GO TO:
Letters Received from Allies
1033 National Inventory
Articles About 1033
Latest 1033 Meme’s to use
Correspondences with LAUSD
FFSC Press Statement
The Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the Cites
is now ready to declare a victory
- The LASPD has provided us with a list of all weapons received and all weapons returned from the Department of Defense 1033 Program with documentation. This letter finally achieves that objective.
- The LASPD had issued a public apology. Public officials rarely apologize for anything let alone a policy that they initiated and we appreciate Chief Zipperman’s leadership.
- We appreciate the direct acknowledgment of the specific role that the Labor/Community Strategy Center played in winning this victory.
The Labor/Community Strategy Centers’ Fight for the Soul of the Cities, a civil rights group has forced, convinced a police department and a public agency to get out of the Department of Defense 1033 Program altogether and return the weapons. This is the first time in the United States in any city that a social movement has forced a police department to return all military grade weapons and to reduce its armaments.
LAUSD Board Member Monica Garcia and Chief Zipperman Make Important Break
It means a lot that LASPD Chief Zipperman gave, as a major reason to explain his decision to return the weapons, “…our past and ongoing commitment to strengthening trust and partnerships with the Strategy Center and other community organizations remains paramount.” We are also aware that Chief Zipperman is a unique figure in police circles, a person able to listen to protest instead of suppressing it, a person of conscience, and a person you can negotiate with in good faith. We are very appreciative of Chief Zipperman and the LASPD for making what we know was a courageous decision to listen to the demands and outrage of Black and Latino students and to reverse an entrenched policy. Likewise we want to commend LAUSD Board member Monica Garcia for being the first LAUSD Board member to publically apologize last month for LAUSD’s participation in the 1033 Program and providing leadership toward a resolution.
This is an Important Community Victory Led by Young People in South LA, Boyle Heights and Mar Vista Garden. This important breakthrough was secured by the participation of hundreds of young people, teachers, parents and community residents who ushered this victory. A big shout-out to organizing work in Roosevelt and Augustus Hawkins by Ashley Franklin and others and the sustained work of the students played a major role in influencing the board and the police department to return the weapons.
It’s Time to End 1033 Program in Los Angeles and Across the Country
We are now bringing this victory to other groups all over the country, to show that it is historically possible to reduce the weaponry of police forces, to get cities to get out of the program, and to call on President Obama to end this program altogether.
It took more than 18 months to achieve this victory. This campaign is dedicated to the Black freedom movement in Ferguson and beyond, Strategy Center was moved by the dedicated activists, organizers and everyday people who stood up to the Ferguson police and its 1033 Program war machinery after the shooting of Mike Brown, which has lit a beacon of hope and struggle. Strategy Center organizers arrived days after the major street battles to stand in solidarity and build with organizations and youth in Ferguson and St Louis area, as we returned back to Los Angeles in early September 2014 news of LAUSD and LASPD participating in 1033 Program brought us purpose and clarity that we needed to defeat this racist counter-insurgency program to defend our Black and Brown communities.
We know that given the continued economic, social, and ecological crises there will be greater protests in the schools, in the communities, and in the streets and we want to make clear that people have the right not just to speak but to challenge the institutions of our society without the fear of tanks, grenade launchers, and M-16s. This is a small but very significant breakthrough in challenging the entire police state that we believe is occupying communities.
GO TO:
Letters Received from Allies
1033 National Inventory
Articles About 1033
Latest 1033 Meme’s to use
Correspondences with LAUSD
The Strategy Center—Finally—Gets the Tanks and M-16s Out of the LA School System
The Strategy Center—Finally—Gets the Tanks and M-16s Out of the LA School System
Read the Full Sign on Letter
Read All of the Correspondences between Fight for the Soul of the Cities and LAUSD
Sign-on Letters received
Check Out The National 1033 Program Inventory
Instructions to download a meme:
Choose the meme you’d like to download
On the full size image Righ-Click the image and select “Save Image As”
Recent 1033 Articles
July 14, 2016Thanks Jesse Williams. It took a lot of bravery for you to get up at the BET Awards Ceremony and give a speech filled with anger and rage at the system— and the way that the killings of Black people are being televised as if each event were a public lynching. But in my opinion you didn’t go far enough. I begin with the Comment I put onto Facebook the day after your remarks: “I’m not so sure about the speech Jesse Williams gave the other night… It’s full of exciting rhetoric and a good analysis of the system… But there was no call to action. You could have told the audience… “Let’s call on President Obama to end the Federal 1033 Program that gives military weapons to local police forces—like in Ferguson—to kill our people. Let’s demand Jobs or Income Now for our people and not be afraid of public welfare programs that we have earned. Let’s cut police spending in every city by 50 percent now! And let’s cut U.S. emission of greenhouse gases by 50% now as well.” A good organizer doesn’t simply get people riled up— You always need a call to action and very specific demands.”
While I think Jesse’s remarks are a great beginning, as an organizer trying to make specific demands on the system in the hopes of liberating all Black people, it is sad to see entertainers getting more support for general statements while movements such as ours are being suppressed by the L.A. Times and even Democracy Now for the real work that we’re putting in.
Read the Full Article on The Black Commentator
Read the Full Article on Huffington Post
Channing Martinez is a Black-Garifuna Queer Organizer with the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles. He is also the producer of Voices from the Frontlines, on KPFK/Pacifica Radio. He can be reached at channing@thestrategycenter.org
[...]
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May 31, 2016Read this Article on Alternet
A coalition of Los Angeles high school students and grassroots organizers just accomplished the unthinkable. After nearly two years of sit-ins and protests, they forced the police department for the second-largest public school district in the United States to remove grenade launchers, M-16 rifles, a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle and other military-grade weaponry from its arsenal.
But the coalition did not stop there. Members took over a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board meeting in February to call for proof that the arms had been returned to the Department of Defense—a demand they eventually won in the form of an itemized invoice for every weapon sent back to the DoD.
Going further, the coalition successfully pressed board members of the school district to apologize for greenlighting the policing of K-12 students with weapons of war.
“I now understand that especially in the context of the many conflicts between law enforcement and communities of color across the nation, our participation in this program may have created perceptions about the role of our district and our school police that my silence exacerbated,” Steve Zimmer, the president of the board of education, wrote in a May 19 letter to the groups Fight for the Soul of the Cities and Labor Community Strategy Center, which played a key role in the campaign. “Please accept my apology for any and all of my actions that contributed to feelings of betrayal and injury and interrupted our important collaborative efforts for equity and justice in all aspects of public education.”
