Rev Left Radio - Uprising in Omaha: James Scurlock, OPD Violence, and Abolition Research

Episode Date: August 24, 2020

In this episode, Breht conducts three separate interviews with organizers in Omaha: Bear from ProBLAC, David Harvey from Omaha Abolition Research, and Brenden from the Nebraska Left Coalition. We talk about the mass arrest and human rights violations that took place in Omaha on July 25th, the murder of James Scurlock by White Supremacist Jacob Gardner, the lies and cruelties of the Omaha Police Department, NLC's bail fund, and how organizers around the country might learn from the experiences of us here in Omaha.  Support Rev Left Radio HERE Music included: 'Cloak' by Blvck Svm 'Mariana Trench' by Bright Eyes 'Lemonade' by CocoRosie LEARN MORE ABOUT REV LEFT RADIO: www.revolutionaryleftradio.com

Hello everybody and welcome back to Revolutionary Left Radio. On today's episode, I'm going to have three different organizers from three different organizations here in Omaha on to talk about a recent mass arrest, protests that have been going on in Omaha police violence, what amounts to human rights violations with a lot of these protesters when they were detained by the Omaha Police Department. We talk about the fallout from that, and we talk about just some of the actions and activities that organizers and activists here in Omaha are engaged in with the hopes of not only getting this story out to a wider audience about what's happening here in Omaha, but also to perhaps inspire other people to take some of these ideas and run with them, people that are organizing in their own communities, particularly maybe communities that are medium-sized cities that don't have a lot of already existing organizing infrastructure to tap into. People are trying to find their way and see what they can do and how they can sort of contribute to this national, continental, and global movement for black liberation, basic forms of equality, justice, human decency, et cetera. So, yeah, we have on Bear from Pro Black, David Harvey from the Omaha Abolition Research, and a multiple-time guest, Brendan, on to speak for NLC. So without further ado, let's get into this conversation with these wonderful organizations. organizers, enjoy.

My name is Bear Alexander. I'm one of the organizers in Pro Black. Just a little recap, I was caught selling marijuana when I was 19 years old, and then they sent me to prison for one year. I got out, didn't really, I was going to be a teacher. I was in my third year of college to be a teacher, and then they sent me to prison. When I got out, I had a felony on my record, and it significantly hindered my chances of being a public school educator.

So I went a different route, started doing videography. Then I was doing videography for the last year. Then, after the George Floyd protest, that sparked something inside of me that is literally unexplainable, inexplicable. I hijacked my passion for my priorities in my life, and I have been running with it ever since. and which leads us up to this interview, honestly. Well, that's horrifying to hear that you had to serve a year in prison for fucking anything related to marijuana. Exactly.

But as somebody who's been in the activist and organizer scene for a few years around the Omaha area, it's really awesome to see you come up and become a voice and a leader in your own right in the community, and it's something I deeply respect and admire. And that's why I wanted to have you on. Before we get into your organization and what happened on July 25th, Can you just talk a little bit about sort of your own political development and maybe how you identify politically today? Just at a sort of curiosity and for people to get to know you a little bit.

Right, right. And that I am really on the fence about and I'm starting to, my political ideology is really starting to mold every single day as I'm getting more and more into activism. So beforehand, throughout my whole life growing up, I was always under Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, which is honestly the go-to for black and brown communities. because we feel as though they are, they are the ones that, uh, that care for us the most. And starting to get older and starting to do more research and starting to realize that those Democrats are like, or Democrats are just as bad as the ones that, uh, the ones that we demonized, which are the Republicans that we say, oh, they're really against us. But Martin Luther King said that the white moderate is, uh, who believes in order more, or rather

than justice, like you can't, you can't really convince them of anything, which I believe is a lot of the Democratic Party, where they can condemn the action of protest, but they don't understand the preface to the actions, like what led up to those actions. And they, on the nonviolent protest, they're really adamant about the nonviolent protest, and they decide what is nonviolent and what is violent. And then they will condemn anybody who doesn't fit within that mold of protesting and they'll say, okay, we understand that you guys are hurt and we understand that you guys have a lot of problems going on in your life, but maybe you shouldn't exert your anger in this fashion. Maybe you shouldn't exclaim how mad you are in this way. Maybe you should

fit into this box and then they always go towards Martin Luther King Jr. and say, oh, well, look at him. He was such a great man. He was doing it nonviolent. Maybe you should too. And And so I'm kind of going to a tangent about the nonviolent thing and the political aspect. But for a long story short, Stokely Carmichael said this. The white liberal, they try to influence the oppressed rather than influencing the oppressor. And that's what I strongly feel like was the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party are so fixated on getting the influence of the oppressed rather than fighting the oppressor. and fixing the system and breaking down the system that is oppressing these people.

So instead of doing that work, they are trying to convince the oppressed that they're on their side. Oh, yeah, follow us. We're going to do this. We have your best interest rather than going up to the oppressor and fighting that head on. And that, once I read that and once I started learning about that, it really shaped, or it started to shape my ideals on political ideology. And I'm starting to lean more towards a socialistic approach, but I am not definitive on what I truly believe is the right journey to get to the destination that I believe the United States can get to, which is eventually breaking down the system that we have right now and

abolishing the broken system that we have right now and building it back up. Now, like I said, I don't definitively have a political ideology that I can say I'm this, I'm this, I'm this. Right now, getting into activism, I'm really just molding everything that I'm learning and trying to figure out all the tactics that I can use to get to where I want to be and all the tactics I can use to get the community where I believe that the community can be and should be. Absolutely. Well, that is, that is beautiful. And I think a lot of people are finding themselves in similar situations of having to be sort of thrown into activism and organizing on your own behalf and the behalf of oppressed people and learning while you're

doing. And that's a beautiful thing. There are people out there that can tell you every little difference between, you know, sectarian differences on the left, but had never organized a protest, can't even organize a picnic, you know? And so literally, yeah, getting into organizing, I think is how you learn. And then those ideas will come later and you'll get a lot of experience through that. And hopefully, RevLeft Radio can also act as an educational resource for people who want to learn more about the socialist and communist left and where they may fit on that spectrum. But I love your point about white people and white liberals actually weaponizing MLK against black people fighting for their own liberation and emancipation and just how cynical and disgusting

that is. And then Malcolm X himself talked about the white liberal being like the fox and the white conservative being like the wolf. They both ultimately want their prey, but they go about it in different ways. And the white liberal tries to come off as the good cop. And The conservative is the bad cop, if you will. So, yeah, there's lots of history there. But let's move on and talk about your organization, Pro Black. How did it sort of arise? And what are its goals in the short and medium term?

So Pro Black, I'm so grateful for it's amazing. And I do want to emphasize that. Our first meeting was June 14th. And that was at the courthouse. So it was like two weeks after the George Floyd protest. where we just, we wanted to keep the momentum going. And we just all just decided to meet at the courthouse. And there was about like, honestly, 100 people there.

And we were all just figuring out what our next step is. So history, pro black was founded by three young, beautiful black women. And the goal of pro black was to bring a voice to marginalized voices in, the United States and arguably the most marginalized voice in the United States, which is black women. And we wanted to bring a light on that and give the black women a platform, but also we recognize or pro black recognize that, especially in Omaha, the organizations and activist groups, some of them can be patriarchal, very patriarchal, especially the black activism groups. And I mean, this is nationwide. We live in a patriarchal system. It's only natural

that even the activist groups can fall victim to patriarchy. So that's one thing that the three black women wanted to emphasize is bringing a matriarchal type system to activism, which, I mean, has been done before, which is amazing, which is beautiful. I love it. Unfortunately, due to Unforeseen circumstances, one of the founders, she had to move down to the South for life, pretty much. And then also another founder, she is just busy, she's really busy. She's a very busy person, and she has a lot of obligations that she has to do, and she's about to get married in five weeks. So she wasn't able to really dedicate her time and effort as much as she wanted to, to the organization. So she helps out as much as she can, and she is one of the decision makers, but at the end of the day, she just can't dedicate enough time.

So that left one of the founders, and we realized like the group was getting huge, and the group's name is pro-black, black-led ally coalition. So for the lack of black women that it was having in the group at the time, we transferred it over to black. black led, which I mean has always been in the group, has always been in the group name. So right now, it's more of a black led rather than a black woman led ally coalition. So we look at it as we need the help from the allies. Sociologically speaking that in any form of revolution, nine times out of ten, you need help from the majority in that community or in that country that has the privilege and that has the power to, I don't want to say initiate change, but let's just say they have the privilege, they have the privilege to help.

So we welcome that in as much as possible, which leads us to the Black-led Allied Coalition. Now for the ideals of pro-Black, one of the biggest things that, like, we want to emphasize is Omaha is seen as a city of obedience, and it's seen as a city that doesn't take direct action and it's seen as a city that, for lack of better terms, sits down and shuts up and takes whatever they get and doesn't hold the political leaders or we don't hold our political leaders accountable for anything. They have been coasting for Jean Stodther has been coasting for most of her career as mayor where there is no accountability. There's no putting pressure on her significant amount of pressure and same with our city council members. So we want to

instill a culture of resistance to where people get used to going out on the streets. People get used to being in protest. People get used to finding like-minded individuals that agree with your message and amplifying it as much as possible to the best of your ability. And we want to instill that culture of resistance to where if you don't like something, don't just post it on Facebook. Don't just be like, damn, did you see what Gene did? That suck? No, like, go find people that agree with your message and get on the streets get on the corner start organizing start putting political pressure on our political leaders because if we don't put political pressure on our political leaders then they will feed us whatever whatever they want and then we just have to regurgitate it

and that is huge that's a big emphasis on pro black we want to have affinity groups come out of pro black and which they have like which some of them have them which is amazing and people start being like, oh, I could do this, or why don't I do this? Or maybe I could do this. I could get some people and I could start a protest or I can organize this or I can organize that. And that is something that we really, really, really want to emphasize in the Omaha community because we feel as though, okay, so I always say this, docility is a disease in the mind and can be contagious when led upon by the occupant. And so long our parents, and in the black and brown communities as well. They have become docile and they have become submissive and they have become weak

in the sense of I will not speak out of turn and I'm not going to go march on the streets because I'm afraid of what the cops might do. Or I have the police officers on speed dial so I can just call them and let them know when I'm protesting or I can work with the cops and do this. No, no, we strongly believe that we will never ask the oppressor when and where and how to protest against their oppression. They were complaining about how we didn't get a parade permit, but this isn't a parade. This is a protest. We are protesting.

