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Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
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----- Original Message -----
From: Joaquin Cienfuegos
To: johnaimani
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: [copwatchla] Interview for High School Political Science Student
For sure compa, I need to drop off some rice at your house and money donated
some time this week
-- Sent from the Revolution
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On May 10, 2010 4:21 PM, johnaimani <johnaim...@earthlink.net> wrote:
This is real cool. Can I post to other listserves?
----- Original Message -----
From: Joaquin Cienfuegos
To: dope_x_resistanc...@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 10:30 AM
Subject: [copwatchla] Interview for High School Political Science Student
I did this interview for a comrade's student who is in a High School
Political Science Class
COP WATCH LA INTERVIEW
Joaquin Cienfuegos
• How long have you been involved with Cop Watch LA (CWLA)?
I have been involved in Cop Watch L.A. since its inception on November
2006
• What made you want to join CWLA?
Since I was 13 years old the police have harassed me, they've arrested
me, and brutalized me. I saw that there was a need to organize ourselves and
our community, to stop police brutality from happening, not just react to it.
Especially after the cases of police murder in Los Angeles of young children
Susie Lopez Pena who was 19 months and Devin Brown who was 13 years old.
• What makes CWLA different than other Cop Watch organizations in
California?
Cop Watch L.A. is different because we are an all people of color
organization, we felt it was necessary to organize our own communities, since
we are the ones who are targeted by the police. We felt we needed to create our
own structure/organization, vision, and model for not only fighting police
terrorism, but creating a new world in general free of an oppressive state
apparatus (which includes: the police, the military, the courts, even their
schools). We hold a position that we don't patrol in an area we do not live in,
or we're not invited to.
• Why is it called the Guerilla Chapter (GC)?
It is called the Guerrilla Chapter because this chapter is made up of
people from different communities from throughout L.A., and because they felt
it was necessary to continue to build a popular movement against the police
state. Which means providing training, support, any resources, to individuals
and communities who want to build this type organization and take this type of
direct action. The main idea of the Guerrilla Chapter was the fact that, we
would go out on scheduled patrols, but in general, we are always on patrol. If
we saw the police harassing youth of color, we would stop and observe, talk to
the community and encourage them to participate in observation and in being
part of the organization.
• Does CWLA work with any other organizations? If so which ones?
We work with different organizations who are doing similar work against
police brutality, in example the Black Riders Liberation Party (a new Black
Panther Party Organization), the October 22nd Coalition to Stoop Police
Brutality, and others.
• What are some of the local, state, or national policies and laws that
Cop Watch has supported or opposed?
I don't think as an organization we support government policies or
mobilize to change policies in particular. We are a grassroots community
organization, and real change comes from the self-organization of our
communities. We fight to make conditions better today but in general we feel a
systemic change needs to happen.
• How is CWLA structured and what is the decision making process?
We are a horizontal network of communities and individuals (we are not
top down). We communicate with each other first with the members of our
particular chapter and then the rest of the chapters online.
• How does CWLA benefit the community?
CWLA is one tactic in taking back our communities from people who
patrol our streets but do not live in our communities, so do not know how to
relate to us, so they treat us all like criminals. It builds the fighting
capacity of our community, so we won't live in fear from those who are supposed
to "protect and serve." It serves as a deterrent to police murder, because when
we observe them with cameras, it puts them on the defensive and in a big way
can hold them accountable. We are building power, not just reacting to the
power structure.
• How has your involvement in CLWA affected you as an individual?
It has changed my life, and has taught so much about how we all have a
collective responsibility to stand up and fight back. It has made me even more
so, commit my life to fighting for justice.
• Where would you like to see CWLA going in the future? What projects
or areas do you think need to be worked on?
What I want to see in the future is a culture of Cop-Watching, where
everyone is observing the police from the windows of their homes, stopping
their cars to observe the police and being more combative. Where the police and
the state in general has to ask the community before entering it.
After that, I want to live in a world where we won't need Cop Watch
anymore, where we won't have a police department anymore, where the people have
complete control of the community, and can decide for ourselves what is in our
best interest.
There is so much more work that needs to be done. I live in South
Central Los Angeles, and we need food programs, we need more jobs, we need
popular education programs, we need to resist all the unjust laws coming down
on our brothers and sisters who are undocumented and everyone else coming under
attack. We also need to work with the indigenous communities to take back the
land that was stolen.
Thank you
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