In our activism segment for Best of the Left edition #1029: "You can't reignite a fire that never stops burning," you heard from those in the Movement for Black Lives what white teammates and co-conspirators need to do. Black people are taking risks every day to fight for their liberation. To truly be supporting this movement, white people need to ignore any hesitation stemming from their privilege and take risks too. If you are white and want to educate yourself and find out how you can join the fight to end oppression, here are some organizations in the Movement for Black Lives that you should be aware of and that can provide the resources you need to become part of the movement and get off the side-lines.

SURJ - Showing Up for Racial Justice 

SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. You can find resources, actions and chapters and partner organizations in your area at showingupforracialjustice.org. 

Advancement Project

Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras. You can join campaigns, access resources and news around voting rights, the school to prison pipeline and more at advancementproject.org. 

Hands Up United

HandsUpUnited aims to fulfill the political void that remains from the historical archives of the Black Power Movement and strongly believes liberation for oppressed Black and Brown people will be achieved solely through self determination coupled with traditional and nontraditional means of political education. Their community programs include Books and Breakfast, the Tech Institute and food and clothing disbursement and oppression support groups. You can learn more at handsupunited.org.  

Dream Defenders

Dream Defenders is an uprising of communities in struggle, shifting culture through transformational organizing that believes the liberation necessitates the destruction of the political and economic systems of Capitalism and Imperialism, as well as Patriarchy. They also believe that nonviolent resistance is “the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom” and are fundamentally committed to nonviolence as their means of struggle against a violent oppressor. You can learn more at dreamdefenders.org. 

We Are Here Movement

The We Are Here Movement’s Racial Justice in America Moonshot campaign is requesting a radical transformation in racial justice and equality with the push for $150 billion directed at poor communities over the next 10 years to provide access to equal education, healthcare, quality housing, training and jobs, nutrition and an overhaul of the Criminal Justice System. You can sign the petition at weareheremovement.com/moonshot.

Million Hoodies Movement for Justice 

Million Hoodies Movement for Justice is a racial justice membership organization confronting anti-black racism and systemic violence. Their mission is to build the next generation human rights leaders to end mass criminalization and gun violence through grassroots organizing, advocacy, and education. You can learn more at millionhoodies.net.

TAKE ACTION

Find Showing Up for Justice actions near you

Sign the We Are Here Movement's Racial Justice Moonshot Petition 

EDUCATE YOURSELF

This is What White People Can Do to Support Black Lives Matter (Washington Post)

Tim Wise Website (TimWise.com)

It's Legal to Kill Black People (Hands Up United) 

Rewire News - Racism (Rewire.com)

11 Major Misconceptions About the Black Lives Matter Movement (Black Lives Matter)

Only White People Can Save Themselves From Racism and White Supremacism (Washington Post) 

By now we’ve all heard that the FBI, with the backing of the Obama administration, is going after Apple directly to force the company to create a backdoor entry to access encrypted data on our smartphones. What you may not have heard is that state officials on both coasts have begun introducing proposals to uphold that policy at the state level.

Assembly Bill 1681, introduced in January by Assemblymember Jim Cooper, would require any smartphone sold in California “to be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider.” Any manufacturer or operating system provider who knowingly did not comply would then be subject to a civil penalty of $2,500 for each smartphone sold or leased. 

This proposal might be even more drastic than the legal precedent at stake in Apple’s battle with the Justice Department. Not only is it unconstitutional due to its burden on interstate commerce, but, as EFF puts it...

“By impacting every smartphone user in the state, this bill would affect tens of millions of people who have done nothing wrong... If passed, it would leave Californians at risk for identity theft, data breach, stalking, and other invasions of privacy, with little benefit to law enforcement. It would be both ineffective and impossible to enforce.” 

Unfortunately, the idea is still gaining steam. Similar proposals have already been made by a district attorney in Manhattan and a nearly identical bill is pending in the New York State Assembly.

Help fight for the privacy and safety of Californians so that your state isn’t next. Sign EFF’s petition to stop California lawmakers from undermining smartphone security for millions at act.eff.org/action.