The whole point of a protest is to be provocative. The whole point of the protest is to disrupt whatever comfort that you are sitting eitherly in. The whole point of a protest is to push the boundaries as much as we can within the realms that still protects us. And that is what Pro Black really emphasizes. We have been significantly shining a spotlight on defunding the police because it's relevant. It is extremely relevant in the times that we're in. And also, right after the George Ford protest, it just conveniently happened to where we were going on our budget proposals and our budget meetings for the next year.

And they have the back to blue rally. So it was really convenient and relevant that we focus our time and effort on. defunding the police because we strongly believe that the police, especially in Omaha, Nebraska, is overfunded and the other programs in Omaha are being neglected to the fullest extent. We have been trying to shine a light on the James Scurlock murder by Jacob Gardner, trying to bring justice to the Scurlock family and honestly bring justice to Omaha because any, well, Martin Luther King said, any injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. that injustice is a direct reflection of the Omaha community.

And if we are complacent in that, then we are no better than the cops that murdered George Floyd, Minneapolis. The cops that sat down and watched Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. That's the same thing that the Omaha community is doing by turning their back on James Girlup and just throwing their arms up in the air. So we also want to, we want to emphasize that, no, this is still happening, no, this is not okay, no, this is an injustice, and this is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever you feel is happy in Omaha, nothing sweet right now. We have

significant problems. Now, for the next step, I was just talking to the organizers in pro-black, and as for the budget, there's no more budget hearings for the police. And so what's our next step? We can be out in the streets for defunding the police, but at the end of the day, is there going to any proposal to defund the police until next year. Like, you know what I'm saying? So we're kind of at a standstill to what our next move is going to be. And same with the James Scorlock thing. We still need to bring light to it.

And yes, we still need to shine the spotlight on it and let people not forget. But the cases at the grand jury right now. So at the end of the day, we, like, we are, our hands are tied in the sense of we cannot. or I, I don't know if we can yet, but we cannot put any more pressure on them because it's already where it needs to be. So now we're just waiting. You know what I'm saying? So like now we're trying to figure out what our next step is in bringing light to a broken system in Omaha, Nebraska. And we are thinking more, we are an apolitical group. We're at the end of the day, we understand that to be apolitical in 2020 and also in, uh, in the,

times that we are in right now, it's almost, for lack of better words, like a fairy tale, a dream. Like, we can't, we can't be apolitical. So, but in the same time, we can't, we don't want to endorse anybody. So we understand that 2020 election is going to be huge for Omaha, with Chris Jeremy leaving, Ben Gray leaving, Ernie Chambers possibly being on the city commission board. And so all of these things we see as significant pieces to the movement. So we are going to start helping out with that, but not endorsing anybody, but voter registration, getting people involved with that. We are still going to be in the streets. I promise you that we are still going to be protesting. It's just right now the main things that we have been protesting have been

I don't want to say over because it's not over, but it's we, and I don't want to say we have done everything that we can. But for the cops, we can't be at the budget hearing every Tuesday because they're not talking about the police department anymore. But we can still protest. We can still do a march. We can still shine light on our broken system. We just got to figure out what our next step is, to be honest with you. Yeah.

Well, absolutely. And, you know, that comes with the territory of being a newer and young organization, finding your feet. I think a lot of organizations and a lot of activists around the country are going through a similar sort of process where they're trying to keep up with what's going on in their community. They may have exploded around one issue that is, you know, sort of beyond their control at the moment,

but then, you know, thinking, how do we move forward? And I'm confident that pro-black will definitely find its way. We here at Rev. Left Radio have also amplified and talked about the James Scurlock case on our episode, America on Fire. We really went into that as part of a huge thing going on here in Omaha, and I love pro-Black's response to that. Omaha is and remains one of the most segregated cities in the country to this day, and that has a huge sort of effect on the racial,

dynamics of organizers in the city and parts of the city are more radical or more down for change in other parts. West Omaha, for example, is very white and upper middle class area as compared to South or North Omaha. So these are issues that organizations in the past have tried to navigate and I'm confident pro-black will as well. And I really love that pro-black is a black led organization rooted in black women leaders. Malcolm X himself said the most neglected person in America is the black woman and I think they have the most to gain by a full revolutionary sort of confrontation and overthrow of the existing systems of white supremacy and settler colonialism, et cetera, indigenous women as well. So Rev. Left, just for what it's worth,

is always here for pro-black to get the message out and to help in any way that we can. But let's go ahead and move on to the sort of focus of this episode, which is the mass arrest that took place in Omaha on July 25th. What happened exactly and what were your experiences as a participant and organizer within it? Right. So a backstory on the whole protest anyway. So July 22nd, me and another organizer with Pro Black had gone together and she had brought to my attention. She was like, hey, did you see this?

I was like, oh, no, I haven't. And there was a call from a group called the Youth Liberation Fund, YLF. And they pretty much doing a nationwide call to everybody across the country, young, old, black, white, whatever, and to bring people together into march on the atrocities that have been being afflicted upon us by a broken system in specifics to the police department and to march for the victims that have fallen to that system. So Philando Castile, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McLean, so on and so forth. But also, it was also to stand in solidarity with Portland protesters and them being subjected to a fascist regime in Portland at the time. So she brought this to my attention. She was like, hey, like I haven't seen anybody in Omaha even talk about this.

They haven't organized it at all. And I'm like, yo, like this, we should definitely look into this. like we should definitely do this so come july 23rd that's when i i went to go see her again and i'm like hey we should definitely like people are starting to share it on facebook a little bit but there's no event or anything so like we should definitely capitalize on me we should get people together uh so we made the the nationwide call front i accidentally i'm gonna be honest with you i accidentally put it under my profile so it'll say or so it said organized by bear alexander but initially it was supposed to say organized by pro black i had fucked up and then like literally

15 minutes later uh we had like 20 20 people going 30 people interested and then when i found out about it i tried to add pro black onto it but like something with facebook saying that you can't add a page to be a co-host you can only add a profile like a person's profile to to be a co-host so I was like, oh, shit, okay, so everybody's thinking that I'm organizing it, which, I mean, at the end of the day, I was, like, leading it, but it was a pro-black effort. Like, pro-black, we did make this as a cumulative decision. So, yeah, I met with her at the 23rd. We made the post, and it was pretty much just, hey, there's a nationwide callout. We in Omaha decided to, since there are all these victims nationwide, how can we forget about our own local tragedy?

and that's our fallen brother, James Scurlock. So instead of commemorating all of the fallen victims, let's shine a spotlight on James Scurlock and our own fallen victim. But in the same time, let's stand in solidarity with Portland. So I will say also, I copy and paste it. Like I did, I don't know if you saw the callout for the event, but I put Pro Blacks thing at the beginning

where like, oh, there's a nationwide callout, da-da-da-da. and then I copy and pasted the actual nationwide callout. And the nationwide callout, I will say, was, it wasn't, I mean, it could be misconstrued as militant and as violent, but it wasn't. There wasn't any insinuation of violence whatsoever. There wasn't any insinuation of militancy whatsoever. If anything, it was just saying that we're tired of being complicit. Let's take the streets and let's demand the abolishment of the police department.

type type it so take that whatever how you how you would want to take it i know the police probably took it as a as a declaration of conflict so uh which which they put in their reports later on uh so we got there at seven i got there a little early so i got six 45 on 30th infarneum right uh by the turner bull of our park or the turner part uh right on that corner we uh we're everybody starts rounding up i'm just doing chance and everything on the corner uh playing music we're there for about an hour and a half people start rounding up people definitely start rounding up there's like 175 people on that corner uh and you can tell people are just like all right what's next they're just getting antsy like uh what are we going to do next we just going to sit on the corner

like what the fuck is this so uh and i've had people and i had people multiple people come up to me like hey what's the plan what we're doing next what's good so Dang, I totally forgot to mention this. Side note, the plan, when I had met with the organizer on 23rd of July, we had planned to meet at Turner, on 30th of Farnham, and then we were going to march to the Civic Center and do a demonstration. I don't want to divulge too much into the demonstration because, in retrospect, the demonstration would have been not the most efficient and effective way to get our message across. and if something, something like a blessing happened to where that fell through. And plan B happened and plan B was so much better than plan A. So just know that plan A was to go to the Civic Center and do a demonstration.

