The park is between Division and Normandie St., Garland and LaCrosse.

We Will Not Bow

Our demonstration of moral strength is in opposition to the tyranny that threatens our very existence as a country. And this kind of gathering can unite us, in a moral movement to save America. And we will not stand down, not now, not ever. 

What can these protests accomplish?

3100 protests across the nation busts through that bubble, that air of inevitability, that Trump is invincible, unstoppable. 

The protests are not just in large cities but communities in rural and red parts of the country.

They are organizing not only for March 28 but for what comes next.  

Standing in a crowd matters

but it’s not enough

on its own

This moment is about turning frustration into movement, concern into commitment. If you’ve been wondering what you can do, this is where you start.

NO KINGS 3

Take Action – Do Something

At B A Clark Park in Spokane:

Bring a relative, bring a friend, bring a neighbor!

Speakers will address issues that stood out in Indivisible surveys of where support, resources and action were actually needed – the environment, affordability, voting rights, immigration, racial injustice, and government corruption.

Over 35 organizations will have tables with opportunities to learn what is happening and where to plug in.

Stand Up For Our Country!

Stand Up For Our Rights!

Stand Up For Our Neighbors!

CORE’s (Congress of Racial Equality) Rules for Direct Action became a model for nonviolent resistance worldwide. Their emphasis on preparation, discipline, and moral clarity ensured that their actions were both effective and ethically grounded. These principles continue to influence modern social movements, from environmental activism to racial justice campaigns. By combining strategic planning with cultural tools, CORE and similar organizations demonstrated the power of nonviolence in achieving systemic change.

CORE’S Rules for Direct Action full article CLICK HERE

History and Influence of CORE article CLICK HERE

So to keep you up to date I will be publishing an African American portrait every Tuesday.

So to keep you up to date I will be publishing an African American portrait every Tuesday. See you on Tuesdays!

First Thursday Social Justice Coffee Discussion Group Member

Firefari Carrol Oct 26, 2021: Today we lost a legend. A man we will remember always. My father, Jeffrey Carrol left us to hang with Bob in the great after. I only have one request – can we all play Bob Marley today and fill the world with songs of freedom. Hope dad and mom are smoking the biggest splif ever. – Facebook post

1. DEFUND THE POLICE: INVEST IN COMMUNITY
2. CHANGE POLICE CULTURE
3. POLICE OVERSIGHT
4. JUSTICE REFORMS

LEARN MORE AT SCARSPOKANE.ORG

Friday June 19, 2020 at 12:15 at The Spokane Tribal Gathering Place (outside City Hall), SCAR and its partner organizations unveiled their full Platform for Change..

PLATFORM FOR CHANGE—
RESPONDING TO THIS MOMENT

RELEASED: June 19, 2020

Spokane Community Against Racism (SCAR) and Asian Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) – Spokane Chapter, Eastern Washington Progressives, Faith Leaders and Leaders of Conscience, FUSE Washington, Greater Spokane Progress, Hispanic Business/Professional Association, MAC Movement, Muslims for Community Action And Support, Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS), Planned Parenthood Advocates of Greater Washington and North Idaho, Progressives of Spokane County, RAIZ of Planned Parenthood, Red Skirt Society, SHAWL Society, Smart Justice Spokane, Spectrum Center Spokane, Spokane Alliance, Spokane Ministers’ Fellowship, Tenants Union of Washington State, demand transformational change. 

Spokane has a problem.

American policing tactics are rooted in white supremacy, fear, and violence. Spokane is not exempt from this, even though our mayor, police chief, county commissioners, and sheriff refuse to admit the true nature of the problem. In fact, Spokane has the 5th deadliest police force in the nation. We must end the cycle of fear and violence in our community and seize the opportunity during this tumultuous time to enact structural changes. 

Death at the hands of police is not the only measure of racial violence. Here in Spokane, Black and Native Americans are disproportionately arrested, receive higher bail amounts, and are more likely to die in jail than whites. Our city and county officials know this. They have hired several consultants for millions of dollars to tell them so, yet they continue to ignore the good advice we all paid for. 

We don’t trust them to understand, because they keep proving they are not listening.

At the invitation of the city and county, community members have spent thousands of hours sharing their testimony and lived experience in the name of community engagement. Yet elected officials have failed to honor this engagement by fulfilling their promises to decarcerate and advance racial equity.The residents of Spokane have fought officials numerous times to avoid building a new jail. Still—despite the wishes of the community—the County Commissioners and the Sheriff’s office continue to pursue a new, larger jail without first enacting the totality of humane, cost effective reforms which have been recommended to them over the past decade.

