Travel Fund
USD

In 2015 WeCopwatch deployed on atleast 20 out of state missions ranging from Oakland, St. Louis/Ferguson, Baltimore, North Charleston, NYC, Chicago and Detroit.

It should be known that WeCopwatch receives no formal funding, but rather has been able to travel due to a few donations, and money contributed from it’s internal membership.

It’s 2016. We’ve already deployed to NYC, Baltimore, and Austin.

In NYC we interacted with a lot of our Copwatch constituents and trained with WITNESS on video evidence collection

In Austin we deployed to engage in a week long Copwatch operation that included nightly shifts, and several Copwatch College sessions.

In Baltimore we deployed to support some Copwatchers we work with who had been arrested while copwatching.

These journeys often come at great cost to our pockets and our bodies. If we fly, we risk spending heavy out of pocket. If we drive, we wear out our bodies and lose time.

We’ve come to the conclusion that are the best option for missions and rapid deployment are to travel by air. Multiple times over the years people have approached us with frequent flyer miles and so we have decided to reach out to the public and see what’s out there.

If you have miles, and you believe in the work that we do locally, and around the country, consider donating some our way. We generally find ourselves needed to get somewhere every month or so and if we had our flights covered, it would really make what little money we do have be better applied to the Copwatch work we do day in and day out.
Give us a holler. [email protected]

The STL First Responders
A project of the Canfield Watchmen and WeCopwatch.

What do we do when the police shoot someone in our community?
In Oakland California, a coalition under the Anti Police Terror Project have been deploying to the locations of shooting to conduct independent investigations.

Here in St. Louis, we have begun to do the same. . .

The Function
First Responders are a coalition of people trained and dedicated to responding to police shootings and other high profile incidents involving police with the intentions of collecting evidence, identifying witness, and conducting independent investigations.

The Purpose
Within 24 hours of a police shooting, “official statements” are almost always released to justify the officer’s use of force. These narratives are often disseminated to convey an officer in fear for their safety and to demonize and criminalize the person shot. These “official statements” often change in the falling months as more accurate information surfaces. But by then it is too little, too late.

Deploying first responders after a police shooting allows concerned citizens to challenge and scrutinize the police narrative, encouraging police investigators to do more honest and transparent investigations.

When deployed to a shooting, First responders wear many hats.
1. They are collecting information and evidence to contrast and challenge the “official narrative.”
2. They are documenting evidence that can be used for records requests, independent investigations, and to help in criminal and civil cases.
3. They locate witnesses and help link them to lawyers so they are protected from police retaliation.
4. They pass out information to recruit more first responders and to educate people about the dangers of talking to the police and the media.

The Roles
There are four different groupings of people who can be essential in a First Responder Network, and they often overlap and are not mutually exclusive.
1. The local community
2. The activist community
3. Lawyers
4. Journalists

First Responder deployment
When responding to a police shooting, people are often walking into chaotic, traumatic events. It is crucial to have people from the local community to lead in these deployments. It is also helpful to have activists and journalists to follow their lead and assist in helping where they can with documentation and evidence collecting. It’s also crucial to have a lawyer on the scene who can immediately connect with the family and with witnesses.

The Investigation
When conducting an independent investigation it is important to involve the people who were First Responders to the incident. It is also helpful to have lawyers and journalists who specialize in investigations and in requesting/demanding information. Activists and advocates can also play a helpful role in using the case and information collected to advocate for justice and more lasting change.

Training
Another aspect of building an effective coalition of First Responders is providing trainings to build capacity. Trainings include

1. Evidence Collecting
2. Filming crime scenes
3. Supporting people dealing with trauma
4. Interviewing witnesses
5. Filing records requests, preservation letters, discovery
6. Authenticating video and photos
7. Releasing findings and investigations

Spring is near. Are you interested in becoming a first responder in the St. Louis area?
Contact us at [email protected] or get in touch with us at TheSTLFirstResponders

The Police Know Their Job is a Joke. But We Don’t Think it’s Very Funny
After a few years on the job most cops realize that the institution they work for is clearly as much of a problem as the people they claim to be protecting the public from. After all, locking people up for victimless crimes, and extorting poor people through citations and judicial processes inevitably creates the conditions that give cops job security.

In short, the police are proactively helping keep people in poverty which ensures they will always have a job. The reality is people who do time, and have paperwork are left with fewer options to succeed in this racist, capitalist power structure and even worse, when the police lock people up, they know they are separating people from their families that need them. Every petty citation for expired registration or biking without a light takes money from people who need it far more than the more affluent people that they are NOT stopping for the same “violations.”

This Cop Knows He is Part of the Problem

But this is how policing works and they all know it. Police get paid, the city gets paid, the courts get paid, the state gets paid, and the corporations that facilitate this slave trade gets paid, all off the back of the people.
That’s why Copwatch is so important. Every time caring people stand together and watch the police, they are less likely to abuse people and steal their money.

These days even cops are finally admitting that in the moment, Copwatch keeps them in line. To those cops, we say this.

Your job shouldn’t be to stop, harass, cite, and lock people up. You are part of the problem. Many people make great cases that you are the problem.

If you are Police and you think Copwatch is so valuable then maybe you should. . .
1. Stop stopping people. Stop citing people. Stop arresting people.

2. Record and document your fellow officer’s corruption and abuse and send it to your local police accountability group.

3. When police abuse people, put your hands on them like you would any member of the public and put them in handcuffs.

4. Stop acting as if you have any special authority over people. After all, if you really wanted to help people, you wouldn’t be a cop.

For years we have tried to work with elements of Cop Block that have longed to be part of something bigger. Bigger then disgruntled white men, bigger than finger pointing, bigger than the ideals that Libertarianism has to offer.

While over time, we have been excited to see many people grow both individually and collectively, we have also watched years of good work undone in a matter of months by the recent return of informant, and founding member of Cop Block, Adam Mueller, aka Ademo Freeman.

We have no interest in making this a Copwatch vs Cop Block ordeal, however WeCopwatch is disconnecting from Cop Block pending an accountability process for Adam, and a stated commitment to fighting oppression internally.

We applaud those who have begun to wake up, but be humble, you’ve arrived late to the struggle. We need you to focus more on yourself, so that you can begin to work better with the larger movement.

We know that in order to make a movement that is powerful enough to take on state violence and oppression with any meaningful impact, we have no space in our personal lives, or in our own groups for racism, misogyny, anti gayness, transphobia, xenophobia, or any form of blind hatred.

While Cop Block has been claimed to be an idea, the idea that “Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights”, this idea has been perverted by people who are unwilling to reflect on how their behavior perpetuates everything that is wrong with the state. From FB pages run by misguided individuals, to the recent actions of Cop Block’s founding member, Cop Block is destined to fail as a group, an idea, or a movement if it is void of checks and balances.

We wish the best for folks, and we hope this is the moment that people begin to make this world a better place by looking within at things that need change. Imagine what could accomplish if we all held hands in this struggle?

Until then, bigots beware, times up!

And for the rest of you willing to fight the real fight, see you in the streets.

Jacob Crawford and David Whitt of WeCopwatch

Statements from Anti-Media and Peaceful Streets Project.