KNOW YOUR RIGHTS; Invest In Our Community; Camp Peaceprints

In an effort to limit ongoing digital overload, we are continuing to highlight just a few important items and special upcoming events and then refer you to our website for details on our regularly scheduled events and ‘Helping Hands’resource list.

We hope you will join us this Thursday evening at 6PM for our Zoom webinar on Know Your Rights featuring Daire Brian Irwin, Esq. and John A. Curry III, NYCLU. The webinar will also include de-escalation techniques from WNYPC Executive Director, Victoria Ross, with a Q&A after the presentation. Meeting ID: 868 1853 9395, Password: 268120

Our shero, Cariol Horne, still needs our help! Please continue to call Mayor Brown (311 for city residents; otherwise 716-851-4841) and demand #JusticeForCariol! Restore Cariol’s pension and pass Cariol’s Law! PLEASE ALSO SHARE WIDELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA using the images on our website and social media accounts or at cariolslaw.com

Please also note that our 13th annual youth summer camp, Camp Peaceprints, is less than one month away! Registration is now open with a sliding scale of up to $25/week, with scholarships readily available! Camp will be 100% online this year due to the public health crisis, but we offer games, recreation/physical activities, art projects, music, and virtual field trips; plus wonderful guest presenters (activists and artists from the Buffalo area)! Please register ASAP as we’ll be delivering packets with art supplies, etc. for use during camp.

In response to the current $14 billion COVID-related budget crisis, Governor Cuomo is withholding authorization of NYS contracts beginning July 1st. This affects all operations – in particular, the funding of social programs like food banks and SNAP (food stamp) programs. Food For All and 43 other agencies currently receive funding to provide SNAP education and assistance in NYS counties, and their Nutrition Outreach program is one of the programs dramatically impacted. We are asking friends of the FFA and those who recognize the importance of the SNAP program – especially during the current public health crisis – to contact their NY State Representatives and Senators urging them to have the Governor authorize vital state contracts for the fiscal year beginning July 1st. If you are able to support FFA by donating a basket for auction, please contact Kelly Ann Kowalski at kellyannkk@aol.com. Visit our Campaigns page for more details.

Sentencing dates are again postponed for the remaining Kings Bay Plowshares 7 – now July 30th, 31st – per the request of the defendants in order to accommodate their right to be sentenced in person in an open court, witnessed by the public. As they await their sentencing, each of the KBP7 continues to serve their communities as human needs grow exponentially during this COVID-19 pandemic. If you would like to write to Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in support of the defendants, you may do so here.

More previews for next week: Note the LASC/IFCO webinar in our scheduled events below. Plus if you’re interested in the Racial Justice taskforce, please check back on our Event Calendar – a date/time for the next planning meeting should be finalized sometime next week.

Lastly, out of respect for Martin’s request for privacy, our last mention of the events will be to share this video from Jimmy Dore. We ask that you please no longer contribute monetary donations to him via the GoFundMe fundraiser nor the WNYPC website, as these donations will be returned. We thank you for your understanding, kindness, and support.

Please see details and much more below, including other special events this week, regularly scheduled events, campaigns, fundraisers, and more at wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)! We update our Event Calendar often as we learn of new events, so please be sure to check back regularly!

*** And lastly, a reminder to pace yourselves – no one can do it all. Let us know what kind of help you might need from the WNYPC; please feel free to reach out!

JUNETEENTH –> LIBERATION NOW!; Sat Gen Assembly; Cariol’s Law; #Unite

So much has happened and is happening, that it’s hard to know where to start – except with a deep breath of love and courage!

We again express extreme grief and concern about the longstanding injustices that have been made more obvious over the past years, months, and days. This includes most recently the cruel (and unfortunately not “unusual”) punishment of Deyanna Davis. Please see her fundraiser here; and plenty more on the need for and ways to work for her compassionate release at https://linktr.ee/deyannadavis – and a great video by Akram Shibly; Deyanna’s not a flight risk; is a truly hurting young mother and student; and the Erie County Holding Center, well, it holds a world of maltreatment including homicide by medical neglect #ReleaseInmates.

There has been a great trauma to our community, and we need to find the ground of our dwelling – the roots that help us to continue on with our struggle. We have no choice but to, so we need to pace ourselves for this marathon (that includes self-care during COVID and this Census year).

This is a transformative time, with growing clarity regarding racial injustice, police brutality, and the militarization of police. Buffalo’s being in the national eye has finally led to the appropriate attention for Cariol Horne, someone we are proud to have as a member of our board. See Cariol on CNN speaking about her experience as a BPO intervening in a chokehold situation over a decade ago. You can find more information about Cariol and her latest work on Cariol’s Law (and keep an eye out for a call to action on Monday). Lastly, there is her Whistleblower fundraiser – please share widely and contribute if you are able. #GeorgeFloydNeededCariolHorne

Big shout out to the many devoted young (and not so young) activists gathering every day at Niagara Square since Monday, June 1, in determination that this time, platitudes and incremental change will not be enough. A Change is Gonna Come – NOW!!

Tomorrow, 6/20, join a General Assembly in Niagara Square at 1pm. Demands to be made to the authorities will be discussed; and groups and organizations (including but not limited to the WNYPC) will be there to talk about their work and visions. It will be an opportunity to meet lots more activists engaged in the struggle (including some of our board members and staff). We hope you can join in this critical time – we are all in this together.

