Imagine Black Op-ed in Featured in Oregon Capital Chronicle

In the most recent Oregon Capital Chronicle, our Deputy Director of Movement Building alongside Cohort 6 Alum Julianne Jackson, published an Op-ed titled Rep. Kevin Mannix’s positions do not represent crime victims of color.

They noted that:

“If increased law enforcement and incarceration were the keys to community safety, Black neighborhoods would be the safest in the world. The punishment-only experiment has failed. It’s time to invest in solutions that actually help us.

We want to heal. We need investments in victims’ services that are culturally specific and separate from the criminal legal system. Our restoration should not depend on whether we report a crime to a system that has failed us.

We want accountability for trauma, not a system that causes more trauma. Prisons are breaking us. We should fund solutions like restorative justice, diversion and treatment-based rehabilitation, not long-term cages for our loved ones.

And we want a chance to communicate with our officials. Our ideas, fears and hopes matter, so when we invite our legislators to community-wide events or make an appointment at the Capitol, don’t sideline us and then claim to speak on our behalf.

We do not consent to having our identities leveraged by Mannix to push policies that hurt our communities. We do not consent to having our bodies and lives be used to oppose legislation that would help us. Do not use our existence against us.”

To read the full feature: https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/25/rep-kevin-mannixs-positions-do-not-represent-crime-victims-of-color/