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Our immediate goal is to have cops off all UC campuses by September 2021. But the effects of the carceral system on our university communities do not begin or end with policing on campus. #copsoffcampus
Tens of thousands of UC students and staff come from communities—Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Muslim, immigrant—that are constantly overpoliced through harassment, surveillance, and baseless arrest.
That means that once we get cops off campus, we will have JUST BEGUN the work of making the university a safe and equitable place for formerly incarcerated/system impacted students and staff. Abolition on and off campus is the only way to end racial inequality in the UC system.
Today we highlight the story of Marlené Mercado ( @chichonascholar), an abolitionist scholar-activist and graduate student at UC Davis. Marlené’s research focuses on the 19th-century carceral regimes that emerged in stolen Southwestern territories after the Mexican-American War.
These regimes have continued from 1848 to the present, and mark Marlené’s own history. In March SWAT, GANG & NARC, and ICE raided her family home in El Paso and arrested her brother Juan.
She was able to bail him out in April because of COVID but he has since been ordered to turn himself in.
The District Attorney and the El Paso Police Department are set on putting Juan away for life. He is facing a 25-life sentence for drug related charges. Such a cruel sentence is possible because of the criminalization of Mexicans and so-called "gang" members.
Juan has been labeled a "gang" member the DA is able to place "gang enhancements" on him. Gang databases are devastating to communities and have little basis in reality. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-24/california-police-urged-to-stop-using-gang-database-deemed-biased
Juan will have a much better chance fighting this case from the outside where he can be properly housed, fed and rested. Since COVID all visitations, including from his lawyer, have been canceled until further notice.
Right now, Juan is locked in solitary confinement 23 hours a day BECAUSE of his status as a "gang" member in the system. This is a form of state-sponsored racial torture. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/17/18305109/solitary-confinement-prison-criminal-justice-reform
We know that UCPD terrorizes our students. Marlené’s story shows us that our university communities will never be safe from policing until all policing is abolished, everywhere. Marlené has been working tirelessly to raise bail funds for Juan.
Read more about Juan's story and please donate if you can. Help bring Juan home! https://gogetfunding.com/bailjuanout/
Cops Off Campus, Cops Off the Planet!
