Brandon Anderson, founder and director of Raheem, joins “Conversations Toward Repair,” on March 1 to discuss the nation’s first independent, online police reporting service and the PATCH network for non-police crisis response, which helps make the DC Safety Squad possible.
Anderson shares history of Raheem, how the PATCH Network functions, and how interested people can get involved. We also discuss the manufactured nature of “criminal,” what it means to envision an abolitionist future, and more.
Anderson said Raheem will soon be offering fellowships for organizing Crisis Response Teams and is working toward accredited “Liberated Dispatch” training. He also suggested a gardening metaphor for approaching abolitionist work: Even those who do not actively seek to remove police from our communities can work on building a “garden” of opportunity and community support.
Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.
–Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Resources and Announcements
Raheem.org — sign up for PATCH Network (“PATCH Network” People and Technology for Community Health) and find out how to get involved in one of the 60 existing organizations within the network or to get tools to start a new Crisis Response Team.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore: great article in Teen Vogue with links to more. Abolition Geography: Essays Toward Liberation (publisher’s link — paperback coming soon: pre-order through WeLuvBooks Bookshop to support DC literacy work with purchase).
GoFundMe for Timothy Johnson, and statement from Fairfax NAACP. More on this story.
Washington Post following stories of US Marshals killing local man (Tuesday) and death of Savontae Dodie Perkins after encounter with MPD. “Deputy US Marshals fatally shoot…” (Try NewsBank via DCPL or your local library, if hitting a paywall.) See also WJLA
Nineveh: A Conflict Over Water, by We Act Radio co-founder Kymone Freeman. Pre-order novel. Book tour, including March 5 event in Baltimore.
Kristin Henning, author, professor, and public defender, on March 8 “Conversations Toward Repair.”
Tags: Brandon Anderson DC Safety Squad non-police crisis response RAHEEM