Perhaps most stunningly, the coalition eventually persuaded the Los Angeles School Police Department to issue its own apology. “The LASPD recognizes the sensitive historical aspect of associating ‘military-like’ equipment and military presence within a civilian setting,” wrote Chief Steven Zipperman in a letter dated May 18. “We recognize that this sensitive historical component may not have been considered when originally procuring these type of logistics within a civilian or K-12 public school setting.”
The resounding victories were won in a district where the vast majority of students are Black and Latino. In the era of Ferguson, they have seen images of young people who look like them being shot and killed by police. Amid mounting nationwide outrage over police use of weapons of war to patrol civilian neighborhoods, the win marks an unprecedented stride toward the demilitarization of public schools.
“I know that this will transcend my school district and state,” Bryan Cantero, a senior at Augustus F. Hawkins High School, told AlterNet. “I feel like I was part of something that is bigger than me. I prevented something terrible from happening to someone’s brother, sister, friend or daughter. We prevented a tragedy. We prevented a war. When the police got those weapons it was a call to war. Am I viewed as a student or prey? What do they think I am? At the end of the day, something had to be done, and we took charge.”
Read This Article on AlterNet
‘Not a War Zone’
The Strategy Center describes itself as a movement-building think tank “rooted in working-class communities of color.” According to director Eric Mann, the organization first discovered that the Los Angeles Police Department possessed an arsenal of military-grade weapons two years ago. At the time, Mann and his colleagues had just returned from a solidarity delegation to Ferguson in 2014, where they witnessed the deployment of tanks and assault rifles against civilian protesters. Mann said the delegation “understood this was part of the war against Black people.”
The revelation that Los Angeles school cops were in possession of military arms immediately provoked a civil rights uproar. Yet, in September 2014, the school district and police department refused to return all of the weapons, agreeing to hand back grenade launchers but insisting they needed armored vehicles and rifles. “While we recognize, this armored vehicle is ‘military-grade,’ it is nevertheless a life-saving piece of equipment that the District would not otherwise have,” the school district stated.
The subsequent campaign “took a lot of work and time,” Ashley Franklin, lead organizer for the Strategy Center, told AlterNet. “We organized on each of the blocks we work in, organized in different high school campuses, going in and doing classroom presentations at the school about how this is rooted in institutional racism. We had phone call campaigns, turned in 3,000 petitions and made over 300 calls to school board members. It was a long campaign, and those were just the easy tactics.”
Taking Action clubs at multiple high schools in the district played a critical role. “Young people decided to put their bodies on the line, following after Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer,” Franklin said. “They did multiple sit-ins at the school board and disrupted meetings, declaring that this should not be business as usual.”
At the early February school board meeting takeover, students and activists refused to leave until their demands were heard, leading to a charged scene described in the L.A. Times. “Asst. Supt Earl Perkins hurried forward and motioned to camera operators, with a hand slashing across his throat, to cut the live video feed while meeting chairman and board member George McKenna tried to establish order,” wrote journalists Sonali Kohli and Howard Blume. When administrators eventually left the meeting, students and activists remained, declaring the gathering a ‘people’s school board.'”
Monique Jones, a junior at Augustus F. Hawkins High School, was one of the young people who took action. “I believe the campaign was important because every day somebody of color, Black or Latino, is being shot by police officers,” she told AlterNet. “Why would you bring those types of weapons into school campuses? It’s not a war zone. You’re not going to war with your own citizens and people who are in kindergarten through 12th grade.”
Some board members appear chastened by the exchanges they have had with students like Jones. In an apology letter dated April 22, LAUSD school board member Monica Garcia declared, “The need for safety is a collective responsibility that must balance our lessons learned from history, our present challenges and our vision for the future… Together, with community partners, LAUSD has come a long way. And to use the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘we have a long way to go.’”
‘We Want Police Military Weapons Destroyed’
Despite the Los Angeles victory, police departments nationwide remain heavily militarized. This is largely because of the federal program that allows police agencies to acquire weapons of war. The current iteration of the initiative dates back to 1990 and was escalated by the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act, which established that, under the “1033 program,” Department of Defense may transfer “excess” military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies. According to the Defense Logistics Agency, the program has transferred at least “$5.4 billion worth of property” since its inception.
In 2014, the same year Black Lives Matter protests gripped the country, “$980 million worth of property (based on initial acquisition cost) was transferred to law enforcement agencies” the agency concludes, noting that more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies count themselves among the program’s enrollees.
However, the actual amount of public dollars that have been funneled into this program is far higher. A report from the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2011 found that since 9/11, “$34 billion in federal government grants” has gone toward the purchasing of military-grade weaponry for police departments. As in Los Angeles, many of these weapons have found their way into school police departments. The police department for San Diego’s public schools revealed in 2014 that it had also purchased its own MRAP, a piece of equipment that has become a fixture of the U.S. military’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 1033 program is just one facet of the militarization of police departments nationwide, which also includes SWAT deployments for drug searchers and collaborations between police agencies, arms manufacturers and foreign militaries. An ACLU report released in 2014 found that the “use of hyper-aggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians and police officers, escalates the risk of needless violence, destroys property, and undermines individual liberties.” Poor people and communities of color disproportionately see their neighborhoods turned into war zones by police, the investigation determines.
Last year, President Obama issued an executive order placing some limits on the transfer of certain kinds of military weapons, referencing the demands of civil rights leaders and Ferguson protesters. However, he declined to eradicate the program or immediately recall all of the heavy arms that have been distributed to police departments across the country.
High school senior Cantero believes Obama’s order does not go nearly far enough. “The 1033 federal program still exists in the nation, and I think the following step is to abolish the program in its entirety,” he said. “No school should have military-grade weapons. We want police military weapons destroyed.”
“When you are a teen you feel like you have no control over anything,” he continued. “But what is amazing to me is that there were so many teenagers all over the city who felt the same way we did and stood up together. Power in numbers is an amazing thing. This is a national problem at the end of the day, because this is what the youth is going through. We’re not going to stop.”
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare. [...]
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May 23, 2016Today, after 18 months of ferocious uphill organizing the Labor/Community Strategy Center reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles School Police Department. They agreed:
To return all military grade weapons to the Department of Defense “Excess Military Equipment Program” AKA the 1033 Program that is arming police departments all over the U.S. In particular, they returned 1 Tank, a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, 3 grenade launchers (“37 mm less less-lethal launch platforms” and 61 M-16 rifles.
To withdraw completely from the 1033 Program.
To provide a complete inventory to the Strategy Center and the public of every weapon they received under the program, when it was received, the serial numbers, and when and where it was returned.
To apologize for the policy that brought the weapons to Los Angeles in the first place.
