Last night Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE hosted a rally at Calder Plaza to denounce the violence that ICE is committing in Grand Rapids, which includes the monitoring, intimidation, arrest and detention of immigrants.
All four of the West Michigan TV stations and MLive reported on the rally, in varying degrees of accuracy. The Kalamazoo-based channel 3 did a short story, which spent as much time on President Trump’s Executive orders that criminalize immigrants as they did on what the rally organizers were calling for.
The WZZM 13 story was also fairly short, plus they did not provide sufficient context for the rally or the specific demands that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE were making.
WOODTV8 did a better job of covering the rally, specifically because the centered the voices of immigrants and those most impacted by ICE violence. The 3 minute and 21 second story also provided information about the harm that ICE has engaged in over the past two weeks, but the channel 8 reporter failed to provide details of what the adopting a Sanctuary policy would concretely mean.
The WXMI 17 story was also longer than most local TV news stories, with a running time of 2 minutes and 50 seconds. However, what was problematic about the channel 17 coverage is that they provided more time to Mayor LaGrand and City Manager Mark Washington, using clips from a story back in January, when local organizers first demanded the city adopt Sanctuary policies. The comments from the Mayor and the City Manager were not questioned, nor were those from Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE provided an opportunity to contest the claims of GR City officials
The MLive article came the closest to providing some information on what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are calling for regarding the adoption of Sanctuary policies by the City, stating:
“Lowe said the pro-immigration groups are demanding that the city implement six policies. Those policies include prohibiting law enforcement from detaining individuals on civil immigration warrants, and preventing the Grand Rapids Police Department and Kent County Sheriff’s Office from collaborating with ICE officials and not establishing detention centers in the city.”
Originally, there were 5 demands in the Action Alert – an Action Alert that people can still sign – that was presented to the Grand Rapids City Commission in January. Here is the wording of those demands:
In declaring itself a Sanctuary City, Grand Rapids would implement and execute the following:
– policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants;
– policies restricting the police or other city workers from asking about immigration status;
– policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law;
– policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention;
– policies preventing immigration detention centers in Grand Rapids.
Since then, the partner organizations of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have included one additional demand, which is for the City of Grand Rapids to not share license plate information with ICE, information that is obtained from the Flock cameras that exist in Grand Rapids.
While there was a great deal of coverage about last nights ICE Out of GR rally and several members of the immigrant community were centered, the local news missed the mark on providing accurate information on what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding of the City regarding the adoption of sanctuary policies.
Since last Wednesday, when Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response held a Press Conference to condemn the detention of Carlos Menjivar, there has been no evidence that Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, along with Rep. Hillary Scholten, have shown no evidence that they have even attempted to get a father out of detention.
People have sent over 2,400 online Action Alerts to Peters, Slotkin and Scholten. Since June 12, when the Action Alert was created, Senator’s Peters have said nothing on the websites about the case of Carlos Menjivar, but they have talked about pushing for more investments into Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan, along with making pronouncements in support of Israel’s bombing of Iran.
As for Rep. Scholten, she has not posted anything about the request to get Carlos Menjivar released from ICE detention, which would allow him to re-unite with his family in El Salvador. Rep. Scholten has not posted any Press Releases since June 6, but she has posted a video where she condemns President Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles to suppress the protests that have been led by members of the immigrant community.
Rep. Scholten claims that we need immigration reform, not militarization. However, this is exactly what Scholten was proposing in her awful campaign ads from last fall, her continued criminalization of immigration policy, and her failed Dignity Act, which also calls for increased funding for US Customs and Border enforcement.
The only question is, why do people keep voting for Democrats, when they do not stand up for justice or advocate for immigrants being targeted by ICE?
Last week I reported on the Salvadoran family that went into sanctuary after the father was arrested and detained by ICE after coming to his scheduled appointment at the ISAP office on June 4.
There are several updates I wish to communicate. First, the mother and her three children realized that after the campaign to get Senator’s Peter and Slotkin, along with Rep. Scholten, to call for an immediate release of Carlos Menjivar did not result in any action taken by these politicians, they decided to go back to El Salvador. The family had a voluntary departure option, so the mother took her 3 children and went back to El Salvador on Saturday.
