The Black Zebra Impact Team was violently attacked by a Proud Boy on Feb 20, 2022, while documenting a banner drop in Rancho Cordova. While the BZ Impact Team seeks accountability, healing, and protection, we will not be engaging with law enforcement or the criminal legal system. We are abolitionists and firsthand witnesses to how these systems not only lack effectiveness but have favored and colluded with the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups. We are confident the carceral state will be unable to produce the accountability, healing, and protection we are seeking.
BZ Impact Team would like to take the space to give those reading this letter some history and experiences to illustrate why we will not be subjecting our mostly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color that make up our team, to the harmful and racist law enforcement and criminal legal systems.
Here is a recent history of incidents in Sacramento:
February 2022 Sue Frost Caught Organizing With Proud Boys & Local Militia Groups:
"Stop The Steal" Attacks:
Proud Boys Looking For Black People to Jump in Sacramento to Move up in Ranks:
Proud Boys Jump Black Person at Cesar Chavez Plaza, Sac Police Then Arrest Black Person:
"Stabbed at a neo-Nazi rally, called a criminal: how police targeted a black activist":
Racial Justice Protestors File Lawsuit Against Sacramento Police Department:
Lawsuit Against Sacramento Police & The City of Sacramento for Refusing for Over 10 Months to Release PRA Requested Records from BLM Protest:
Law Enforcement Favoring White Supremacist Groups:
Sacramento Law Enforcement Caught at January 6th ,Washington D.C. Domestic Terrorist Insurrection:
Sacramento Sheriff Caught Helping Proud Boy get to January 6th ,Washington D.C. Domestic Terrorist Insurrection:
Sacramento Police Detaining Black Zebra Impact Team Artistic Journalist:
Sacramento Police Harassing Black Zebra Impact Team Artistic Journalist:
Sacramento Police Sargent Body Checking Black Zebra Impact Team Artistic Journalist Documenting a Raid of Anti Racist Protestor's House:
Proud Boys, Trumpers, Militia, & Other White Supremacist Groups Assault Black Zebra Impact Team Artistic Journalists in Front of Law Enforcement; Law Enforcement Does Nothing:
Given all of these incidents, and more that are not included in this letter, the Black Zebra Impact Team has absolutely no faith in the capacity of the systematically infiltrated law enforcement, criminal legal, or carceral systems to protect us.
Abolitionists believe community safety is achieved through community building and mutual care, not through the use of cages. The pervasive racism within our community cannot be eradicated with a day in court, or by reaching out to the institutions that have historically harmed and oppressed us. Locking someone in a cage, even this attacker, while perhaps vindicating, does little to promote the possibility of a world free from harmful and oppressive tools which have loomed over our communities for far too long. We can find accountability, healing, and protection from each other, through infrastructures of community care.
Black Zebra Impact Team
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