Berkeley Copwatch!
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
Berkeley CopwatchGeneral Fund to Support Berkeley Copwatch Projects
$5,543
raised by 52 people
$10,000 goal
As we await the Election results...
First and foremost we want to thank everyone that has donated or supported us in any way over the years. In honor of your continued support, and the gravity of the work which lies ahead, we push forward. And because we met our initial fundraising goal, it felt appropriate to raise the bar at this time, as we challenge ourselves to raise the bar on our efforts.
The election results may be undetermined, but Berkeley Copwatch is more determined than ever to hold BPD accountable for their violence; past, present and future. BPD has NEVER taken any accountability for their role in the 2013 murder of Kayla Moore, a Black, transgender, Berkeley resident. Their officers fire at Black teenagers in the streets and escape into bureaucratic obscurity and pending investigations. BPD mistakenly pull Black men from their own vehicles at gunpoint in broad daylight, alleging theft, while shoppers stroll down College Ave.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. The national election will have no impact on the policing of Berkeley citizens. The national election will not make our streets safe from the armed thugs known as the Berkeley Police Department. A Democratic victory will not bring Kayla Moore back. It will not negate the disgustingly small margin with which Trump might be ousted. And it will not erase the fact that the United States, like our very own police department,needs to confront its own deep-seated racism.
Founded in 1990, Berkeley Copwatch is an all-volunteer community organization that works towards police accountability by going out on Copwatch shifts and documenting police interactions with the community.
In addition to going on shifts, we conduct free trainings on how to document misconduct, how to assert our rights and how to support individuals and communities in addressing issues of police and the abuse of power. We provide advice and support to victims of police abuse, teach a class in Community Based Police Accountability through UC Berkeley and we take on issues of militarization of police, racial profiling and treatment of the homeless people in our town. In 2013 we received the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists' James Madison Freedom of Information Award for our use of the Public Records Act in opposing Berkeley police efforts to obtain an armored personnel carrier.
However, since all of our work is all-volunteer, Berkeley Copwatch cannot do this work without the support of the community. We need your help to maintain our ability to continue organizing around police misconduct.
We hope that you will donate to support this work in the coming year. With this fundraiser, we will:
Support Copwatch Groups with The People's Database:
As we celebrate our 30th year, we are proud to announce the release of a project that we have been working on for the last couple of years. It is a database software that is available to community group that want to track police misconduct in their own communities. In order to support grassroots Copwatch groups, we need to be able to help them acquire subscriptions to Filemaker Pro and various other equipment. Read more about this powerful resource:
https://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/people-s-database
Publish, print and distribute literature! We would love to print hard copies of our Copwatch Handbook, a really useful guide that informs readers of their rights and how to assert them. We provide this booklet for free; copies of our handbook have been passed from hand to hand in schools, communities, prisons and elsewhere. Other resources we would like to print include: Know Your Rights Cards, which include important basics of your rights as well as useful phone numbers to call if you live in the Bay Area and someone is arrested. People's Investigation Guide, which represents a compilation of our knowledge on how to conduct credible community-based investigations. Check out some of our resources on our website.
Purchase equipment! Berkeley Copwatch is in serious need of a new police radio scanner. We are also hoping to upgrade our cameras, which have a short battery life and produce somewhat grainy images. Eventually, we are looking toward upgrading our computers and printers.
Help us fund the work we do, and tell your friends and family about this fundraiser so they can help as well. Even a small donation will go a long way. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Berkeley Copwatch, a project of the Grassroots House