In commemoration of International Day Against Police Brutality, No One Is Illegal-Vancouver invites you to films and discussion on….

POLICE VIOLENCE AND RACISM
Friday March 16, 6 pm Rhizome Café
317 E. Broadway (corner Kingsway)
All Welcome. By Donation $0-$5

 FILMS AND SPEAKERS:

* FILM “TWO WORLDS COLLIDING”: One frigid night in January 2000, an Indigenous man, Darrell Night, finds himself dumped by two police officers in -20° C temperatures on the city outskirts. When Darrell comes forward with his story, he sets into motion a chain of events that includes a major RCMP investigation, the conviction of the two officers who abandoned him, and an inquiry into police involvement in the 1990 freezing death of Neil Stonechild. This movie is a powerful and painful story of what came to be knows as Saskatoon’s infamous “freezing deaths”.

*  NANDITA SHARMA on “Immigration policy and Immigration Enforcement as Police Violence”. Although not frequently discussed as a form of police violence, immigration policies and the detention/deportation industry operate with great legitimacy in perpetuating psychological and physical violence and displacement in the lives of immigrants, refugees, migrant workers, and non-status communities on a daily basis.

Nandita is active in transnational No Border campaigns. She is an Assistant Professor and her recent book is entitled “Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of ‘Migrant Workers’ in Canada”.

* XANDRA IBARRA on “Race, Policing, and Gender Violence”: Women of colour and indigenous women suffer disproportionately from gender violence, police violence, police complicity, and legislated state violence. Yet the institutionalization of police control against racialized and indigenous communities, including against women within these communities, has actually made it harder and less likely that women will choose to access the police or criminal justice system as a step to safety. Upon reporting cases of sexual violence, many undocumented women, for example, have found themselves or their family members deported. There is an urgent need to envision alternatives that ensure the safety of survivors of patriarchical/gender violence beyond the mechanisms of state control that further the criminalization and racist stereotyping of our communities.

XANDRA is a radical queer Chicana feminist organizer at Communities Against Rape and Abuse in Seattle, a local performance artist, and a member of the national steering committee of INCITE! Women of Colour Against Violence based in the US.

* ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE EVENT: COLOR OF VIOLENCE: THE INCITE! ANTHOLOGY! Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, a US-based organization of radical feminists of color, has launched an anthology demanding that we address violence against women of color in all its forms, including interpersonal violence, such as sexual and domestic violence, and state violence, such as police brutality, militarism, attacks on immigrants and Indian treaty rights, the proliferation of prisons, economic neo-colonialism, and violence from the medical industry. Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology presents the fierce and vital writing of 33 visionary radical women of color. And unlike most examinations of violence against women that recast them as “victims,” this pathbreaking collection highlights the work of survivors and activists in creating strategies of resistance.

For more information contact No One is Illegal-Vancouver:
Email: noii-van@resist.ca or Phone 778-885-0040
www.nooneisillegal.org

No more Stolen Lives!

BACKGROUND ON POLICE VIOLENCE (from United Against Police Violence)
– Police violence is predominantly directed against women and people of colour.
– Police violence upholds and perpetuates colonization.
– Police violence in the form of institutionalized ineffectiveness has led to the murder and disappearance of countless women.
– Police violence against women has created the conditions where women are not properly protected from violent abuse.
– Police violence through the act of strip-searching is a form of sexual assault.
– Police violence in the form of racial profiling specifically targets communities of colour, refugees and immigrants, and aboriginal people to police aggression.
– Police violence directed at poor people isolates poor people and prevents them from accessing health services such as medical clinics and homeless shelters.
– Police violence in the form of bureaucratic inaccessibility and a culture of complicity make for the pursuit of justice against police violence impossible.
– Police violence is used internationally to protect Canadian capital interests abroad such as in countries currently occupied by Canadian forces including Haiti and Afghanistan.
– Police violence in the form of complacency allows the ongoing violence against gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
– Police violence and the threat of violence dissuades otherwise peaceful protest.