I had given everybody a speech at 840 and I was just telling everybody, yes, Omaha seen as a city of obedience, we need to take the streets back and let them know who streets are our streets. And we're going to march to the Civic Center. Just giving this big thing. Everybody's like, hell, yeah. Woo, all right. Well, let's go. And then right after I made that speech,

one of the other organizers came up to me. And she was like, hey, we're going to have to cancel the Civic Center demonstration. I wasn't able to get the materials. I'm like, damn, okay. Well, and I just told everybody that we were going to march in, like, less than 10 minutes. So we're all going to start marching in eight minutes. And I'm like, okay, damn, now it was. we don't like that was not expecting this at all so i made the split decision where okay well i'm just

gonna i still want to make some noise let's let people see us because if we stop by the civic center nobody's really going to see us anyway so let's go towards the old market and i unfortunately in retrospect i didn't let anybody know that at the time so i like in retrospect i do kind to feel bad on the sense of I should have let people know, hey, we're not going to the Civic Center anymore. We're going past the Civic Center. We're going through the old market. We went all the way down Farnham to about 17th of Farnham, took a right to Howard, and then took a left going east on Howard to about 11th in Howard. And then when we took a left on 11th in Howard to go north, and then we hit Harney to pass the hive

to commemorate James Scurlock's murder and then also and then we went up Harney and then on 19th Street we took a right going north to Farnham and then that's when on Farnham we took a left and started walking back. Now I will say once again

like I do want to regret we didn't tell anybody that this was a march and I mean in retrospect like we we there could have been ways that we could have our big thing was we didn't want to give the police any opportunity to sabotage our march or our our event at all like we didn't want to give the police any opportunity to sabotage it so we kept people out of the dark unfortunately and i do regret that we didn't tell anybody when they got there that they were going to be marching so some people they didn't come prepared they weren't wearing the right shoes all that stuff all

all the little stuff, and I get that, and I hear that, and it was my first march, and I totally will recognize that for future, for future events. For this one, yes, I didn't tell them until I made that speech that, hey, we're going to march, and then also I didn't let them know how far we were marching. That I regret. When, as we're getting across the bridge, the Farnham Bridge, I definitely, definitely I'm not proud of this, but I was completely ob- like I said, it was my first march. So I was completely oblivious to any of the tactics that they would use.

I was completely oblivious and naive to what they were setting up. I really was going into it as though everything was going to be cool. I was like, wow, this is actually a pretty chill march. I thought there was going to be a little bit more excitement. Like, no, it says, like, we can see our cars from there. Well, yeah, cool. then as soon as soon as the last people in the back got on the bridge and was everybody was on the bridge that's when they finally kettled us the cops about 15 cops came up they were all yelling

your subject you're under arrest you're under arrest uh probably about out of the 150 people that were left or like 130 people that were left uh because it started about 75 or 175 probably about 45 people left the march uh so about the 130 people that were left i would say about 90 of them dispersed right away onto the sidewalks maybe even a hundred of them dispersed right away onto the sidewalks about 30 of us stayed in the street that's when we were just letting everybody know i was on the bullhorn and i was just yelling like we're peaceful protesters we're peaceful protesters we're peaceful protesters we peaceful protesters that's when mark mark vandrossic was riding his bike.

They knocked him off. They pushed him off his bike. So I shoot him with pepper balls. Cole Christensen came up around to try and protect him with his poster and his leaf blower. That's when they shot him as well. And then they tackled them both down on the ground. I'm on the megaphone still. And I'm yelling to the crowd.

I'm trying to bring morale up. And I'm saying, like, don't let them see you quiver. Like, this is exactly what the oppressive system wants is while we are fighting back against their oppression and showing resistance, they want us to quiver and fear. They want us to have our hands down. They want us to back down and they want us to be in the corner and they want us to be on that sidewalk being quiet.

I'm trying to bring the morale up in a demoralizing situation and I'm like trying to start chance while everybody's going. In retrospect, I do realize that, okay, like I was definitely just putting a target on that. But I was trying to start chance. And I was on the microphone like, don't everybody get your cameras out. This is the oppressive system trying to fight back against your resistance. Well, we need to stand tall. and then that's when you hear on the radio

get the guy with the megaphone and then I sarcastically and I mean kind of obnoxiously but I would say more so sarcastically was like hands up don't shoot hands up don't shoot and then I put my hands up and then that's when

a cop behind me just grabs both of my hands and then another cop behind me grabs my shoulders and then the cop in front of me just lunges at my neck and like literally starts choking the fuck out of me and then another cop comes out another cop comes back and starts

kneeing me in the ribs like MMA style and then they threw me on the ground and I'm literally I can't even move like I can't even resist at this point because like they there's six people on me like I can't even really move my hands at all so they finally throw me on the ground

like I get bumped up I get bruises on my face and everything and then they uh he landed his knee while I'm on the ground too he like landed his knee in my back but he didn't keep it there like I will say he didn't like hold his knee on my back but when he

fell to the ground he definitely made sure his knee connected with my back and then they marked me down as resisting arrest or they got me down for resisting arrest and so it's like what the fuck so

they finally arrested me they put they send me to jail right away like I do consider myself fortunate in that aspect where most other people were there on the bridge for a lot longer than I was and they were subjected to a lot more inhumane conditions than I was. I've been to jail and I've been to prison and I will say a lot of the things that they were subjected to, I mean, besides the peeing your pants thing and keeping you zip tied, a lot of the things that they were subjected to, black and brown

people are subjected to the everyday in county corrections and they are demoralized and degraded on a day-to-day basis and they are looked at as worthless pieces of shit that doesn't deserve anything and which kind of draws back to my I'll speak about that later on but um so they as soon as we get into jail they send me to solitary confinement because they said that I didn't they didn't want me instigating anything so they put me like they changed me out right away and they put me in solitary confinement and that's when I was there for like like 19, 20 hours, and then they finally let me out. And then I was released at about 10 o'clock Sunday night.

God damn. Well, a few things to talk about there. One, your responsibility and you taking responsibility for little flaws or mistakes you may have made is deeply admirable. But again, you know, you live and you learn, this is how you learn that shit. And, you know, none of this can be put on your shoulders, even though you seem more than willing to take responsibility, which, again, is admirable. But I really want to emphasize, and you've emphasized this, this was a peaceful protest. This is a peaceful march. This is constitutionally protected speech and behavior, and it was the police who initiated violence

by tackling Mark and then shooting him and, you know, mass arresting everybody. So when these protests turn violent, it's not the protesters. It's the police who initiate violence and then tag you with the charges for doing it. and that whole stick of them all piling on you and jamming their knee in your back and sort of taking their little shots at you while you're on the ground is something that obviously police do all over the country and world and during the J20 protest in Omaha with the rise of fascist and anti-fascist that also happened to me at that protest they shot us with pepper balls tackled me from behind everybody piled on me like six or seven cops a knee in my back

and then you know they did the thing where they take my hair sort of and they rub my face in the concrete. I even said like I'm not pro I'm not resisting at all I got you guys got me and then one of the cops said it's too late motherfucker as they're you know jamming your head into the concrete so this is something the OPD specifically has done for years and I'm sure when it comes to black and brown people happens all over the country the continent and the world and then the last thing I would say just to reemphasize what you said people on the bridge zip tied with their you know hands behind their back for hours on end the zip ties digging into people's wrists No bathroom people are urinating on themselves.

You know, obviously little to know water. I had one friend who was among the people sitting there for hours where the cops came and maybe like poured water on their face and, you know, like sort of waterfalled the water into them because they were so thirsty. But really just like violations of basic human rights on some level were occurring here. So yeah, just a horrific event. I'm glad that you're okay and that you came out of it sort of unscayed.

The fact that you did spend 20 hours. in jail and that you were put in solitary confinement speaks, I think, to the fact that they saw you as the leader and they really wanted to make an example out of you and really discourage you and the rest of the people from exercising constitutional rights to protest. I think that's a big part behind it. If they can get you all mass arrested, have you go through the court process, put charges on your permanent file, they're thinking that some significant percentage of people will just not show up next time. And I think that's a big part of it, you know? 100 but it was all deliberate it was all deliberate yeah so let's let's move on and talk about

the fallout the backlash what has the fallout from the community been since the july 25th event what actions has pro-black organized in the meantime and maybe if you can what struggles are sort of ongoing locally in the wake of that event yeah so i will say that i have gathered From what I have gathered and the people that I've talked to, most of the people that were there, pretty much all of the people that were at that protest at the very beginning were there because they understood the mistreatments inflicted upon by the police department on black and brown communities at a disproportionate rate. They were all there because they understood those mistreatments. But for the first time in their life, for a lot of those people, not all of them, but for I would say 75% of those people, they were subjected to those mistreatments that they are protesting and that they have been protesting. And by them being subjected to those mistreatments, it almost sparked a radical fire inside them.

And it's like, damn, like, this is what, like, this is what has been happening. Like, all cops have been doing this. Like, dang, I didn't see one cop that was nice to me then. Or all these cops were just complicit in them just fucking us up. And this cop saw this other cop pepperball. me and he didn't do anything where this cop was saying all this fucked up shit and these cops are just laughing at us and these county corrections they demoralized us they degraded us they treat they treat us like less of people this is what happens all the time like they do this all like

fuck no so i think that is a beautiful thing in the aspect of it radicalized more people on the sense of wow i need to get out there and for the people who weren't there and who saw saw it on TV and saw it on Facebook and saw it on this, a lot of them were like, damn, I should have been there, or damn, I wish I would have been there, or damn, next time I'm going to make sure that I'm not going to miss it. And I have gotten a lot of that reaction. And that is so beautiful. I will say there are, unfortunately, people that were deterred from protesting. I mean, at least anytime soon. And, like, I don't want to talk, I don't want to talk negatively on them at all. and I don't want to talk negatively negatively on them at all.

Because at pro-black, we strongly believe that your value is not determined by the action that you take, but is determined by you taking action. So you don't have to be in the streets. You don't have to be protesting. So, like, prime example, we had a mayor sit-in where we have people sitting in the mayor's office and we were protesting inside the mayor's office. But then we also had people outside the mayor's office holding up signs. And then we also had people in their cars.

driving around the mayor's office, honking their horns, just staying honking. And then we also had people call zapping the mayor's office. So in that situation, in that example, if you don't want to be up on the front lines in the mayor's office banging on the mayor's door, then come hold a sign. And if you can't hold a sign, then go into the car and haunt the horn. And if you can't do that, and if you have to be at home, then call zap your local council member or calls at the mayor's office, where you were still putting in this work. So that's why I don't want to deter.

