“POLICING IS A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT”
As Health Workers, we are committed to promoting and supporting wellness and care for all individuals and neighborhoods to enable people and communities to thrive. Through our experiences, we are strongly committed to the belief that healthcare must fundamentally be decoupled from policing and militarization, because of the historic, structural and current antagonistic role that police play in relation to health and community wellbeing.
Too many times, we have seen the deadly impact of policing in our neighborhoods – through police murders of predominantly people of color, as well as the disproportionate impacts of everyday policing and imprisonment on people of color, poor people, and people with specific mental health needs/disabilities. These trends illustrate that these communities are exactly the people who cops are trained to see as “problems,” to repress through surveillance, interrogation, detainment and use of force.
Policing interferes with–if not obstructs– people’s access to healthcare and interferes with the quality of care that people are able to receive. Policing can deter people from seeking emergency medical help, impedes with the actual delivery of life-saving care during emergencies, and can intimidate and discourage people from accessing routine medical care and health support when entangled with clinics, hospitals and community-based services. Policing is a public health threat.
It is imperative that we take a clear stand as professionals and Healthcare experts against the pervasiveness of policing in our neighborhoods. Urban Shield, a program funded by the
Department of Homeland Security, aims to further equip cops with military training and weapons to enhance their power over our communities. The program is held in the Bay Area every year, and I am writing to ask your support to get it out. We do not want emergency response funds to go to military, weapons, or police trainings. We do not want cops and military trainings to co-opt EMT and emergency response resources. These actions are not just wasteful, but deadly.
Join us and take action: STOP URBAN SHIELD! Please stand with us as Health Workers, healthcare professionals, and community caregivers.
Signatories
Alejandra Cano, Oakland Power Projects
Braden Lake, Oakland Power Projects
Caitlin Miller, CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife)
Danny Kim, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medical student
Joan Chen, Community Health Worker, Berkeley Free Clinic
Lara Barth, Community Health Educator
Lisa Guide, RN CNS (Registered Nurse Clinical Nurse Specialist)
Megan Rees, LPCC, Oakland Power Projects
Nadia Gaber, MD-PhD Candidate, UCSF
Rupa Marya, MD UCSF
Alma Sanchez, MD, MPH, UCSF Family and Community Medicine
Carolyn Kraus, MD/MS Candidate, UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program
AJ Pluss, Doctor of Physical Therapy Student
Juliana E. Morriss, MD, EdM UCSF Family and Community Medicine
Yakira Teitel, MD, MPH Resident Physician, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine
TAKE ACTION:
Circulate this statement to Health Workers and join the signatories. Email Croakland @criticalresistance.org to sign on with your name, preferred affiliation or certification. Put “Health Worker signature, Stop Urban Shield” in the subject.
Sign the Stop Urban Shield petition
Endorse the demand to Stop Urban Shield and with your organization, group, or network. Email stopurbanshieldnow@gmail.com
Spread the word to your networks, colleagues and communities:
8am- 12PM
Intersection of Pleasanton Ave. and Fairgrounds Rd, Pleasanton, CA
Mobilization information here.
Organized transport at 7am from Bay area cities of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. See Transportation information here.
Even if you are not able to join the day of action, endorsing our demands, sharing with your worksite or organization, signing the petition, and spending the word is a much-needed contribution!