food for thought looking ahead in an area as devoid of militancy as Grand Rapids (copied from a different user in a chat):

Here is an idea. In order to enable and help people to get plugged in long term black lives matter movement, we should have neighborhood-based abolitionist groups (3+ people) who organize low risk actions such as flyering, noise demos, cop watch, chalk art, gear collection, contacting elected officials depending on the characteristics of the neighborhood. Besides contributing to resistance culture, it will help people to get together to do some form of self-organizing. It will increase turnout when there are bigger actions as decentralized organizing spaces can boost the events. It will also help people to develop trust and security culture from within groups for more daring actions.

love it when a post goes rogue and gets 1,400 views

avenge Breonna Taylor

do the same with this one.
and show up

unconfirmed reports of riot cops as well

quick recap of the night: started at 7pm at rosa parks. speeches from breonna taylor’s family, organizers from justice for black lives. after ~30 minutes of speeches, “organizers” led the group to the police station, going around the salt trucks which is new for them.

there was some chanting, and then chief payne came out and took a knee. after that, jfbl leadership pulled everyone back to rosa parks. someone said something about going to the police stations and people started running in that direction. this is when two people, including an organizer for jfbl were arrested on “noise ordinance” violations. this was around 8:30pm, those laws don’t kick in until 10pm. a girl who was close to him had a panic attack, and cops surrounded her while medics attended. ambulance showed up, and after that people slowly started to disperse.

overall, gr showed a lot more teeth and aggression than the city has over the summer. there’s lots of energy and potential for some kind of distribution. people are angry, and there’s more judicial decisions to come down the pipeline. if the organizations that already exist can capitalize on it or if a new group pops up, there seems to be energy and interest in it.

potential for some kind of *disruption

"new groups popping up" means form an affinity group and be willing to move the dial forward with your friends. show up at actions with them. but also incorporate subversion into your lifestyles. make cops jobs harder. make your life easier, and more fun. stay angry, but make it fun to manifest that anger.

another protest this Saturday, hosted by JFBL, at Rosa Parks / in front of GRPD downtown. it looks like they will make this a weekly call to action.

attend. get "battle-hardened," as much as our circumstances allow for. make connections and build momentum toward the organizations / manifestations of dual power, like a tenant union (GRATU), a mutual aid organization (GRAMAN), a medic collective (???), an autonomous community garden (???), a reading group / zine library (???), etc.

and remember that a kneeling cop is still a class traitor

Hi all. Nov 3 is around the corner. We're not going to tell you to vote, but we'll tell you to pay attention and get involved. There are many tactics more powerful than the ballot...

Election day will undoubtedly be rowdy across the states. Will Grand Rapids be, specifically? Well, what are you planning?

https://www.facebook.com/events/977592846052620/