October 1, 2014 Dear Leaders in the Los Angeles Faith Community: I am writing at a time of crisis in this nation’s history to invite you to join me in taking part in The October Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. I believe that this is a moment when all of us who confess faith in a just and compassionate God must give serious consideration to the possibility that our nation’s criminal justice system is not actually just. The United States of America currently incarcerates 2.2 million people, more than any other nation on earth. This represents an increase of more than 500% over the last three decades. And, it is an astounding figure for a nation that claims to be the world’s leading democracy. At any particular time, 7 out of every 1,000 U.S. citizens is being deprived of liberty and locked away in a jail or prison cell. Viewed from a longitudinal perspective, 1 out of every 9 men and 1 out of every 56 women will be imprisoned at one time or another during their lives. Even more astounding is the fact that more than 60% of the U.S. prison population is either Black or Latino. While persons of African descent make up only 14.1% of the total U.S. population, they make up 37.3% of the U.S. prison population. In fact, on any particular day, 1 out of every 10 Black males in this country is incarcerated. Latinos, who comprise 17% of the total U.S. population, make up 34.6% of the prison population. As Michelle Alexander has pointed out in The New Jim Crow, there is a clear racial component to U.S. incarceration policies that cannot reasonably be denied. Though Blacks and Hispanics commit crimes at a rate more or less equivalent to Caucasians, they are incarcerated at a much higher rate. The statistics speak for themselves. In addition, our government is also detaining tens of thousands of immigrants who come to this country seeking work and survival. The current crisis over the detention of unaccompanied minor children is only the tip of a much larger iceberg. Many more are being thrown into detention centers where they face long-term incarceration and possible deportation. Countless families are being torn apart and forced into economic crisis through these practices and policies. All of this has led to what some are calling the “Prison-Industrial Complex.” We have created a system that devastates whole communities by removing significant portions of their male population. We have built a school-to-prison pipeline that criminalizes a whole generation of Black and Latino youth. We have tolerated the association of persons of color with criminality, making it easier to give longer prison sentences, to engage in discriminatory policing practices, and to shoot (and often kill) perceived offenders with relative impunity. None of this is just. Therefore, the time has come for persons of faith to say, “No more!” We have to speak with clarity and vision about the damage that the Jim Crow policies of mass incarceration are doing to our communities. And we have to find the moral courage to demand real and lasting change. That is why I am asking you to join me in the October Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. It is my hope and the hope of many that October will be a month of powerful demonstrations across the country that will include sermons, scripture studies, and other special events in churches, synagogues, temples and mosques. A strong and prophetic word from the faith community is essential to garnering attention from the powerful and bringing about real change. In Los Angeles, the events of The Month of Resistance will begin with a gathering in front of the LAPD Headquarters Building at 4pm on October 1. This gathering will include a reading of the attached Pledge of Resistance and will culminate with an act of civil disobedience by those who are ready. The events of the month will culminate on October 22 with a march starting at 2pm at Broadway and Olympic and ending at the LAPD Headquarters Building. I hope that you and members of your faith community will consider being a part of this important march. Please let me know whether and how you decide to participate, especially if you decide to preach a sermon or teach a class on mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow. Given recent events in Ferguson and in other communities around this nation, it has become clearer to me than ever that reforming the criminal justice system is one of the central moral issues of our time. I hope that we can count on you to get involved. Blessings be with you now and always. Let us join together and let freedom ring as we work to end mass incarceration in our lifetime. Rev. Frank Wulf United University Church Los Angeles Coordinating Team for The Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. RESOURCES Resources that can be adapted for use in your local faith community have been provided by Rev. Jerome McCorry and Pastor Richard Dalton of The Adam Project: A Stop Mass Incarceration Network. I hope they will prove useful to you as you make plans for your own community: Stop Mass Incarceration Network: Faith Based Initiative - Resources (https://sites.google/site/stopmassincfaithbased/) Alice Walker has written a powerful new poem entitled Gather to commemorate The Month of Resistance and to honor Cornel West and Carl Dix for their work on bringing this month to fruition. That poem can be found online at: Alice Walker, Gather (stopmassincarceration.net/content/gather) The Call for a Month of Mass Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, which was produced earlier this year by Cornel West, Carl Dix and others, can be found at the website of The Stop Mass Incarceration Network. You and/or your faith community may use the website to make an official endorsement of the call. The Call to a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration (https://sites.google/site/monthofresistance/home) A Pledge of Resistance, which I mentioned above, is printed below. I encourage you to use this Pledge during early October: A Pledge of Resistance What kind of society do you want to live in? • Police brutality and police murder are daily occurrences, yet brutal • murdering cops are almost never punished for their crimes; • Black and Latino people, especially the youth, are treated like criminals, • guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive to prove their innocence; • This criminalization has led to 2.2 million people being warehoused in • prison, a 500% increase over the past 30 years; • Tens of thousands of people in prison are subjected to the torture of long • term solitary confinement; • Alongside this has risen a program of criminalizing and incarcerating • undocumented immigrants; • The color of a person’s skin determines whether they live and how they live. TODAY WE PLEDGE: Black lives matter. Latino lives matter. All lives matter. • Mass incarceration: WE SAY NO MORE! • Police murder: WE SAY NO MORE! • Torture in the prisons: WE SAY NO MORE! • Criminalization of generations: WE SAY NO MORE! • Attacks on immigrants: WE SAY NO MORE! We will NOT be silent. We WILL resist! Until these shameful horrors really are... NO MORE!
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:22:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015