote systemic, effective police reform nationally, with a track record of some success and establishment connections, I'd say it's still the ACLU (though note there's huge variance among local chapters in how effective they've been) or the Brennan Center.
Throw a few bucks to Nepal while you are at it.
I made DonorsChoose donations to the schools, encouraged by another blog.
Southern Policy Law Center might be another choice.
I try to remind myself to make longer term goals when the streets are burning or the buildings are falling. I was thinking back to the cycles of violence and realized 1968, 1992, 2015. There's got to be something to 25 year (or so) intervals. A new generation of people who realize that things are still too much the same?
You can donate to Black Lives Matter Minneapolis - they have a big court fight over the Christmas protest at Mall of America. MOA is trying to sue all the people who planned the protest for costing MOA revenue. I surmise that this would set a bad precedent.
Writ a bit larger: the Innocence Project, local projects that do prisoner support (Women's Prison Book Project in MPLS). You could probably contact your school system and ask what nonprofits support donations to kids or if the school handles it - the ones around here don't just do lunches and take-home food backpacks, they also do coats and mittens in the winter. Any good pro bono law project in your area. Any low-income AIDS support project. Any city summer youth program. (If anyone is in the MPLS area, I will be glad to make specific recommendations.)
Basically, the people on the front lines in Baltimore are going to have a fuck of a lot of legal bills. Whoever does pro bono work on these cases (local Black Lives Matter could probably tell you) will be able to hook you up. Once the dust has settled, there will be funds organized for rebuilding people's houses/stuff that got damaged in the riots, there will be funds for supporting families while family members are in jail/out of work as a result of jail/on trial, etc.
I mean "there will be funds if this is at all like every single other fucking time this has happened".
Also, a thing you can do is see what the local Urban League is up to in terms of policy work.
And look around at local GLBTQ organizations - in the long run, queer and trans youth of color are hit really hard by this stuff because funds get shifted away from social support, families get more precarious, the pressure to do survival sex/sex work increases, etc. Adult trans women of color also.
Thanks for all of the links.
Donations made to the youth shelter and Operation Help or Hush.
Yes, thanks. Donated to BLM MN & BCF. Tried to donate to Dream Defenders but kept getting errors. =(
Not SPLC. Their causes are good overall, but they send out reams of junkmail full of the print equivalent of clickbait despite their huge endowment.
One way to vote with the wallet would be to boycott whole foods.
The National Lawyers Guild is doing some jail support work
Seconding Witt here. NLG has also been coordinating Legal Observers for the protests in Baltimore and other cities.
28: I'm happy to endorse that for general reasons (in addition to my own experience) and I do boycott them. What's the connection here, though?
For donating food to the national guard while kids who would otherwise have gotten free or subsidized breakfast and lunch couldn't because the schools were closed.