April 2021 – NAACP New Bedford

Massachusetts Eviction Diversion Initiative

In order to better inform Spanish and Portuguese speakers about the Massachusetts Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is partnering with NeighborWorks to host Spanish and Portuguese language virtual town halls on emergency rental assistance, free legal representation, and mediation services available to tenants and income-eligible landlords impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Fall River and New Bedford. The following town halls and resources are available through the Eviction Diversion Initiative. Even those who have already received assistance through RAFT / ERMA may be eligible for additional assistance under the recently launched Emergency...

Takeaways from the Chauvin trial

The Derek Chauvin Trial For many Black Americans anxiety surrounded the Derek Chauvin trial. The former police officer was charged with killing George Floyd, who died after Chauvin pinned Floyd's neck by the knee for more than nine minutes while onlookers begged the officer to stop and Floyd cried out for his mother. Our nation and most specifically the Black community have rarely seen white male officers held accountable for killing black people. So there was apprehension, fear, and anger that no matter how indisputable the charges and the evidence, our fractured criminal justice system would falter. Chauvin's guilty conviction...

Legislation

NAACP New Bedford strongly opposes H.1234

The NAACP New Bedford Branch strongly opposes a bill now before the Massachusetts legislature, H.1234, which would re-classify "Big Gig" drivers (Lyft and Uber) as independent contractors and no longer treat them as company employees. For many years the NAACP has regarded legislation of this sort as hostile if not destructive to working people. Real jobs with collective bargaining rights provide not only working wages for working families but the right to democratize workplaces. The National Employment Law Project has found that Black workers comprise nearly one quarter of all workers in the gig economy. They and all workers deserve...

Statement of NAACP New Bedford Branch on Criticism of Police Profiling Report

Statement of NAACP New Bedford Branch on Criticism of Police Profiling Report April 23, 2020 The NAACP New Bedford Branch was pleased to be one of eight community co-sponsors of the unveiling of Citizens for Juvenile Justice's report on racial profiling by the New Bedford Police. It is not surprising that the report coincided with the conviction of George Floyd's killer in Minneapolis. Americans have had enough of bad policing, and that includes New Bedford, a city that paid out $1.4 million in settlements for two wrongful police killings. Although it is clear to a growing number of Americans, Black,...

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

4/27/21 - 6/1/21 Tuesdays- 5:30pm -7:00pm Facilitated by Andrea M. Garr-Barnes, MSW, Equity and Inclusion Practitioner & Facilitator 50 Person Max Capacity Register by April 22 at: http://bit.ly/communityreadingcircle Binding these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.” As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and...

Police

CFJJ addresses NBPD criticisms of its report on racial profiling

Citizens for Juvenile Justice response to issues raised by the New Bedford Police Department Download this in PDF format April 20, 2021 Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ) stands by its analysis in "We Are The Prey: Racial Profiling and the Policing of Youth in New Bedford." While we appreciate that the New Bedford Police Department (NBPD) has brought up different manners of expressing the data, we take their statement as an invitation to conduct additional analysis of the existing data (some of which we have done below), and as reason for the Department to publicly release more detailed data on...

Police

CFJJ Report and video now available

On Wednesday night Citizens for Juvenile Justice unveiled its report on five thousand New Bedford Police Department interactions over five years. CFJJ's report documented extremely disproportionate rates of stops and surveillance on Black residents and revealed New Bedford Police Department's arbitrary and opaque criteria for adding youth to its gang database. The presentation by CFJJ's Joshua Dankoff outlined 8 main findings: (1) a decade after the Malcolm Gracia killing, the NBPD still has only a vague policy on field interrogations; (2) police interactions are focused on poor non-white communities; (3) Blacks and Hispanics are significantly over-policed; (4) 10 officers account...

A man was lynched yesterday

Statement on the killing of Daunte Wright From 1920 to 1938 a flag was flown outside the NAACP’s national office in New York whenever a black man was lynched. It read simply, “A man was lynched yesterday.” Some may like to imagine that we have made progress on America’s long road to racial justice, but lynchings by white mobs have only been replaced by unabated police killings, which invariably happen in the course of subduing Black and brown communities. On Sunday, just outside Minneapolis, while Derek Chauvin is still awaiting justice for the depraved murder of George Floyd, another man...

REMINDER: Racial Profiling and Policing of Youth in New Bedford

A Community Conversation Wednesday, April 14th 5:30pm - 7:00 pm Register Here bit.ly/wearetheprey The YWCA together with numerous co-sponsors listed below are pleased to host a community conversation where Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CFJJ) will launch its report, "We Are the Prey: Racial Profiling and Policing of Youth in New Bedford." Analyzing New Bedford Police Department data, the report documents how the NBPD targets young people of color in lower-income neighborhoods in a white-majority city. The report contains recommendations from CFJJ and from New Bedford youth to reform policing in the city, including in the areas of racial profiling, gang...

In case you missed: Guns, Safety and the Edge of Adulthood

If you missed “Guns, Safety and the Edge of Adulthood,” a Youth Justice Forum cohosted with Citizens for Juvenile Justice, featuring researchers from Center for Court Innovation, and panelists from Boston Public Health Commission, Legendary Legacies Inc., New North Citizens' Council, and others — you still have a chance to view the video and presentation. CFJJ has posted a link to the program, slides used, and their recommendation for legislative priorities. You can also view a recording of the forum on Facebook: if you would like to have further conversations or programs on this topic, please reach out to the...