Second, Carlos Menjivar is still locked up in detention and we are still asking for people to sign the Action Alert to apply pressure to Senator Peters, Senator Slotkin and Rep. Scholten to meet the demands listed in the Action Alert.
- For Carlos Menjivar to be released so he can voluntarily depart to his home country of El Salvador.
- Return Carlos’ passport, which the ICE agents took when they detained him.
- Change Carlos Menjivar’s status from deportation to voluntary departure, since a charge of deportation would have lifelong consequences for him.
Third, to attend the ICE Out of GR rally that takes place at 6pm on Tuesday, June 17 at Calder Plaza. People will find out a whole ranges of ways they can resist ICE in Grand Rapids, as well as become involved in the campaigns that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt sanctuary policies.
Fourth, to understand that the work of resistance involves a great deal of people and the use of a variety of tactics, skills, time and talent. Here is an incomplete list of all thethings that people have been doing over the past 2 weeks:
- Accompanying people to their appointments at the ICE and ISAP offices.
- Co-ordinating all of the requests for accompaniment.
- Providing legal assistance.
- Creating Press Releases.
- Hosting a Press Conference.
- Offering Sanctuary.
- Hosting a family in Sanctuary.
- Transporting the family in Sanctuary.
- Preparing and delivering food for the family in Sanctuary.
- Driving the family in Sanctuary to Chicago to catch their flight back to El Salvador.
- Conducting media interviews.
- Doing comms work on social media.
- Creating an Action Alert.
- Organizing more GR Rapid Response to ICE trainings.
- Organizations offering space for GR Rapid Response to ICE trainings.
- Documenting ICE activity and GRPD complicity.
- Providing crowd safety for Cosecha organizers.
- Tabling at events to further the work.
- Speaking at rallies to inform the community about the work.
- Having meetings to debrief recent activities, to plan upcoming actions and talk about strategic development of the work.
- Checking in with people doing the work and providing support.
- Affirming the work and other forms of emotional labor.
If you want to be part of this work, the community care work, the resistance work, then come to the rally, attend a future GR Rapid Response to ICE training or contact Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE.
The making of a People’s History of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids documentary film
(Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids.)
In 2011, the LGBT Resource Center at GVSU invited us to create a documentary on the People’s History of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids. We interviewed about 75 people, collected archival material and looked at how the Grand Rapids-based commercial news media reported on the LGBTQ community. You can watch that documentary online at this link.
In the process of creating the documentary, there were two things that happened, which provide perfect bookends to this chapter. Months before we were asked to be involved in this project, the GVSU LGBT Resource Center had an arraignment with the local PBS affiliate, WGVU, to run four PSAs that students would create, PSAs that were specific to the LGBTQ movement. Once representatives of GVSU had seen the PSAs, they decided to not air the videos, as they thought that the videos might not sit well with the West Michigan audience.
Frustrated, the LGBT Resource Center at GVSU wanted to figure out how to show the PSAs to a broad audience. The center had also budgeted funds to cover the cost of airing these PSAs, but now that they were denied that opportunity on WGVU, they then approached the Grand Rapids People’s History Project about making a documentary about the history of the LGBTQ community in the area. Thus, the use of censorship led to our work with the LGBT Resource Center and uncovering this powerful part of the Grand Rapids People’s History.
A People’s History of the LGBTQ Community in Grand Rapids film chapters
- Early years
- Organizing the First Pride
- Fighting for Our Rights: The Ordinance Campaign
- AIDS and the Gay Community
- The Religious Right and Homophobia in Grand Rapids
- Sons and Daughters – A Community Sanctuary
- GVSU: Being out on campus
- Political Victories Provide Space: The Emergence of LGBTQ Groups
- Learning from History: Where Do We Go From Here?
