Jews for Racial Justice Move the Conversation About Police Brutality Into White Communities

[marmar]

By Chris Crass


(Truthout) As New York City erupted in December 2014 in mass, nonviolent, disruptive direct action after the non-indictment of the officer who murdered Eric Garner and the officers who were accomplices in this brutal crime, one of the actions that grabbed national headlines and many a heart, was organized by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). Over 400 members of JFREJ, including Rabbis and other leaders in the Jewish community, took to the streets of the primarily white, wealthy and Jewish, Upper West Side. This civil disobedience was planned with their longtime partner organizations based in working-class communities of color, and coordinating actions across the city took place.

Tears ran down my face as I followed the news, often with my three-year-old son nearby, of powerful, defiant, Black life-affirming, white supremacist hegemony-defying, marches, vigils and large-scale direct actions ignited around the country after the Eric Garner non-indictment - and NYC was galvanizing us all. And JFREJ was a powerful force mobilizing a majority, but not entirely, white Jewish base of members and supporters to be courageous for Black Lives Matter. I've long loved JFREJ, which began in 1990 and has been deeply committed to long-term multiracial organizing and campaigns to build people's power for collective liberation. They are "inspired by Jewish tradition to fight for a sustainable world with an equitable distribution of economic and cultural resources and political power."

I knew that their actions in December were part of a years-long campaign against police violence in working-class communities of color, and that with their vision, strategy, organizing experience, infrastructure and leadership, they could offer insights and lessons for many of us around the country who are asking, "How do we help carry the momentum of these mass action times into long-term campaigns to win structural change?" Marjorie Dove, the executive director of JFREJ, shares from their organizational experience to help us think about that question. .................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31343-jews-for-racial-and-economic-justice-moving-the-conversation-about-police-brutality-into-white-communities

[MisterP]

1. 'cause, y'know, police brutality is one part "maintaining the color line" and one part "practice"