I don't want to talk negatively on anybody who I haven't seen at the protest since. I will say that on the public's, on the public's view, it's still, and I'm sure that you can attest to this, like people just do not understand the term defund the police. And they automatically have this negative stigma on it where it's like, defund the police well who are you going to call when somebody gets murdered and how can you do anything with no police officers no no let's let's take it back a little bit and i feel like i feel like getting that information out to people is one of the biggest things that we can do in accomplishing our goal where people don't even understand what what that means and that's huge when they just see

abolish the police defund the police they it's like cognitive dissonance they they don't even want to think about anything because they believe that no, that's horrible. No police? Hell no, we can't do that. So I believe that once we get to control that narrative, which right now we don't have under control. The police still control that narrative. And you are starting to see way more that the police department has been posting way more pro-police stuff. Like, hey, look at all the good stuff that we're doing. Oh, hey, look at this stuff. We just got this award. We just got this award. And they have been doing that. I don't know. I haven't been paying attention to them over the years. But

I have noticed in the last two months they have been posting a lot of pro police look at how well we're doing all this stuff trying to control that narrative even if you do have like in all actuality even if you do have credentials that you can put on your plaque it still doesn't negate the fact that you are neglecting the community by stealing money from the community and putting it into the police department. I think oh my God I think Amy Millen said it where she was like uh or I think festerson might have said it. Where, dang, who was it? One of the council members, I don't want to say the name, but one of the council members, he said that he considers it punishment for the police department to even, a punishment for the police department for it to even be considered to defund the police. And my direct answer to that is,

then how do you explain the neglect on the black and brown communities and the mental health communities that you have been neglecting all the time? Isn't that punishment? you know, human rights and relations only have $1.2 million on their budget, you just signed off on which they did take it back. But as of two or for two months, you signed off on a $1.8 million surveillance truck, armored surveillance truck. So like all this, isn't that punishment to the human rights and relation department? I think that it's complete like they, the for the public's, the public thing, I think the biggest thing right now is we still do not have the public's backing. And I mean, that's understandable. The public just still has a negative stigma. on their mind about defunding the police a lot of them do not understand once we get it more prevalent kind of like i mean honestly look at black lives matter to be real too when uh four years ago when black lives matter came out four or six years ago when black guys matter came out it had a extremely negative stigma behind it where uh corporations wouldn't even back it or you know

what i'm saying like people were not back whatsoever but now information starts getting out and then people start realizing like damn okay yeah more white people are killed by police all officers, but if you break it down per capita and you break it down by population, black people are killed two and a half times more likely than, right, so it's like once this information starts getting out and once people start realizing like, damn, yeah, wow, okay, I guess never thought about it like that. Yeah, hell yeah, black lives do matter. Yeah, deep on the police. Maybe they don't need $160 million. Maybe they don't need 40% of our budget. Maybe we can take 10% of that out and put it to better or more humanitarian outlet.

now and so that kind of goes with I think that we as pro-black but also activists we need to get that information out which is why I'm so incredibly and internally grateful to Omaha abolition research and the work that they're doing they are doing amazing work and they are trying to bring that information to the public and to the people so there is we can see that and so yeah to answer your question on the activist aspect We are getting more people involved, and I will say after the July 25th protest, pro-black skyrocketed. We now have, I think, 400 members on our email list.

So those 400 people, they all filled out a form. They filled out the email list. 52% of them said that they were willing to be arrested for arrestable actions, which is amazing. We now have, I think, like 1,600 followers on Facebook, about 1,200 on Instagram. Instagram. Before July 25th, like our meetings were averaging like 20 people, 25 people. Now they're averaging like 60, 70, 80 people where it goes to we just have to, I mean, that we have to have way more organizational skills, which we're working on tremendously for that big of an organization.

But for an activist aspect, we have been seeing a lot of support. Now from the moderates, the white liberal moderates who are the biggest, some of the biggest voter turnouts in Omaha and in the country, I don't know if we have touched them yet. And it's not, that's not discouraging. That's not just hardening at all. It's just, this is so brand new. And now, okay, we recognize that we aren't touching them as much as we should or as much as we want to. So what's our next step? How are we going to get them on our side? But also, it goes to like that quote that I was saying earlier where too many times the white moderate cares more about order than they care about justice and when you have somebody who cares more about order than they care about justice it's hard

to compromise with them in a sense but yeah the big thing is us the big thing is for us to control the narrative which right now we are trying to the best of our abilities but the police has way very resources we need to get the information out to the public as to what we mean by defunding the police. I will say also, to answer your question, we got some criticism from the black community. I will say, which I didn't appreciate. We got some criticism from the black and brown community,

some of the black and brown community where they were just, they had quarrel with our organization skills, which I understand. And they had a quarrel with our approach about how we did it, and we shouldn't have done it this way, which goes to exactly the docility

that I was talking about. about how our black and brown communities have been pacified in a sense, unfortunately, but they have been pacified. So also for the white communities, we got a lot of condemnation saying that, oh, it's not peaceful because you were knocking down traffic cones. Or you know what I'm saying?

When the cops said that we were knocking on traffic cones, and that's when also, side note, at the very beginning on July 25th, when the cops made the report, the cops told the news that there was, only one pepperball deployed in how we were being violent and how they did it to protect us from drunk drivers and how they got reports that we were going to be yeah we were going to be violent now we were throwing traffic cones and barriers at their cars and like all this shit so

and then right after this happened and once the news like the km tv umt omaha world herald was still all over the police until vice buzz speed and yahoo came out. And as soon as they come out or they came out with their articles, that's what Omaha World Harold wrote that really, really good article about the protests and about like what happened and everything. But you could tell the police try to control the narrative where, oh, they only deployed one pepperball. Yeah, it's like what? And then when they made that, when they made the list of events, the timeline, you can tell that they were still trying to control the narrative. And I was talking to the Yahoo news reporter who actually did the, uh, the, you know, the,

did the report on the protest, and she was going to drop the article on Tuesday, but the Omaha Police Department asked her if she could wait until Thursday when they gave their press conference because they felt like it would be pertinent information that could change, quote unquote, change some things. So you can tell that they are literally trying to control the narrative as much as they can to the best of their abilities. And then as soon as the Omaha Road Herald came out with me and Mark saying, though, I mean, kind of radical quotes a little bit, that's when the police union came right after and say, Mark Vandrossig, Bear Alexander, Morgan Freeman are all, they defy what peaceful protests are,

they're troublemakers, they don't ask police for permission, we highly recommend that you guys don't organize with them because all they want is chaos and they want to invoke violence. So that's them just once again trying to control the, trying to control the narrative. and we have to beat them at their own game. Yeah, yeah. And it's just the lies that the OPD came out with in the wake of that event. Like, you know, it's really illustrative to talk about that one pepper ball that they said they shot. When I played video on this show, a bit ago highlighting that lie where they lit markup with like seven shots in the first volley.

Yes, like what? You can hear it on tape. And so that that lie is just obliterated immediately. But the fact that they even tried to make that lie really shows where the OPED. is coming from and the depths they'll go to try to shift the narrative in their direction. 100%. 100%. And then the last thing I just wanted to mention before we sign off here is, you know, that level of

support, you're never going to get as a radical or even non-radical black organization fighting for basic human rights. You're never going to get that wealthy, older, white support. I mean, that's just a fact of American white supremacy. I mean, even when Martin Luther King Jr. died, I think his disapproval rating, was in the 60s and only after he was dead did white America start trying to make a hero out of them really just to weaponize him against other black leaders and organizers wanting to make advancements when they're talking about this fetishization of peace and you know cops hitting you

with 100 pepper balls is not violence but you throwing a traffic cone that's violence it's just absurd on every level exactly but you do for whatever support you might not have in certain elements of certain communities. I think young people and specifically young people of color are really being woken up by what's going on and organizations like yours are really bringing them around and I think that's the future, you know. Hell yes. Hell yes. Well, we're going to wrap it up there. I would love to have you back on the show in a future, at a future date to talk about really anything. I love listening to you. Again, I'm deeply admirable of everything that you've done and, you know, keep it up. We're here to help get the message out or to act as a

resource or whatever pro-black needs. Rev Left is here for you. Before I let you go, can you please let listeners know where they can find and support Pro-Black online? Yeah, definitely. So Pro-Black, we spell it P-R-O-B-L-A-C. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram.

And we just recently made a Twitter, too. So we are active on all of those. I will say our most activity is on Facebook. and then our second activity, most activity, is on Instagram. That, once you follow that, we will have all of our events that we are either sponsored with or endorsing or that we are organizing ourselves. So we are also just a great place to follow if you wanted to get your local activism news or your local, your local protests that are happening as well. I do want to say, man, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come on your show. I definitely appreciate it.

I do say that I did just recently hear about you guys, but I am starting to fall in love more and more and more that I learn about it. So thank you so much. I appreciate it tremendously. Beautiful. That's awesome. That's wonderful. And I will provide the links for Pro Black's links in the show notes of this episode so people can quickly and easily go and find them, support them, show them, love, and really boost them. because I think you're doing incredible work.

