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We’re hosting our 2nd meetup for care providers this Saturday, Jan. 15, 3-4:30pm. See the invitation below, and RSVP to attend!
We’re hosting our 2nd meetup for care providers this Saturday, Jan. 15, 3-4:30pm. See the invitation below, and RSVP to attend!
Our crisis response working group is hosting a meetup for care providers this Saturday, Nov. 20. See their invitation below, and RSVP if you’d like to attend!
Hello friends,
We are an abolitionist group in Franklin County working to build community safety. We invite you to a virtual meetup for care providers who are interested in stopping systemic cycles of harm and providing care in a just and liberatory way.
WHO: Care providers who are interested in the intersection of care provision, state violence, and social justice. We welcome community members and professionals, including social workers, therapists and counselors, nurses, doctors, birth workers, holistic practitioners, EMTs, patient care advocates, domestic violence advocates, mental health advocates, direct Service/direct care workers, CNAs, home health aides, medical assistants and secretaries, healthcare technicians, and phlebotomists. Open to anyone in the greater western Massachusetts region.
WHY: We have become deeply concerned with how policing and social control reach deep into care provision practices in Franklin County. We follow the leadership of abolitionist organizers in groups like Interrupting Criminalization and Critical Resistance, who highlight ways to build community well-being and self-determination by steering care practices away from policing and police-like interventions. We want community-led care rooted in the knowledge and wisdom of those who have been harassed, abused, jailed, and killed by the white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal state and its affiliated institutions.
For this reason, we are working to establish a non-police, civilian emergency response unit in Franklin County. Greenfield officials and many community members have already shown interest in such a program. We are looking for abolitionist providers as partners to help develop a program that is truly an alternative to policing and coercive/punitive interventions. To see a more detailed proposal, see our page on crisis response models.
WHAT: Meet each other and discuss ways we can support abolitionist, community-led models of care across our region in an on-going way. Some ideas we’ve considered already include:
We also welcome your thoughts about how to build a local movement of abolitionist providers and care workers. Please reach out if you’d like to propose agenda items or goals/dreams for our meetup, or just bring them with you to the event!
WHEN: Sat., Nov 20, 3-4:30pm. RSVP for Zoom link. If you can’t make a meeting but want to stay in the loop, please reach out and we’ll keep you updated on the campaign and future events.
Thanks for your time, and we look forward to connecting with you.
In solidarity,
Members of the Crisis Response Working Group
Two upcoming events on reshaping public safety and responding to community needs:
We’ve had some complications with scheduling in the space for an in-person event. Keep an eye out for a new date!
CAHOOTS is a publicly-funded, peer-based crisis response program, running since 1989 in Oregon. They dispatch a two-person team of a medic and a crisis worker and “deliver person-centered interventions and make referrals to behavioral health supports and services without the uniforms, sirens, and handcuffs that can exacerbate feelings of distress for people in crisis.”
Programs based on CAHOOTS are starting up in Northampton and Amherst and all over the country. At the teach-in, we’ll talk with folks from Franklin and Hampshire counties about this great program.
Come learn with us!
Hosted by the Greenfield People’s Budget
More about CAHOOTS and RSVP here for Zoom link.
Both the Recorder and Reporter featured debate on the policing review committees established by the Montague town meeting. Jon wrote an op-ed in reply, published last week.
In his op-ed “Ideology Masks Reality of Policing in Montague,” Jeff Singleton chides Deborah Frenkel and Maddox Sprengel for being dissatisfied with the final reports of the policing review committees, of which they were members. Sadly, we have every reason to be dissatisfied with the outcome of these committees, not because of confounding “ideology” but because they misinterpreted the basic critiques that motivated a policing review in the first place.
The central issue is not what most people think of the police, but what effect policing has on the people who actually have to deal with them. Given how much effort and public resources the police put into polishing their public image, and given the great personal risks that people take on if they speak out publicly against the police, the only people who are likely to know what harms the police actually cause are people who are subject to enforcement, or people who are close to them.
The people who get the most unwanted contact with police are people without housing, people living in poverty, people who are neurodivergent, and people of color. Some individuals from these groups have positive opinions of the police, but that reveals nothing about larger patterns of oppression caused by policing.
The most relevant perspectives on these issues come from people who have been harmed by policing, and their perspectives are the hardest to get. Gross power imbalances mean that folks who have suffered harms are often afraid to share their experiences publicly, and it is in fact dangerous for them to do so. A casual, amateur survey will never suffice and will likely do more harm than good. That does not mean that we can never know anything about policing.