The Strategy Center is the first group in the U.S. that we know of to win such demands. The LAUSD and the LASPD are the first government agencies that we know of—a police force of 500 officers and staff— to return all the weapons, withdraw from the program altogether, give a complete inventory of every weapon received and returned, and to issue a public apology to a civil rights organization and the Black and Latino students and communities whose lives were threatened by the program. The precedent can be explosive. We have shown that even if by one bullet alone—let alone a tank, 3 grenade launchers, and 61 M-16s—we can reduce the police arsenal of weapons just as they try to increase them and can win the ideological war against the growing police state.
In our view, remembering Amilcar Cabral’s “tell no lies and claim no easy victories” this is a major structural, symbolic, and ideological victory for the Civil Rights, Black Liberation, Chicano Liberation, and revolutionary movements in the U.S.
Lessons from our No Tanks in L.A. and the U.S. Campaign That Can Help Organizers in Every Urban Center
Let me tell you the story of how we won this grueling battle of ideas and arms and some lessons for organizers in the U.S. who understand that the battle against the police/warfare state is the cutting edge of transformative organizing.
Identifying our own government as a center of counter-insurgency against the Black Nation. In August, 2014 Strategy Center organizers Manuel Criollo, Ashley Franklin, and Julian Lamb went to Ferguson, Missouri in solidarity with the movement protesting the murder of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson—and the larger crime of the U.S. government against the Black community and the Black nation. When we saw the use of tanks, assault rifles we understood this was part of the war against Black people. At the time, we did not know about the Department of Defense 1033 Program but we and others soon found out. As CBS news reported,
“For several nights this week, tanks, combat gear and assault rifles were seen in Ferguson, Missouri. It looked like a military operation. That’s because police departments in the St. Louis area—like those across the country—are arming their officers with equipment once on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of it is free of charge or bought with federal grant money authorized by Congress. In the past year, the Department of Defense has given local law enforcement over 600 MRAPs, the armored vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs. Texas alone has received 68, Florida 45. The Pentagon program has given police departments over $5 billion worth of surplus equipment since the program launched in 1991: helicopters, firearms, protective gear, night vision, even computers and camouflage clothing. The local police also get federal grant money to buy the military-style equipment. One recent study by The Center for Investigative Reporting found the federal government has doled out more than $34 billion to local police departments since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
We did our research and found out that in Los Angeles the Los Angeles Police Department LAPD had amassed over 1,600 M-16 assault rifles, a military truck, military cargo plane and helicopter while the LA Sheriff has over 1,000 M-16 assault rifles, 2 MRAP tanks, and 62 mine detectors, all through the DOD 1033 program. We chose to begin the campaign by focusing on the School police because that was where we were doing most of our organizing and the issue of tanks in the schools would generate, we hoped, the greatest outrage that we could then bring to bear on the LAPD and President Obama.
Exposing the Double Cross by the LAUSD. At the time, the Strategy Center was involved in negotiations with the School Board challenging the school to prison pipeline. We had won the overturning of the Daytime Curfew Law through which the LAPD and LASPD had issued 38,000 tickets to Black and Latino students for “truancy.” We had passed a School Climate Bill of Rights to end the offense of “willful defiance” that was code for disciplining Black boys in particular for any signs of life or rebellion. And while we were negotiating in good faith with the school board and police we found out that, behind our backs, they had contracted for the tank, the grenade launchers, and the M-16s.
Making clear demands. The Strategy Center operates on a theory of “counter-hegemonic demand development” that I developed in my book, The Seven Components of Transformative Organizing. I learned that theory from my work with CORE, SNCC, SDS, the Black Panthers and my reading of Mao, Lenin, and revolutionary history. The objective is to raise real demands on the system that go to the heart of its ideological, economic, and political power and challenge the system itself. Manuel Criollo, the Center’s director of organizing, and I wrote a public letter to LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines with very clear demands.
Immediately withdraw the District’s participation in the Department of Defense 1033 program
Call on President Obama to end the entire DOD 1033 Program
Destroy or dismantle all military grade equipment obtained by the LASPD: specifically the documented 61 M-16 assault rifles
Make a complete inventory of LASPD’s military equipment and weaponry acquired throughout your enrollment in the 1033 Program
Document all weaponry currently in LASPD’s possession
Write to other school boards calling on them to discontinue their participation in the 1033 Program
Work with us to call on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department (LASD) to immediately withdraw from the 1033 Program and to destroy their military weapons obtained through the DOD 1033 Program — in that LAUSD students and our Black and Latino communities are subject to the jurisdictions of those departments as well.
As you can see, this was both very specific in nature (almost all of which we eventually won) but also had the tenor of a revolutionary manifesto. (See www.fightforthesoulofthecities.com and Google for the full text of the letter).
Building a base around the demands. The Strategy Center is very lucky to have Ashley Franklin as our lead organizer. Recruited from Scripps College with strong roots in Belize and the Black community she is a truly gifted group builder, propagandist, and agitator. Under her leadership, Elmo Gomez, Cindy Donis, Laura Aguilar, Monique Jones, Michael Davis and dozens of other politically conscious students from our Taking Action clubs, especially at Roosevelt High School in East L.A. and Augustus Hawkins High School in South L.A. carried out extensive classroom presentations, one-on-one studies, revolutionary art exhibitions, call- in campaigns to board members and direct confrontations with the board. The moral power of the students themselves was a big factor in turning the tide. These are the people on the frontlines. They decided that killing the 1033 Program in the Schools was a life and death issue for them.
Framing the Debate Historically. Ashley, Manuel, and I teach revolutionary history as a critical component of political consciousness and building long-distance runners. Manuel teaches a course on the colonial nature of U.S. education for Blacks, Indigenous people, and Latinos. Ashley teaches about slavery and the Black codes. We use my book, Katrina’s Legacy, and the chapter on Black history, “History Can Guide US” in our political education work with students and faculty. In particular, we situate the counterinsurgency culture as a conscious effort by the white power structure to suppress the history and traditions of Black-led revolution in the U.S. And we say this directly to the people in power. In our letter to Superintendent Cortinez we wrote,
“In our reading of history, the expansion and militarization of urban policing was a deliberate backlash against the militancy of a Black Movement—a very orchestrated and racist ideological campaign waged by the Nixon administration with the support of many Democrats to portray Black and Latino communities as violent and inherently criminal. The war on crime, war on drugs, and war on gangs —and now, the indefensible war on “thugs and criminals”—has been a racist subterfuge to lock up Black and Latino youth for jaywalking, marijuana and alcohol possession, “resisting arrest”, “parole violation”, disorderly conduct, and loitering. It is an ideological and military response to a people’s right to protest and resist oppression and the virtual re-enactment of the Black Codes. It is shameful that the LAUSD would want any connection to these crimes against humanity and our communities. This has led to the most blatant character and actual assassination of Black youth in Los Angeles, Sanford, New York, Ferguson, Baltimore and every city in the country. We saw after the Sandy Hook shooting that the LAPD, with the support of Superintendent Deasy, authorized additional police patrols in and around elementary schools. For those who have a world view of advocating for police expansion they will consistently call for increased armed force used against unarmed communities, when in reality our communities need homes, jobs, mental health clinics, health care and a dramatic reduction in police. In the wake of the heartbreaking and devastating increase of police shooting of civilians throughout the country and growing scrutiny of the militarization of police, we have witnessed the weapons LAUSD has in their possession similarly being used against protestors in the city of Baltimore. The National Guard was deployed against a people overwhelmed with feelings of grief and anger.”
