A national effort for public safety through community-driven methods had the support of those incarcerated at San Quentin. In August, Oakland and 25 other cities around the country led events titled “Night Out for Safety and Liberation.”
At the request of the event’s local organizer, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC), several prisoners doing time in San Quentin wrote their visions of safety and mailed them to EBC. Their contributions became part of the effort to generate community alternatives to traditional law- enforcement.
“Sharing the ‘Safety is’ dialogue with our friends in San Quentin and envisioning safety together is a critical step to achieving safety and liberation for everyone,” said Jennifer Kim, Director of Programs for EBC. The event organizers described the event as an effort to create an alternative to localities’ National Night Out.
“As we fought to look at criminal justice reform, we realized…there is a lack of vision about what community safety really looks like,” said Zachary Norris, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center. “The safest communities are not the ones that have the most police or prisons; they have good schools and…[this event] is an effort to bring that to light.”
Speakers and participants uniformly expressed a belief in community-driven solutions. “Liberation and safety is important and the community must start collectively coming up with solutions,” said Oakland resident Jodie Geddes.
Referring to police violence around the country, Oakland resident Mark Stanley-Bey said, “One must seriously contemplate restorative justice and its design system in real time—and not just in words, but in action.”
Men incarcerated in San Quentin contributed to the conversation by responding to the prompt “Safety is…” at the invitation of EBC. The webpage for the Night Out for Safety and Liberation later quoted San Quentin inmate Abdur-Raheem Ballard’s letter: “Safety is knowing that we all need each other: Black, Brown, Yellow and White. As a collective we are more likely to succeed than when we are divided.”
“I think safety is investing in our communities as far as investing in our schools, health care for families and good jobs for families,” said Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) teacher Keith Williams. We can’t have real safety with over-policing and criminalization of Black and Brown youth. We need to liberate people, and that comes from creating community not fear.”
Another OUSD teacher Ismael Armendariz added, “As a teacher, creating spaces where students feel safe is my responsibility. The reason I came is that, as a teacher I need to be willing to rethink how we discipline kids.”
Feedback from teen participants revealed residents’ conflicting feelings about law enforcement as well as their ideas of alternatives.
“I don’t feel safe when I see the streets are dirty and there are homeless people,” said 16- year-old Allston.
“Seeing a lot of police makes me feel safe and also unsafe at the same time,” Buna Poeng, another 16-year-old said.
Sixteen-year-old Fellenia Chan said, “[Currently] the police are in charge of checking themselves, and this doesn’t make sense. Actually having civilian oversight is what accountability means.”
Night Out for Safety and Liberation also had strong participation in cities such as Detroit and Washington, DC.
Other supporters of the Oakland event included the American Civil Liberties Union, Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, the Essie Justice Project, The Black Neighborhood and Justin Rausa from Assembly member Rob Bonta’s office.
“We hope that next year, many more people will contribute to our shared vision,” Kim said regarding collaborating with those incarcerated.
For more information, visit www.nightoutforsafetyandliberation.com