Community Organizing Meeting to Discuss Collective Strategies Against Police Brutality

Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285
285 Clarissa St
Rochester, NY

As you may know, members of Rochester Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and other community members were attacked and brutalized by the RPD in a peaceful march against the Occupation of Afghanistan on October 7, 2009 in Downtown Rochester. These violent and repressive acts have since sparked a great deal of solidarity among grassroots organizations in this city. Greater momentum seems to be building in the community to fight against police brutality and for greater police accountability. For instance, at this month's "Speak to Council" session at a city council meeting, 38 people spoke out against the October 7th police misconduct, and many of them directly called for an independent civilian review (WITH power) to be instituted in the City of Rochester.

Of course, the response to police misconduct was not limited to that which took place on October 7. From annual racially-driven targeting of Puerto Rican Festival attendees to the legalized harassment of black youth afforded by Zero Tolerance; from the misdirected abuse and incarceration of poor men and women of color to the misuse of Federal RICO laws, all the way to the misleading "news" stories put out by the mainstream media (the list goes on and on), it is clear that the stories of injustice that affect our lives are not isolated, but part of a larger system.

When police misconduct is considered legitimate and goes unchallenged, the democratic process is weakened--attacked. Unless and until the victims of police brutality unite, share their stories, brainstorm solutions, and effectively organize around those solutions, there will be no significant change. So let's make it happen. Let's organize.

We are reaching out to any and all members of the Rochester community who have ideas about how we can come together and hopefully form a broad-based coalition around these issues. We have some ideas of our own, but we are more interested in hearing the needs of the community and how we can help to collectively address those needs. Rochester SDS will host a first introductory meeting, open to the public on Saturday, November 7th at 2pm at the Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285 Clarissa St. If you cannot make this meeting, but would like to be involved, please contact either Ryan or Jake S.

In solidarity,

Rochester SDS

Contact Info:
Ryan Acuff (585) 455-0961
Jake Spezio (585) 802-2585