The students tell the school board they are aware of the racism of the system and its long traditions in the Black Codes and the war against the Black and Latino movements. The Board members, white liberal, Black, Latino do not like the accusations but the historical arguments give the students more confidence that this is not specific to their experience. They go beyond, “This is not good policy” to “You guys are trying to kill us.” They confront the board with bullet proof vests and cardboard tanks and helicopters with the slogan, “Students are not bullet proof.”
Bringing the War Home Ashley Franklin explains, “We won the battle of ideas with our own students. We explained that the U.S. is already at war with Black and Latino communities; the only question is do we want to fight back in the war. These weapons were there for a reason—what we call “counterinsurgency” against the next freedom fighters. The students understand and agree, through our Freedom Summer and other educational programs, that the Black and Latino communities are oppressed nations and peoples inside the United States, not just suffering “discrimination” but national oppression by U.S. imperialism. That explains why M16s used to kill civilians in Vietnam are used to kill civilians in Ferguson, Baltimore, and L.A.”
We confronted LAUSD President Steve Zimmer, “Your silence is consent. You say you did not know about them. Then you say you are “working on it” behind the scenes but in front of the scenes you do nothing but support educational and military racism.” We disrupted LAUSD Meetings forcing them to go into closed session and to turn their backs on the students. We called it “educational and military racism.” The students made bullet proof vests saying, “Students are not bullet proof” and kept asking the board, “Why do you want to kill us?”
Challenging the Democratic Establishment. How is it possible that the U.S. is able to bring weapons of mass destruction into its cities with little or no opposition? Despite their efforts to demonize Trump, Cruz, and the Republicans it is the Democrats who are the main danger in every major city in the country. With the defeat of the revolutionary movements of the Two Decades of the Sixties the Democrats have built corrupt, gentrifying, corporatized white liberal, Black, and Latino political elites who are both servants and agents of corporate capital and imperialist urban development. It was Bill Clinton who led “Effective Death Penalty and Counter-terrorism Act” and “ending welfare as we know it.” It was L.A. Democratic mayors Tom Bradley, Antonio Villaraigosa, and now Mayor Eric Garcetti who enthusiastically embraced the title of “corporate tool” as a badge of honor. And it is the Democrats who have created the “normalcy” of police surveillance and occupation in Black and Latino communities.
Most churches, community organizations, and social service agencies are “on the take and in the make.” They are part of the urban dictatorship of the political classes that suppress dissent and any challenge to Democratic officials from the local dog catcher to President Obama.
In this 18-month campaign we worked every way we could to build a broad coalition to challenge the police state. But most labor unions and community groups, even in Black and Latino communities, said they agreed with the problem but in actuality chose to sit it out. That is why it took 18 months—we built this movement virtually alone, not out of sectarianism or self-promotion but out of necessity.
Finding people of good will on “the other side—raising the moral challenge to those in power. It would be the height of arrogance or delusion to believe we brought the school board or the Los Angeles School Police Department to their knees. Our movement was impressive but still relatively small by historical standards—but relatively large by the standards of this age of reaction. When we disrupted the school board meetings we did so with elected officials we knew by name and had negotiated with for years. They knew we were smart organizers and were just doing our job. They could have called the police on us—but they didn’t. They chose to adjourn the meeting and go into “closed session” behind closed doors. And then we would meet with them and engage them directly one-on-one. Through conversations, arguments, phone calling campaigns, letters of record, demonstrations in the schools, the interventions of great teachers like Mark Gomez at Hawkins, inch by inch the system did move.
There are some people “on the left” who think that protest in itself can win victories and that “street heat” is the key to victory. But in this campaign and in “the movement” in the U.S. we rarely have the power to defeat elected officials or to win by force alone. We did not have the power to take over the system let alone overthrow it.
But, we had the power to confront people who believed they were not agents of state repression and as such, could appeal to them to confront the contradiction between their stated beliefs and their actions. In the end the school board and the LASPD did the right thing and we are very appreciative that they did. While we had many battles with Board President Zimmer he did move, in his own way at his own speed, to end the program.
Compare that to Mayor Eric Garcetti who lied to the Strategy Center, the Bus Riders Union, and the bus and rail riders. He voted to raise the bus fares after he had promised us he would not. He broke every promise he made at public hearings, backed every rail contractor in town, and didn’t give a damn when 500 bus riders and community groups told him they could not afford one penny more let alone $25 a month for the transit pass. Or look at L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, once of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and now of the Friends of Capitalism caucus who does not even pretend to give a damn about low-income bus and rail riders but is part of the MTA plan to once again raise sales taxes to pay for more gentrification. Our organizing in the No Fare Increase—No Cars in LA Campaign was at least as creative and militant as the No Tanks in L.A. campaign. But there was not one elected or appointed official on the MTA board who would support our demands or our movement. They didn’t care if MTA riders ate bread or cake, drove a car, rode a bus, or walked to work.
In this story there are two more people who deserve real recognition for this victory—Board Member Monica Garcia and LASPD Chief Steven Zipperman.
Monica Garcia, a member of the LAUSD board from East Los Angeles, has always been the strongest voice on the board to work with us to end the school to prison pipeline, to end punitive and racist educational policies, and to fight for “positive behavior support” as an alternative to excessive discipline, policing, suspensions, and expulsions. At a time just weeks ago when our allies from Dignity in Schools Campaign all over the country were coming to Los Angeles to support our demands we asked every board member to come out to support us, call for the full accounting of the weapons, and to issue an apology. I worked with Monica Garcia to encourage her to put forth the first public apology for the 1033 Program that was so essential to our campaign. We could not allow the LAUSD and LASPD to just return the weapons—we had to get an agreement that the policies were wrong and harmful to the Black and Latino communities.
