NOCOP's 2022 Recap and the Year Ahead

Happy New Years from NOCOP!

The end of 2022 marks the first full year of NOCOP’s organizing efforts in New Orleans for community control of the police. In this newsletter, we’re taking time to look back at all we have learned and fought for through struggle. Locally, NOCOP’s biggest efforts focused on rallying around abortion rights, putting on rapid-response actions in solidarity with incarcerated youth at Bridge City and protests from inside the Orleans Justice Center, and consolidating our membership.

Rallying for Reproductive Rights

We started out strong in early winter and spring with speak-outs, petitioning and canvassing for signatures on our petition for community control. This led us into a summer of action, mobilizing around the overturn of Roe v Wade.

We and a coalition of progressive organizations in the city organized over 4,000 people to take the streets in June. NOCOP spoke out against Louisiana State Police’s presence in the city as an unaccountable police force willing to arrest and prosecute abortion seekers.

Twice, we marched right up to the Mayor’s doorstep. We even agitated at a District C Town Hall Meeting. In the end, Cantrell outright sided with the racist and violent Louisiana State Police, but the people of New Orleans won commitments from the DA, City Council, and the Sheriff to make New Orleans into a Sanctuary city for abortion.

This summer, we saw organized uprisings from adults and youth incarcerated in facilities in New Orleans. In June, NOCOP held an emergency action in solidarity with youth in the Bridge City Youth Detention Center as they organized to take over the facility.

In August, we rallied around protests from incarcerated folks at the Orleans Justice Center (OJC), demanding that the Sheriff release the demands letter from protestors, meet their demands, and commit to no retaliation for peaceful protest. Through these actions, we mobilized community members and families of those affected by incarceration to fight back against the racist and repressive prisons and injustice system.

In Solidarity with Incarcerated Protestors

National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression: CPAC Election Season in Chicago!

In national news, the Chicago chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) wrapped up petitioning for their local CPAC representatives in November of this year. Some members from NOCOP were able to travel and help out with campaigning as filing came to a close in November.

As an affiliate of NAARPR, we are proud to congratulate our friends at the Chicago Alliance and as they take another huge step forward towards community oversight of the police, the first legislation of its kind in the country. District counselor positions go up for election in February.

Learn more about Chicago’s ordinance for community control (called Empowering Communities for Public Safety) here.

The Year Ahead: MLK Weekend Forum for Community Control, and the NOCOP x Real Name Campaign Coalition to Convict NOPD Officer Gerry Paul

To commemorate MLK Day, NOCOP will be hosting a Forum for Community Control on Saturday, January 14th at 2pm at the Nora Navra Public Library! We will host a series of speakers from New Orleans and Chicago to speak on the struggle for community control of the police in our respective cities. We are so excited to be hosting this event. Mark your calendar!

In 2023, we are starting strong with a coalition alongside the Real Name Campaign pushing for the conviction and jailing of Gerry Paul, an NOPD officer who assaulted a crime tech lab in May in 2021. After much delay, Paul’s trial is finally set for January 31, 2023. We are coordinating an action for his court date and will send out more details shortly. Follow us on Instagram (@n.o.cop) and Facebook (New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police) for updates.

Thank you for Fighting With Us!

Time and time again, the mayor and city council are too slow and corrupted to act in the best interests of New Orleans residents who face violence, brutality, and discrimination from NOPD every day. We want real change, and in order to win it, we need to fight for democratic change in the structures that govern policing in this city. Thank you for fighting alongside us and supporting New Orleans residents’ right to choose who polices their neighborhoods and how they are policed.

Have a happy new year, and stay tuned!

Yours in struggle,

NOCOP

New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police

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