Copwatch Conference Organizing Underway

Organizing for the International Copwatch Conference is underway. It’ll be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada this year from July 22-24.

The conference has a dual focus on both the tactics and organizing involved in sustaining a copwatch organization, as well as broader discussions about the role of police in society (policing in the context of colonialism; police and immigrants, youth, sex workers, gangs, domestic violence; the politics of lobbying for police “accountability,” privatized policing; criminalizing dissent; and prison abolition/alternatives).

It is being organized by the very cool and thoughtful folks of Winnipeg Copwatch. They have been running a successful Copwatch for the past 5 years which has involved regular street patrols, observing and filming interactions between civilians and police to deter violence, hosting Know Your Rights workshops and organizing public events and presentations in schools toward imagining community-based alternatives to police and encouraging a critical analysis of the role fo police.

Confirmed conference participants include Berkeley Copwatch, the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, Andrea Ritchie (author of Queer (in)Justice), the Native Youth Movement, No One is Illegal (Montreal), and many more to come!

If you are interested in presenting, or can suggest organizations or individuals you think might be interested, please be in touch!

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