7th Annual Reclaim MLK's Radical Legacy Weekend
Thank you to all of our partners and supporters who joined us for the 7th Annual Weekend of Action to Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy. You showed up and showed out this year. Despite Covid-19, we put on a beautiful weekend of trainings, workshops, ritual, and a massive car caravan than enveloped both Oakland and Alameda — all demanding that we #RefundRestoreReimagine our communities by defunding OPD. Thank you to all who came out to the caravan or joined us virtually on our livestream on MLK Day, and to Senior and Disability Action for hosting a virtual watch party!
You made our 7th annual #ReclaimMLK weekend a success and started off the New Year recommitted to the work!
At this year’s caravan we also witnessed an example of what we mean when we say “We Take Care of Us.” An armed white supremacist threatened our MLK Day caravan as we visited the home of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to demand she charge Anthony Pirone, one of the BART officers who killed Oscar Grant, with murder.
No one was harmed in the attempted assault, thanks to the effective community security measures employed by Community Ready Corps (CRC), one of APTP’s founding organizations. CRC is a widely-trusted, Black grassroots organization that provides mutual aid and community self defense.
When we talk about community responses to crises that don't involve law enforcement, critics always want to bring up the 1-2% of situations involving a person with a firearm. That happened on Monday, and because of their deep relationship with community, and the fact that community trusts them to keep us safe, the CRC team were able to not only deal with the would-be assailant and push him off the block, but also get all of our people effectively and efficiently to safety. We are so grateful to CRC for their service to us and the community.
Monday was also an example of what it means to reimagine public safety. When we succeed in refunding our community with half of OPD’s unsustainable budget, we’ll be able to invest in programs like CRC that actually keep us safe.