** Leaders from the ROP network invite you to join the #FreeThemAll Mother’s Day Letter Writing and Caravan event! This statewide letter-writing campaign is happening now through May 7. Community members are invited to write supportive letters to immigrants who are being detained in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. The letters will be picked up across the state via a #FreeThemAll caravan and delivered on Saturday, May 8. Check out the details and the letter-writing toolkit below to participate in writing letters and/or joining the caravan! **
Daunte Wright was killed by police on Sunday in Brooklyn Center near Minneapolis, Minnesota during a routine traffic stop. And just yesterday, organizers in Chicago held a vigil after body camera footage was released showing Chicago police killing 13-year-old Adam Toledo. We join with organizers and leaders in the Twin Cities, Chicago and across the nation in the ongoing demand to end white supremacy and stop the killing of Black and brown people by police.
We are committed to building communities free from the fear of state violence and full of life, dignity and joy. These two horrific stories came in the middle of the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. We know that Justice for George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and every other Black and brown person killed by police is so much bigger than the results of this trial, and our work won’t end until our communities are truly safe and welcoming for all.
The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others in 2020 sparked an outpouring of Black Lives Matter actions across the country, including in every county in Oregon, where rural Oregonians took to street corners and parks, city council meetings and virtual gathering spaces to organize in defense of Black lives. Many of these actions built power for the long haul including sparking the formation of new groups, passing inclusion resolutions through city councils, and much more!
Is your group planning a vigil or protest for Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo? Are you starting conversations with your neighbors or bringing people together to talk about what antiracism organizing looks like in your community? What other ways are you taking action? We’d love to hear what you’re planning and share it out across the network! Do you want to take action but aren’t sure where to start? We’d love to help you make a plan. Reach out to your local ROP organizer or email hannah@rop.org!
Safety and Security Tools for Organizers
We know that taking action comes with risk. In many communities, white supremacist counter-protesters have threatened, harassed, and intimidated peaceful protesters during Black Lives Matter actions. Organizing in the face of those who use threats and intimidation as a tactic to silence opposition can be frightening. We also know that giving up won’t make the threats go away. ROP is currently experiencing increasing numbers of threats to our staff members. Has your group also been facing more threats or intimidation recently?
We hope these tools will help your group to be not just courageous, but also strategic. ROP and local human dignity groups have been around for decades and we’ve faced our share of opposition and challenges. Through these experiences, we’ve developed some tools to support your group in keeping each other as safe as possible while building a grassroots movement for economic, racial, and social justice.
- A recording of a De-escalation for Organizers workshop led by Ahjamu Umi
- A brief one-pager on what threat assessments are, why they’re important, and how to do them! This tool is also available in Spanish: Haciendo una Evaluación de Amenazas: ¿Qué es un evaluación de amenazas? ¿Como lo hacen?
- A guide to creating a safety plan for events. This tool is also available in Spanish: Una guía para crear planes de seguridad para acciones y eventos.
- A breakdown of safety team basics for organizers. This tool is also available in Spanish: Información basico de equipos de seguridad para organizadores rurales.
If you’re planning a vigil, protest, or other event and have strategies to share or want support creating a safety and security plan to keep our folks as safe as possible while still turning out for racial justice, reach out to us at hannah@rop.org!
Join the statewide #FreeThemAll Mother’s Day Letter Writing and Caravan!
We invite you to join the #FreeThemAll Mother’s Day Letter Writing and Caravan event, in conjunction with American Friends Service Committee and communities across the US for the National Days of Action to #FreeThemAll from May 1 through May 9/10 (Mother’s Day), 2021. Please join us in Oregon for a letter-writing campaign from now through May 7, in which community members will write supportive letters to immigrants who are being detained in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and save the date for a #FreeThemAll caravan to Tacoma on Saturday, May 8. This email includes a toolkit, zoom links and instructions as to how to participate in writing cards and letters. You can access the toolkit in English here and in Spanish here. There is also a Zoom link below for people who want to organize letter-writing in their community to join a How-To meeting on April 18th. Information regarding the May 8 caravan will follow! Everyone deserves dignity and justice, but in the U.S. far too many immigrants are locked away in detention centers, where they are subject to civil and human rights violations and a lack of access to adequate health care. They, their families and loved ones feel the pain of separation, particularly during the pandemic when opportunities for visitation are so limited. Sending letters is such an important way to make sure folks inside and their loved ones in our communities know that we are fighting for them. Receiving mail in a prison also shows authorities that people have outside support. Please make plans to join us in writing letters and save the date for May 8 for the journey to Tacoma. *********************************************************************** Join us for an upcoming Zoom meeting to walk through the toolkit and how to organize a letter-writing event in your community! Topic: #FreeThemAll Letter Writing Project -- How To! Time: Sunday, Apr 18, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86887872028 Meeting ID: 868 8787 2028 By Phone For Both Zooms: One tap mobile +16699006833,,86887872028# US (San Jose) +12532158782,,86887872028# US (Tacoma) Dial by your location +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) In Solidarity, Susan, Karen & Nancy Oregon #FreeThemAll Letter-Writing Team