Building Community Safety Rooted In Nonviolence

Safety is a priority. It’s on everyone’s minds. Violence is an epidemic in the United States. From police brutality to mass shootings to hate crimes, citizens are seeking solutions for how to handle conflict in ways that don’t cause further harm. Here are some examples from across the country.

Community Safety Initiatives: A range of alternatives exist to relying on police. “Call On Me, Not the Cops” urges families to make safety plans with one another. Compassion in Oakland provides community members to accompany vulnerable people on daily errands. Street Riders and SafeWalks NYC organizes yellow vest wearing escorts for anyone who feels unsafe. There are many more initiatives that exist. If your area doesn’t have one, consider starting one.

Reimagine Safety with Community Street Teams: After his son was killed by gun violence, Aqueela Sherrills stopped retaliation by his son’s friends. He went on to negotiate a truce between the Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles, reducing gun violence by 44%. Now, as the director of the Newark Community Street Team, he trains communities to address their conflicts directly. This approach replaces the need for police - and increased community resilience and ability to handle conflict without violence. Imagine if we funded street teams instead of militarized police.

Build Peace Teams To De-escalate Violence At Protests: Groups like DC Peace Team model community protection during times of political tension. From Election Day to Inauguration Day, DC Peace Team used unarmed accompaniment and nonviolent force to de-escalate unhealthy conflict between diametrically opposed protesters. Peace teams have a proven history of successfully preventing violence at protests - unlike police who often escalate violence and unleash repression. 

Defund Police And Hire Local Peacemakers: Richmond, CA, put out a message to the people most likely to cause gun violence: “we’ll pay you to stop the violence instead of causing it”. Training teams of peacemakers, Operation Peacemaker Fellowship hired them at $1,000/month to de-escalate tensions and fights. The program worked, reducing gun violence by 55%. Imagine what the program could achieve with even a fraction of the city police budget.

CAHOOTS - Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets: Eugene, Oregon, has been reimagining public safety since 1989. The CAHOOTS program sends out two-person teams consisting of a medic (a nurse, paramedic, or EMT) and a crisis worker with substantial training in the mental health field. The CAHOOTS teams deal with a wide range of mental health-related crises, including conflict resolution, welfare checks, substance abuse, suicide threats, and more, relying on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques. The model offers decades of experience in defunding police and funding social services. 

Everyone Can Interrupt Hate: Bystander Intervention trainings help ordinary people take action when they see a hate crime unfolding in front of them. After the shootings of Asian-American women in Atlanta, groups like Asian-Americans Advancing Justice have been organizing trainings for people, making connections between anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Black hate crimes. You can find more trainings with DC Peace Team and Meta Peace Team on our Pace e Bene Events Page.

Youth Healing Hate Grants: Rising hate crimes is a concern for many people in the United States. Facing this, one organization, the M.K. Gandhi Institute in Rochester, NY, asked local youth for ideas on how to heal hate. From a student club to a peace garden to murals and more, local youth ages 12-24 received up to $1,000 for projects that provided a creative solution to fear, hostility, and division within their community. The Youth Healing Hate Grant projects reached people in schools, streets, faith groups, online, and within institutions such as city government. Could your community design a program like this?

Protests Work: Since the eruption of Black Lives Matter in 2014 to protest the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., hundreds of cities nationwide have seen racial justice struggles aimed at ending police brutality. A new study shows that the protests are having an impact - not just on policy shifts, but also on significantly decreasing police homicides wherever protests have occurred. 

Social Emergency Procedures: Design Studio for Social Intervention has been working on ways communities can respond to “social emergencies”. (Such as the on-going state-sanctioned violence against Black people.) They write, “Just as fire drills train us for how to act and what to do in case of a physical emergency, we need drills and steps for how to act when there's a social emergency.” The plans include a set of procedures that include gathering the community, connecting to collective truth on the grassroots level, recognizing the big picture, and taking action. You can find out more here.

Go Further With Mutual Aid: The meaning of “safety” goes beyond just stopping fights, gun violence, and police brutality. Evictions and lack of shelter make people unsafe. Isolation makes people unsafe. Food insecurity and hunger make people unsafe. When the fridge is empty, the car breaks down, or your utilities are about to get shut off over unpaid bills, mutual aid networks can be a lifesaver and alleviate the violence of poverty. Thus, they prevent conflicts that the police currently deal with, such as theft, shoplifting, broken tail lights, arrests over unpaid fees, and more. Mutual aid has exploded during the pandemic; more than 400 new mutual aid networks are providing direct aid to neighbors and families throughout the United States. Unlike charity, mutual aid is people-helping-people. They dismantle classism as they take care of immediate needs. Gandhi said, “poverty is the worst form of violence”. A culture of nonviolence participates in and spreads the word about mutual aid networks. Find your local mutual aid network here. Don’t see one near you? Here’s how to start one>>

From the violence of poverty to the ways police target poor people, the issues are all connected. If we want to create safety in our communities, we need to address the many-pronged aspects of what creates scarcity, fear, conflict, and violence. These are just a few of the many examples. Put them to work in your area … and start building a culture of nonviolence.