Tell California lawmakers not to undermine smartphone encryption: https://t.co/SxYDYLL3nD

— EFF (@EFF) March 10, 2016

TAKE ACTION:

Sign the EFF petition to fight California Assembly Bill 1681 at https://act.eff.org/action/don-t-let-california-lawmakers-undermine-smartphone-security 

Follow @EFF on Twitter for the latest updates on the petition and other actions to protect privacy. 

Donate to support the work of EFF at https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button 

Sources/further reading:

Read the entire Assembly Bill 1681

Worried about Apple? California has a Bill that Would Disable Encryption on All Phones (EFF.org)

A Technical Perspective on the iPhone Case (EFF.org) 

CSAIL: Giving Government Special Access to Data Poses Major Security Risks (MIT News)

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #997 http://www.bestoftheleft.com/_997_privacy_encryption 

Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman.

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: End Dragnet Government Surveillance.

President Obama has pledged to review and bring NSA surveillance in line with the Constitution. With his term running down, the clock is ticking for fulling this promise.

Executive Order 12333 is a Reagan-era spy program still on the books. And while action from Congress would be preferable as it would prevent subsequent administrations from reversing a reversal through new executive order, the White House can and should do what it can to bring domestic policy in line with the Constitution and international law.

The ACLU has sent a letter to the White House asking that the president prohibit dragnet surveillance and to make any exceptions as narrow as possible with clear time, purpose and geographic limitations. Visit WhiteHouse.gov/Contact to let the president know that privacy is a basic human right that the U.S. should respect abroad as well as domestically and you expect him to follow through.

Also, the law that the NSA uses to collect phone records of every single American — Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act — is set to expire on June 1 unless Congress acts. Sign the petition at ACLU.org to let your representatives know you oppose dragnet surveillance and therefore the extension of any part of the Patriot Act. We can’t rely on this Congress to pass a comprehensive law to end the practice, but with the entire House and part of the Senate in the midst of election season, we can let them know that we vote on this issue.

TAKE ACTION:

CONTACT the White House: Reverse EO 12333

SIGN: Cosmetic Changes Aren’t Enough: We need to END Dragnet NSA Surveillance via The ACLU

Sources/further reading:

"What President Obama Can Do to Stop US Dragnet Surveillance Around the World” via ACLU

"ACLU COMMENTS TO THE PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD ON ITS REVIEW OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 12333” via the ACLU

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #797 "Trouble at the old pharm (Health Care)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: tell Attorney General Loretta Lynch to get justice for Tamir Rice.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty’s conduct in the Grand Jury supposedly seeking an indictment for Tamir Rice’s murder was — to use a generous word — atypical. The joke about being able to indict a ham sandwich didn’t develop for no reason; the purpose of the grand jury process is to present just enough evidence that ordinary people say “Sure, that person might have done it; there should be a trial to find out.”

McGinty actually presented experts that exonerated the target of the grand jury; this is unprecedented and would never be done in a case for someone who wasn’t law enforcement. The resulting lack of an indictment means that justice is no longer possible at the local level, so Tamir’s family is petitioning federal authorities.

Tamir’s cousin LaTonya Goldsby has a petition at Change.org simply titled “Justice For Tamir Rice” asking the Department of Justice to investigate McGinty and not allow the murder of a 12-year-old boy in broad daylight go unpunished.

Of the failed grand jury Goldsby says: "My family is saddened and disappointed– but we are not surprised” and she cites precedent for the request that needs your signature of support.

From the petition:

The Department of Justice has launched independent investigations into police killings of civilians before. Last year, they launched one in response to the killing of John Crawford, who, like Tamir, had a toy gun in his hand while shopping at a Walmart when police rushed in and shot him to death. A Change.org petition helped make that investigation happen and that’s why I need your signature.

Please sign and share the family’s petition; we can’t allow the grand jury to be the final word on the murder of a 12-year-old boy.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Justice For Tamir Rice” via Change.org

Sources/further reading:

”For Immediate Release: Tamir Rice’s Family Mourns For Tamir After Non-Indictment of Officers” via the JusticeForJamil Tumblr

"The Paranoid Style of American Policing: When officers take the lives of those they are sworn to protect and serve, they undermine their own legitimacy.” via Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic

"Failed justice in Tamir Rice death galvanizes faith community to action: Joshua L. Caruso, Tracey Lind and Richard Gibson (Opinion)” via Cleveland.com

"Tamir Rice protesters picket house of Cleveland prosecutor Timothy McGinty” at The Guardian

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #981 "The struggle for justice continues (#BlackLivesMatter)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: #YearWithoutTamir.

