CR10

Returned from "Struggle and Strategy to Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex"the CR10 conference in Oakland, CA this past weekend.
I learned so much this weekend its hard to know where and how to start. I attended a workshop on alternatives to the police which talked about building community and safety in a way that you know how you would actually call if you felt unsafe, in stead of calling the police. It was about knowing the people around you, it was about trust and it was about accountability to and for and with each other.

It was a very powerful weekend. The first workshop I attended was lead by the Rose city Cop Watch from Portland, OR and was called "Getting Real about Alternatives to the police." We talked about how to deal with unsafe situations with out involving the police and thus trying to prevent people from entering the prison and "justice" systems in the first place. We talked about creating community based initiatives, formal or otherwise that would help you actually answer the question of who you would call when you feel unsafe, other than the police. It was a discussion format and people talked about what they ALREADY do in their communities other than call the police and people talked about what they want to do. We talked about how to implement ideas that did not recreate hierarchical systems and use tactics similar to police and prisons. This is not an easy idea. People talked about communities in which people knew who was committing crime and that in those communities elders and "tough people" need to seek out those committing harm and give them a talking to. I was uncomfortable with this. Obviously violence and intimidation made me uncomfortable but I think it runs deeper than that. I said that I think while it is helping and important to "protect" those who have been robbed or hurt it is also important to think about why people are committing hurt in the first place. Why is someone stealing from my house? What do they need that they aren't getting? Is there something I could be doing to help with that? Is that responsibility? Who's is it? If we are against the use of "the state" for aid, who is responsible? Since the schools starting serving free breakfast we don't have the Panther's free breakfast anymore. Is that good? Is it important for resources to be institutionalized? What happens when those institutions fail?