At the time of the screening of the film in November of 2011 (we had nearly a thousand people come to the premier of the film that was screened at the downtown GVSU campus), GVSU was in the midst of a major fundraising project to build a new library. The library was going to be named after the mother of Kate Pew Wolters and the university did not want the film to negatively impact their ability to raise the necessary funding for the new library. This is what the university’s lawyer was objecting to, that a family with deep pockets, had one member of their family “negatively depicted” in the Grand Rapids People’s History of the LGBTQ community film. The film did not depict Kate Pew Wolters in a negative light, but it did point out that Wolters was responsible for delivering the message to Dennis Komack, that he would be fired if he continued his involvement with the bookstore known as Sons & Daughters.
This whole incident again reflects the fact that those in positions of power, or those who represent people in power, are threatened by the real history of any community. Those in power have done their best to make sure that movements like the LGBTQ+ Movement does not do anything to threaten their interests. This why it is important that we know this history, as the insurgent group the Zapatistas taught me, Estamos en una guerra en contra del olvido – We are in a war against forgetting. Let us always fight against forgetting and celebrate our collective histories!
It has been 20 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
US and Israel turn “aid” centers into slaughter zones
The Hidden Story: Israeli ‘Aid’ Is Part of Genocide Plan
REVEALED: EU NATIONS CONDEMNING GAZA GENOCIDE SECRETLY INKING BILLION-DOLLAR ARMS DEALS WITH ISRAEL
BIRTHRIGHT IS BOOMING THIS YEAR. HERE’S HOW THE ISRAELI PROPAGANDA TRIP WORKS
Leaked Data From Meta Reveal Israeli Companies Are Struggling To Find Customers
Analysis & History
The Grassroots Movements to Break the Siege on Gaza
Image used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/anti-palestinian-racism-in-the-media/
The Geo Group: We make profits off of human misery using taxpayer money in Grand Rapids and all around the world
Since June 4th, the public awareness around the existence of the ISAP office in Grand Rapids has increased, since ICE agents arrested and detained immigrants who were coming to their scheduled appointments at 545 Michigan St.
Since then, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been providing accompaniment to people who have appointments at that office, along with those who go to the ICE office at 517 Ottawa NW, just north of the 196 overpass.
A lot more people have also learned about what an ISAP office is. ISAP stands for Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which is a program operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that provides an alternative to detention for individuals in immigration proceedings.
What is instructive about the ISAP office in Grand Rapids, is that it is run by BI Incorporated, which is a subsidiary of the GEO Group. The GEO Group is one of the largest private prison entities in the world, which also runs prisons that are specifically ICE Detention Centers.
In addition, BI Incorporated also sells location tracking devices, such as ankle bracelets or wrist bracelets that people have to wear, so that ICE or other cops can monitor their whereabouts.
Think about it this way. The people who come to appointments at the ISAP office in Grand Rapids, are in the ICE system. They have to access the BI SmartLINK app, which allows “for real-time communication between officers and clients,” according to the BI Incorporated page. If they have a wrist or ankle bracelet, that is also provided by BI Incorporated. When they come to an appointment at the ISAP office in Grand Rapids, that is owned by BI Incorporated. Lastly, if they are detained by ICE agents while coming to their appointments, which is what happened on June 4, they will be sent to detention, which will soon mean that they will be sent to the GEO Group ICE detention facility in Baldwin, Michigan.
This is what Capitalists call a perfect loop, since every step in the process is owned and operated by the same company, the GEO Group. Not surprising, in 2024, the GEO Group contributed $3,718,518 to political candidates and they spent $1,380,000 lobbying Congress to adopt laws that would make them even more money. To top it off, all of these contract that the GEO Group has, along with their subsidiary BI Incorporated, are government contracts through ICE. This means that taxpayers foot the bill for the hellish systems used to track, monitor, manage, arrest and detain immigrants.
For those wanting to resist what happens at the ISAP office here in Grand Rapids, follow GR Rapid Response to ICE on Facebook and Instagram. For those who want to be involved in a campaign to shut down the GEO Group detention facility in Baldwin, follow the group No Detention Centers Michigan.
Yesterday, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE held a Press Conference at Fountain Street Church to denounce ICE deception and cruelty against a Salvadoran family.
The family of Carlos Menjivar is claiming Sanctuary out of fear of being detained by ICE, following Carlos’ arrest last Wednesday, June 4, at an ICE raid here in Grand Rapids.
