Author: madlittledebbie

February 28, 5 constituents of Chicago’s 47th ward continued the fight for NoCop Academy, in a meeting with Alderman Ameya Pawar.  We presented him with petitions signed by over 100  ward residents, and made our case. Alderman Pawar listened intently to our concerns, and shared his experience managing the politics of his ward and the city, while continuing fight for equality and the basic human rights of all Chicagoans. Although we directly questioned his logic at times in support of the academy, we were overall encouraged by his intentional thought process about the academy, and the concerns he reported with moving ahead.  We will continue to follow up and discuss this issue with Alderman Pawar and will hold him accountable to the statements he said in our discussion. This was an empowering and important meeting that we hope will add strength to our fight!

Want to meet with your Alderperson?  Need support?  Let us know by sending an e-mail to nocopacademy[at]gmail.com!

Want to talk about #NoCopAcademy with your community, but been waiting for some resources in Spanish?  Here they are!  Developed by friends and volunteers supporting the campaign, including Organized Communities Against Deportation.

PETITION SHEETS:   Download Here

MINI ZINE: Download Here

Have you translated other materials?  Please share them with us at nocopacademy@gmail.com so that we can post them and more people can use them!

ICYMI: On Thursday, March 1st, over a hundred Rogers Park residents gathered for a march in support of #NoCopAcademy and to shame 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore for his unequivocal support of the mayor’s plan to build a $95 million cop academy. Pictures and more below!

At the end of the March, in front of Joe Moore’s office, members of Black & Pink Chicago shared words from incarcerated members, with their ideas for how to invest in communities in Chicago that would actually get at the root causes of violence.  Read the full list of demands here:

On February 26th, a group of 33rd Ward residents confronted Alderman Deborah Mell outside her office on ward night. The group rallied with signs, noisemakers, and chants, and delivered a petition with 70 signatures from ward residents stating that her ward does not want the $95 million cop academy.

The group urged Ald. Mell to vote no to the next City Council meeting vote in March, where they will approve a contractor for the academy, as well any votes approving the academy going forward. Ald. Mell responded to group by stalling interacting with them, refusing to answer any questions, and interrogating them about where they lived. She claimed that the group was only a small fraction of voices in the ward that oppose the cop academy and disengaged.

 

Asian American activists denounced the City of Chicago’s proposed $95 million dollars for a police training facility in one of the biggest celebrations in the Asian American community.

Asian American community activists are marching in the annual Lunar New Year Parade demanding the City of Chicago (“the City”) allocate its planned $95 million funding for a police training facility to instead fund schools. The Lunar New Year Parade is one of the biggest celebrations in many Asian American communities.

“We are here to talk to Chinatown residents about how our City is spending $95 million on a police academy while many of our neighborhoods need schools,” says i2i Core Leader Kristina Tendilla, “All over the city communities are asking to keep their high schools or for the city to build new ones. Instead of competing with each other for funding, we need to look at how the city is prioritizing money and insist that they invest in our communities,” she stated.

Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 1:00PM – 2:00PM | Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade, Wentworth Ave, Chicago, Illinois

Over several years, residents in the Chinatown community have advocated for a high school that serves students in Chinatown, Bridgeport, Armour Square, and the surrounding neighborhoods with an expanding Asian American community. However, in the last year the City, the Chicago Public School (“CPS”), and the Chicago Board of Education (“BOE”) have caused tension between communities with a proposal to shut down the New Teacher Academy (“NTA”), a successful elementary school, to convert the school into a South Loop High School to serve a small part of Chinatown.

Parents and students in Chinatown and its surrounding areas are unwilling to support a proposal to close NTA, which will displace hundreds of elementary school students. Meanwhile, the City, CPS, and the BOE have claimed limited resources preventing them from sufficiently funding all schools, including plans to shut down high schools in Englewood. Advocates point to the contradiction of the lack of funds for these efforts while the city spends $95 million on a police academy.
WHO: Asian American community activists, including Invisible to Invincible (“i2i”): Asian/Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago, DOPE Asian American Pacific Islanders (“DOPE AAPI”), and Asian American residents in Chinatown and Uptown, and supporters of the #NoCopAcademy campaign.