Sep 13, 2020
Liberation Mondays Unify Activists To Defund The Police
by Gary Walker
Alongside this summer’s relentless protests against police brutality, Detroit DSA’s Black and Brown Alliance (BBA), Community Movement Builders, and the General Baker Institute have worked together to host a series of teach-ins throughout the city. Dubbed Liberation Mondays, the teach-ins have taken the message of defunding the police and rebuilding our communities directly to the very people who’ve been victimized by the police and the capitalist system that they exist to defend.
After a few weeks off, Liberation Mondays are coming back on Monday, September 14 as well as September 28, 6–8 pm. They’ll be held at The General Baker Institute, located at 15670 Livernois in Detroit.
Each of the five events was held at a sprawling space within various neighborhoods throughout the city — The Shed at Martz Park, Detroit Is Different, Plaza Aztlan, The Mama Akua House, and The General Baker Institute — with plenty of room to lay out a blanket and maintain social distance. Hosts provided food for anybody stopping by, with plenty of vegetarian options and hand sanitizer.
For an extrovert such as myself, it’s been wonderful to be out in the world with my comrades; each teach-in drew 80 to 120 participants. Those who are more leery about being in public spaces could attend each event virtually, livestreamed on Facebook via both DSA’s and BBA’s page every Monday they’re held, starting around 6pm.
The panels are made up of a variety of activists from the host organizations, along with guest speakers from organizations such as Detroit Will Breathe (DWB), Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan (DAYUM), MIStudentsDream, 482Forward, Moratorium Now, and Palestinian Youth Movement. From students and teachers describing how the specter of a police presence in schools helps create the school-to-prison pipeline, to internationalist human rights activists connecting stories of oppression here and abroad, they all shared harrowing tales of how our oppressive police state and its symbiotic relationship with capital have dictated the course of their lives.
BBA’s Courtney Smith lost out on a great job she was dedicated to because of mistakes she made long ago and worked tirelessly to put behind her. Brother Truth of Community Movement Builders is a lifelong Detroiter whose own history with the police reflects that of too many young Black people: “I’ve been threatened by the police. I’ve seen them threaten people I know: ‘We’ll catch you late night. We ain’t gonna take you to jail.’ I’ve been taken in the alley and beaten by police. I’ve been thrown on the ground at 13 years old with guns pointed to the back of my head, saying ‘don’t move or we’ll kill you.’ And I didn’t do anything. I was walking to the store when they said I looked like somebody who robbed a guy around the corner. A grown man, 25 years old. But at 13, I looked like a grown man to them. That’s what we look like to them. We’re targets.”
The discussions go beyond the horrors inflicted by police, offering solutions that become possible upon recognizing the true nature of policing. Janaki Radhakrishnan of DAYUM said, “You can’t reform a system that is intrinsically oppressive. Police historically in this country have always been a means of perpetuating racism and oppression. It’s not a broken policing system — it’s doing what it’s designed to do. The idea of abolition isn’t what there shouldn’t be; it’s the idea of what there could be instead. A better alternative. You can’t fix a system that wasn’t designed to uplift communities. You have to find a better alternative, and that is the idea of police abolition. There will always be a system in place to protect people in unsafe situations. It should not be what we have today. It shouldn’t look anything like that. That’s what police abolition means.”
Panelists at Plaza Aztlan were asked how finding joy fits into the struggle. DSA co-chair Hussein Beydoun said he found joy in organizing comrades around these causes, knowing that there is camaraderie to be found in the shared struggle. DWB’s Nakia Wallace said she’d experienced joy when she was at her most vulnerable. As police placed her in a chokehold while arresting her at the July 5th Hakim Littleton protest, the neighborhood cried out, “GET THE FUCK OFF OF HER RIGHT NOW!” “People were prepared to defend my life against the state. That’s joy. When people are clapping for you when you get out of prison, that’s joy. You know you’re going to win, and you can feel it. Period. Real joy is empowerment. Real joy is when there’s power in the streets.”
