feature Vanessa Green at the 2018 Black Women’s March: Continuing the Legacy of Harriet Tubman at the Tappan Zee/Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in Tarrytown.
Call BlackLine T
Community Care and Liberation on Speed Dial
BY TIANA HEADLEY
A collaboration with
he summer of 2020 jolted America out of a complacent slumber. George Floyd didn’t walk into a Minneapolis convenience store foreseeing his death, but his lynching reminded many Americans of the precarity of Black life when confronted with maximum-force policing. It only took a 911 call over Floyd’s alleged counterfeit $20 bill to seal his death by Minneapolis police. Grotesque public killings like Floyd’s disturb the conscience of many. But for Black people, they’re also routine reminders of what often happens when they encounter police: harassment, or worse, death. 2020 saw newfound enthusiasm for mutual aid networks and community-based public safety systems amid the twin threats of the pandemic and law enforcement. But communities adversely impacted by American institutions have used this model for years, with an awareness that working together better ensures their survival. Existing systems will not meet their needs; instead, they often create and exacerbate them. Police are more likely to shoot and kill unarmed Black men presenting signs of mental illness, compared to white men showing similar behavior, according to a UC Berkeley School of Public Health study. (2020 provided a harrowing example in Rochester, where Daniel Purdue died by asphyxiation in late March after police pressed his head and naked body into the ground. The 41-yearold was suffering a mental breakdown intensified by drug abuse. Purdue’s brother had made the 911 call.) Six years ago, the litany of police killings catalyzed Vanessa Green and other Black Lives Matter Hudson Valley organizers to brainstorm ways to reduce Black people’s contact with the police. What if they were their own first responders? “We asked, what would a hotline for Black people look like?” Green says. “What would it look 2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE RIVER NEWSROOM 49
