Adrienne Brown is hot like fire.

– We need ongoing supported focus on police brutality and accountability, even as we develop our own peace zones. It’s no longer sufficient to get furious when a civilian is killed by police, and maintain that fury until the officers are acquitted or resign. For the past 10 years it has been nearly impossible to get sustained support for this kind of work from the foundation world, so as organizers we have to sustain this work in other more community-based ways. I definitely want to shout out The Gathering, who have picked up this unpopular issue as it relates to juvenile justice, with the commitment of Harry Belafonte – they are joining the Oakland community for actions next week. I have also heard that Uhuru will be hosting a meeting tomorrow evening to discuss accountability and healing. – we need to express our gratitude to groups like Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY), who identified the gaping hole that exists in the non-profit and organizing community of Oakland in terms of police accountability work. CJNY stepped up in a major way for today’s nonviolent action, but they can’t maintain this effort on their own. Bay Area groups who focus their work on young people of color, this political moment needs you. – And I know I am biased by the perspective of working at The Ruckus Society, but we need to engage in the deep training and skill development around pulling off large scale strategic direct actions. There are ways to pull together mass actions in a short time period that gain media, build the power of our positions, and help the community to see and understand the situation and how they can get involved.

More here. And here. Over at ta-nahesi's spot a group of folks have been questioning why black people don't rail against black on black crime as much as they do against police crime.  Maybe a year and some months ago, the then-outgoing Philadelphia Chief of Police asked that the organization 100 Black Men begin to police Philly streets, after a particularly vicious crime streak that left dozens of black youth murdered. The men were not to be paid, not to be armed, and only trained moderately. Some men jumped at the chance–black anti-crime rallies are the norm in black neighborhoods. This was my response. In a nutshell why should we put our lives on the line to do a job we pay taxes for, a service that we implicitly sign the social contract for? I've got it–because in our case, the rights we have are not rights at all, but privileges that are given to us when we act right.