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich continues to defend bringing the creator of “Killology,” a method of police training that teaches officers how to “…overcome the powerful reluctance to kill…” to train his deputies. He has doubled down on his support for killology training despite receiving thousands of petition signatures calling for the two-day seminar and workshop to be canceled. Spokane demands transformation. The unwillingness of the Mayor, Police Chief, County Commissioners, Sheriff, and other elected officials to heed expert advice and community lived experience, their stubborn insistence on expanding incarceration and entrenched racist systems, and their failure to listen to the community, convinces us that the elected leadership of Spokane does not grasp—or is not willing to meet—the needs of our community. We do not need more studies, consultants, conversations, forums, or media stunts. We are not interested in incremental change, but in drastic action.

To that end, we present the following Platform for Change. While we cannot hope to provide every comprehensive detail of necessary policy, we know the shape that change must take. This is the product of ongoing work within our community and around the country and is meant to serve as a mandate⁠—it’s up to our leaders to help us all live up to its intent.

PLATFORM FOR CHANGE

DEFUND THE POLICE: INVEST IN COMMUNITY

SCAR rejects the idea that the only way to increase public safety is to increase policing. The power of state-sanctioned force and threat of lethal violence wielded by police is often inappropriate and inadequate to address the diversity of situations they are sent to resolve. Police are frequently tasked with handling homelessness, addiction, mental health, intimate partner violence, and other conditions in which they have no formal expertise; the result is often harm, injury, or even death for those whom the police are supposed to protect. The weight of these injuries and deaths falls most heavily upon people with medical or mental health conditions, people of color—particularly Black and indigenous people—and people with disabilities. This is not a problem that can be solved with more training. Expanding the power or authoritative scope of police in our communities will not make us safer. 

Instead, SCAR embraces a holistic vision of public safety, one that accounts for the root causes of crime, and recognizes that shared prosperity and community care are at the heart of a safe and healthy society. When people’s basic needs are met, and experts are empowered to work within their expertise, communities are free to flourish. The City of Spokane and Spokane County will be safer when our leaders follow the advice of their expensive consultants, and the best practices indicated by decades of research in this and other cities. We demand investment in historically underserved communities to create a vibrant and healthy environment where all families can thrive:

Addiction and Mental Health Services 

We demand public investment in culturally appropriate chemical addiction treatment and mental health services and diversion programs. These services should include crisis care, long-term in-patient, and out-patient care. Police are not mental health professionals and incarceration should not be a stopgap for healthcare or an underfunded social safety net. 

Housing and Tenant Protections

We demand strong tenant protections and funding for permanent affordable housing to intentionally address racial disparities by providing equitable, stable, quality, safe, and accessible housing for all. We call on our city and county governments to implement just cause eviction and remove barriers to fair housing choice as indicated by the City’s 2019 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. Greater Spokane Progress and the Tenant’s Union of Washington State are working in this area, use their expertise to help shape policy.

Remove Police from Spokane Public Schools

We acknowledge and support the recently passed Public School Resolution Supporting the SPS Student Community Related to Racial Equity, and we believe this resolution represents a promising beginning to the work of racial equity and inclusion in Spokane Public Schools (SPS). In the interest of continuing this work, we demand an end to the contract between the Spokane Police Department and Spokane Public Schools.

SPS has the largest school policing budget in Washington State at $2.2 Million. That’s $2.2 Million spent to support the School-to-Prison Pipeline, a system which disproportionately funnels children of color from educational settings into the criminal justice system. Using police to address student behavior positions students as potential criminals who require management through the threat of legal and physical force, instead of recognizing them as children who are learning to manage conflict and their emotions. 

We demand investment in school counselors, restorative conflict resolution practices, and activity programming which provides youth with constructive outlets and interpersonal learning environments. The ACLU of Washington has been at the forefront of this issue, listen to them.

CHANGE POLICE CULTURE

Public trust in the SPD is broken. It’s the 5th deadliest police force in the nation, and officers have been using the same knee-on-neck restraint that killed George Floyd until June 8th, 2020. We believe it is necessary to start fresh. 

Disband the Police

Disband the police department, and hire a smaller group of officers to carry out narrowly defined, law-enforcement duties. In 2016, the Police Leadership Advisory Committee (PLAC) put together recommendations for the hiring of a new police chief. These recommendations, which could have helped revolutionize the culture of the SPD, were ignored. We believe these recommendations should be applied to all officers hired to work in the City of Spokane. PJALS has been deeply involved in this work, listen to them.

De-escalation Training for SPD and County Forces

While we do not believe the fundamental problems with American policing can be trained away, we support the will of Washington State Voters who voted decisively in favor of Initiative 940. Passed in 2018, Initiative 940 requires police receive training in de-escalation and mental health, and enforces the duty of all police officers to render first aid. It is our hope that with these tools police will be less likely to use lethal force, and that when they do, that force is less likely to result in death. 

De-escalation and mental health training have the potential to not only act as positive tools in the current policing toolbelt, but to provide an additional standard to which police can be held accountable.

