Following a 34-month investigation into abuse allegations against the Phoenix Police Department, the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) declared what we and our grantee partners already knew to be true: police routinely use unnecessary lethal and nonlethal force, racially profile Black, Latine, and Indigenous people, and violate the constitutional rights of people experiencing homelessness—the latter being a historic first for any DOJ investigation.
This is a significant win! However, our fight against authoritarianism is far from over. With victories also come setbacks. Shortly after this announcement, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping or camping in public—a clear indictment of unhoused folks.
For Nonprofit Quarterly, Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) Program Director Jeree Thomas and our friends at Funders for Justice and Democratizing Justice Initiative, outline what philanthropy can do in this critical moment.
"Now is not the time for a multiyear philanthropic learning journey or oversimplified solutions such as just “getting out the vote.” ...As funders, it is our responsibility to ensure that an intersectional ecosystem of organizers, communicators, and lawyers have the resources to go on the offensive against authoritarian advancement and defend our social movements against attack."
READ: The full NPQ piece. https://lnkd.in/egepFBZe
READ: Fund for Empowerment, a Phoenix-based CTPF grantee partner, spoke to NBC News about the DOJ's findings and their lawsuit against the city of Phoenix. https://lnkd.in/eN5YCpCS