Carlos and his family had been offered a Voluntary Departure by ICE in previous weeks by the ISAP office personnel, so they had already purchased plane tickets to voluntarily fly back to El Salvador this week. Then ICE officials scheduled a check-in appointment at the ISAP office in Grand Rapids, which Carlos attended in good faith, counting on ICE’s verbal agreement with him and knowing he was soon to return to El Salvador. Yet during this appointment, Carlos was taken by alleged ICE agents and is now being held at the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek.
Fountain Street Church has offered the family of Carlos Menjivar sanctuary, in the words of Pastor Dannison, “When the residents of our community are under attack or under threat, our doors are open to provide shelter and sanctuary.”
The wife of Carlos Menjivar wanted to go into sanctuary out of fear for her children, but also to publicly denounce how ICE deceived her husband who had already agreed to a voluntary departure.
In response to the cruel and deceptive practices of ICE, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have created an online pressure campaign to call upon Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, along with Representative Hillary Scholten to directly intervene on behalf of Carlos Menjivar who was wrongfully detained by ICE last week in Grand Rapids. The online pressure campaign has three demands:
- For Carlos Menjivar to be released before Saturday, so he and his family can voluntarily depart to their home country of El Salvador.
- Return Carlos’ passport, which the ICE agents took when they detained him.
- Change Carlos Menjivar’s status from deportation to voluntary departure, since a charge of deportation would have lifelong consequences for him.
Go to this link to send messages to the three Michigan members of Congress. This pressure campaign will provide an opportunity for Peters, Slotkin and Scholten to leverage their power to assist the family of Carlos Menjivar who was wrongfully detained. Movimiento Cosecha organizer Gema Lowe said, “we are asking for people to sign the pressure campaign and share, because we need as many people as possible to send Peters, Slotkin and Scholten a message that they need to step up and defend families against separation by ICE.
GR Rapid Response to ICE also stated during the Press Conference that Fountain Street Church is modeling the behavior that should be the norm for faith communities in this city. There are roughly 800 churches and this is a chance for Grand Rapids to not only be Beer City, but a City of Sanctuary.
Please sign the online petition and share it widely! .https://actionnetwork.org/letters/free-carlos-menjivar-from-ice-detention/
On June 1st, I posted an article entitled, Flock cameras are being used in Kent County and Grand Rapids, but are they being used to get information for Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
One week later I posted evidence that the GRPD is using the Flock cameras in Grand Rapids regarding immigration matters, based on their logs. The GRPD is denying this and the local news media is siding with the cops. Today I want to present the location of all of the Flock cameras in Grand Rapids and near the city’s borders. This information was obtained from the site https://deflock.me/, which provides the location of every Flock camera across the US.
- Corner of Fuller and Plainfield NE
- 4 separate cameras at the intersection of Fuller and Leonard NE
- On the south side of Fulton Street East where Baldwin Park was.
- On the north side of Fulton Street East right in front of the Central Reformed Church
- South-east corner of Fulton Street East and College
- East Beltline at the northeast corner of Woodland Mall
- Parking lot that faces the CenterPoint Mall
- East Beltline, just south of 28th Street in front of Lowes
- Corner of 29th Street and Shaffer Ave
- Southeast corner of Burton St and Horton Ave
- 3 separate cameras at the intersection of Burton St and Division
- Northside of 28th St facing north towards the hotel near Division
- 2 separate cameras facing opposite directions on 28th St, between Division and Buchanan
- 2 separate cameras facing opposite directions on Burton St, just west of Clyde Park
- Chicago Dr SW, just west of where Lee Street intersects with Chicago Dr
- Market Ave near the Kent County Waste to Energy Facility
- Lake Michigan Dr at Bridge St, camera facing west
- Lake Michigan Dr just east of Covell Ave, camera is facing east
- Corner of Alpine and 4 Mile Rd, camera facing south
- Alpine and Henze Drive NW
- Alpine and Creek Drive
- 2 separate cameras in front of the Lowes just off of Plainfield NE
- Division and 36th St
- Division near Calhoun St
- 36th St at the railroad tracks just east of US 131
- 36th St at the end of the US 131 exit ramp facing west
- 36th St just east of Burlingame Ave
- 36th St. and Hubal Ave
To be clear, Flocal cameras are being used throughout parts of the US to provide license plate information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials/agents. Now that we know the Flock camera location in the GR area, people who are vulnerable to ICE might consider alternate routes and destinations.
