Safety through Strong Communities

As ICE has been violently invading Chicago this month and abducting and terrorizing people, often at random or by simple racial profiling, I've seen neighbors doing what they can to help keep one another safe. Across the city, organizations have been training residents on their rights and on responding to ICE, whistles have become omnipresent as tools to warn neighbors of ICE presence, and neighbors patrol the streets, especially seeking to give a prominent community presence around school pickup and dropoff and discourage ICE interference with students and parents there.

ICE agents are here with violence, seeking to cause terror, showing up without identification and making arrests without warrants, often indistinguishable from lawless vigilantes, in unmarked cars, streetwear, with no badges or explanation, kidnapping people off the street, and using tear gas with little restraint. Rather than their supposed goal of finding and deporting those involved with violent crime (which itself would raise questions), we've seen them trying to take people attending church services, people doing their landscaping jobs or waiting to get day labor, tamale vendors, parents and students on their way to school, a father of a cancer patient, etc. Many are considering self-deportation to avoid this chaotic violence and family separation, and causing that difficult choice is one of ICE's primary goals.

Are the police the ones keeping us safe in the midst of this chaos? No, not at all. We’ve even seen them getting gassed, while doing nothing to counter ICE’s lawless behavior. State police are here but seem more invested in protecting ICE from peaceful protestors than protecting the community.

As always, the answer to public safety is not more policing. The agents of the state here are the cause of chaos, terror, and violence, and police are doing nothing to resist. The path to safety is through strong communities. Prepared communities full of strong relationships are best able to respond to times of crisis, to share information and key resources with one another, and to take care of those harmed by the state, whether trying to find and return those taken into custody or to meet the needs of their families in the meantime. Strong communities and relational networks have been at the root of this city’s response to ICE so far, mitigating the harm ICE has done and caring for those impacted.

Forming Strong Communities

This has me reflecting on how to strengthen my relational ties to my own close neighbors. If a crisis happened in our building, would we be able to turn to one another? If there was another pandemic lockdown, utilities were lost, or food supply chains were disrupted, would we be able to help care for one another's needs?

I and a few others in our building are relatively new to one another and we don't have these strong ties. I’m hoping to help create them in the coming months. That can’t happen all at once, but current disruptions are likely to create more openness for some to turn towards increased connection.

Here's what I’ve started with this past week. I sent the following message to the other residents of our building:

“Hi I’m ___, your neighbor in ____. Amid current circumstances in our city, as well as many of us being new to the building this year, I’m hoping to find ways (even good ones for introverts) to help residents become more familiar with each other and therefore better able to share skills and needs for assistance with one another, or respond well in emergencies that may occur here. If you’d potentially have interest in an effort to be more connected and aware of other residents and how we might find ways be supportive neighbors to one another, could you reply to this text? We can go from there with those interested to find how to help that happen.”

About half of our building responded, and we started a Signal group chat to try to connect a bit more. We had everyone do some brief introductions there. From there we are looking at how to do a shared group project together working on a common space, and also potentially hosting a brief coffee and chat time to give more opportunities to connect. These small steps may begin to create more familiarity and lead towards us becoming more knowledgeable about who is around us and what we might be able to offer to one another, building up our skills and preparedness for crisis.

Maybe something similar could work on your own block as an accessible first step?

A Thoughtful Podcast

I also was recently listening to this thoughtful podcast discussion with host Kelly Hayes and Margaret Killjoy on many related topics - individual and community preparedness for crisis, increasing our relationships with neighbors, considering how to best create safety, and more. While I don’t necessarily agree with every word here, it’s a very helpful conversation (as usual with Hayes’s Movement Memos) to hear and reflect on where you stand and where you might start towards increasing your own relationships and safety in your community.

Recording and transcript here.