She wrote to the demonstrators,
“To the Members of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Dignity in Schools Campaign…I regret that LAUSD’s participation in the 1033 program may have caused a lapse in the trust LAUSD was building with many community partners including the Dignity in Schools Campaign. I apologize for any misunderstanding caused by this participation and the perception among some that LAUSD seeks to perpetuate division instead of creating communities that are safe, supportive and successful. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “we have a long way to go.” Let us commit ourselves to continue to work towards 100% graduation by increasing support services for our scholars, increasing graduation, fully implementing the historic Student Climate Bill of Rights and ultimately eliminating the racial disparities that exists in suspensions, expulsions and academic achievement.”
“Regret” “Apologize” “perpetuate division” “racial disparities” In this political context this was the first board member to apologize and as I read it to 300 demonstrators this was the strongest public acknowledgment of the role of our campaign and the demands we had raised.
And in the end, this civil rights victory against police abuse could not have happened without the support of LASPD Chief Steve Zipperman. Chief Zipperman is a unique, principled police chief who has a conscience, can be appealed to, works with instead of suppressing community groups, and accepts the contradiction of his role in society. Manuel Criollo and he have worked together for years and many LASPD officers have worked with us to oppose the “zero tolerance” rules they have been asked to enforce.
Manuel and I met with Chief Zipperman for two hours several weeks ago. When the LAUSD announced that they had returned all the weapons to the DOD the press asked us to claim victory and put the campaign to an end. We refused. We explained that we had no verification that all the weapons were returned and would not accept the undocumented statements of the board. We asked for a full accounting of every weapon—serial number by serial number. And then we demanded an apology from the School board and the police force. Now in organizing, you do have to know when to declare victory and when to stop making demands you can’t win after years of work. But the students were adamant that without verification and without an apology there were no guarantees the weapons were returned and no guarantees the policies would not be carried out again.
On May 18, Chief Zipperman kept every promise, word for word, that he made to us.
He began his seven page letter by saying, “Our past and ongoing commitment to strengthening trust and partnerships with the Strategy Center and other community organizations remains paramount.”
This was followed by pages of every invoice, every weapon, every serial number, with a page of 61 M16s that start with serial number 1289118 and end 61 lines later with 1826156A along with the Fed Ex tracking numbers we requested.
He ended his letter to us and the public with the following, “A final thought. The LASPD recognizes the sensitive historical aspect of associating “military-like” equipment and military presence within a civilian setting. We recognize that this sensitive historical component may not have been considered when originally procuring these type of logistics within a civilian or K-12 public school setting. LASPD regrets that not recognizing that aspect of your group’s philosophical stance may have strained our relationship with the Labor-Strategy Center and various members of the school committee.”
In today’s historical context and in his institutional context this is a principled and perhaps risky decision— in which a police chief actually worried that he was straining his relationship with a militant civil rights and social justice organization as a rationale to agree to the issues we raised. Revolutions take place in unique and historically specific ways. We are very fortunate that the creative, impressive, and relentless organizing on our part had people on “the other side” who could be moved by our moral and political perspective.
So now the campaign—no we never stop—moves on to make demands on President Obama to issue an executive order to disband the DoD 1033 program altogether. He has already issued a very weak executive order modifying it; he has the power to end it once and for all. As the California Democratic Primary is on June 7 we will be calling on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to support this demand on the president now—as well as pledging to end it if they are elected.
Last night at the Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the Cities Planning Committee, members celebrated the victory and already began to talk about “So what do we do next.” We all agreed it would OK to defer the question for a few days and to use this Saturday’s general membership meeting for a big celebration—food, highlighting the work that people did, Martinelli’s sparkling cider (the full extent of our “letting go,” dancing, singing, drumming, and of course, more food. Victories are so hard to win against the state. It was exciting to hear a student say, “This is my first campaign and I can’t believe I have won such a big victory” while others, the young veterans, are saying, “You’ll see, there will be others ahead.”
Eric Mann, a veteran of the Congress of Racial Equality, Students for a Democratic Society, and the United Auto Workers, is the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center. He is the author of Katrina’s Legacy: The Black Nation and the People of the World Confront the U.S. Empire and its Genocidal Climate Crimes. He is the host of KPFK Pacifica’s Voices from the Frontlines (www.voicesfromthefrontlines.com) He welcomes comments at eric@voicesfromthefrontlines.com
Follow Eric Mann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EricMannSpeaks
Read the article on Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-mann/the-strategy-centerfinall_b_10060222.html [...]
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May 23, 2016Dear Mr. Eric Mann,
First, I want to thank you for your dialogue with me, other Board Members and with Chief Zipperman over the past few weeks.
Yesterday you received a detailed letter together with an inventory and timeline from Chief Zipperman. I very much appreciate your response. I am grateful for the Chief’s leadership and for his willingness to meet the requests presented by the campaign. I do believe the detail and the carefully compiled data shows without any question, LAUSD’s participation in the 1033 program has ended fully and completely. I also want to assure you that as long as I am a Board Member, LAUSD will never participate in any program like this again.
Our recent meeting and dialogue has led me to review my actions as Board President during this difficult period. Upon reflection, I failed to understand the amount of pain and frustration our participation in the 1033 program could cause in the community and especially with our partners from the Dignity in Schools Campaign and the fight for the Soul of the Cities. The campaigns have been such important allies in our effort to transform school climate throughout LAUSD. I regret that I did not listen carefully enough to our student activists or to activists who have been struggling against systemic racism in many forms for years.
I now understand that especially in the context of the many conflicts between law enforcement and communities of color across the nation, our participation in this program may have created perceptions about the role of our district and our school police that my silence exacerbated. Although the weapons obtained through the program were never intended for deployment or any use other than training, I now understand that even the possession of such weapons in the context of this moment damaged trust that we now must all work to rebuild. Please accept my apology for any and all of my actions that contributed to feelings of betrayal and injury and interrupted our important collaborative efforts for equity and justice in all aspects of public education.
I know that you understand that I continue to support Chief Zipperman and the men and women of our Los Angeles School Police. I also believe that together we can move forward with nation leading work on transforming school climate in ways that will enhance the rights and dignity of every student in every school. By re-establishing a strong working relationship, we can recapture the momentum that led to key changes that school districts across the nation are beginning to replicate.
Thank you again for our continued dialogue. I appreciate the opportunity to engage with the students who will be most affected by our policies and decisions. It is my hope and belief that we can move forward from this difficult moment. Thank you for your leadership in the struggle for civil rights, human rights and labor rights throughout my lifetime.
Sincerely,
Steve Zimmer
President, Board of Education
[...]
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May 20, 2016Dear Sirs:
Our past and ongoing commitment to strengthening trust and partnerships with the Strategy
Center and other community organizations remains paramount.
