In June of 2020, CUNY Law’s CLEAR Clinic and Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) released a co-created resource for activists and protesters to better cope with visible increases in police activity and white supremacists at Black Lives Matter events.
On August 18 of this year, Associated Press broke the news that CLEAR and M4BL released another co-created resource entitled “Struggle For Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement By The U.S. Government.” This report detailed the historical and systemic use of tactical policing against Black people to disrupt and disempower their organizing and advocacy against the backdrop of Black Liberation movements.
These weren’t coincidences, much like the increase in overt policing at the height of the pandemic during the Movement for Black Lives wasn’t by chance, but by design. This report uncovers the blatant use of fear and force by law-emboldened authorities at every level of Black Lives beyond the pale of brazen basic human rights violations, and readers are called to act collectively.
The report calls for amnesty for all protesters involved in nationwide protests, and demands reparations along with acknowledgment and apologies from the government for very clearly and undeniably targeting Black liberation movements. Proposed federal legislation in the BREATHE Act aspires towards abolition-driven divestment through concerted community-care culture-shifts, but it’s going to take many villages and many communities in concert over time.
You can read the report in full here, and when you arrive at the credits, among all the familiar faces, you’ll find CLEAR Staff Attorneys and CUNY Law alums Princess Masilungan ’18 & Mudassar Toppa ’19, whose passion, persistence, and vision in part, made possible paths forward in this fight against front-line injustice.
We express immense gratitude to the CUNY Law community that fuels and bolsters this work and the faculty that inspires the injustice-driven impetuses of justice-bound actions through the practice of antiracist pedagogy and praxis of law in the service of human needs.
To the CLEAR Clinic and team, thank you for the vital work you do!
Also be sure to check out the panel discussion on 9/9 at 6pm, where CLEAR’s Princess Masilungan will be discussing next steps with fellow organizers. Register Here