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are a threat to your privacy and civil liberties. They’re regularly used to track everyone’s movements without a warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. Law enforcement agencies use them for various purposes, no matter how unethical, including ICE raids and tracking abortion seekers across state lines.
Information is Power! We keep us safe!
On June 1st, I posted an article entitled, Flock cameras are being used in Kent County and Grand Rapids, but are they being used to get information for Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
One week later I posted evidence that the GRPD is using the Flock cameras in Grand Rapids regarding immigration matters, based on their logs. The GRPD is denying this and the local news media is siding with the cops. Today I want to present the location of all of the Flock cameras in Grand Rapids and near the city’s borders. This information was obtained from the site https://deflock.me/, which provides the location of every Flock camera across the US.
- Corner of Fuller and Plainfield NE
- 4 separate cameras at the intersection of Fuller and Leonard NE
- On the south side of Fulton Street East where Baldwin Park was.
- On the north side of Fulton Street East right in front of the Central Reformed Church
- South-east corner of Fulton Street East and College
- East Beltline at the northeast corner of Woodland Mall
- Parking lot that faces the CenterPoint Mall
- East Beltline, just south of 28th Street in front of Lowes
- Corner of 29th Street and Shaffer Ave
- Southeast corner of Burton St and Horton Ave
- 3 separate cameras at the intersection of Burton St and Division
- Northside of 28th St facing north towards the hotel near Division
- 2 separate cameras facing opposite directions on 28th St, between Division and Buchanan
- 2 separate cameras facing opposite directions on Burton St, just west of Clyde Park
- Chicago Dr SW, just west of where Lee Street intersects with Chicago Dr
- Market Ave near the Kent County Waste to Energy Facility
- Lake Michigan Dr at Bridge St, camera facing west
- Lake Michigan Dr just east of Covell Ave, camera is facing east
- Corner of Alpine and 4 Mile Rd, camera facing south
- Alpine and Henze Drive NW
- Alpine and Creek Drive
- 2 separate cameras in front of the Lowes just off of Plainfield NE
- Division and 36th St
- Division near Calhoun St
- 36th St at the railroad tracks just east of US 131
- 36th St at the end of the US 131 exit ramp facing west
- 36th St just east of Burlingame Ave
- 36th St. and Hubal Ave
To be clear, Flocal cameras are being used throughout parts of the US to provide license plate information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials/agents. Now that we know the Flock camera location in the GR area, people who are vulnerable to ICE might consider alternate routes and destinations.
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are a threat to your privacy and civil liberties. They’re regularly used to track everyone’s movements without a warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. Law enforcement agencies use them for various purposes, no matter how unethical, including ICE raids and tracking abortion seekers across state lines.
Information is Power! We keep us safe!
Over the past week the intensity of ICE raids and ICE activity has increased, whether we are talking about what is happening in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, in US/Mexican border states, and even right here in Grand Rapids.
I have written about how ICE had taken people last Wednesday, people who were showing up to their appointments at the ISAP office on Michigan Street in Grand Rapids. The ICE violence resulted in people showing up to defend those most affected by ICE violence. This same tactics is being used across the country, resulting in an increase in fear for immigrants.
There has been lots social media chatter condemning Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to suppress those actually defending the community, and rightfully so. However, some of the commentary suggests that this is the first time this happened and other make the point about why the National Guard was not called out on January 6th, 2021.
The National Guard has been deployed all over the country, primarily to suppress popular movements, particularly movements that we led by BIPOC communities. Some examples of the National Guard being deployed domestically to suppress popular movements are:
1914 – the Colorado National Guard was sent in to suppress coal miners who were making demands, which led to a massacre with 21 people killed, mostly wives and children of the miners. Wilson was President.
1921 – Tulsa Race massacre, where Oklahoma National Guard to impose Martial Law, but only after white people terrorized and killed Black people and Black businesses in Tulsa. Harding was President.
