1 October 2015

CAMPAIGN ZERO

Black Lives Matter organizers Johnetta Elizie, Brittany Packnett and DeRay McKesson team up with researchers and analysts to launch a comprehensive agenda to end police brutality.

by Dubian Ade


Campaign Zero


As the state-sanctioned murder of black and brown bodies continues to occur in the United States, critics of the Black Lives Matter movement have claimed that no official agenda to stop police violence has been released. In an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish,Brittany Packnett righteously explained "we've had demands for over the last year."

Why these demands, screamed from the top of the lungs of protesters in Baltimore and Ferguson were still unclear remains a mystery. But Black Lives Matter organizers from Ferguson along with researchers and data analysts have put together a comprehensive package of urgent policy solutions to change policing in this country. The agenda has been called Campaign Zero.





In a careful study of the policing state in the United States, incorporating research organizations, suggestions from communities, and the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the campaign outlines a ten point platform to combat policing violence.
The plan includes prerogatives to end broken windows policing, limit the use of force, demilitarize, and end for-profit policing.

Broken window policing especially effects low-income communities of color, where minor offences are enforced with the most aggressive rigor. The for-profit policing complex, which derives funding money from police quotas, ticketing, and arrests drives the aggressive oversight of these communities. According to the website, over 287 people were killed by police last year for minor offenses.

The plan also includes community oversight infrastructure with discipline power, independent investigations and prosecution, and the use of body cameras.

Organizers stress that Campaign Zero is only a starting point. The website includes an interactive feedback page where suggestions for improving the platform can be made and are checked on a regular bases. Campaign Zero is a template for the movement as it relates to policy change, but exists in-step with the lager agenda of liberation.

For more informat ion please visit http://www.joincampaignzero.org


Dubian Ade

THE DECOLONIZER
October 2015

Read the full newsletter here »