During Las Vegas DSA’s local convention in July 2022, the chapter voted to make the Abolitionist and Community Safety Campaign one of our priorities for 2022-2023.
The Abolitionist and Community Safety Campaign will not accept reforms that reinforce the state’s or prison-industrial complex powers, will actively oppose any increase in law enforcement spending in state, county, or local budgets, and will call for allocating law enforcement funds to alternatives that actually assist people and promote community safety, such as housing initiatives and community services.
The Abolitionist and Community Safety Campaign will call for the expansion of the 988 crisis hotline so that it may eventually become a reliable and viable resource for individuals facing mental/behavioral health crises, will call for the 988 crisis hotline to be decoupled from any connection with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The Abolitionist and Community Safety Campaign will also host events and actions that decrease the likelihood that individuals will have interactions with police, or help them be more protected in the event that they do interact with police such as brake light clinics, promoting the use of naloxone to treat opioid overdoses, street medic training events, know-your-rights training in partnership with National Lawyers Guild Las Vegas, deescalation trainings, and bystander trainings.
The Abolitionist and Community Safety Campaign will also provide educational events and/or material that educates the public on the following topics: decriminalization of sex work; decriminalization of drug use; the need to immediately seal the records of drug offenders and release them from all sentences; community-based deescalation, violence interruption, and domestic dispute resolution — with potential vetted community resources or practices that align with abolitionist and mutual aid values and do not propagate further violence, when applicable.
Also, feel free to check out our Abolish/Defund Resource List