Week 1: Individual and Community Safety

Supplies needed: pen, paper, access to audio and video capabilities

Introduction

Introduction Video Transcript

Welcome to the first week of the Mennonite Church USA curriculum on police abolition. This week we’re exploring the topic of safety. At the root of policing is a desire to maintain a particular way of life. For some, especially white people, policing protects a way of life white people hope to maintain. Throughout the units in this course, we center the voices and stories of those for whom police and prisons are often a source of danger. As Christians, we believe that God desires thriving for each of us, and confronting the disparity of policing by dismantling this system of coercion and violence is central to our work of proclaiming the good news.

What is safety? How does safety we’re offered through the institution of policing differ from the safety we experience in the reign of God? This week you’ll have the opportunity to explore these questions together.

Opening Ritual

Facilitator invites participants to stand/sit/move into a posture that symbolizes safety for them. Ask them to hold this posture for at least 60 seconds. Read the following aloud:

Throughout this study, as we explore safety, police, policing and abolition, there may be moments when you are needing safety and safe space. The invitation is to come back to this posture as a place of grounding and connection. 

Facilitator reads aloud and invites participants to a safety plan:

Content in this course may be activating or triggering to you. A safety plan is a list of a few concrete things you can do to keep yourself safe. These things can include: taking a deep breath, closing your eyes, drinking a cold glass of water, zoning out for a minute, meditating, stretching.

Make a list of one to three things you can do during this course if you are feeling activated or triggered. Keep this list accessible for the duration of the class and feel free to use one or more of the options in your safety plan at any time if needed.

Grounding Narrative

The author Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses his earliest memories of fear around policing and incarceration in the Black community.

After playing the video, the facilitator invites 60 seconds of silence.

Watch the video together (Length 2:36) at this link:

Lesson

Activity 1

Facilitator invites participants to the first discussion activity, inviting responses to the following prompts.

What do you bring into this room?
Have participants respond to the following question as a way of introduction:

• • • Name and pronouns you use to describe yourself.
      (Read more about personal pronouns at this link.)
    • Who are your people? (Ella Baker, brilliant organizer during the Civil Rights Movement of NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, frequently asked this grounding question.)
    • In two to three words, describe your experience with and/or understanding of police and policing.

What is safety to you?
Think about a moment in which you felt safe. Describe this moment. Where were you? What were you doing? Who was with you? How did you feel in your body?

Activity 2

Facilitator introduces the Bible study by inviting participants to read aloud each of the following psalms. The facilitator asks participants to listen for a definition of safety as these are read aloud.

The text on safety:

Psalms 4:8 (Inclusive Bible Translation (IBT))

“In peace I’ll lie down; in peace I will sleep: for you alone, GOD, keep me perfectly safe.”

Psalms 9:7-10 (IBT)

“But you, GOD, reign forever and have established your throne of judgement. You will judge the world in justice and govern the peoples with equity. For you, GOD, are a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your Name trust in you, for you have never forsaken those who seek you, GOD.”

Psalms 20:6-9 (IBT)

“Now I know that GOD saves the anointed, answering from holy heaven with saving power. Some trust in political power, some in military might, but we trust in the Name of GOD, our God! With only human resources, they fall; but we have risen, and we stand firm. Save us, GOD, our Ruler! Answer when we call.” 

Facilitator invites the group to reflect on the psalms by asking:

1. 1. How do the psalms describe safety?
   2. How is this different or similar to the ways we envision safety in our homes, schools, churches, and places of work?

Activity 3

The group will watch two short videos together. Facilitator introduces the videos reading the following descriptions aloud and then plays them for participants.

Video interview with Angela Y. Davis (Length 6:33)
Angela Davis is one of the most influential leaders of the police abolition movement. In this video, she explains what “defund the police” means and how it connects to wider justice movements rooted in the safety of communities. [Link]

“Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police” (Length 5:30)
In this video, Black parents describe their fears about the safety of their children around the police and how they prepare their children for police encounters. [Link]

After the videos, the facilitator invites a minute of silence, then encourages participants to share their responses in pairs to at least one of these questions. Then lead a large group discussion responding to the prompts.

1. 1. What were the different visions of safety that were lifted up in these two videos?
   2. What did you feel in your bodies while watching these videos?
   3. How does policing impact our ideas about safety?

Next Steps

To begin to cultivate your personal and collective imagination regarding how to ensure individual and communal safety, complete the pod-mapping exercise for yourself, family or congregation. You can also do this exercise as part of developing a community safety plan. The process of developing a community safety plan can be an alternative to policing-only or policing-first.