Violence

Preventing School Massacres

Brian K. Noe · May 31, 2022 ·

With each new school massacre, there is a predictable pattern of reactions that has come to seem almost performative. Much of what is said and written seems little more than hurling insults towards political opponents, utterly without value to either grieving or prevention.

There are some actual, practical, well-researched and replicable steps that our communities can take toward prevention though, and they do not require shouting obscenities, or writing your representatives in Congress, or tilting at political windmills.

Mark Follman is the author of Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America. He appeared in April on Democracy Now! to discuss the book, and they recently featured the interview again after the massacre in Uvalde.

You can read an excerpt of the book at the link below from Mother Jones.

Here’s How We Can Prevent the Next School Massacre – Mother Jones. Inside a growing method that experts are using to thwart disasters like the recent Oxford High rampage.

Restorative Justice and Prison Abolition

Brian K. Noe · October 10, 2017 ·

I have recently become a member of an organization that seeks, among other policy goals, the abolition of prisons and policing in our society. A dear friend and I were discussing this, and he raised questions about how an alternative justice system might work. Is there a clear vision for a restorative justice system on a material level? What will the system look like? Who will be in charge of it?

As luck would have it, there was an excellent article at In These Times today about the need to rethink how we respond to violence. That led me to the Vera Institute website, and a very good report on the subject.

In the United States, violence and mass incarceration are deeply entwined, though evidence shows that both can decrease at the same time. A new vision is needed to meaningfully address violence and reduce the use of incarceration—and to promote healing among crime survivors and improve public safety. This report describes four principles to guide policies and practices that aim to reduce violence: They should be survivor-centered, based on accountability, safety-driven, and racially equitable.

You can read their fact sheet here.

Or download the full report below.

NPA Statement After Paris Attacks

Brian K. Noe · November 14, 2015 ·

The New Anti-Capitalist Party, one of the leading organizations on the Left in France, issued a statement today, after the attacks in Paris of the evening of 13 November.

The only response to wars and terrorism is the unity of the workers and people, over and above their origins, their skin colour, their religions, across the borders, to fight together against those who want to silence them, to dominate them, to do away with this capitalist system which generates cruelty.

Read the Full Statement: The cruelty of imperialist wars results in the cruelty of terrorism | International Viewpoint

Today, we remember Paris. We also remember Beirut and Gaza and Kunduz, and all of the innocent victims of violence created by a system which has outlived its usefulness.