What is Safety?
When Akronites or Americans think about safety we often think about it in the sense of our safety services like police and fire and not in the sense of community. We have learned through police brutality cases, deaths at the hands of law enforcement and mass incarceration which has led to more people being locked up currently than there were slaves in the 1800s that the traditional way of thinking about safety is not working for the average American.
The Freedom BLOC will spend the next two years working with the community to truly define what safety is. Municipalities like Akron can no longer afford to funnel tax dollars into a system that has never kept our community safe. We look to define "safety " and "crime" what is crime? Is crime working 40 hours a week and stealing from Family Dollar to feed your family or is the crime the fact that you worked 40hrs and still can't feed your family. How does this current model keep us safe.
SAFETY CAMPAIGN PLANNING 2025
Purpose: Develop a shared understanding of what safety is and build a community based safety plan that requires collective work and responsibility.
Outcomes:
Broaden our understanding of safety
Inspire more community engagement
Identify and develop leaders
Change pro-police narrative surrounding safety