Given all this, it is absurd that the City budget dedicates more than one-quarter – nearly $190 million – to this broken system. We know there are better alternatives available. We know that if we provide adequate housing, food, and other necessities; when we implement robust mental health and crisis interventions, that crime will be reduced. Not every public safety issue requires a response from an officer with a gun.
Category: Policing
Protecting Ourselves from Our Governor
by Xanthe (Xan) Plymale and Jean-Paul Klem
Direct action heats up New York’s budget season this year as we approach Hochul’s bid for reelection. On Tuesday March 25, about 100 activists blockaded the State St entrance to the NYS Capital, demanding the passage of NY4All, a bill which would protect our immigrant neighbors.
The Last Line of (Public) Defense
In the following excerpt, from Punching Out Episode 251: Public Defenders, Ryan and Lou talk to Greg about over-criminalization and the prison industrial complex. Punching Out airs weekly on WAYO 104.3, and all episodes are available at rocdsa.org/tune-in-punch-out. This excerpt has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Means & Ends
by Jean Allen In 2011, my state college’s radical group held a meeting. At that meeting, a handful of leaders stood in front of a group of seated activists, told us that…
The Mundane Revolution
by Jean Allen Over the coming months, I intend to spend time canvassing my neighborhood. Crunching through snow with my comrades while following my walk list, appearing at the doorstep of every…
One Easy Trick to Find $15 Million in the Budget
by Rosa The Rochester Police Department’s overtime expenses have hit $15 million in the past fiscal year, according to a recent article. Amidst huge federal funding cuts across New York State including…
Organize Beyond Protests
By Hannah W. In the past few months, the US government has increased state-sanctioned violence with ICE as its executioners. Neighbors are snatched off the street without due process. People are murdered…
Mask Off
By Tyler Edlin Content advisory: murder, white supremacy, fascism, antisemitism, homophobia On January 7, 2026, a Minneapolis resident named Renée Good was shot and killed by a United States Immigration and Customs…
On the Continuity of ICE Violence
by Gregory Lebens-Higgins
The violence now exacted by ICE is a continuity of systems of policing and dehumanization that have been permitted for far too long. The Trump Administration may have removed the final restraints, but the structures had already been built in the preceding decades by both parties.
Chapter Statement on ICE Vigilante Murder
We need to bombard our elected officials with phone calls and other messages insisting they defend their constituents and abolish ICE. We need to be ready to respond when our neighbors are attacked or abducted. And we need to harness our greatest weapon – the labor power of the working class on which the capitalist system depends for its existence – in opposing ICE and their puppeteers.