Category: Statements

Bresha Meadows

by loveandprotect, posted in Statements

Solidarity with Bresha Meadows: A Statement from Love & Protect

Fourteen-year-old Bresha Meadows of Ohio is incarcerated and facing a charge of aggravated murder for defending herself and family against the unrelenting terror and abuse of her father. We stand in solidarity with Bresha and demand that she is returned home to her family and that all charges against her are dropped. As an organization that supports trans and cis women and gender non-conforming people who defend themselves from interpersonal violence only to face sanctions from the state, we stand with young Bresha, who confronted her father in an effort to stop the frequent and brutal abuse endured by  her mother, her sisters, and herself.

Bresha, her mother, and her sisters endured years of abuse and threats by Bresha’s father. After continuing to witness this abuse, Bresha sought help from family members and police, but the violence continued. As a young girl with few options, she was rightly scared for her family members’ lives as well as her own. What Bresha faced was not new: countless Black women, girls and gender-nonconforming people face similar matrices of interpersonal violence and state violence. Many, like Bresha, are criminalized for choosing survival.

The incarceration of Bresha Meadows serves no one. Bresha is not a threat to herself, family or community.  Instead, it perpetuates the violence against Black women and girls that is inflicted at both the state and interpersonal levels every day. The state failed to protect Bresha. Now, it has chosen to criminalize her. In doing so, it also has chosen to exacerbate the suffering her family already has endured, as they now are separated from their daughter, sister, and niece and must prepare to defend Bresha’s life.

Our hope is that Bresha and her family are swiftly reunited without the threat of future separation by the state that they may begin to heal as only they can do with one another.  We must bring Bresha Meadows home now.

In Solidarity,
Love & Protect
Project NIA
Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Women & Girls
Lifted Voices
Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration
The Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women
For the People Artists Collective
Survived & Punished
Free Marissa Now National Mobilization Campaign
Liberation Library
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Black Lives Matter: Chicago
Assata’s Daughters
Community United Against Violence
Between Friends
Black on Both Sides
Tanuja Jagernauth
UIC Campus Advocacy Network
UIC Women’s Leadership and Resource Center
Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network
Apna Ghar, Inc. (Our Home)
A Long Walk Home
Project Fierce
Black and Pink: Chicago
Stand With Nan-Hui
San Francisco Asian Women’s Shelter
Korean American Coalition to End Domestic Abuse (KACEDA)
Clarke Connections
Center for Financial and Human Dignity
INCITE!
Rose C.
New Voices Cleveland
Rosie Knight

Cierra Finkley: Solidarity Statement

by loveandprotect, posted in Statements

Solidarity With Cierra Finkley: A Statement from Love & Protect (formerly the Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander)
22 August 2015

Defending oneself from abuse and violence should never be criminalized. Love & Protect condemns the arrest of Cierra Finkley and calls for all charges against her to be dropped.

On August 18, 2015, in Madison Wisconsin, 24-year-old Cierra and her 5-year-old daughter were almost killed by her abusive boyfriend, Terrence Woods. Although he had been court ordered to stay away from Cierra, he showed up at her home, and after trying to run her and their daughter over with his car, he kicked in the door to her home and lunged at her. Fearing for her and her daughter’s life, Cierra stabbed him in self-defense.

Like Marissa Alexander, Cherelle Baldwin, Paris Knox, Tewkunzi Green and too many other Black women, Cierra is being criminalized for defending herself against life-threatening violence. Cierra was arrested, and finally released on bond with GPS monitoring on August 21.

Next Thursday, August 27, in a court hearing, the District Attorney will introduce charges against her. Instead of receiving support to heal from not only the trauma of having to defend herself, but also from past abuse, Cierra is being further victimized by the criminal punishment system. We ask the state: What option did Cierra truly have? Had she been unable to protect her daughter, she may have met the same fate as Tondalo Hall or Arlena Lindley; being imprisoned for failure to protect their children from abusive boyfriends.

Love & Protect calls for all charges against Cierra Finkley to be dropped. Through love, we resist this act of state violence. The state yet again refuses to properly identify victims and abusers in situations of domestic violence, and fails to protect the lives of the victims.

We stand in solidarity with Cierra, her family, and the Young Gifted and Black organization. We urge everyone to sign this petition, telling District Attorney Ismael Ozanne not to bring charges against Cierra Finkley.

With Love and Solidarity,
Love & Protect

Tondalo Hall: Solidarity Statement

by loveandprotect, posted in Statements

Solidarity With Tondalo Hall: A Statement from Love & Protect

Love & Protect condemns the denial of Tondalo Hall’s petition for clemency by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. We call on Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to pardon and release Tondalo Hall, and to issue a statement denouncing the parole board’s unmerciful decision. With the opening of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month today, we call on the Oklahoma justice system to reform its understanding of domestic violence, and we call on the Oklahoma legislature to reform the “failure to protect” laws that too frequently punish and incarcerate victims.

In 2004, Tondalo Hall took her baby son to the hospital for care, where doctors found he had internal injuries, as did her toddler daughter. Hall said that she and her children had suffered violent verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, Robert Braxton, Jr, which he admitted. Braxton was sentenced to only two years, and has been free since 2006. Hall, in contrast, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for “failure to protect” her children from Braxton’s violence. Last Wednesday, September 23, 2015, the Oklahoma Prison Parole Board denied her petition for clemency by a vote of 5-0, giving no explanation and leaving Hall to remain in prison until she can seek parole in 2030.

Tondalo Hall was criminalized for her partner’s violence against her and her children. She has spent years behind bars while suffering the continued trauma of separation from her children and family, while the abuser himself walks free. Hall committed no violence against her children, and sought medical help to save them. At her hearing this week, the parole board shamed her for her inability to protect her children from her abuser, overlooking the shame and fear that haunted Hall as a victim of violence. We contend that the continued separation of Hall from her children is violence by the state against her and her children.

The day after Hall’s petition was denied, the state of Wisconsin opted not to pursue charges against Cierra Finkley for fighting back against her ex-boyfriend in defense of herself and her child, which resulted in his death. This announcement came in part due to public pressure led by the Young Gifted and Black Coalition, and the increasing national attention to the many cases of Black women caught between the violence of their abusers and the violence of the state. We encourage the state of Oklahoma to take Wisconsin’s decision as an example of justice for their future conduct.

We stand in solidarity with Tondalo Hall and her family. We ask the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board: when will compassion, mercy, and respect for the selfhood of Black women guide your actions? Whose lives are made better by Hall’s continued incarceration?

With Love and Solidarity,
Love & Protect