A recent study titled “Black Millennials in America” created by Black Youth Project and reported on at Colorlines found that 54% of young black people say that either they or someone they know have been harassed by police or been the victim of police violence.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the independent investigations into the killing of 12-year-old Cleveland child Tamir Rice found no wrong doing on the part of the officer who pulled the trigger. Retired FBI agent Kimberly Crawford wrote in her report that Officer Lehmann couldn’t have known Tamir’s gun was fake.

As reported in the New York Times, Crawford explained that:

“The question is not whether every officer would have reacted the same way...Rather, the relevant inquiry is whether a reasonable officer, confronting the exact same scenario under identical conditions could have concluded that deadly force was necessary.”

Cleveland.com quotes the Florida law enforcement officer and instructor who also investigated the shooting as saying:

"This unquestionably was a tragic loss of life, but to compound the tragedy by labeling the officers' conduct as anything but objectively reasonable would also be a tragedy.”

Right. Tragedy.

On the anniversary of Tamir Rice’s murder, his family has asked for our solidarity and our action. The group Ferguson Action invites people around the country to join the Rice family and the community of Cleveland to join them as they honor his life and continue to fight for justice.

At FergusonAction.com you can pledge to take action by signing on to the statement:

"I PLEDGE TO STAND WITH THE FAMILY OF TAMIR RICE AND THE COMMUNITY OF CLEVELAND. WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR TAMIR RICE AND AN AN END TO THE WAR AGAINST BLACK CHILDREN.”

You can also find an action happening this weekend in your area or create one if there isn’t an action scheduled. The hashtag #YearWithoutTamir is being used to coordinate and amplify actions around the country, so be sure to follow now through Sunday as participants post live updates.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "I pledge to stand with the family of Tamir Rice…” via Ferguson Action

JOIN: #YearWithoutTamir Actions around the country via Ferguson Action

Sources/further reading:

"2 Outside Reviews Say Cleveland Officer Acted Reasonably in Shooting Tamir Rice, 12” at The New York Times

"New report finds Tamir Rice shooting tragic but reasonable” at Cleveland.com

Intersection Episode 9: "Tamir Rice Has Been Dead for a Year: Host Jamil Smith looks back at the police killing of a 12-year-old boy in his hometown, Cleveland.”

"Cleveland, On the Brink” by Jamil Smith at The New Republic

"Tamir Rice's mother to testify before Grand Jury” at WKYC.com

"Outrage Is Growing Over the Tamir Rice Investigation: Is the grand jury process stacked in favor of the cop who killed the 12-year-old?” at Mother Jones

"STUDY: Half of Black Millenials Know a Victim of Police Violence, Still See Cops as Protectors” at Colorlines

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #970 "The power of solidarity (Racial Justice)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: SafeQualitySchools.org: Ending the School to Prison Pipeline.

Spring Valley High has elevated the public consciousness about violence against black women and girls as well as the prevalence of “school officers” as disciplinarians across the country. But as Ijeoma Oluo writes at The Establishment, the young girls sitting around the victim in the video aren't the only ones who weren’t surprised:

"To many, it’s shocking to see the officer throw the silent girl out of her seat onto the ground and drag her across the floor by her leg. To many, it’s shocking to see the teacher and school administrator stand by silently while one of their students is assaulted.

But this isn’t shocking to black women in America.”

As mentioned before on the show, violence against women of color is — to put it mildly — poorly covered. And possibly the only sub-topic of police violence covered less often is that perpetrated by the officers invited into our schools. We think of the school-to-prison pipeline as a general oppression and commodification of youth of color; as author Roxane Gay writes at The New York Times, it is much more than that:

"Schools are not merely sites of education, they are sites of control. In fact, they are sites of control well before they are sites of education. And for certain populations — students of color, working-class students, anyone on the margins — the sites of control in the school system can be incredibly restrictive, suffocating, perilous.”