Here’s what we know beyond a doubt, based on decades of study by the most impacted communities. Policing does not prevent crime or conflicts or personal crises–they show up after the fact and file a report. Police spend a tiny fraction of their time responding to reports of crime (read the police logs for yourself–on average it’s 1-4% of their time). Police spend huge amounts of time responding to emergency calls that have nothing to do with crime at all, unnecessarily exposing countless people to the criminal legal system and all the harms that can come as a consequence. In the rare case that the police stop an act of harm or violence, they simply shunt it into the world’s largest criminal legal system–a set of violent, punishing institutions that only compound harm.
All the talk about police de-escalation practices misses the fact that the mere presence of police is an escalation for people who have good reason to fear them. This is true even when a co-responder clinician is present, especially since people are rightly afraid of being involuntarily committed to a psych ward or getting referred to the Department of Children and Families.
Police killings of Black people mark the flashpoints that lead to large-scale protest, but Black Lives Matter as a movement is about much more than police use of force. The movement is fundamentally about valuing people as people, which goes beyond merely not killing them. It requires reducing harm in all its forms and building new institutions that really take care of people. (See the “Movement for Black Lives policy platform” if you haven’t yet.)
We need new institutions for community safety because reforms to the police do not work. None of the proposed oversight, training, or relationship-building reforms on offer are new or promising in any way. Minneapolis had already implemented most of these measures, even as far back as the 1920s, and yet that did nothing to save George Floyd.
The quickest, most effective way to reduce the harm policing causes is to reduce people’s contact with police. One way to do that is by building alternative programs to deal with emergencies.
How could we respond to emergencies in a way that’s actually caring, that respects people’s basic rights and freedoms, but also successfully resolves the emergency? One compelling example is CAHOOTS, a peer-led crisis response program running for 32 years in two cities in Oregon. Their civilian crisis workers get people the care they need in a manner they can trust, rejecting coercive and punitive approaches in favor of meeting basic needs and offering trauma-informed, person-centered care. They are highly successful and beloved in their communities.
In their service area, CAHOOTS handles 20% of 911 calls, although the Center for American Progress estimates they could easily handle 38% if they had proper funding and support. (Another large share of 911 calls are merely procedural or paperwork issues which could be handled by a non-sworn city employee–for example, filing reports for auto insurance claims.)
In personal correspondence with me, Ariel Elan of the policing review committee said she concluded CAHOOTS would be too expensive, that Montague’s finances could not afford both a police department and a program like CAHOOTS.
It is true that police departments are notoriously expensive. However, there is money available from the federal stimulus as well as the state of Massachusetts earmarked for starting up new CAHOOTS-like programs. We have organizations in Franklin County that are internationally recognized leaders in peer support work who could help build a new program, but they are too often overlooked in favor of big bureaucratic providers like CSO (who provide the clinician for the new police co-responder program). We also have a growing region-wide movement for building up life-affirming programs that offer real safety to everyone.
If it’s hard to imagine Montague implementing a new program alone, that’s no excuse to give up and keep cycling people through probation, jail, coercive treatment programs, houselessness, unemployment, personal crisis. Let’s talk across towns about how to build capacity together.
We’re sharing this recent letter from the Wildflower Alliance to Mayor Narkewicz of Northampton, not only because it highlights the wealth of experience and wisdom that local peer-led groups have for building safer, healthier communities, but also because the debates they’re addressing from Northampton are the same ones we’re having here in Greenfield. Originally posted on their own website.
May 19, 2021
To Mayor David Narkewicz:
We are writing this open letter to you from the Wildflower Alliance (formerly known as the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community or ‘RLC’) in regards to Northampton’s efforts to identify alternatives to policing, and reimagine the ways in which the city responds to its residents in distress. We are a peer-to-peer organization with our roots firmly planted in Western Massachusetts. By ‘peer-to-peer’ we mean that our entire team – including senior leadership – have all faced and navigated life-interrupting struggles, and are now using the wisdom gained from those experiences to support others. ‘Others’ include those who are struggling themselves, as well as providers, family members, and beyond.
Although our roots are local, our work has grown to include statewide, national, and international impact. In fact, our Northampton-based peer respite, Afiya (an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization), is set to be recognized in a June report from the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of about 30 exemplary, human-rights-based programs in the world. We also developed and piloted an approach called ‘Alternatives to Suicide’ over a decade ago starting with a group in Northampton, and have since trained people in that approach across this nation and in at least eight other countries. Additionally, our work includes providing the bulk of Hearing Voices Movement trainings in the United States, as well as efforts to support people in local psychiatric units (including Cooley Dickinson) to transition successfully back to community-based living.
It is through these experiences that we have become so deeply invested in the value of supporting people in many different forms of distress, and have reached the point where we feel we can speak with confidence on the matter of how to respond to individuals experiencing “crisis” in our communities. We are especially invested in supporting people in ways that do not add to their trauma or escalate challenging moments, for, in the words of Pat Deegan (another Massachusetts resident and longtime advocate for effective support), “Help isn’t help if it doesn’t help.” Too often, we have seen or heard stories of disabled folks and people with psychiatric labels (particularly those who are Black, indigenous, or other people of color) being further harmed and even killed by those systems that are supposed to be responsible for helping. We are well past time for change, and appreciate your efforts toward that end.
