Kalamazoo community members are facing criminal charges for protesting the violent police eviction of Ampersee camp residents

On October 7th & 8th, 2021, allies stood in solidarity with Ampersee encampment residents being evicted by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS). KDPS, intent on criminalizing houselessness and weaponizing the right to self-defense, responded with brutality (punching, kicking, tackling, and macing residents and allies).

As this petition is being written, 10 protestors are facing various criminal charges for exercising their right to demonstrate. Black, Indigenous, Latinx, trans, and houseless protestors, whose rights were violated by KDPS, are facing particularly trumped up charges. Prosecuting those standing in solidarity with our most vulnerable community members tacitly, but deliberately discourages Kalamazoo residents from supporting our neighbors.

The City of Kalamazoo depends on the unpaid labor of community members to meet the survival needs of the unhoused. Needs, which the city not only consistently neglects but exacerbates. In return for helping our neighbors, community members are met with City-sanctioned violence and arrests. Historically, before property laws dominated how we view the land, it was common practice for both Indigenous and Black people to migrate wherever their needs were most met. Kalamazoo remains unceded Anishinabek ancestral territory. The land belongs to the people, not the police, and not the city.

Please sign this petition to demand the prosecuting attorney's office, under the leadership of Jeffrey S. Getting, immediately drop the charges against all protesters.

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT!

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