So in the meantime, take care of yourself, stay safe, and we're here anytime for any reason. Thank you, man. You have a good day. All these police executions have really been fucking with my execution. Having been able to focus on music, Keep thinking about niggas who met their conclusions too early from demons

Who chose not to see him as human with you used to back the delusion Don't want to hear no internal solution The system ain't broken, that's just an illusion Pleasing I caught a shit woke I haven't stepped in the booth in the month My head been real fucked up I'm not in the move for jokes Eight minutes, 46 seconds he choked

I watched them go Three of them covered the killer and cloak So many memories this shit evoke I don't seen too many niggas get smoked This ain't my lyrical lane So I had to swear to speak on the pain. Typically, I do not rap in my feelings, but lately this song that I got on my brain. I hesitate to embrace my songs, because if it's not carefully done in this lane,

but George and Brianna and Tony Medday, they hit me so hard, I couldn't abstain. Reading been giving me clarity through all this media sanctioned pollution. I don't want a hit by no riots and looting as long as them badges are lying and shooting. Lately been spending some time refuting opinions of people who think we're the enemy. I had to take a step back and remember that I'm going to be doing this shit till the end of me. Long road ahead of me, and I've been running on fumes. I'm looking to fill out my tank. Selling these sonnes, and then I deposit the bread and mutual lay like the bank.

Promise I'm not at the center or none of this honor to be at these activist flank. Whole lot of people have been showing me love, but honestly, I'm not the person to think. Take it from people more seasoned and smarter than I am. Something you must understand is if you're not using your voices to highlight the movement, you draw in the line in the sand. If you're not actively helping dismantle to the system, I definitely know where you stand. If you think a couple of shares in the squares, enough. You part of the problem at hand.

All these police executions have really been fucking with my execution. Having been able to focus on music, keep thinking about niggas who met their conclusions too early from demons who chose not to see him as human with unions to back the delusion. Don't want to hear no internal solution. The system ain't broken. That shit's an illusion.

Yeah, I'm David Harvey. I'm an organizer with Omaha abolition research. And, yeah, excited to be here to talk about that and tell part of the story for what happened on July 25th. Yeah, before we get into the Omaha abolition research and what that organization is doing, And can you just talk a little bit about maybe how you identify politically just so people can sort of orient themselves to your political perspective before we dive into the details? Sure.

I guess I started out where many leftists do as an anarchist. But, yeah, I first, my first sort of protest or thing that radicalized me was going to a police brutality protest that was connecting the death of Oscar Grant. to the death of a kid in Greece and Gaza getting bombed, and it was connecting all of those issues. And then kind of got radicalized from there and spent most of my organizing over the years with the IWW doing worker organizing. And now at this point, you know, I guess I identify, lean towards Marxist-Leninism.

But for me, I leave the theory to other folks. and it's more about practice to me and what actually gets stuff done and pushes us toward liberation. Absolutely. Yeah, we've been friends for many years. We met through local organizing circles. We've organized together.

You've done work for, you know, as you said, the IWW, now you're doing work for the Omaha abolition research, and you've always admirably put sort of action before hyper-fetishizing theory, like some on the internet do. So it's always been refreshing and awesome to work with you. But let's go ahead and talk about your newest organization, which you helped co-found, which is the Omaha Abolition Research.

Can you talk about sort of how that organization came to be and what its ultimate goals are? So Omaha abolition research, which wasn't named for a few months until after we were actually got started. but in the wake of George Floyd's death and the uprisings happening all over the country, people just kind of came out of the woodwork. I'm sure you've seen this and organizers all over the country, people just kind of that were not leftists and not organizers. We're reaching out to people that they knew, knew something about organizing or knew, you know, trying to figure out where they could fit in. And so a lot of people started reaching out to me and some other people. And we were like, well, how do we channel this energy? And at the same time,

me and a few core people were researching and basically looking at what was happening around the country. So the defunding movement and just understanding what that meant. And of course, you know that came out of like a rich history of abolition and you know i've had a lot of familiarity with abolition in relation to prison related stuff but not directly police related so yeah the uh there's a committee of the iw incarcerated workers organizing committee and things like uh the anarchist black cross that do letter writing but on the police side there's great voices there that I was discovering, like Miriam Kaba, to be, like, my biggest inspiration, who is an abolitionist, Ruth Gilmore, and, of course, Angela Davis is, you know, everybody,

everybody knows, I was somewhat familiar with her work. So, essentially, we got these people together, and we were trying to figure out how to, you know, what was Omaha the main thing was we weren't hearing talk about defunding and we weren't hearing talks about basically the gains in the momentum all around the country so all of this stuff was happening all over the country but why wasn't Omaha doing this so we just kind of started compiling data and and just exposing certain things about police budget and conduct and we were just focusing that through an abolition lens and then that's kind of when how we got started and kind of started focusing our campaign around the budget initially.

Yeah. So yeah, I think it's fair to say that OAR's main goal is to really collect and put out sort of crucial information about policing, about city budgets, all of these things that that go into policing, put that information out, get it into not only the general population's hands, but into organizers' hands so they can more effectively put pressure on their local governments and, you know, help sort of guide their actions based on, you know, local differences in policing and budgeting, et cetera. Is that fair to say? Yeah, absolutely. And we, you know, we were trying to cast a wide net, you know, that was an initial thing like, who is our audience? Is it leftists? Is it organizers, but we were just, you know, if we stick to the raw data, it really speaks for

itself, you know, with almost 40% of the general fund budget of Omaha going to police while all of these other services are lacking, you know, it doesn't take much argument to see the importance of it. Right. Yeah, and the way you put out the information on social media with with sort of aesthetically pleasing graphic design, I think is an important element in in allowing that information to circulate more widely. And I'm sure obviously other cities have done similar things where you're collecting local data to help organizing efforts, fight injustice and whatnot. But I'm sure there are many organizations and many cities that don't have anything like this

that could learn from it and could put some energy and time into doing it, especially people who, for whatever reason, might not be able to be on the front lines, of any particular conflict, protest, confrontation, et cetera, but who could very easily collect and put together important essential data to help guide those organizers on the front lines or at least inform them better. So I'm hoping by getting the word out about Omaha abolition research that other cities, people in other cities will pick that up

and run with it in their own way and just help create, you know, this sort of network of information about localities that once put together can give you a really good perspective on how policing and budgeting operate in the country at large. Yeah, and one thing to add to that, having easily digestible information, I think, is key. But to add to that, we had a template to go on. So we, you know, we're not experts in abolition. We're kind of growing in our information and understanding of all the different ways and what

that can mean, and it reaches so many things. But groups like Reclaim the Block in Minneapolis has been around for years fighting for this and doing the same type of things, pressuring counsel, getting some focused demands and having some information there. They're not necessarily data driven, but we would not have been able to kind of easily, or it wasn't easy actually, but build our model and like, message out of like a rich history and template that has been happening with groups all over the country. So we, you know, we thank them or else we wouldn't be able to have accomplished

or wouldn't be able to, you know, affect what we do or figure out a great focus and trajectory. Right. Yeah. They inspired you. You turn around. You put stuff out. Hopefully you continue to inspire others. And, you know, for what it's worth, I don't think that there is. such a thing as experts in abolition in the sense that a lot of us who identify in the abolitionist tradition right now fighting against the carceral state you know there's a long history of abolition but the conditions are always changing and and the local differences are meaningful and so I think there's this constant sort of you know playing catch-up especially as all these new organizers and people just first getting introduced to the very idea of abolition

are coming up organizing in their communities I think it's all just like this big collective effort of trying to figure it out as we go. It's a very difficult thing to have a totalizing grasp on. There's this tradition that goes all the way back to slavery abolition that we're obviously consciously operating in, but the conditions are so different. And not even just what we have to fight, which is often pretty clear in our heads, but how to get this information out to people in a way that makes them also want to fight and really highlights the depravities and cruelties and racism of the system is something that's an ongoing struggle and fight for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the focus of this episode is really trying to highlight what happened on July 25th here in Omaha, the mass arrest, the police brutality, the repression, et cetera, that sort of came out of it. And I know that you were there. So what happened exactly? And what were your experiences as a participant of that March? You know, honestly, we'd got.

there kind of late before things had kicked off and had a bunch of OAR work we were going to do and wasn't planning on sticking around for very long. And I think that was for this particular action. But the action was in solidarity with what's been happening in Portland and the people getting picked up there. And with justice for James Scurlock, who was murdered by a white supremacist on May 30th. So the march was tying these things together and it was rather

large for Omaha at this time and maybe 150, 200 people altogether and it we threw downtown and was almost back to its starting point and the whole way

cops were kind of escorting the march until the other protesters were all on the bridge. They quickly cut it off and then said you're all under arrest. And then they started firing pepper balls. And, you know, there were children there, like seven and eights that were exposed to pepper balls. people had gotten brutalized pretty badly, knead in the ribs, and so that was the, that was the start of the brutality.

We hung out on the bridge for a while, and we'd got putting these zip ties, and we were in them for, you know, some people six to eight hours. And I don't know if any, you know, not everyone that listens to this show has been in those zips. zip ties, but if you're not a flexible person, it's excruciatingly painful just with that. And to the point where my arm went numb, and by the time I got it, they took them off, I couldn't even raise my right arm. And even now, one of my thumbs is still numb from it. Even to this day. Even to this day. Yeah. And, uh, so once we got taken to corrections they we were in the parking lot there for a while and they tried to line us up and people were dehydrated couldn't use the bathroom a woman urinated herself because she couldn't they wouldn't let her use a bathroom they wouldn't let her use a bathroom there weren't giving people water until people started begging but before that they brought a case of water out for these cops standing around like smirking and smiling and they were drinking water just

right in front of us as everyone was like agonizing and once we finally got in you know and it was a long long process and everyone was complaining about the cuffs because you're not supposed to have those, you know, it's inhumane to have those on anyway, in my opinion, but for the extent of time, I don't even think they're like supposed to do that and people complained about it and, you know, one person even complained about it and a cop came over and tightened them. God damn it. Yeah. Yeah. And so, Once we got into corrections, it was, you know, tons of people crowded into one room. The trans people that were arrested immediately thrown in solitary.