Special shout-out too to Black Love Resists in the Rust (BLRR)’s establishment of Liberation Square. We thank BLRR for occupying the Square to push for Deyanna’s compassionate release (see above), and all their leadership. Yes, the struggle is everywhere!!

We want to highlight a few upcoming events, including

Next Thursday, 6/25 at 6pm on Zoom we are hosting a Know Your Rights webinar featuring Daire Brian Irwin, Esq. and John A. Curry III, NYCLU; as well as
Monday, 6/22 we have a great radio show featuring Myles Carter and Rev. Denise Waldon speaking on E-District events of 6/1 (including Deyanna Davis’ compassionate release efforts) and racial justice issues; Brooke Binkowski and Professor Mike Niman speaking on disinformation and propaganda. 1-3 pm on 91.3 FM or wbny.buffalostate.edu
Another session (same workshop) of the Know Your Rights will be in person (with physical distancing) at Niagara/Liberation Square, Sunday June 28 at 1pm.
Zoom session with experts on Cuba’s wonderful medical aid to the world (June 29, see below).
our youth (virtual) summer camp – Camp Peaceprints – which is less than one month away! More details and to register here.

We hope you were able to participate in last week’s Juneteenth of Buffalo virtual festivities. We look forward to when we are able to all able to celebrate in person again. In the meantime, we’ll take time to reflect on the significance of this day in American history, and continue our work in the fight against racial injustice and violence. You can still check out their videos here (great info and inspiration).

Lastly, we have had many people reach out inquiring about lawn signs as a way to express their solidarity. We have many #UNITE lawn signs – designed by our own Office Manager & Coordinator, Deidra – left from last fall’s Annual Dinner. (We do also have some #LoveIsLove signs left.) These are WNYPC Membership gifts, so after joining please email office@wnypeace.org to set up a pickup time.

Speakout on Ethical Police Officers; FFF Traffic Stop Tool; Healing Buffalo

We grieve…. And struggle for Rev. Dr. King’s Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love to have the final word in Reality.

The Truth is that we have and have had racist police brutality going on in Buffalo. True too that it is coupled with excusiology – as our dear (ex officio Board Member) Jim Anderson, PeaceAction NYS President and Citizen Action Vice President, puts it.

It is worsened by endless onslaughts from systemic racial (and general) injustice with a fascist criminal at the helm of our government, which is already the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” as Rev. Dr. King said. And now, our civil liberties are “paused” and our (limited) democracy being deconstructed.

We’ve been saying for the past few years of crisis, that Crisis = Opportunity. Well, we certainly have a crisis now. Ensha’Allah, we’ll be able to turn it into the opportunity for radical change that we need.

First, please be aware that with the curfew and unrest, people are very likely to get stopped and possibly – if DWB (driving while black), harassed. Join us of the Fair Fines and Fees Coalition, in sharing and using the traffic stop tool on your social media pages. Please also share our petition to eliminate the 13 new traffic fees.

Please join us in so many ways – pacing yourself of course and keeping yourself safe in the meanwhile. See below the noon Weds Rally for Racial Justice with People of Faith (organizer Voice Buffalo), the healing circle on Thursday (Jillian Hanesworth), Organizing 101 for YOUTH on Friday (Open Buffalo), and a 1pm Vigil in MLK park (Alia Williams), and more.

Our Speakout on Ethical Peace Officers, (on Zoom, organized by our Racial Justice Taskforce, including Kareema Morris and Heron Simmonds), Tues, 6/9 at 7pm, is an opportunity to begin real change. It will only happen if the problem is acknowledged – which it has yet to be. Mayor Brown’s office has said he or a rep will be there, and the police commissioners are invited.

Change will only happen if all of us persist, if all of us take the bold moves to stand up for each other. White people – if we’re not actively striving for the solution, we’re part of the problem. Time’s up – no more slow-walking it, or excusiology, from anyone.

We support real change, including but not limited to policy changes, and are working with many great allies and partners to make it happen. People of color, including numerous of our great Board Members, are leading the way.

We support Cariol’s Law. Cariol Horne, our Board Member, was fired and lost her pension for her courage preventing an Eric-Garner-type death from a violent and racist policeman (with repeated previous and subsequent violations). Cariol’s Law requires a police officer to intervene and stop imminent abuse, and protects them from retaliation. The Blue Line of Silence, the Police Union defending police brutality – both need radical change. Officers need to be held accountable for their silence, and supported in their whistleblowing.

Board Member Tanvier Peart is “leading” (pun intended 😉 – with Partnership for the Public Good – efforts toward LEAD – Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion; in which officers send people to programs re mental health, substance abuse, and economic hardship for people’s related infractions, rather than arresting them.

We push with PPG and other allies for real and widespread Community Policing, fix-it tickets, serious de-funding of the police the criminal “Justice” System (#moneyforlifenotdeath), and an end to qualified immunity for police officers. We need accountability!

We encourage all to join us, allies, and partners in working for the community and especially our young people of color, through Truth and Love, Courage and Collaboration, and a culture of real peace and true nonviolence.

#PeopleandthePlanet #OneLove

In our continued effort to limit digital overload, we are again highlighting only a handful of special events below, and then refer you to our website for details on our regularly scheduled events and ‘Helping Hands’ resources list. Please see details and much more – including campaigns and fundraisers – at wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)! We update our Event Calendar often as we learn of new events, so please be sure to check back regularly!

And lastly, a reminder to pace yourselves. Do only what you can; no one call do it all. Let us know what kind of help you might need from the WNYPC!