Demilitarize the Police 

Our city is not a warzone, and weapons of war should not be used on our streets. This includes tear gas—a chemical weapon which is banned by the Geneva convention—and all repurposed military surplus equipment. Military uniforms, vehicles, and weaponry communicate to the residents of Spokane that the police view them as enemy combatants. Furthermore, militarized uniforms encourage a “warrior” mindset in police, which emphasizes readiness for violent conflict over the relationship-based work of building community trust. Spokane does not need street warriors, Spokane needs public servants we can trust; from their uniforms to their equipment, police should be equipped for the job that is needed.

POLICE OVERSIGHT

Independent Oversight with Investigative Power is a necessity at the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. 

No Contract without Office of Police Ombudsman Independence 

We demand that the Office of Police Ombudsman (OPO) be empowered to conduct independent investigations and publish public closing reports. We demand that the OPO be free to conduct these independent investigations without fear of reprisal by the Police Guild.

A poison pill amendment to the Police Guild’s contract with the City of Spokane, which is still being negotiated, would allow the Police Guild to preemptively file a grievance against an Ombudsman candidate in an effort to prevent their appointment. It further empowers the Guild to attempt to have the Ombudsman or an OPO Commission Member removed for “exceeding their authority under the collective bargaining agreement.” Police cannot control the fate of the body that oversees them. We demand that the Spokane City Council reject any contract that fails to protect OPO independence. 

NO CONTRACT without independent investigative power and public closing report. NO CONTRACT with police guild oversight of the OPO.

Mandatory body cameras for SPD and County Forces

Body cameras should be mandatory for every SPD officer and County deputy as a tool for reviewing police encounters with Spokane residents. Body cameras do not prevent violence, but they can be valuable for holding the police accountable. Turning off a body camera should come with an automatic charge of destroying evidence.

JUSTICE REFORMS

We urgently need to adopt effective, restorative policy solutions that are driven by the needs of those impacted by our justice system. 

Jail Reforms

We demand divestment from the prison industrial complex: NO NEW JAIL; end policies that criminalize poverty, homelessness, and addiction; end cash bail; and end draconian drug charging decisions by the County Prosecutor’s office.

Instead, the city and county should invest in racial equity tools throughout our justice system; release criminal justice system demographic data; and adopt least-restrictive alternatives to jail with fully funded pretrial services. Smart Justice Spokane has been leading on these issues, and we demand our government listen to and collaborate with them. 

Judicial Accountability

Impartial judges are the ideal, but we know that their decisions are vulnerable to the forces of systematic oppression and unconscious bias. For this reason we demand that the county, in cooperation with the courts, release sentencing data dis-aggregated by judge and defendant’s demographic information, including race and gender. With this data, voters—and the community groups who help keep them informed—will be empowered to identify racial sentencing disparities, and if necessary, right them at the ballot box.

Establish an Office of Civil Rights

The City of Spokane needs a fully funded and staffed Office of Civil Rights. This office would work within the City government to advance civil rights and end barriers to equity. It would regularly assess the city’s approach to racial equity, and provide education and training to government and local entities. The Office of Civil rights would receive civil rights complaints from the residents of Spokane, address hate crimes, and ensure that laws against illegal discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and contracting within Spokane city limits are equitably enforced. The Office of Civil Rights Exploratory Committee and Greater Spokane Progress are already working on the structure of this office. Listen to and collaborate with them.

These are just some of the changes that Spokane needs. These demands are rooted in the data-backed reality, and the spiritual conviction, that a punitive approach to public safety has never, and will never, yield a free and equitable society. 

Policing can no longer be the bandaid we affix to every social wound. Instead, we must build a Spokane where everyone is free to thrive. The time for incrementalism and half measures is past. This community demands transformation, and will continue to do so in statements, in public meetings, at the ballot box, and in the streets. It is up to our leadership to listen, and to do the jobs for which they were elected. The people are watching.

Take Action: Send letter of support to Spokane Leadership!

Download a PDF of the Platform

Donate to help spread awareness of this platform

TAKE Action!

SUPPORT THE PLATFORM!

Spread the word on social media

Resource

Spokane Trial Bushnell Shoots Pointdexter: Bushnell Transcripts

Make masks for Blue voters / Let Red go to church / Blue pray at home

Sometimes we can’t wait on the cavalry!
Let’s put the wagons in a circle.
The battle has begun!
We are under attack, we must do the best we can with what we have.
The creative will have the best chance for survival.
It’s good to be prepared and independent but in times like this we need to be inter-dependent.

If we are brothas we need to support each other in this war at both levels. We need to support each other in measurable ways, not just throw around cultural symbols. We need to start by asking little things of each other.

• If you are a friend you will wear a mask because it protects you from me and me from you.
• We need to believe in and support the idea of one justice indivisible. If you don’t know what I am talking about a starting point would be The 14 Principles listed at 4comculture.com.
• The Spokane School District Board of Education wants to name several new school buildings. It would be nice if two of those schools were named after people of color. You can nominate someone: Nomination Link. I have nominated Frances Scott and Ruben Trejo.
• It would be good to let us know your personal level of commitment: Ally, Actor or Accomplice. See page at 4comculture.com.
• You need to have an online presence. You need to let your other brothas know what it is you stand for. One simple way to do this is to participate in online posting and messaging at Facebook.
• Let’s become civic activists. Participate in local social justice organizations or engage in new methods of non-violent action that include physical, virtual and hybrid actions.
• We each need to develop a social justice budget. It would be nice if you would donate on a regular basis to the things that you believe in. Let me suggest that you make a donation to anybody or any group that you choose, but do it in the name of Spokane Brothas. The reason I suggest doing that is to build a power base that would be respected. I would suggest a budget that would express your volunteer time as well as your cash contributions. For example a budget of $100 a month could include:
  • Volunteering: 7 hours a month at the national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would be about a $50 in-kind contribution. What if you showed up to volunteer in a Brothas T-shirt?
  • Send a check to the Black Lens. About $4.00 a month buys a subscription.
  • Contribute to an informational issue campaign. For example about $16 pays for a MailChimp service that will send your message to a mailing list of thousands that you have built. In times of quarantine and isolation you have to find ways other than community meetings to deliver information about your issues. You could buy a yard sign with your message or issue or candidate.
  • Give $20 to local and/or regional progressive organizations or blue political parties – to the same organization/s every month so they can feel your presence.
  • Give $10 to national progressive organizations or blue political parties – to the same organization/s every month so they can feel your presence.

If we only had 14 brothas contributing at this level this would be $1400 per month or $16,800 per year. Imagine what would happen if we had 100 brothas.

Your comments are welcome. If I haven’t heard from you by June 12, I will assume you are not interested.

Bob L. info@4comculture.com

In 1996, Ricky Kidd was wrongfully convicted of the double-homicide of George Bryant and Oscar Bridges in Kansas City, Missouri. Witnesses to the crime testified that three men entered Bryant’s home in the middle of the day. The two victims were found dead, Bridges in the basement and Bryant in the street outside his home. Bryant’s 4-year-old daughter was discovered alive in a closet inside the house.

Ricky became the lead suspect in the case after an anonymous tip came in naming him as one of the killers; evidence suggests this phone tip may have been called in by one of the actual perpetrators. Ricky had what should have been an airtight alibi for the crime: he was at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Lake Jacomo Office at the time of the murders, filling out an application for a gun permit.

Le’Taxione Has Come Home After Serving 23 Years

Le’Taxione has come home after serving 23 years of a life sentence without parole in Washington State, despite the fact that the courts held he was not a “Three Striker” and that his sentence was unlawful. Nevertheless the Washington Supreme Court held that they were powerless to correct this error and Le’Taxione sought and received a commutation of his sentence from Governor Jay Inslee. Le’Taxione is living now in Spokane. His mission is to create avenues to be used by youth in their journey to success – while simultaneously providing life altering opportunities to help assist them in addressing adverse childhood experiences, violence, criminality, homelessness, expulsions, the school to prison pipeline, addiction, mental health challenges etc. He is promoting mentorship, peer support groups, self-determination and empowerment. We will learn how at his:

IMPACTED YOUTH FORUM

Join Le’Taxione at the Impacted Youth Forum February 29, 2020 from 10:00-1:30 at Spokane Falls Community College in the Student Union Building SUB lounge. Youth are encouraged to speak at this event.

150,000 Wrongfully Accused Are STILL in Jails Today.

Here’s What You Can Do to Help.

The Breakdown with Shaun King The North Star

.

Join Shaun as he unpacks the most important stories of injustice, racism and corruption, but also tells you who’s fighting back and how you can support and join them with practical action steps.

This story that needs our help now:
It’s up to us to free Myon Burrell! 17 years ago, Myon was charged and convicted of a murder that he did not commit. He is completely innocent, and has been in prison since 2002.

Ep. 179 – Do you know about Myon Burrell?

We can’t just stand by. Shaun lays the framework for how we will free him. Listen for two action steps that should leave us looking within.

Ep. 180 – FreeMyonBurrell.com

You need to care about the wrongly accused. We need to pressure County Attorney Michael Freeman, his colleagues and other elected officials to vacate Myon’s conviction and create a Conviction Integrity Unit to overturn more wrongful convictions. Myon has spent more than 17 years fighting for his freedom, and he is still fighting.

Make Calls

Sign a Petition

Visit FreeMyonBurrell.com right now for more details.

Here Is something you and others can do. Ask your friends to copy, fill out and send the form below to Spokane County Commissioners: 500 N Cedar St Spokane WA 99201