You know, if people had injuries or needed a medication or something, there was a quote, unquote, you know, medical exam that they did, but they didn't actually get people any medication that they needed because we were there well into the next day. and some people were there, I think I was in there 18 hours and some people were there for, you know, over a day. God damn. Yeah, they put, I think there was 43 or more people in one cell that's supposed to hold like 11 or 14 maybe. And this is COVID times, you know. So luckily they, everyone was given a mask when they got in, but, you know, there's no telling if those were actually. cleaned or not but but that's still super dangerous in a room with no ventilation they weren't letting

people you know there's this huge large room where it is and it's cooler but then they would just throw everybody in this small cell they were moving people around often too into different rooms making it very disorienting people were asking questions about bail and you know when they were going to get out and there was this computer issue that was slowing everything down, which is, you know, sounds like, you know, sounds like bullshit to me, but, you know, they have manual processes to get through that stuff and they were just not doing it. So they were just giving us the runaround. It really gives you perspective on like how people are treated and just completely disrespected and the whims of whatever a corrections officer wants to do like we were

charged uh with anything but we were dehumanized and treated as if we were criminals and literally have no rights whatsoever and you know when we're in there and uh there were minors in there There was this younger girl who was, you know, she was freaking out and wanted a phone call and they weren't giving it to her. And eventually they'd, you know, she was acting up. So they took her out and, like, drug her past the cell with all the guys and slammed her against the wall and eventually put her in some sort of restraints. And this is a 17-year-old girl. Jesus Christ. And there's numerous things.

there's a podcast out that's got voices and you know minute long speeches of the people that many of the people that were arrested that I'll give you the source too that would be be good for you to show but yeah it was a it was a dehumanizing experience there's nothing that really like so you know cauterizes your belief in abolition then just going through that yeah I bet yeah so I mean I mean in my opinion, this is human rights violations all up and down the board. I mean, minors being roughed up in adult jails, people urinating themselves zip-tied for hours on end and sat on the street. It's just a disgusting display of really sadism on the part of the OPD.

And one thing that they often do, especially when it comes to mass arrests, and I've went through it myself, is they find reasons to delay getting out of jail. even if you have bail and stuff so in our case a few years ago their delaying tactic was to give us a set of charges which sets the bail you go about the process of making those calls getting the bail up to jail right getting whatever support you have people coming up with with cash to get you out and then sending through a second round of charges which starts the process all over again and we know we felt at the time that this was a very conscious effort on on the part of the oped to keep us in there longer discourage us from protesting again, make it shittier in every possible way. And this time, this mass arrest, the excuse was some sort of computer malfunction where they couldn't process people. And so, as you said, people stayed sometimes over 24 hours in these conditions. And when it comes to handing out masks, that's nice.

And, I mean, that's the low bar. They should absolutely do that. But, you know, masks are really less effective when social distancing is not also coupled with it. So if you give a bunch of people masks, but you still cram them, them into a cell together. I mean, the mask isn't 100% effective in maintaining, you know, breath and particles and droplets and whatnot. So it's still a very dangerous situation. And with people being scared, it's very much, as I said in the other interview, whether it's

conscious or not on the part of the OPD, it in effect is weaponizing COVID against peaceful protesters. And again, I must stress that point, these are peaceful protesters on the last leg of a peaceful march heading back to their car. violence initiated 100% by the Omaha Police Department. And then they come around and they say, well, we had to brutalize these people because it, quote, leaned toward the potential of getting violent. But the cops, they made damn sure that it got violent. And I think that's worth emphasizing.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they definitely were in it to make a statement. You know, it's funny that they chose to do this, you know, and it had to do with the solidarity protest, especially with what was going on around the country, solidarity protests with Portland. And they were like, okay, well, we got them all together. Let's just crush this. And, yeah, just the brutality that came out of it. And your point on the, you know, not being able to social distance and corrections, yeah, you, there's no possible way to social distance. And I can only imagine.

imagine, like, what it's like for people that are in there for longer periods of time, uh, heavily exposed to COVID. And there being an outbreak at that jail now anyway. So we weren't in the upstairs part where people are there for a more extended period of time, where there is probably more of the people that, uh, were positive. But yeah, it could have been much, it could have been much worse with a bunch of people getting COVID positive tests out of this. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, this is, um, it's, it's a constitutional right to be able to peacefully protest and have a redress of grievances. It is constitutionally protected speech and behavior and to have the police unleash violence and then just commit these, what I would consider

human rights violations on people for exercising. That constitutional right is, is fucking disgusting you know you think if we lived in a world with logical consistency that the people on the right who love to fetishize the constitution and speak endlessly on not treading on people and the constitution is this god-given document that was inspired by you know judeo-christian monothea or whatever their arguments are just none of that fucking matters when it's people that they perceive to be their political enemies constitutional rights mean nothing and in fact i think a lot on the right including a lot of the police get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of inflicting this cruelty on their perceived political opponents.

Yeah, not only do they get pleasure out of it, because there were lots of smiles, and they did not, no empathy whatsoever, but not only that, they were getting paid overtime. So they were bolstering their pay, which, you know, just increases their salary overall. And even prior to this event, Omaha, the Omaha Police Department had spent $2.5 million on overtime in just 10 days. And this is when there's a budget shortfall because of COVID. And all of this funding is just going into police departments for what, you know, tear gassing, pepperballing, brutalizing people.

You know, and that, you know, that just kind of emphasizes our message with OAR, Omaha abolition research, which is these funds are not. being used in any sort of productive way other than brutalizing people and not letting people, you know, protest and use their rights, you know, their first amendment rights. Yeah, and this shit is traumatic for young people who've never gone to jail, being brutalized like that, trans people, being dead named and treated, you know, even worse because they're trans. This is very traumatizing. And then you have the court costs, the bail costs, the possibility of having a criminal charge on your record forever trying to find employment.

And it really is a concerted attempt by the police forces and the forces of reaction to discourage people from coming out and protesting at all. They don't want you on the street making a fuss about anything that's even slightly inconvenient to them. So if they can draw out this process, if they can make it extra traumatizing, if they can even focus some of their brutality on who they perceive to be more vulnerable mentally or emotionally that's all part of this grander strategy to discourage any of this sort of behavior for some people it reignites the fire in their bellies and makes them come out even stronger for other people though understandably it makes them say hey maybe i can help in some

other way i don't want to go through that shit again and uh it's a very conscious concerted effort uh to make people go through that and it's fucking disgusting deserves to be amplified and called out it's happening here in omaha but it's also happening in every goddamn city from coast to coast in this country. So, you know, while we're focusing on the individual details of what happened here, this is a story that can be applied to every major city in this country and we'll continue to until we overthrow this rotten, rotten system and the violent enforcers of it.

But let's go ahead and move on to the backlash or the fallout. What has sort of the fallout been from the community since this July 25th mass arrest and how has Omaha abolition research responded? And maybe you can talk about what struggles are occurring in the wake of that event overall. So to lead into that with the, you know, the end of the arrest, when we got out, Nebraska Left Coalition had organized bail. There was 100 people outside that were, as soon as we got out, started cheering with food and drinks for us, and media was there.

and it was one of those moments I think that everyone that got out won't forget and that truly showed like a nature of solidarity and that there was like power and what had happened regardless of our treatment and that people were going to start you know moving forward and even ramping it up immediately people were wanting to ramp up organizing and protesting so Where OAR was with that, we, you know, the funny thing is we just officially launched our campaign and our social media and website and everything one week before this happened. So we were kind of just by a hair got it up and ready to go. and then this event happens with this protest and everyone is just like hungry for abolition you know everyone's you know directly seeing what the prison system's like the jail system's like directly seeing what police brutality is like so that is abolition and so that happened right when we were already planning on ramping up this campaign and it just kind of exploded from there and uh same thing with pro black they they had a huge meeting that you know their numbers grew by you know two thirds right after the arrest and uh the collaboration also skyrocketed so we you know just knowing what other groups are doing so oar working with with pro black to kind of get our

messaging out and noise, which is North Omaha media, independent media, and all of these groups were just getting the word out about what happened, talking about abolition, riffing on each other and kind of supporting each other in this beautiful way. And that kind of led up to the budget campaign. And this all coincided with a vote. The city council was about to approve the mayor's proposed budget, which was increasing the police funding, and we'd had a whole campaign around that, and the messaging was just there at the perfect time. And there was a huge protest outside of this budget hearing. We had a bunch of info that we'd been putting out on it, to the point where one council person even, proposed an amendment to decrease police funding and reallocated to mental health services and

job services, which is unheard of in Omaha. So, you know, it was pretty milk toast for him to propose that and knowing that he, you know, wasn't going to get support for the amendment. And, but I think getting this message out and, basically exposing the budget for what it is and what needs aren't met, that's a win for us to be able to increase this message, talk about abolition, get more people talking about abolition. So many people at the hearing were, whether they said abolition or not, and I don't think many or any of them did, but they were talking abolition.

And abolition isn't just you get rid of the police department and it's gone. Abolition is a process, and it's a process of taking away and dismantling pieces of, you know, punitive and carceral systems and re-diverting those into the community. And that's exactly what people were talking all over that hearing that we're speaking out on the budget. So it was really beautiful, like what's come out of it and the sense of community that's been built around everything that's happened. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, as longtime sort of organizers in the Omaha area, you and I know the sort of next generation of young people, young POC, specifically coming up, taking the mantle, getting involved, it's a beautiful thing. You know, Omaha often gets overlooked and in the past has not really met the challenges of its time like some other major cities, but I think that is in the process of changing and hopefully all the activism and organizing and political education that, you know, folks like you and I have been doing over several years has helped in some way sort of help lay that foundation for these younger folks coming up, carrying on the fight.

