Youth Leading Protests for Black Lives & Police Abolition
Citywide Youth Coalition leaders, with director Addys Castillo (left) . Photo credit unknown.
Protests in support of Black lives and against systemic police violence have erupted around the country and globe. Many, like the one on June 5, 2020 in New Haven, CT are being led by Black and Brown youth with their focus set on liberation. In this episode we hear direct from Peer Educator and Lead School Organizer Jeremy Cajigas, and Youth Organizer Jamila Washington of the Citywide Youth Coalition (CWYC). They are two of the teen organizers responsible for leading a protest 5,000 people strong, and setting out a list of demands to make meaningful systemic changes in support of Black lives.
Youth leaders Jamila Washington (left) and Jeremy Cajigas (right) at the start of the June 5, 2020 protest in New Haven, CT for Black lives and police abolition. Photo credit: Thomas Breen
““We don’t have an issue when it comes to defunding public education, we don’t have an issue when it comes to defunding public health, if that’s not an issue, why is there an issue with defunding policing.””
It is often noted that young people bring much needed energy and enthusiasm to social change movements. What they also embody are important approaches to change work like celebrating #BlackJoy, modeling intersectional organizing, and the boldness to call for game changing demands. Among Citywide Youth Coalition’s eight demands (see full list below) are removing School Resource Officers (security guards) from schools and replacing them with Counselors, as well as calling for a $33 million cut to the police budget to be reinvested in schools and the creation of affordable public housing. These youth understand history and that the system of policing is set up to harm Black people, not help them. They also understand that the primary way to create safety in society is to end poverty and invest in Black and Brown people and communities. These points are further illustrated in recent conversations documenting that very few calls for police assistance are for issues involving violence, and therefore do not require a militarized response.
““we are already over-policed in our neighborhoods, we don’t want to come to school and be bag-checked every morning and made to feel like a criminal when we walk into the space.””
Citywide Youth Coalition under the leadership of Director Addys Castillo has actively cultivated anti-racism and community organizing work for many years. The teens involved have embraced creative approaches to social justice work like these 2016 acts of radical love they spoke with us about, and their current inclusion of Bomba drumming and dance in front of the police station at the end of the protest. Check this excellent article by Lucy Gellman in the ArtsPaper for a lot more detail on the protest, partnerships with Black Lives Matter New Haven, and the importance of Bomba music and dance in the protests.
Video courtesy of Lucy Gellman and The Arts Paper. Afro-Boriqua Dancers and Drummers from Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental - bring resistance music and dance from Puerto Rico as an important piece of this protest for Black Lives.
This list of demands was release by instagram video by Citywide Youth Coalition’s youth organizers: Lizamishell, Lihame, Krista, and Melody:
Replace school resource officers with counselors
Cut the police budget by $33 million. Reinvest the money by putting: $13 million into the public schools and $20 million to create affordable public housing.
End the “triple occupation” of New Haven currently performed by city police, Hamden police, and Yale police.
A call to the NH Board of Alders to “stop being complacent in entering more Yale Police Department Police officers into the New Haven community.”
Every officer in the state of Connecticut that has been involved in the killing or beating of a civilian be prosecuted “with the full weight of the law.”
People who are appointed to the new Civilian Review Board “are viable people elected by the community.”
The “immediate end to police brutality within our city, state, and country.”
Aerial view of the June 5, 2020 protest with 5,000 people led by youth - packing the streets of New Haven, CT. Photo credit unknown.
The team at Citywide Youth Coalition took the risk of Covid-19 seriously, and actively encouraged mask wearing and a 14 day quarantine after the protest to prevent the spread of the virus in the communities that are already disproportionately harmed. This concern is held by organizers nationwide and it is being shown that protests are not the cause of virus spikes, parties are.
Queer Camp 2020 is underway now, and has moved online due to Covid-19.
Jeremy and Jamila speak on the ways the CWYC team work to create a liberated space where people of all races, gender identities, and sexualities feel welcome and respected, and where Black and Brown people are centered. This summer marks the third year of Queer Camp, a program focused on Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ youth. This year the camp moved online due to Covid-19. The digital camp enabled them to reach youth a nationally and globally, which helps to balance out the downside of not being able to meet in person.
Check out the CWYC FaceBook page for future actions and ways to get involved.
Many thanks to Jeremy and Jamila, for sharing their thoughts so openly, and for their ongoing dedication to intersectional organizing and liberation work!
Thanks to Jon Oliver Music for editing and engineering today’s show
and The Passion Hifi for our open source theme music!
