INCITE! SUPPORTS THE CALL TO FREE MARISSA ALEXANDER!
- Because we support black women’s right to self defense and support the call for freedom of Patreese Johnson, the last incarcerated member of the New Jersey 7, and CeCe McDonald in Minneapolis, MN,
- and because we condemn the FBI’s continued and escalated pursuit of Assata Shakur,
- and because domestic violence survivors of color have been targets of law enforcement violence through lack of protection, mandatory arrest policies, and physical violence,
- and because 90% of people in women’s prisons experience sexual and domestic violence prior to their incarceration and there is a crisis of sexual abuse within prisons, including juvenile and immigration detention centers,
- and because collaboration programs between ICE and local police, such as Secure Communities (S-COMM), endanger the lives of undocumented immigrant survivors of violence,
- and because law enforcement agencies routinely fail to respond to violence against Native women, allowing others to violate them with impunity,
- and because of militarized law enforcement violence, children like Aiyana Jones do not have the right to safety in their own homes,
- and because organizers had to sue Louisiana to remove black women and LGBT people charged with prostitution from the state’s sex offender registry,
- and because stop-and-frisk against women of color, including trans women of color, is state-enforced sexual harassment,
- and because doctors pressure and coerce inmates in California women’s prisons to get sterilized as a cost-cutting measure,
- and because, in two out of three states, pregnant inmates can still be shackled to their hospital beds while giving birth,
- and because the US is a prison nation that not only cages the most people in the world, but extends punishment and surveillance into the daily lives of low income women of color and our communities in the US and abroad,
- and because we support organized resistance to the prison nation such as the Dream 9, the Dream Defenders sit-in, and the California Prisoner Hunger Strike, the largest prisoner hunger strike in the history of California,
- and because we mourn the horrific murder of Trayvon Martin and send love, strength, and solidarity to his family and community,
- and because we honor all of the women, queer, and trans people of color who have been attacked, brutalized, or murdered and who have been given no opportunity for redress or public recognition,
- and because we call on our communities to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence and develop transformative community-based responses to violence so we aren’t forced to rely on an abusive criminal punishment system for safety and accountability…
Because of all of these reasons, INCITE! endorses the call to FREE MARISSA ALEXANDER from prison immediately. Marissa Alexander is a black mother of three and survivor of domestic violence from Jacksonville, FL. In August 2010, she fired a warning shot in the wall to defend herself from a life-threatening beating from her estranged husband. She had just given birth to a premature baby nine days before. Despite the fact that Marissa Alexander caused no injuries and has no previous criminal record, and despite the fact that Florida’s self-defense law includes the right to “Stand Your Ground,” she was subsequently arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison. She plans to appeal. More details on her experience can be found here and this pdf download. The treatment of Marissa Alexander is a consequence of the growing crisis of prisons and policing in the US as well as a product of anti-black racism and sexism which drives individuals and institutions to punish black women when they defend themselves from violence. Her case is one of many that shows us how black women and other marginalized people are especially likely to be blamed and criminalized while trying to navigate and survive the conditions of violence in their lives. We call all members of anti-violence, reproductive justice, and anti-police/prison movements and our allies to also support the call to Free Marissa Alexander!
TAKE ACTION!
ORGANIZE to free Marissa Alexander! Hold rallies, do a banner drop, have house parties, blog, write letters, organize workshops, make art, fundraise and donate, and sign this petition. Visit http://freemarissanow.tumblr.com/action for more ideas.
Urge your campus, organization, faith community, collective, union, or business to ENDORSE the call to Free Marissa Alexander: tiny.cc/EndorseFreeMarissa
CONNECT with the global campaign to Free Marissa Now at freemarissanow.tumblr.com, facebook.com/FreeMarissaNow, and e-mail at FreeMarissaNow@gmail.com.
Thank you for all you do to create communities and movements based on radical freedom, mutual accountability, and passionate reciprocity!
Art by Melanie Cervantes at Dignidad Rebelde
Download in high resolution
Reblogged this on cheminju and commented:
the number of her prison sentence fully hit me just now. TWENTY YEARS.
Justice for Trayvon Martin – San Jose, will be yet again hitting SJSU Campus, bringing the Community to the Campus, and the Campus to the Community. Two Nights in a Row!!!
The Program:
Night One – Black Brown Unity Round Table Discussion
Night Two – Community Skill Share
During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we will be bringing together a forum of discussion the complexity of Violence & Justice in America, in light of the tragedies of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and most especially Marissa Alexander, in celebration of the overturning of her conviction and in mourning of the October 22nd Day of Action, around lives stolen by Police Brutality and Murder.
It is our fondest hopes that we can join together in sharing and learning from one another on how best to begin our collective work toward a more just and peaceful society, in which we need not fear for our lives and well being simply because of the color of our skin, gender or poverty.
What is Domesticating Violence?
“Domesticating Violence – is a mode of social being and relation (domestication) through violence. It is a totally engulfing process that penetrates all spheres of contemporary society and permeates all spaces of social relation, such as (but not limited to); our thoughts, behaviors, intimacies’, interactions, homes, families, communities, and politics. Thereby remolding these spaces and relations, not just as prone to violence, but violent in form and essence. A form whereby constant, directed, and systematic violence(s) are applied to disempower, regulate, condition, and discipline both populations and individuals into subservience and/or docility. In essence it is a material and political dynamic by which violence exists acceptably as constant “applied force” (or the threat thereof), to sustain a condition of permanent asymmetric power.”
How does it differ from “Domestic Violence”?
Domesticating Violence differs from Domestic Violence, in the sense that what is today described as “domestic violence” is but a micro expression of the overall condition of Domesticating Violence that dominates American Society. It is our hope that we will be able to provide new foundations by which deeper discussions of the causal origins of violence as it relates to intimate relationships, racist colonialism, sexual difference, and poverty can result in a collaborative quest for justice, that actually works.
https://www.facebook.com/events/311571392318926/
Reblogged this on Armor Of God Foundation.