The Advancement Project’s program “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” is dedicated to documenting and exposing zero tolerance and other harsh policies that contribute to violence like that at Spring Valley High; developing and implementing school discipline reform at the local level; and organizing national visibility campaigns pushing for broader reform.

At SafeQualitySchools.org, you can find the current campaigns and programs in your state as well as infographics to share and resources for students, parents, educators, law enforcement, and activists. Through a link on their home page you can also contribute personal stories detailing how the school to prison pipeline has affected you and/or your loved ones and neighbors. For inspiration and motivation, they also have a page of victories from around the country of law and policy changes.

As the Advancement Project infographic “What You Need To Know About #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh" states, these incidents are not uncommon. It’s time we demanded our education tax dollars actually be used to educate, not victimize. Visit SafeQualitySchools.org and get involved.

TAKE ACTION:

Students, parents, educators, law enforcement, and activists! VISIT The Advancement Project’s SafeQualitySchools.org to get involved.

FOLLOW the #School2Prison thread.

SHARE the "School to Prison Pipeline by Advancement Project” video

CONTRIBUTE your stories: #School2Pipeline Stories

Additional Activism/Resources:

SIGN to demand #BlackLivesMatter issues be addressed in primary debates: #RaiseTheDebate via Black Lives Matter at ”ColorOfChange

Sources/further reading:

”What You Need to Know About #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh” — Infographic via The Advancement Project

"Where Are Black Children Safe?" Roxane Gay at The New York Times

"America Doesn’t Care About Black Women And Girls” by Ijeoma Oluo at The Establishment

"Black Girl Down… and Up” by PrisonCulture

"Take cops out of schools: More officers mean more arrests, even for offenses like talking back.” via The Washington Post

”A Short History of Cops Terrorizing Students” via The Nation

The Bayview Hunters Point YMCA -- Center for Academic Re-entry and Empowerment (CARE)

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #966 "Criminalizing the classroom (School-to-Prison Pipeline)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Support Bipartisan #JusticeReformNOW.

1 out of every 100 Americans is behind bars. The U.S. spends $80 billion a year on incarceration. 70 million Americans have a criminal record. In too many neighborhoods, young people of color are more likely to go to prison than college.

Over the course of this year, those stats — straight out of Cut50’s campaign supporting bipartisan criminal justice reform — have lead to an unlikely alliance of traditional ideological adversaries like The ACLU and Koch Industries. With the left and the right backing a reduction in the inmate population, legislation has actually been introduced in the House and Senate.

As reported in NPR, Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, is behind the bill because: "The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is the most substantial criminal justice reform legislation introduced since the inception of the 'tough on crime' movement and is the best indication we have that those days are over.”

Families Against Mandatory Minimums is also supporting the legislation. President Julie Stewart acknowledges that it isn’t perfect, but says "it is a substantial improvement over the status quo and will fix some of the worst injustices.”

The House bill — the SAFE Justice Act — and the Senate bill — the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act — propose system-wide reforms to reduce over-criminalization, enhance rehabilitation, support individuals’ rebuilding after prison terms, reform federal prison sentencing, and reduce automatic and harsh punishments like “three strikes” laws.

Visit JusticeReformNow.org to sign the Cut50 petition, which is approaching 200,000 signatures — it turns out criminal justice reform is also popular with celebrity activists and the general public! You can also join in demanding that Congress take action to roll back the incarceration industry in America by following the #JusticeReformNOW & #Cut50 hashtags.

We already know this Congress is loathe to do anything besides push deadlines on the budget and investigate Planned Parenthood without a public outcry. Let’s make sure they can hear us loud and clear.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Demand that Congress take action to roll back the incarceration industry in America” via #cut50

Sources/further reading:

"FAMM: House Sentencing Reform Compromise Another Step in Right Direction” via Families Against Mandatory Minimums

“Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act” — the full legislation

"Here's One Thing Washington Agreed On This Week: Sentencing Reform” via NPR

"Senators Announce Bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act” — announcement from the Judiciary Committee

"Senate Introduces ‘Gamechanger’ Criminal Justice Reform Bill” via Time

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #959 "The need to do better (Mass Incarceration)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Support the decriminalization of sex work.

