Copwatching Nationally on Date of Grand Jury Announcement

Copwatch collage

FERGUSON and BEYOND

For those of us living in the Bay Area, it has been an inspiration to see people taking it to the streets of Ferguson against racist and brutal police.

For those of us in who participated in the Oscar Grant Rebellions, and lived through the street battles of Occupy, watching the community of St Louis brace for announcements of false justice is painful.

In 2010, we prepared for months around the date of the Johannes Mehserle Verdict in the murder of Oscar Grant, and then we watched our movement die in the following months from stress, short-sited objectives, and infighting.

In 2011 we watched the threat of impending police raids of our Occupy encampments wear down our spirits, and the perpetual attacks from the police deplete our numbers.

We Support you Canfield.
We Support you Ferguson.
We Support you St Louis.

Learn from us and never give up. The problems with the police don’t end with a grand jury announcement, but hopefully people’s false hopes in the system do.

The police will never hold themselves accountable, and they will never change.
So we need to change, and we need to be there for each other.

ON THE DAY OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Are you a Copwatch crew? Are you going to be in the streets in your own city, addressing your own injustices on the day of Grand Jury announcement in St Louis?

While it’s great some people are heading to St. Louis to show love and solidarity for an area in conflict, we should not be overlooking the issues falling out in our front yard.

Copwatchers will be out in force in Oakland, identifying the police before the rally, and documenting their activities and actions against people throughout the event.

If you plan to be out in your own city Copwatching on that date, contact us, [email protected]. We’d love to hear about your efforts, and be sure to update us with how it worked with your team, and any issues that came up with the police.

Copwatch is a beautiful idea. It can be a helpful tool in forcing police to be restrained, and it is a project that outlives most FTP movements due to the sad reality that until we abolish the police, we need to be out there, and we need to be watching them. See you in the streets. -WeCopwatch