It was a pleasure meeting with both of you on April 26,2016, to discuss the Los Angeles Schoot
Police Department’s (LASPD) past involvement with the Department of Defense (DoD) Excess
Military Equipment Program, commonly referred to as the “1033 Program.” The purpose of our
meeting was to engage in continued dialogue on various questions and offer you clarity to the
LASPD’s involvement with the program, Specifically, you were asking for a brief historical
perspective of the 1033 program, clarity on the recent return of the equipment, and creating a
deeper understanding on our part of your group’s position on law enforcement involvement w¡th
the program, This correspondence was agreed upon to summarize our conversation and bring
to closure any further discussion on this topic as it related to the LASPD and the Los Angeles
Unified School District (LAUSD).
A Brief History:
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) excess property 1033 program has assisted law
enforcement agencies for nearly 25 years in providing law enforcement agencies with critical but
previously unavailable equipment for little to no cost. Over the years, equipment such as
generators, tents, bedding, blankets, first aid kits, and water purification systems, to name a few,
have been used to assist law enforcement agencies during natural disasters.
Violent armed encounters such as the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery; the lggg Columbine
High School shooting; the events of September 11 , 2001; the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting; the
2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; and public mall and theatre shootings càused
many law enforcement agencies to reflect on how prepared they needed to be in dealing with
real-world events such as “active shooter,” “mass casualties,” and “domestic terrorism,” which
have become all too commonplace in the 21st century. Since 1971, over 130 School Shootings
have taken place in the united states, resulting in over 27g fatalities.
A Final thought:
The LASPD recognizes the sensitive historical aspect of associating “military-like” equipment and
military presence within a civilian setting. We recognize that this sensitive historical component
may not have been considered when originally procuring these type of logistics within a civilian or
K-12 public school setting.
The LASPD regrets that not recognizing this aspect of your group’s philosophical stance may
have strained our relationship with the Labor-Strategy Center and various members of the school
community.
A list of those items returned is included for your review as an attachment to this correspondence.
Should you have any questions, feel free to contact the Office of the Chief of Police at213-202-
4508.
Sincerely,
STEVEN K. ZIPPERMAN
Chief of Police
Take a look at the attached PDF to see the Inventory of 1033 weapons returned by the LAUSD [...]
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May 20, 2016To the members of the Labor Community Strategy Center and the Dignity in Schools Campaign,
The need for safety is a collective responsibility that must balance our lessons learned from history, our present challenges and our vision for the future.
I very much appreciate our LAUSD staff that embraces the tremendous responsibility to provide space and energy for the development of relationship, safety and environments for our children to learn.
I regret that LAUSD’s participation in the 1033 program may have caused a lapse in the trust LAUSD was building with many community partners including the Dignity in Schools Campaign. I apologize for any misunderstanding caused by this participation and the perception among some that LAUSD seeks to perpetuate policies of division instead of creating communities that are safe, supportive and successful.
Together, with community partners, LAUSD has come a long way. And to use the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “,.,we have a long way to go,”
Let us commit ourselves collectively to continue our work towards 100% graduation by increasing support services for our scholars, increasing graduation, fully implementing the historic Student Climate Bill of Rights and ultimately eliminating the racial disparities that exists in suspensions, expulsions and academic achievement.
I appreciate your spirit of collaboration.
ln the spirit of hope, [...]
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April 29, 2016Imágenes de las noticias del canal 52 en abril de 22 para la lucha por el alma de las ciudades y la campaña por dignidad en las escuelas demostración nacional
[...]
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April 20, 2016Dear LAUSD Board President Zimmer and Superintendent King:
Urban Youth Collaborative is a civil and human rights organization working to stop the school to prison pipeline and the mass incarceration of Black and Latina/o students and communities in New York City. We are also allies of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and it’s Fight for the Soul of the Cities. We too are calling for President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program and other programs militarizing our schools and communities. [...]
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April 20, 2016Dear LAUSD Board President Zimmer and Superintendent King:
The GSA Network of California is a racial and gender justice non-profit organization working
to stop the school to prison pipeline and the mass incarceration of Black and Latino students
and communities in California and across the United States. We are also allies of the
Labor/Community Strategy Center and its Fight for the Soul of the Cities. We too are calling
for President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program and other programs
militarizing our schools and communities. [...]
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April 20, 2016Dear Chair Zimmer and Superintendent King:
We hope this message finds you well. The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) is a national coalition of over 100 organizations in 26 states and Washington D.C. working to end the school-to- prison pipeline. We support alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment, criminalization and the dismantling of public schools. We join the Labor/Community Strategy Center, a member of our coalition, in calling on school districts throughout the country and President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program’s lending of military weapons to law enforcement, including those working in K-12 public schools. [...]
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April 20, 2016Dear LAUSD Board President Zimmer and Superintendent King:
The Alliance for Educational Jsutice is a national network of 29 youth and intergenerational groups working to
dismantle the school to prison pipeline and end the mass incarceration of Black and Latino students and
communities in 21 U.S. cities. Many of these cities’ school police departments have also received weapons
from the Federal 1033 program. As allies of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and it’s Fight for the Soul of
the Cities, we too are calling for President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program and other
programs militarizing our schools and communities. [...]
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April 19, 2016Dear LAUSD Board President Zimmer and Superintendent King:
The Philadelphia Student Union is a youth-led, civil and human rights organization working to stop the
school to prison pipeline and the mass incarceration of Black and Latino students and communities in
Philadelphia, PA. We are also allies of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and it’s Fight for the Soul of
the Cities. We too are calling for President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program and
other programs militarizing our schools and communities. [...]
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April 13, 2016We hope this message finds you well. The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) is a national coalition of
over 100 organizations in 26 states and Washington D.C. working to end the school-to- prison pipeline.
We support alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment, criminalization and the dismantling of
public schools. We join the Labor/Community Strategy Center, a member of our coalition, in calling on
school districts throughout the country and President Obama to end the Department of Defense 1033
Program’s lending of military weapons to law enforcement, including those working in K-12 public
schools…. [...]
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March 28, 2016El distrito escolar fue urgido a mejorar la educación, a apoyar a la comunidad y a los estudiantes, en vez de aceptar programas militares que lo dotaron de armas de alto poder. Y así puede tomar la delantera en este tema a nivel nacional.
En este contexto, el Sindicato de Maestros de Los Angeles (UTLA, siglas en inglés) consideró que las autoridades educativas deben hacer un pronunciamiento de gran alcance, sobre todo en este momento crítico, cuando “el debate politico nacional se ha envenenado con ataques explícitos a la comunidad de color y se emplea un lenguaje racial tremandamente peligroso”.