Feminism has an unfortunate and harmful rift when it comes to sex work. While activists and talking heads will all come out to defend bodily autonomy when it relates to pregnancy and abortion, a frustrating few show up to acknowledge the agency of sex workers. Despite sex workers risking stigma, future employment and even harm to speak out and tell their stories and debunk myths, many still see them as victims to be rescued or as complicit in the subjugation of women.

Amnesty International's decision to listen to the 237 organizations in 71 countries that make up the Global Network of Sex Work Projects rather than the “rescue” industry and support decriminalization has sparked a new round of public discussion on the issue. This means right now is an important moment for allies to learn and get involved.

If you’re new or have reservations, there’s no one better than Melissa Gira Grant on the topic. She has the personal and activist history as well as an accessible style for explaining the intersection of issues that make decriminalization — and ultimately legalization — important and sensible.

From her piece at The Nation on Amnesty’s policy shift:

"Using the criminal law to control sex work means police are pitted against sex workers, and sex workers can pay the price with their lives. Sex workers who are also migrants, transgender, and/or people of color or ethnic minorities are intensely subject to this kind of criminalization and exclusion...Criminal laws only add to the challenges—poverty, marginalization, access to health care—that many sex workers already face.”

Basically — as we see with almost every other thing that’s been criminalized in this country, making sex work illegal only intensifies existing hardships and marginalization while propping up private prison profits. The only way to fix it is to change prohibition laws and that starts with changing public perception — which means we need to be better allies.

The Sex Workers Outreach Project is a great starting point for becoming an ally in your personal and professional spaces. At SWOPusa.org they have basic language tips for medical professionals, advice for academics and teachers, ways to get involved in your community, support for the partners and friends of sex workers, and links to other organizations’ resources.

Their community support line — 877-776-2044 — is national and open to current and former sex workers, allies and grassroots organizers for general advice, crisis counseling, referrals, and legal information. Their resources page also has safety and screening tips for sex workers — increasingly important as sex worker-controlled avenues like MyRedbook & Rentboy are shut down.

TAKE ACTION:

Learn how to become an ally with SWOP’s Ally Resources Page

Follow & amplify: #SexWorkIsWork

Additional Activism/Resources:

Resources for sex workers: Safety tips and Screening 101 via via SWOP-Chicago

Sources/further reading:

"Amnesty International’s Long-Due Support for Sex Workers Rights” by Melissa Gira Grant at The Nation

”Playing the Whore: the Work of Sex Work” by Melissa Gira Grant

Q&A on the Policy to Protect Human Rights of Sex Workers — Amnesty International

"LGBT Rights Organizations Join Amnesty International in Call to Decriminalize Sex Work” — Lambda Legal

"How LGBT People Would Benefit From The Decriminalization Of Sex Work” at ThinkProgress

"3 Sex Workers' Rights Organizations That Fight Every Day To End The Stigma” via Bustle

"A Sex Worker Shows Why Her Job Shouldn't Be Illegal” via Refinery29

"How the Feds Took Down Rentboy.com” at Vice.com by Melissa Gira Grant

"Woman kills attacker with his gun, unknowingly takes out a serial killer” via The Daily Dot

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #951 "It is neither all good nor all bad (Sex Workers Rights)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: End Cash Bail in New York.

Stealing a backpack shouldn’t be a death sentence. Kalief Browder’s death is an indictment on nearly every aspect of our jails and prison system.

We should — all of us — be taking this tragedy seriously, as Glenn Martin, president of Just Leadership USA explained to Aaron Morrison of International Business Times: “Ultimately, we are all collectively responsible for the death of Kalief, since our insidious criminal justice system exists in our name.”

The length of time Browder spent at Riker’s simply because he couldn’t post bail has surprised people. But if we’re supposedly all “innocent until proven guilty,” maybe the question shouldn’t be “Why was a 16-year-old expected to have $3,000 on hand for bail?” Instead, we should be asking, “Why do people pay for the privilege of waiting for their day in court at all?”

As the editorial staff for amNY explained in an op ed demanding bail reform, the NYC Independent Budget Office report found in 2011 that pretrial detainees make up 75% of the average daily jail population and nearly half were there because they couldn't post bail. Nationally, the numbers are six out of ten prisoners who are incarcerated in lieu of bail.

Cash bail is nothing more than punishment for the poor that benefits only the CEOs of private prison companies and their lobbyists.

