Dear friends,
Today is a day for inspiration, education, and a little bit of action.
On Friday, Coney Island reopened for the season. A speech given by D.J. Vourderis (of the family that owns Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park), was unexpectedly moving:
“Life is short. And for too many people this past year, tragically too short," Vourderis said. "So, let’s build a more considerate world in their memory. Let’s be better than we have been. Let’s listen, forgive and heal together. We started 2020 with a catastrophic pandemic about to devastate our world. We will respond with a roaring 20’s that bring about not just prosperity, but compassion. We have a chance to turn a wounded world into a wonderful one.”
If you need a lift, watch D.J. Vourderis’s speech.
On Saturday, neighbors from KWTMA, families and staff from PS 131, and members of the @kwtfridge team tabled at the intersection of Beverley and Church
Sign the petition in support of GrowNYC funding for composting and food access programs.
Contact your city council member and urge them to fully fund GrowNYC’s FY22 budget request to fund their critical food access programs (Reference Number #104474).
NPR’s Noor Wazwaz has done a radio story that we all need; it’s called Why Pronouncing Names Correctly Is More Than Common Courtesy. Whether you have a name that’s easy for people to pronounce or one that routinely gets butchered in other people’s mouths, we all encounter names that are unfamiliar to us. This story is about the power, importance, and etiquette of working to get names right.
Listen to the story and practice anti-racism.
[The] measures…raise the bar for officers to use force; give civilians a role in police discipline for the first time; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate body cameras; and open some allegations of police wrongdoing for public review.
Each bill had been hailed by criminal justice advocates as having the potential to make policing in the state fairer and more transparent.
[T]he legislation imposes one of the strictest police use-of-force standards in the nation, according to experts; requires officers to prioritize de-escalation tactics; and imposes a criminal penalty for those found to have used excessive force.
A lot is happening in Maryland. Prince George County’s Court Watch PG, founded by two Black women who were themselves formerly incarcerated, has been making its presence felt. Court watching brings members of the public into courtrooms as observers to document and report on what they see. Court Watch PG sends “accountability letters” to communicate their observations and concerns about judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, the effectiveness of counsel, and even conditions in the jails. Their distribution list includes judges, the office of the public defender, prosecutors, and police.
The executive director of the group is Dr. Carmen Johnson, who has trained court watchers to refer to all of the defendants as ‘loved ones’ so that no one is unloved or alone when their freedom is in jeopardy. The volunteers pool their skills:
One recent college graduate — who learned of Court Watch PG after protesting all summer with Black Lives Matter D.C. — helped overhaul the group’s database to enable deeper analysis of patterns. A Virginia high school student, who began court-watching on virtual learning days, built the group a new website. A retired high school Spanish teacher became the go-to court watcher monitoring interpreters and attorneys who talk over them.
Court watchers are part of a nationwide grass-roots effort to hold the criminal justice system accountable to the people.
Complete a Volunteer Interest Form for Court Watch NY, a program of the Brooklyn Bail Fund.
Donate to support Brooklyn Bail Fund.
New Yorkers are trying to find the headspace to focus on the mayoral primary. Most folks are probably just hearing the soundbites at this point. Our City, a progressive PAC, is preparing to share polls of likely NYC voters about policy issues in an attempt to slow Andrew Yang’s roll because he’s out of step with progressive New Yorkers. The polling shows that voters prefer candidates who prioritize affordable housing, defunding the police, and raising taxes on the wealthy.
If you want help to understand and/or explain what it means to defund the police, look here.
Learn more about the work of Cure Violence and their trained violence interrupters.
with love,
L