Links and resources that are helpful:
Local Projects
- Santa Cruz Community Safety Workgroup
http://sccommunitysafety.blogspot.com/
"A structured workshop to plan ways to keep our communities safe at all levels. Here are just some of the challenges we are attempting to tackle: accountability, education and public perception, community crisis response, cops and alternatives, defense of communities, domestic & sexual violence, isolation and alienation, mutual support and solidarity, and making the police obsolete."
- Bad Cop Santa Cruz
http://badcopsc.blogspot.com/
"We seek to document the abuse of authority and highlight the double standard that some grant to those with badges. By documenting police actions... we encourage transparency and hold police accountable. If you are familiar with CopWatch projects, this is a way of documenting what we see when we are watching"
- Police Obsolescence Project
http://policeop.blogspot.com/
"Working toward a world without police. Some of the efforts of this Santa Cruz, California workgroup include CopWatch, know your rights, police accountability, alternatives to calling the police, and education about police, courts, and jails."
- Blue Light Safety Project
http://bluelightsafety.blogspot.com
"A Santa Cruz local community effort to provide temporary safe spaces for people who are feeling unsafe. Community members who want to provide a safe space to those in need simply put a blue light on their house."
Resource Guides
- for a safer world
http://zinelibrary.info/files/for_a_safer_world.pdf
"a guide to local groups, online resources, zines, books and films on trauma, survivor support, communication, mental health, community accountablility, anti-sexism, addiction, and conflict mediation."
Alternatives to Police
- Feeling for the Edge of your Imagination: finding ways not to call the police
http://imaginealternatives.tumblr.com/
"I, and many people I know, want to see a world without prisons, we want the whole industry of keeping people in cages (the Prison Industrial Complex) abolished, we want no more police.* We want a world where responses to harm are community-based, transformative and actually create safety. Where that safety comes from strengthening relations of community, where interpersonal violence dissolves along with the structural violence that facilitates it."
- Rose City Copwatch - Alternatives to Police
https://rosecitycopwatch.wordpress.com/alternatives-to-police/
"For Rose City Copwtch, our long-term vision is a world without police, a world in which communities function and thrive without the intervention of the heavy and often deadly hand of the State. But it can be difficult to imagine a cop-free world. Who would respond to emergencies? What would we do about crime? The existing police, prison and court systems have presented themselves to the public as the only possible answers. As police abolitionists, we need to find other solutions. If we can create and support liberatory alternatives to the police, we can meet the community's basic needs for dealing with harm, disrupt the idea that the work of the police is legitimate, and help people imagine a world without police."
Accountability
- As If They Were Human: A Different Take on Perpetrator Accountability
http://zinelibrary.info/files/augusta-scott comp zine- imposed.pdf
"The title of this zine is a reference to how I feel perpetrators should be treated: as if they were human. Because they are human. The mainstream portrays perpetrators as hopeless cases, who care about nothing in life other than power and control. While it is certainly clear that those who sexually assault, abuse, or rape others do care quite a bit about power and control, it is disingenuous to declare that those are the only things they care about. As with all humans, humans who are also perpetrators have many desires and wishes for their lives."
Communication & Conflict
- Non-Violent Communication Santa Cruz
http://www.nvcsantacruz.org
"Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a way of communicating that strengthens our ability to stay in touch with our humanity and get our needs met, even under difficult circumstances. Instead of habitual responses, our words become conscious responses based on a clear awareness of what we are observing, feeling, and wanting. We are led to express ourselves with honesty and clarity, while paying respectful and empathic attention to others."
- Restorative Resources Santa Cruz
http://www.nvcsantacruz.org/rr
"Restorative Resources Santa Cruz (RRSC) supports groups to function at their highest levels by integration of practices that build trust and teamwork and resolution of conflicts in ways that strengthen the group. In a world that often resorts to resentment, blame, and reprimands, Restorative Resources offers non-punitive processes to create environments where trust and understanding are valued and fostered."