Visit the Pretrial Justice Institute’s website — Pretrial.org — and click the banner for their petition with MoveOn titled "Gov Cuomo: End Cash Bail in New York.” Sign and share to encourage similar actions in other states and cities. Pretrial.org also has a great “Take Action” tab with local and national coalitions, an events calendar, and a page to submit your story.

Martin F. Horn — former commissioner of NYC's Department of Correction — closes his plea to prevent even one more Kalief Browder at The Marshall Project this way:

"It requires political courage for the city to address these issues and bring sanity to the jails. It will take money and leadership. There is no alternative, because our jails are a reflection of our collective conscience, and if they remain as they are, the fault is ours.”

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Gov Cuomo: End Cash Bail in New York” via the Pretrial Justice Institute

Additional Activism/Resources:

Follow and support the work of The Bronx Freedom Fund

Follow and support the work of The Brooklyn Bail Fund

Sources/further reading:

"Fixing the Jail Where Kalief Browder was Held: Former corrections chief Martin Horn has some ideas for Rikers Island.” at The Marshall Project

"Newsday: NYC may set up taxpayer-paid bail fund for low-level offenses”

"After Kalief Browder's Death, Prison Reform Advocates Say NYC Rikers Island Abuses Must Not Produce More ‘Martyrs’” by Aaron Morrison at The International Business Times

"Bail reform can help fix NYC criminal justice” by the Editorial Staff at AM New York

"How to Lock Up Fewer People” by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project

"City Needs ‘Some Type of Bail Reform,’ de Blasio Says After Kalief Browder Suicide” by Jill Jorgensen at NY Observer

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #930 "Our prisons: cruel and counterproductive (Injustice System)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: "Free Victims of the Drug War" with the Drug Policy Alliance.

President Obama stepped up his pardons earlier this year by commuting the sentences of 22 federal prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses being served “under an outdated sentencing regime,” according to the administration. As Trymaine Lee reported for MSNBC.com, the president described the power of commutation as embodying “the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a second chance.”

For what are most certainly widely varying reasons, bipartisan conversations have begun seeking to tackle the injustices of decades-old mandatory minimum and three-strikes laws which have lead to the overcrowding of our nation’s prisons and the fulfilling of the greedy dreams of private prison company CEOs. In his statement on the commutations, the president acknowledged both the social good and the financial imperative of fixing the broken system.

“Well, here’s the good news,” the president said. "There is an increasing realization on the left, but also on the right politically, that what we’re doing is counterproductive. We’re all responsible for at least a solution to this.”

As the predictably slow wheels of potential Congressional action turn, there is good news: this is another situation where the White House holds significant unilateral power. The Drug Policy Alliance is campaigning to pressure the president on additional commutations — which should be an easy sell as he has already established a clemency initiative to encourage individuals sentenced under the draconian drug laws to petition for commutation.

You can join with the Drug Policy Alliance by visiting DrugPolicy.org/action and contacting the White House through their "Free Victims of the Drug War” page. You can also follow their hashtag #NoMoreDrugWar and use it to publicly share that you’re participating in the campaign to free those wrongly and cruelly incarcerated.

As the Drug Policy Alliance letter-writing page explains, the White House is starting to listen on this issue; now is the time to build momentum by asking the president to continue a process he began and not leave the work unfinished for an incoming administration. The time is now.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN to tell the president to Free Victims of the Drug War via the Drug Policy Alliance

Additional Activism/Resources:

FOLLOW the hashtag: #NoMoreDrugWar

For those who want to get more involved, it’s early registration for the International Drug Policy Reform Conference (11/18-11/21/2015)

Sources/further reading:

"President Obama commutes prison sentences of 22 drug offenders” by Trymaine Lee at MSNBC.com

"Prolific Pardoner? Obama Grants Clemency to 22 Prisoners Last Week, but Has Denied Thousands” by Annie Waldman for ProPublica via Truthout

"Will the U.S. Senate Finally Reform Harsh Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drugs?”> via Drug Policy Alliance

"The Nation's Shame: The Injustice of Mandatory Minimums" by Andrea Jones at RollingStone

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #929 "Looking to avert further tragedy (War on Drugs™)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich