Abolition on the Ground: Reporting from the Movement to #DefundthePolice
Abolitionists have been working for centuries to oppose the growth of systems of racially targeted criminalization. The 2020 uprising against police violence and anti-Black racism brought the conversation about abolition to the mainstream, and prompted campaigns in cities and counties across the US to defund the police and shift public resources toward meeting basic human needs like housing, healthcare, and childcare. For almost two years, local organizers around the country have been rigorously working to transform city and county budgets, and their work has made significant changes in local, state, and national politics. Join us for a conversation with abolitionist organizers and lawyers leading this work to talk about lessons learned since June 2020, how this work fits into the larger abolitionist vision for a world without cages or borders, and the key strategic questions facing the movement now.
This event is made possible by the Patricia Wismer Professorship in Gender and Diversity at Seattle University.
Accessibility
Live transcription and ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email any additional access needs to skreitzb@barnard.edu.
This event is free and open to all. RSVP here.
About the Speakers
Angélica Cházaro, an organizer with Decriminalize Seattle, is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law where she teaches Critical Race Theory, Poverty Law, Professional Responsibility, and courses on Immigration Law.
Erica Perry is a Nashville native committed to community-driven and movement-led abolition of the prison industrial complex. Erica has worked with organizers and advocates throughout Tennessee and nationwide to create alternatives to police and jails, fight for local budgets that invest in the community and not police, and organize to build power. Erica is a movement lawyer and organizer with the Black Nashville Assembly and Southern Movement Committee.
Andrea J. Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant whose research, litigation, organizing, and policy advocacy has focused on policing and criminalization of women and LGBT people of color. She is the co-founder, with Mariame Kaba, of Interrupting Criminalization. She is author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, and co-author of No More Police: A Case for Abolition; “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women”; and Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States.She works with dozens of groups around the country to support campaigns to divest from policing and invest in community safety through Interrupting Criminalization and the Community Resource Hub.
Dean Spade has been working in movements to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He is a Professor at Seattle University School of Law and the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, the director of the documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!,” and the creator of the mutual aid toolkit at BigDoorBrigade.com. His latest book is Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).