En el tapete de la discusión, estudiantes, maestros y dirigentes comunitarios han expuesto un tema álgido: las armas de alto poder –una tanqueta, tres lanzagranadas y 61 rifles de asalto M-16- recibidas por el distrito escolar para fortalecer la seguridad, como parte del programa del Departamento de la Defensa 1033. Aunque – debido a la presión social- ya fueron devueltas, los cuestionamientos siguen, la polémica está encendida.
“Este proceso nos ha dejado con más preguntas que respuestas y con mucho enojo”, afirma Manuel Criollo, director de la Campaña La lucha por el Alma de las Ciudades, que luchó contra la “militarización del distrito escolar”, desde el momento mismo que se supo que ese armamento esta en predios educativos, hace año y medio.
Lea el artículo completo sobre el LA Educación [...]
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March 14, 2016A civic group protesting the military-style weapons once held by LA Unified police said they will continue to disrupt meetings and hold demonstrations until they get answers and action.
The group, Fight for the Soul of the Cities, took over a committee meeting at the LA Unified school board headquarters last month, and this week held a loud protest of about 50 students, parents and teachers outside Tuesday’s board meeting shouting chants and banging drums.
“We do not believe that the district has taken away all the weapons, and we are asking for more,” said the group’s director of organizing, Manuel Criollo. “We will not stop the protests and disruptions.”
Read the Full Article on LA School Report [...]
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March 9, 2016Dear Allies,
We are happy to announce a major development, breakthrough and victory in our struggle against the Los Angeles Unified School District participation in the 1033 Program. After a year and half the Strategy Center and its Fight for the Soul of the Cities campaign has convinced the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) to return all the weapons that they have received from the 1033 Program including the 61 M-16s that they held on to even after President Obama’s order and our demands.
We are inviting your organization to participate in the National Campaign to End the DOD 1033 Program. We urge you to come to Los Angeles for a regional and national all-day organizing campaign meeting on Friday May 6 and participate in the Los Angeles campaign meeting on Saturday, May 7 to integrate the L.A. and national campaigns.
The victory and ongoing campaign in L.A. can energize our campaign to get President Obama to issue an executive order to end the Department of Defense 1033 Program altogether. The Strategy Center, through almost two years of organizing in high schools, communities, and media has forced the second largest school district in the country to return these weapons.
We are now expanding rather than ending this campaign.
We are calling on the LAUSD to:
Stop the Cover-up about LAUSD’s Educational and Military Racism, Tell the Full Truth, Return all the Weapons, and Document that they have done so.
We need a full history of the first time the LAUSD and LASPD applied for weapons from the DOD 1033 Program, each weapon received, and when it was returned.
We need the correspondence with DOD showing each weapon received and returned to prove there are no more DOD 1033 Weapons in the possession of the LAUSD and LASPD.
Sever All Ties with and Withdraw Completely From the DOD 1033 Program. We need a public letter to all students, parents, teachers, and civil rights groups including the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Fight for the Soul of the Cities proving there is no relationship whatsoever now between LAUSD, LASPD, and DOD 1033.
Take Personal and Collective Responsibility for Educational and Military Racism and Counter Insurgency against Black and Latino Students and Communities. We are calling on each LAUSD board member and LASPD staff to document their role. We still have deeper questions for LAUSD Board and LASPD leadership. Who made the decision to ask for these weapons? Who approved them? What was the rationale given to ask for and receive military grade weapons to use against Black and Latino students and communities.
Make a Public Apology. We are asking LAUSD board members and officials to publicly apologize for their actions and repudiate the entire concept of getting military grade weapons to use against our communities. We want an apology for their duplicity in asking for those weapons behind the backs of civil rights and community groups and their perpetuation and escalation of the armed occupation of Black and Latino communities in Los Angeles.
Grant Reparations. We are calling on the LAUSD and LASPD to repair the damage they have done to their relationship with Black and Latino students, parents, teachers, and the civil rights and human rights community. We are asking the LAUSD to cut the LASPD budget by 50%, cut the LASPD police force by 50% and cut all existing LASPD weapons by 50% now.
Stop Undermining Participatory and Democratic Rights at LAUSD. We are calling on the LAUSD board to hold board meetings on evenings and week-ends so that students, parents, and community residents can attend. We want a commitment from the LAUSD that they will not turn off the public television cameras that provide live broadcasting of meetings when civil rights and community groups protest their policies.
Call on the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (that presently possess DOD 1033 weapons) to withdraw from the DOD 1033 Program and to return all DOD 1033 weapons.
Call on President Barack Obama to Completely Terminate the Entire DOD 1033 Program.In terms of our national campaign:
Please write a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer and LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King in support of the demands above on your own letterhead. Please of course send us a copy as well.
We are attaching a national sign-on letter urging President Obama to End the 1033 Program. Even if you cannot attend the Los Angeles meetings please sign on to the letter.
For those who will be participating in the national Dignity in School Campaign convening in Los Angeles from April 22-24, we will host an action to end the 1033 program in front of the LAUSD school board. Please join us.
For those who will be attending the May 6 meeting in Los Angeles (and if possible staying for the May 7 meeting) please confirm your attendance.
In solidarity,
Eric Mann, Director, Labor/Community Strategy Center
Manuel Criollo, Director of Organizing, LCSC
Ashley Franklin, Lead Organizer, LCSC
Please email all responses to ericmann@mindspring.com
Had LAUSD declared a war with its student? Why was the LAUSD Board debating if it can have weapons to shoot students or anyone else?
After a year and half of organizing by the Strategy Center Fight for the Soul of the Cities organizers, leaders and members, we have received a letter from LAUSD that announced that reportedly LAUSD had finally returned all weapons received from the federal Department of Defense 1033 Program, a real milestone for the work but in many ways for us the struggle has just began and we need your support to expose a hurtful and malign civil, human and educational rights violation.
As many of you know that LAUSD and the Los Angeles School Police Department applied and enthusiastically received surplus military weapons from the Department of Defense 1033 Program, including 61 M-16 assault rifles, 3 Grenade Launchers, an a MRAP tank, first used by Apartheid government in South Africa! LAUSD went as far to try to explain that the M-16 rifles was a “standard law enforcement weapon”; the same M-16 that was declared by the International Red Cross as an ‘inhumane weapon’, first used in the battlefields of Vietnam. At least, the LASPD rationale that while the ‘Grenade Launchers’ sounded like a bad thing, in reality we shouldn’t fret because they had no intention to use them to launch grenades but were planning to use them primarily as gas launchers for “crowd dispersal” which can only mean that the system is truly preparing itself for future social movement insurgencies that will rightfully be taking the streets to demand their rights.
