Ending Police Militarization: News

Letter to House Committee on Appropriations: Cut UASI funding!

As our communities mourn the lives lost in the mass shooting at Pulse queer club's Latinx night this weekend, we affirm our struggle for a safety beyond hate and militarism. As politicians and ideologues of various stripes manipulate this tragedy, we remember the refrain: "our grief is not a cry for war." We refuse to allow the deaths of those in Orlando to justify increased police presence in our communities across the country. Today, WRL and AFSC, joined by thirty-two other civil liberties, religious, and peace and social justice groups called on the House Appropriations Committee to maintain the President’s cut to Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) funding as a “step in the right direction.”

Media Advisory: Civil Liberties, Humanitarian and Religious Organizations Call For Maintaining President's Cut to Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE        

Contacts:
Tara Tabassi cell (917) 971-2498 || tara [at] warresisters.org
Stephen McNeil cell (415) 350-9305 ||  SMcNeil [at] afsc.org

 

May 25, 2016

Media Advisory: Groups Decry Notorious Islamophobe to Address NY State SWAT Teams This Week

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For Immediate Release

April 26, 2016

Contact:

Ali Issa, War Resisters League, ali32123 [at] gmail.com, (718)310-9968

Ursula Rozum, Syracuse Peace Council ursula [at] peacecouncil.net, (315) 414-7720

COMMUNITY GROUPS FROM ACROSS NY STATE HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO OPPOSE MILITARIZATION OF POLICE AND SYRACUSE PD PARTICIPATION IN VERONA SWAT EXPO

Groups decry extreme anti-Muslim views featured as keynote at New York Tactical Officers Association Conference this week

 

Stop NYTOAC!

Every year in Verona, New York, hundreds of SWAT officers gather at NYTOAC to "talk shop" with major arms dealers and Islamophobic ideologues. Let's block it and shift resources where they belong: our communities' needs!

Support #Justice4Rasmea Today!

Our comrades in the Rasmea Defense Committee are calling for support! Rasmea Odeh, a long time immigrant rights leader and Arab community organizer is currently facing imprisonment and deportation. Join the War Resisters League in circulating this call, and help us amplify Rasmea's fight against politically motivated charges today! Learn more about Rasmea's case here & check out WRL's statement from 2013 below.

On MLK Day: A Special Message from Arun Kundnani

Arun Kundnani

On this MLK day, let us recall Dr. Martin Luther King's deepest legacy. He understood that denouncing the violent extremism of young, angry men in the ghettos could not be done without hypocrisy unless one also condemned the far greater violence of the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. When governments decide political problems can be solved through violence, it is no surprise their citizens reach the same conclusion.

Terrorism and Trump: New Challenges for Social Justice Organizations

"The wake-up call is right there in the front page headline of the Dec. 11 New York Times: 'Poll Has Trump Gaining Ground on Terror Fear.' [ . . . ]

Understand that the fight against racism cannot be won just by struggling around domestic issues. Similarly, international peace cannot be won without a struggle against racism in the U.S. U.S. wars are largely rationalized by racism—the dehumanization and demonizing of people into enemies on the basis of their color or culture to the point of justifying their mass murder and the violent crushing of their economies, homes, public health and schools. The struggle against racism and for peace are potently linked and this needs to be reflected in our strategies and organizing . . ."

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