And it's a dialectical truth that this sort of repression on behalf of the police only proves the point. of the protests and as much as they try to discourage people through that repression also ignites that fire in so many other people's stomachs when they see this brutality or experience this brutality like we're not giving up so you know as much as they tried to repress they only fan the flames of resistance here in Omaha and throughout the world really but i do want to emphasize this thing that you said about coming out of of jail after this horrific experience being brutalized in so many ways, but then coming out and seeing hundreds of people there with foods and snacks

and applauding and hugging, it can't be overstated the psychological benefit that that has when you are so sort of maybe in the grips of hopelessness and despair while you're in jail thinking, how in the fuck am I going to get out of this? You know, what is my job going to say? How do I come up with the money to get bailed out? to have an organization there that does that and to have a community of activists and organizers there to hold you when you walk out. I mean, if you don't cry in that situation, like you don't

have a pulse, this shit has an effect. And it really works to counterbalance some of the negativity you experience while in jail. So, you know, if you're in a community that does have a bail support system, support it more. If it doesn't, think about how you can create one and just understand that even a handful of people there to welcome you when you get out can make all the difference in your psychology going home and the next several days coming out of those experiences. So it really can't be understated, the importance of community, love, and support in those moments. But thank you so much, David, for coming on.

It's really cool to see this project come to fruition. I remember just a few months ago sort of sitting in your backyard and you were telling me the idea before it even had a name that you were working on and to see it sort of come to the forefront and be able to inform other organizations and movements going on in Omaha. It's really beautiful thing and it's a testament to your and others work on this front. Before I let you go though, can you please let listeners know where they can find and support Omaha abolition research online? Yeah, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, at Omaha Abolition. and our website is Omaha abolition research.org.

There isn't any sort of, we don't have any sort of fundraising. We're all volunteers and kind of just throwing things together. So we don't have any fundraising campaign, even though we probably will with some of the stuff that we've been trying to pull together resource-wise. But yeah, just follow our pages. and we've got more campaigns that we're planning to come out with in the future. Beautiful. I'll link to all of that.

And also, if you do have some money, you want to support the general movement here in Omaha. These organizations that I talk about on the show are deeply connected. So, you know, donating to pro-black helps Omaha abolition research. Donating to the NLC Bail Fund helps pro-black. And it's all sort of a mutually reinforcing network of organizations doing what they're good at and helping other organizations do what they're good at. So these things are not separate entities. It's all one big movement.

Supporting one is supporting the other. So yeah, thank you so much for coming on. Keep up the amazing work at Omaha Abolition Research. And we'll definitely keep up on what's happening in Omaha as these events continue to unfold. Awesome. Been great talking to you. And I'll see you in the yard again soon. Absolutely.

I can't wait. Well, they better save some space for me In that growing cottage industry Well, selfishness is currency People spend more than they make So I wrap my head in bandages From a string of happy accidents I guess maybe I asked for it

But who am I to say? The closing bell dead tolls Here the market crash A cry in a trader swears He'll get out of the game The cowboy drinks himself To death fresh Out of rehab

While they're loading all the rifles On the range Look up at the air arrest Look down in that merry on a trench Look now as the crumbling Four or five falls down Oh and the big one heads look out for

the plane and clothes look out for what the wiretap knows look out on the ever widened and money truck and where it goes it takes a lot of gall to try to please these dehumanizing entities

I befriended all my enemies they had my bad against the war oh a coward is what a coward does I suppose maybe I always was but I'm sick of it I've had enough and now I'm ready for the war the lion bows his head down to the ringmaster with the tight rope stretched so high above the crowd all his faces are contortioners in my have heard because they all looked as unhappy as a clown look long at that stonehenge look quick is something you missed look into that smoldering buildings bombed out fog until it finally list look up at that big wave look down at your other brother's grave look hard for a heart or something

a sacrifice. That's what it takes. That's what it takes. That's what it takes. Hmm. Sort it takes. Ha! Ha! It's what it takes. Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! of the rest. Look down in that mail on the trench. Look now as the crumbling four or five falls down or when the big one hits. Look out for the plain clothes to speak soft what the wild tap knows. Look out on the ever-widen and money trail and where it goes, what does it call? Hello, I am Brendan. I am a local leftist organizer here in Omaha, Nebraska.

Absolutely. And longtime listeners of the show will definitely be familiar with Brendan as one of the most recurring guests that we've had on the show over our three and a half year existence. And for this episode, we're sort of focusing on what's going on. in Omaha to help amplify what's happening. Rev. Left has always been an arm of the Nebraska Left Coalition, and I see it as my job to use this platform to get this stuff out about our local politics, but also because some of the ideas, strategies, organizational methodologies can be applied well beyond Omaha in many cities around the country.

So hopefully this will act as not only an interesting piece on Omaha itself, but also as a little bit of inspiration and organizational education. and for others out there looking to do similar things or for people out there fighting similar battles. So without further ado, the focus of this episode is really going to be centered around the mass arrest that took place in Omaha on July 25th. It got some national coverage from some big media outlets,

and it was quite an event here locally. Brendan, of course, was involved as an organizer and participant in that protest and rally. And so, Brendan, what happened exactly? and what were sort of your personal experiences as somebody caught up in it all? Yeah, so I was really only there to support. I wasn't there on any sort of organizer or, like, capacity or any capacity from any particular org I'm in. I just feel very strongly that left-wing politics requires dismantling, like, white supremacy

and like these sorts of, like, abuses of, like, state violence. you know, and all of the intersections they're in. So there was this rally organized that was in solidarity with some of the protests that were happening in Portland, but also asking for justice for James Scurlock, who was a local young man who was killed by a local business owner and white supremacist who has not been charged at all. And I'm sure other people can speak more on the specifics of that. But so that's why I was there, and I actually was planning on leaving early.

But my friend was like, I have to go for a second. I want to come back, and I was like, you should not, you know, I hope everybody listening to this is well aware that, like, you should not be walking to and from protest by yourself. So I walked with them, and we rejoined the march as it was on its way back from downtown. And then the environment was really good. everyone seemed really happy and it was like a big crowd and people were chanting and by the time I got there, the police were kind of in front and behind the march, already kind of closing off

streets. I didn't hear anything from them about dispersal or the march being declared illegal or anything like that, although for the record, I wasn't there the whole time. Like I said, I was walking back, my friend back. so everything seemed really good and positive and then we got on this kind of overpass bridge and we were pretty much cettled which which is like to say that like the minute the crowd was on the bridge the police kind of trapped everybody using cop cars and just immediately began mass arresting so I was kind of towards the back and then basically everybody in the back kind of immediately, like, got on the sidewalk, started complying. It was very much, it's very surreal

because it kind of reminded me of some of the, like, nonviolent civil disobedience protests of the 60s. People just really seem to, like, respond quickly. So I missed a lot of the action. I think that happened in the front because people were really cooperative in the back just to make it easier. I think a lot of people weren't expecting to get arrested. But for those of us who knew it was a possibility, a lot of us know that it's, you know, In the long run, like, it's easier to just get the arrest done and go back and do it later, right? And so they, you know, they zip tied everybody. They arrested everybody.

There were kids on the bridge. There was, like, journalists, one of whom is a friend of Brett and ours, and they got, like, tackled or something. Like, I saw their knees, and they were scratched up. The legal observer was also detained and, I think, arrested as well. somebody nearby like came out of her hotel to observe and she got arrested to like there was just no there was no discretion being involved with the exception exception of them you know targeting people because they were a person of color or because they looked like they might be an organizer or anything like that so you know i think is that's that a pretty decent description yeah am i missing no i think that that gives the general outlines for sure but it was certainly um sort of messed up in the sense that the the bulk of the protests in the march had already happened. Police have been sort of paving the way for the protest, you know, blocking off traffic so the protesters can sort of cross,

and there was no violence or anything like that. And so at the point where the mass arrest happened, it was really people heading back to the start point of the march to disperse and go home. Yeah, maybe a block away. Yeah, a block away. So the bulk of the protest is already over. And really, since nothing had happened, there was no violence, no anything. nobody was really fully expecting for this kettle thing to happen.

And I think it was the mayor, Gene Stother, who later said that the arrests happened because it was leaning toward the potential of getting violent, which is an absurd statement. Was that Stodtherd who had said that? No, it was actually the police chief. Okay, the police chief said that. Yeah, we leaned toward the potential of getting violent. And that's just, it's really, I've said this before elsewhere, but the more I think about it, the more true it is, it's like it's thought crime, right?

And so it's really interesting to me, all of these people who, you know, feel very strongly about anti-communism or whatever. And they're like, oh, you know, it's 1984. We don't want to live in 1984. They're quite comfortable with people getting arrested for thought crime and the surveillance state and all of that. You know, they just want the name of the system to be different and then it's okay. Exactly right. How many people ultimately were arrested? Is it about 120?

That's about what it was from what I hear. Okay. So, yeah, huge mass arrest. arrests, legal observers, press, nobody was really spared in the kettling and arresting. What were the conditions like during the arrest and the jailing process? Because I heard that was pretty brutal on a lot of people. It was pretty brutal. Luckily, I was kind of in and out compared to most other people.

Yeah, I got bailed out pretty quickly, so I wasn't in nearly as long as some other people. And the longer you're in there, the more it weighs on you. Um, this is, I got arrested earlier, um, for going to like pay, pay somebody's bail at jail during curfew, which I was legally allowed to do. And that time I was in jail for a good 20 hours maybe, like not just jail, but I would say like the total of my like detention was probably like 20, 21 hours. Um, this time it was more like five, six, maybe seven. It's hard to keep track of time. But it was a lot worse for a lot of other people. Um, Omaha's jails are just overcrowded, right? Like, just really bad. And I've heard some horse before,

from some friends who've been to jail because of, you know, like other types of, like, nonviolent charges but are in there for much longer than, than people are for, you know, failing to disperse in this case. And it's just, it's just not a good situation at all. It's overflowing. A lot of the, a lot of the equipment inside is outdated. You know, the, people talk about these police budgets being huge, but that money doesn't go into, like, improving the lives of people in corrections. Corrections is a different state institution, right? So, you know, you don't have access to, uh, it's, it's like basically impossible to like wash your hands or use hand and sanitize or anything like that, which is really like important in a global pandemic, right?

