2021 – Page 4 – NAACP New Bedford

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...

Community Educational Forum on the Eviction and Housing Crisis in Southeastern MA

Community Educational Forum on the Eviction and Housing Crisis in Southeastern MA Tuesday, April 13th 6:30pm-8:30pm RSVP by calling or texting Diana at diana@coalitionforsocialjustice.org or 208-232-5942. Since January there have been more than 730 evictions initiated in Southeastern MA. The Coalition for Social Justice has been reaching out to people and here are just a couple of stories: One woman had started the RAFT application process but her landlord has refused to participate. After first saying he would accept the RAFT program, he then refused to produce documents to complete her application. The tenant had been living in the same...

New Bedford NAACP Urges Faster Action on Covid-19 Vaccination

[caption id="attachment_1755" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] COVID-19 vaccination (2020) by U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC by 2.0 [/caption] Calls 600 doses per week for area "woefully inadequate'; Urges better outreach in communities of color NEW BEDFORD -- In a statement released today, The New Bedford Branch of the NAACP is calling on elected officials and area residents to accelerate efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. New Bedford continues to report among the highest total number of infected individuals in the Commonwealth, at over 12,000 each. Yet, the number of vaccines arriving in our city is woefully inadequate: only...