Members of our team have closely followed the creation and work of the Northampton Policing Review Commission this past year. We implore you to consider our input as you craft a budget for Fiscal Year 2022. Specifically, we ask that you:
This is a critical moment in time. Whatever you implement is likely to be what we have to live with for years to come. It is much harder to stop or change what has been set in motion than to take the time to ensure it is pointed in the right direction from the start. Again, we so appreciate the time devoted by yourself and so many others in the area, and we remain hopeful about the potential that is at hand.
On behalf of the Wildflower Alliance,
Sera Davidow
Director, Wildflower Alliance
Monday, May 17, two days before the council meeting, Chief Haigh sent a memo to councilors with more detailed description of the proposed construction along with a loose set of estimates for the work. Our position on the upgrades has not changed. We include Chief Haigh’s full memo below, but here is a brief summary of his request with our responses:
This memo does nothing to convince us that these changes are urgent needs rather than a wish list. After a year of a crushing recession and pandemic, we want to see our tax dollars go where they are needed. As we have said before:
We believe that any large, forward-looking allocations to upgrade the police station infrastructure should be postponed until we in Greenfield have held our own democratic process of deciding whether more policing is the best use of our limited resources, given the problems we face.
Good Day All,
Below you will find an estimate and break down of beginning cost estimates for part of the revitalization of the Greenfield Police Department. I worked with a local contractor and a separate local architect, and together they gave me estimates. I wish to caution, these are estimates, and was done voluntarily, and will have to be more specific after gained support to move forward with this project. Additionally, both advised that depending on the material such as steal or wood, the costs could be more or less at the time of construction. I walked the property with both separately to speak of our needs, and my thoughts, and then they collaborated together resulting in the following:
1. A 3600 square foot two car garage, in masonry stone, with one side for secure holding with a new entrance into the booking area for safety: $290k
2. An 8 foot security fence at 600 ft to enclose and secure the rear of the building: $40k
3. New blacktop and restructuring regarding of the parking lot which will be needed for the new garage, and the moving and rebuilding of the covered parking: $250k
4. A rebuilt 14 bay carport, which will have to be demoed and moved due to new garage and parking configuration, also containing storage: $400k
5. To move the offices in the back into a room in the center of the building, with skylights for natural light as there are no windows, and need to be moved to accommodate the new bathrooms: $120k
6. To create 5 separate gender neutral changing/shower/bathrooms to allow for shared general gender neutral locker rooms: $300k
7. Cost for architect: $160k
8. To knock the wall down and open up dispatch room: $20k
Total Cost: $1.76 M
While I realize this is over the asking for Capital, these are the projects I was proposing for phase 1. I will need to speak with hired architects to determine priorities.
Sincerely,
Robert Haigh
Dear friends and neighbors:
Last month, the Greenfield City Council postponed the vote on whether to fund the first installment of $5 million in police station upgrades. They will issue a final vote on the upgrades at their upcoming meeting on May 19. We urge residents to speak up and let the council know they should reject the proposed upgrades.
**UPDATE: Chief Haigh submitted a more detailed memo to councilors on Monday, May 17. This memo does not change our position on the upgrades–it only raises additional issues. See our blog post for details and our response.
The most effective comments usually include 1) who you are, 2) why this issue matters, and 3) what the city council should do. See our talking points below for help in preparing your personal statement, but it’s also good to tell your own story about why this matters to you. You don’t need to share the level of detail given below in order to have an impact. (Please note that this debate is over a capital budget item (infrastructure, buildings), not operations (programs and departments), and money can’t be moved between those two categories.)
Here’s a summary, followed by detailed explanations of each point:
The city government in Greenfield has not yet engaged in any way with current debates about policing, and the upgrades to the police station have clearly been proposed under the assumption that policing in Greenfield will continue to be business-as-usual into the future.
We believe that any large, forward-looking allocations to upgrade the police station infrastructure should be postponed until we in Greenfield have held our own democratic process of deciding whether more policing is the best use of our limited resources, given the problems we face.
For additional background information, see our previous public statement in response to the debate at the April city council meeting.
Join us to discuss the work of the Northampton Policing Review Commission, which concluded its process and issued a final report on March 23. We’ll discuss how their work relates to public safety in Greenfield and our People’s Budget campaign. Panelists include Northampton commission members Josey Rosales of Northampton Abolition Now and Javier Luengo-Garrido of ACLU Massachusetts, as well as Calvin Moen of Wildflower Alliance and Marianna Ritchey of Greenfield People’s Budget. Read more about the commission and report at masslive or The Shoestring.