People are kind of stuck in rooms together. The rooms are hot. Um, you know, when you get meals is kind of, you know, based off of a very normal schedule, but it's not like that when you're in jail. So, like, the first time I was arrested, you know, I got some meals this time. I didn't just because I was in there during the, like, late night, early morning stuff. And, like, those meals, they don't, like, make sure that it's, like, kosher or halal or anything like that. So if you have any legal or, like, religious dietary restrictions, it doesn't matter. Your constitutional rights have just been violated there. You know, people are hot. There's, you know, it's a very, like, it's, you know, it's really it is some like

Foucault type stuff where it's like this is a total institution that's designed to like discipline and dehumanize and punish you. And it has no respect for your humanity. There's no respect for your gender identity or anything like that. Absolutely. Yeah. You're talking during a once in a lifetime global health pandemic, 120 people being kettled and then arrested, pushed into, you know, cells together. just really, in a sense, whether they're conscious of it or unconscious of it, the police, I mean, there is a sort of weaponization of the pandemic sort of going on underneath the surface of all of this. And just to reiterate, Brendan's first arrest was literally while trying to deliver bail money to people already in jail,

and they use that as the pretense to arrest him and jail him the first time. So the Omaha Police Department is notorious on this front. I'm sure whoever's listening to this, your local police department sucks as well on these fronts. but it really is a dehumanizing process overall. I do want to touch on NLC's role, though. What role has NLC played in helping people during and after the arrests with regards to the bail fund, court costs, et cetera? Yeah, so, you know, NLC isn't organizing any of these protests.

We're, you know, for the most part, we're, like, focused on, like, sort of a community-building approach to things. So this isn't really our real house. but what we are doing is fulfilling maybe some support roles because we feel very strongly that, you know, Black Lives Matter is important. We take very seriously things like abolition and, you know, white supremacy, right, which is a big factor here. So we set up the bail fund after pretty much the weekend that all of those first kind of George Floyd protests began. So it's really just that we get money from people in the community who

want to support these things. And I think that people are really just underestimating how much support these protests have. People are sick of it. And I think that a lot of people, you know, maybe even a lot of like middle class white people who had a lot of faith in the system and, you know, they believe that, you know, adding body cameras and all this would like lead lead to better solutions and in a lot of cases it's not you know i think like living in the pandemic has maybe caused people to see how capitalism really isn't not working um and in all this so people are really like interested in supporting the community so we're just kind of serving as a nexus for that you know we have well like if during the mass arrests um we had people outside paying people's bail

and that's really it it's the bail support and we do what we have other like support things that we do for people, like, that are equally accessible to these protesters, I think, but the main one is definitely the bail fund and so on. And then also using our reach, like, however big it is, to share resources, you know, whether it's from other groups who are sharing important information or getting people because we aren't lawyers. So we're getting people in touch with, like, hey, you know, if you have legal questions, contact the ACLU and the ACLU has been helping

everybody out. So NLC is definitely not like the active player in this, but I don't see these protests continuing in Omaha without our bail fund. Right. Yeah, because these are fundamentally black liberation movements, it's black-led organizations that are really taking the lead and other organizations are playing their role as much as possible, and NLC has taken on that bail fund and a court cost role. How many people just generally, I don't know if we have exact numbers, but how many of the roughly 120 people arrested were bailed out through the NLC bail fund, and do those court costs also get paid for and addressed by NLC?

I think I don't have the exact numbers, but I think we got probably between 90 and 100 of the protesters, is my guess. Like I said, I got out early, so I have the privilege of spending a little bit of time outside of jail, doing the bail support as well. so the vast majority though not everybody some people were bailed out by friends or their parents or things like that but quite a lot of the protesters we bailed out the ACLU is also you know

a group that has support infrastructure and isn't one of like they're not organizing the protests either you know they got in touch a lot quicker maybe than some people would have even expected And so I think they are the ones who are connecting people to that legal sort of side of things. So we're not helping people pay for their lawyers because the ACLU Freedom Fund is. I see. Wonderful. So can you talk a little bit about the sort of fallout from the community and the quote-unquote leaders? What that's been since the July 25th, mass arrest and sort of what struggles are occurring locally in the wake of that event?

Yeah, I mean, people are really angry, and you can just see it at this, like, again, the, even compared to four years ago, I think, I think, like, four or five years ago between Standing Rock and that sort of first wave of like Ferguson-based Black Lives Matter protests, even the Bernie Sanders campaign, I think, like, we can be quite dismissive of his role in radicalizing people, you know, again, Standing Rock. I think is a big one, and then Trump's election, I think all of those things kind of really just radicalized a lot of people quickly. But I think the pandemic and then this round of protests really did so much more that the amount of people in the community who are outraged, it's, I think that people are really underestimating. And I think that the city and the state really are underestimating it. There are, you know, there are conservatives in the suburbs who are like, this isn't like I thought we believed in small government like you know what I mean and I'm not saying that's the majority response by any means but but I think more and more people are are over it and

you know there was a city council hearing on the budget which is you know defunding things like our libraries but at giving additional millions of dollars to OPD and just the sheer volume of testimony from citizens like private citizens like all of this stuff is is being done like within the rules of the system even this July 25th protest we have the right to protest under the constitution right and and I think a lot of people are utilizing these systems that are set in place by the state to address their concerns and realizing that the state really just doesn't care like no we're not going to defund OPD it doesn't matter if there are four hours of testimony saying that we should, and that's the vast majority of

what we're hearing. You know, city council passed it anyway. And that's, and so that's, you know, it's interesting. We'll see where it goes from here, but I think, I think Omaha is really over it. I think that the community as a whole is just not interested in handling things this way. I think, like, the response from the city and from OPD is like, oh, you know, well, our police department is, You know, one of the first ones to, you know, condemn the Minneapolis Police Department for the murder of George Floyd, right? And so on and so on. And, like, our police chief, like, listens to us, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so on. And, like, our, you know, we haven't shot as many people lately.

And we don't shoot as many people as other major cities, you know, compared per capita, blah, blah, blah. And so it's really, it's gaslighting. And they want to pretend, like, our concern aren't valid. And even if our police department is better, which I think anyone who like knows about some of the things that have happened here with like Zachary Bear Heels and things like that, like, you know, our police department's got its skeletons in the closet too. But even if it's, it is better, I think people are like, okay, but like you can't arrest journalists and legal observers at a protest, a peaceful protest when they're walking home. You know, I think, I don't know who in their right mind looks at that situation and says, oh, that's okay. you know and you'll hear people say like oh law and order but they those same people are the ones who are like walking around without masks even though there's a mask mandate so right yeah exactly yeah

i'm also agreeing in agreement that a lot of people in omaha and around the country are certainly waking up there seems to be this huge wave of young people particularly young people of color who are you know radicalizing jumping into activist and organizing circles and trying to to do that work, which I think is a good sign, and of all the things that we've been through and sort of consolidating our forces and local organizing efforts, that stuff is going to be incredibly essential going forward for all the reasons that are always going to be a problem in our disgusting white supremacist capitalist society, but also because in the wake of this health pandemic and the global or the economic crisis that it has brought about,

there's going to be a phase of consolidation and austerity coming after the dust, has sort of settled on the pandemic, and by consolidation, I mean small and medium-sized businesses going out of business, unable to maintain themselves during this pandemic, being bought up by larger firms, merging, et cetera, and by austerity, we're going to come out of an economic crisis like in 2008, and the government is going to want to put the burden of climbing out of that crisis, not on the shoulders of rich people and huge corporations, but on the shoulders of poor people and working people by slicing social programs and the like so the struggles are going to be ongoing for sure yeah and you can already see it happening i mean like

closes and there's no new aid and there's no relief at all and so people are you know expected to stretch that one like 1200 dollar stimulus check for for months and so all the servers have to go back even though they don't want to because there's not any other jobs available because that economies receding, you know, or all of the, like, essential workers who are, like, grocery store workers or, like, migrant laborers and all of that, like, they're already, the cost has already been put on them to keep this economy going on life support. All right. Well, thank you so much, Brandon, for coming on and giving your perspective on what happened.

Before I let you go, can you please the listeners know where they can find and support NLC and its bail fund online? Yeah, so we've got a Facebook and an Instagram page. it's really easy to find any left coalition. If you look on either of those sites, you can find the link to our PayPal.

If you want to support the bail fund or just NLC in general, our PayPal is the best way to do it. And if you want to use it specifically for the bail fund, you can write a memo in that and then we'll make sure that that's what that money goes towards. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Brendan. I'm sure you'll be on

many more times in the future to talk about many more topics. But for now, be well and thank you for coming on and sharing your story. Thank you for having me. boiling out his name Sheld a rabbit Sheld a rabbit From the backseat window

Set and wash The summer corn grow Eight eyes scream In a desert dream And yourself in father seeing Too hard inside hard outside easy days

when you said let's go for a ride we'd say a lot spirit thing meet my puppy and you're sending eight to

know to Tim and Tina were my parents' names, they got engaged, they were inflamed, they were inflamed, seduced, seduced, seduced, by the life of butterflies how they shimmer how they glimmer those butterflies

we seven kids we almost die nearly put to death by lightning strike Instead there was hot pink flashes in the sky We climb the rocks in snow and rain In search of magic power

To heal our mother's pain I showed a rabbit from the backseat window sat and wash the summer corn grow eight ice cream in a desert dream and got a thousand fathers eat too hard inside too hard outside these days when he said

Let's go for a ride We'd sail on spirit things We might be an inseminate