Citizens prepare for March for Justice in Cincinnati on Friday evening.

The March for Justice Committee held workshops on Friday night at an area church while anti-authoritarians gathered separately at a nearby location.

The March For Justice Committee held 2 workshops; one was on direct action and nonviolence, while the other focused on issues of racism and the Prison Industrial Complex. Both workshops featured presenters but were discussion oriented in format.

James Davis, a presenter regarding Cincinnati’s criminal system began by noting that problems of police brutality and racial profiling are evident even within the mainstream media. He cited a wealth of sources both local and national documenting racist police practices. He also presented a wide range of statistics showing the discrepancy between treatment of whites and minority persons through all levels of the criminal “justice” system. He ended by noting that while the police in the upper class residential areas work within those communities to develop policing procedures, they are not responsive to the needs of poorer communities.

B and Patrick, students at local Xavier college, presented with Davis. They are working with the “Not With Our Money” campaign to make sure college campuses do not support companies that profit from prisons. They focused on the ways in which the media justifies the large prison population in the U.S. and even police brutality. Shows featuring lawyers and cops can serve to numb audiences to urban realities while glorifying the police. They also exaggerate the levels of violent crime in U.S. society in a time of falling crime rates.

The direct action and nonviolence workshop focused on experiences with the police and their treatment in the past. Hot topics were the TABD protests in Cincinnati in November as well as the more recent uprising of April. Some raised concerns about Saturday’s march and the tactics that would be used. The format was much more discussion based and had a high rate of participation.

Following a break, the evening finished with a panel discussion of ways to change the system. Each presenter clearly stated the march was not solely about police brutality. The issues facing poor minority citizens are much deeper than issues of the police. One presenter, clearly speaking from the heart, noted that the system kills the dreams of young people and then kills them. “People are numb to it. You get used to the dying.” He noted that we need an economic democracy because the problems facing the U.S. are not due to a “shortage of money, but by a shortage of priorities.”

Perhaps the most poignant concern he raised was on the long term commitment of people coming out to Saturday’s march. Many from the 1960’s peace movement sold out. He remembered some people wearing beads and saying ‘power to the people’ and the next time he saw them, they were stepping out of a limo saying ‘to hell with the people.’

Following a long discussion, the group of about 40-50 people left. They will recongregate at 11:00 am on Saturday at Fountain Square in Cincinnati where they will march.