1943 – Detroit race riot, where President FDR invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and ordered in federal troops. About 6,000 troops imposed a curfew, restored peace and occupied the streets of Detroit.
1965 – Watts, where 14,000 members of the California Army National Guard helped suppress the disturbance, which resulted in 34 deaths. Johnson was President.
1967 – there were an estimated 159 riots in the US, in cities such as Boston Louisville, Atlanta, Detroit, Kansas City and Grand Rapids. See my 3 part series on the 1967 GR riot at this link. For an excellent source on the 1960s riots, read Elizabeth Hinton’s book, America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s. Johnson was President.
1970 – Kent State, where the Ohio National Guard shot and killed 4 students. Nixon was President.
1992 – Los Angeles riots after Rodney King trial verdict where the California National Guard, United States military, and several federal law enforcement agencies deployed more than 10,000 of their armed responders to assist in ending the unrest. George Bush Sr. was President.
2014 – Ferguson, where Gov. Nixon issued an executive order calling in the National Guard to “help restore peace and order and to protect the citizens of Ferguson.” Obama was President.
2020 – George Floyd protests all across the country, where the National Guard was deployed to suppress the uprisings, just like in Grand Rapids. Trump was President.
These are only a handful of examples where the National Guard were deployed to put down strikes, uprisings and rebellions. I included the name of the US President in each case and you can easily see that deploying the National Guard to suppress the public is a bi-partisan affair. We should never ignore this history and deny that it has any bearing on what is happening in LA right now.
The term fascism is also being attached to what Trump is doing by sending the National Guard to Los Angeles, which may be true, but if that is the case you would need to apply the same terminology to previous administration that did the same. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that Presidents deploying the National Guard to suppress uprisings by BIPOC people and working class movements, is a long standing tradition in the US.
Peaceful vs Violent uprisings, rebellions, strikes
Then there is the question of whether or not uprisings, rebellions, strikes are “peaceful” or not. Based on the social media posts I have seen most of them have suggested that if it is “peaceful” then it is good. This is an arrogant and privileged position to take, considering with most uprisings, rebellions, strikes are led by BIPOC people and working class people.
In an interview I heard from an Indigenous organizer in Los Angeles, Ron Gochez, he stated:
And so, we understand that the violence that’s being used against us is lethal. We understand the violence is being used against us on a daily basis, whether it’s by the Border Patrol or the police. It’s violence against the community. And so, we have every right to defend ourselves, by any means necessary, because that is our — the livelihood, the well-being of our families is what’s at stake. Children have been gassed here in Los Angeles.
And so, whether it’s the National Guard, whether it’s local police, we have to resist this, because in Los Angeles, we clearly understand what’s happening. The Trump administration is trying to make an example of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the heart of the Mexican and Central American community here in the United States. And so, they think that if they can break us, they can break anyone in the country. And so, we understand that, and that’s what we know. We cannot afford to fail. The resistance will continue. Whether they keep threatening us or not, we will continue. We will be peaceful every time that we can. But if we face violence, where we have to defend ourselves, we have every human right to do so, as well.
Again, it is an arrogant and elitist stance to take when those of use with lots of privilege demand that marginalized communities remain “peaceful.” Calling a protest peaceful, when protests are anything but peaceful, is a way for the system(s) to dictate the narrative about what is happening. When the police say a protest was peaceful, they mean that those protesting obey their orders, did nothing to disrupt business as usual and often it means that protest organizers cooperate and even collaborate with the police. In fact, one could argue that if this happens, then it is not really a protest, instead it becomes a performance. Such forms of “protests” are almost always organized by white liberals to make other white people feel good about themselves, without having to interrogate systems of power and oppression.
Lastly, it is important that we not demonize those who use force or engage in property destruction to achieve liberation. Too often, those who only engage in non-violence, risk-free protests will demonize people/organizations and movements that utilize disruptive tactics, property destruction or those who engage in armed resistance. Historically, non-violence, property destruction, community self-defense and forms of armed resistance have been successful against tyrants, dictators, totalitarian and fascist governments. Demonizing those who do not always practice non-violence only benefits the state and their ability to engage in repression.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 