National Expungement Week 2020
"In 2020 National Expungement Week is expanding its year-round services and adapting to the need for health safety. We work to provide resources that will empower our communities to adapt, sustain, survive and create in pursuit of equity. N.E.W is powered by people of color, supported in full solidarity by Cage-Free Repair and brought to the community through a dedicated group of grassroots community organizers/advocates. N.E.W efforts build up to a week of awareness/action with coordinated relief clinics, discussions and healing sessions aiming to provide access to relief, equity and opportunity in communities historically and presently affected by the War on Drugs"
“We live in a world where we don’t allow people to have second chances. I think about food in my nephews mouth I think about the stigma my sister has had to face. My nephew is going to struggle because my sister has a record. She can’t provide the way she wants to provide for my nephew ” - Tauheedah, 23 + Hafsa, 22, South Central LA
“I was 18, I was young when I got the felony and for the past 10 years its been a part of my life and kept me away from fully integrating back into society. Until I got my record expunged I couldn’t go to school and I couldn’t get a job, it haunted me for awhile. When I had my record expunged the feeling was amazing, that I had another opportunity to change my life and to make my daughter proud.” - Mauro, 29, Inglewood, CA
"Less than an ounce of weed could cost you the rest of your life. When someone is convicted of a cannabis crime they lose access to government funded education, housing, resources, they lose access to time— one of our most valuable resources we can never get back.” - DeJanae, 27, South Central LA
“You go to a different world when you go to jail and you have no way of getting counseling or of getting help. I consider cannabis a drug of healing. My hope in the way I see weed being legal is to make a change. To stop the violence. That’s the future.” - Christian, 26, Highland Park LA
"As a collective of activists and front line freedom fighters from across the nation: We condemn all of the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Mike Ramos and Tony McDade and we condemn all police officers who use their protected class status to end the lives of our community members. We condemn the militarization of the police forces across our nation and the excessive force used against people exercising their rights to speak against police brutality. Police unions across the nation lobby to insulate their protected status as they escalate the violence against the people, with lethal and less-than-lethal weapons used to maim and kill protestors.
We demand defunding of police departments across the nation and to redirect those funds to school districts, housing, and access to actual resources for mental health in the school system and continued education. In a time where health care workers are treating COVID-19 patients with minimal protection wearing garbage bags and soiled surgical masks, police officers are attacking protestors while wearing full riot gear. Law enforcement agencies steadily expand their budgets, yet social services funding has been steadily cut. We demand blanket amnesty for all freedom fighters who have been incarcerated during this time.
While the justice system continues to profit from the incarceration of people and arrests of protestors. These arrests exacerbate our current public health crisis by putting more people at risk of contracting COVID-19, which is already disproportionately harming communities of color.. Our communities cannot continue to suffer the way they have. We demand justice! We will not rest until justice is served and all historic marginalized communities receive equitable access to all basic human rights. WE DEMAND THIS NOW!" Equity First Alliance
Remember that 100% of our Justice Pin is invested in grass root organizations that are doing the essential civil rights work of building equity. Right now we are supporting @ExpungementWeek taking place all over the country next month.
Gracias Besito LA Tree Femme Collective / Photos by Thalia Gochez
mauro
dejanae
christian
Tauheedah + Hafsa