Instead of taking responsibility, LA School Police and the LAUSD Board of Education has basically refused to be held accountable for their decision to support a program that armed the Ferguson Police, Baltimore Police, Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio, ICE, the LAPD SWAT by participating in this indefensible program of counter-insurgency. This program transferred over $5 billion worth of weapons of mass destruction creating a military occupation mentality and that has declared a war on Black and Brown communities. LAPD has amassed over 1,600 M-16 assault rifles, a military truck, military cargo plane and helicopter; while the LA Sheriff has over 1,000 M-16 assault rifles, 2 MRAP tanks, and 62 mine detectors, all through the DOD 1033 program.
The cities of the United States are an urban battleground—a war between the system’s counterinsurgency against a people’s insurgency that is just in the incubation stages—after 40 years of the system’s counter-revolution against the Great Revolution of the Two Decades of the Sixties led by the Black and Vietnamese liberation movements. We have to understand that the militarization of local police were first established to squash the Black Liberation Movement in the 1960s and 1970s -and that Los Angeles was ground zero with the establishing of the LAPD SWAT team to suppress the Black Panther Party.
As such, we see the Department of Defense 1033 Program as part of a U.S. counterinsurgency program targeting low-income Black and Latino communities who are already suffering from poverty, gentrification, and increasingly, drought, heat, flooding, and “extreme weather events” caused by the “polluting, policing, privatizing” government. The system, in our view, is planning further suppression of the very communities who are standing up to the police state in a terrifying cycle of state violence with no end in sight.
Let’s call this for what this is, it’s a Racist WeaponGate! LAUSD sneaked in these weapons, now they want to sneak them out.
From the beginning of this debate, we asked the LAUSD to give us a full inventory of all weapons in LASPD possession-the public has a right to know, debate, question, and reject it. They have refused to answer who ordered these weapons? What were they planning to use them for? Who approved them?
LAUSD instead of publically announcing that they have gotten rid of weapons because of community pressure by the Fight for the Soul of the Cities, the LAUSD and the LASPD have been moving slower than molasses to get out of this program. We were informed by the media that the LAUSD transferred the MRAP tank to the Barstow Police Department and returned the three grenade launchers. But how could the District have asked for those weapons in the first place? In June 2015, the LAUSD and LASPD claimed to “discontinue” their participation in the Department of Defense 1033 Program, yet it had refused to provide an inventory, show written proof of ending its relationship permanently with the 1033, or given proof of destroying or returning all the weapons and in fact asserted the right to retain at least the 61 M-16 assault rifles, nor willing to take leadership to urge President Obama to end the 1033 Program.
And as a last insult, the LAUSD and LASPD leadership last week wrote an impertinent and aggressive letter announcing their decision to reportedly return the last weapons they had in their possession, expecting a thank you and let’s move forward. It has been very painful for us and the people we represent to have to continue to debate with LAUSD about the moral unacceptability, in any way, to participate and collaborate with a U.S. government Department of Defense counter-insurgency program. This is an attack on Black and Latino students and communities in Los Angeles and all over the U.S.
We need answers now! We need results, now! We need our human and civil rights now!
You can help by writing a letter and making calls to LAUSD Superintendent King, LASPD Chief Steve Zipperman, LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer and the entire LAUSD Board.
Join us on March 8th for a Rally at the LAUSD Board of Education meeting at 4:00 PM. The Strategy Center’s has called for an LAUSD Board of Education motion to hold a Student and Community Accountability Session regarding the District’s participation in the Federal Department of Defense (DOD) 1033 program at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Demand a Student and Community Accountability Session regarding the District’s participation in the Federal Department of Defense (DOD) 1033 program. We believe that a way to redress the harm inflicted on the community by LAUSD and LASPD deciding to participate in this program is to have a public accountability session. It is critical that students and their families are provided with the complete facts and a timeline of the District’s participation, receive a public apology, and the District should provide redress for the LAUSD’s 18 year participation in the 1033 program.
Fight for the Soul of the Cities Can Make Presentations to Your Organization and Base on the 1033 Program and Our Fight at LAUSD and Nationally to End the 1033 Program.
Support FFSC on social media Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/FightSoulCities and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FightForTheSoulOfTheCities/ #End1033 #DemilitarizeLAUSD #ReparationsNow
#makehistory #EducationRacism #MilitaryRacism or keep up on our site fightforthesoulofthecities.com
Let’s Demand LAUSD to:
Stop the Cover-up about LAUSD’s Educational and Military Racism, Tell the Full Truth, Return all the Weapons, Prove that You Have Done So. We need the LAUSD and LASPD to document the full facts. We need a full history of the first time the LAUSD and LASPD applied for weapons from the DOD 1033 Program, each weapon received, and if they were returned, the correspondence with DOD, which weapons were returned, and a complete inventory showing each weapon received and returned to prove there are NO more DOD 1033 Weapons in LAUSD and LASPD possession.
Formally Sever All Ties with and Withdraw Completely From the DOD 1033 Program. We need a public letter to all students, parents, teachers, and civil rights groups including the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Fight for the Soul of the Cities proving there is no relationship whatsoever now between LAUSD, LASPD, and DOD 1033.
Take Personal and Collective Responsibility for Educational and Military Racism and Counter-Insurgency against Black and Latino Students and Communities—each LAUSD board member and LASPD staff must document their role. We still have deeper questions for LAUSD Board and LASPD leadership: who made the decision to ask for these weapons? Who approved them? Why did they really truly need them?
A Public Apology. We are asking LAUSD and LASPD board members and officials to publicly apologize for their actions and the entire concept of getting military grade weapons to use against our communities, their dishonesty towards the community and their perpetuation and escalation of the armed occupation of Black and Latino communities in Los Angeles.
Reparations — We need the LAUSD and LASPD to repair the damage they have done to their relationship with students, parents, teachers, and the civil rights and human rights community and to indicate penance for these abuses. We are asking the LAUSD to cut the LASPD budget by 50%, cut the LASPD police force by 50% and cut all existing LASPD weapons by 50% now.
Stop Undermining Participatory and Democratic Rights at LAUSD—We Want Convenient and Effective LAUSD Board of Education Meetings for LAUSD Black and Latino Students, Parents and Community Members. We need to shift the culture of having Los Angeles Board of Education meeting at inconvenient times for student and parents and transform its current format and structure to maximize public participation and district engagement.
Call on the LAPD and LA County Sherriff’s Department to Withdraw from the DOD 1033 Program.
Call on President Barack Obama to Completely Terminate the Entire DOD 1033 Program.
Take Action Now [...]
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