Interrupting Criminalization
@interruptcrim.bsky.social
8.5K followers 390 following 910 posts
Offering research, connection, learning, and practice for organizers and movements working to end criminalization, policing, and punishment. Founded and led by Andrea J. Ritchie and Mariame Kaba. Learn more at http://interruptingcriminalization.com/
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interruptcrim.bsky.social
🗓️ Oct. 15 at 3-4 PM ET online: Please join us for a discussion of how to advance narratives that undermine authoritarianism and increase solidarity, featuring @dreanyc123.bsky.social, @lewispants.bsky.social, and @deanspade.bsky.social!

Register: www.interruptingcriminalization.com/events/all/f...
Event graphic for "Fighting Copaganda Under Authoritarianism: How to Advance Narratives That Undermine Authoritarianism & Increase Solidarity," taking place place on October 15, 3-4 PM ET, virtual, with Andrea J. Ritchie, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Dean Spade. The event information is in black text on a background of a collage of a thick red pain mark, tape, cutouts of a hand writing, an eye with electricity coming out of it, and a crossed-out mouth, as well as yellow and black scribbles.
interruptcrim.bsky.social
Want to learn more about how to establish and build an organization to do rad work outside the carceral state? Join us for this Oct. 18 workshop (this was rescheduled from the original Oct. 4 date):

Introduction to 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organizations — facilitated by Rhonda Brown-Moore
Communiversity Catalog: Introduction to 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organizations — Interrupting Criminalization
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
interruptcrim.bsky.social
Want to work on personal growth and empowerment, process your experiences, and cultivate resilience and connection in a supportive, safe space? Check out this Oct. 18 workshop:

Loving Yourself Beyond the Trauma: Building Emotional Resilience and Confidence — facilitated by Rev. Dr. Xenia Barnes
Communiversity Catalog: Loving Yourself Beyond the Trauma — Interrupting Criminalization
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
interruptcrim.bsky.social
Want to learn how to better hold space and provide support for young people’s bodily autonomy and radical care in NYC? Check out this Oct. 18 workshop:

Rebellious Care: Centering Bodily Autonomy as a Practice of Care — facilitated by Rebellious Root
Communiversity Catalog: Rebellious Care: Centering Bodily Autonomy as a Practice of Care — Interrupting Criminalization
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
interruptcrim.bsky.social
We also have spots available for workshops that are happening next Saturday, Oct. 18, as part of our anti-criminalization Communiversity. These are in-person in NYC, sliding scale. Registration links in the thread ⬇️

Learn more and check out other courses we're offering through mid-November here:
Anti-Criminalization Communiversity in NYC: August-November 2025 — Interrupting Criminalization
Interrupting Criminalization and Women Building Up have partnered up to offer an anti-criminalization “Communiversity” series of workshops and classes, taking place in person in Brooklyn, starting mid...
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
interruptcrim.bsky.social
Registration for these 3 in-person workshops happening this Saturday in NYC closes on Friday, so if you're interested, please register ASAP:
interruptcrim.bsky.social
If you're in NYC, we have 3 Communiversity workshops this Saturday, Oct. 11th. In-person, sliding scale.

Want to learn how to raise money to support critical work, something that is very hard these days? Our co-founder @prisonculture.bsky.social is facilitating a session on grassroots fundraising:
Communiversity Catalog: Grassroots Fundraising for Organizers — Interrupting Criminalization
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
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haymarketbooks.org
For #BannedBooksWeek, we’re highlighting the unjust censorship of political books which impacts countless incarcerated readers each year.

For every book purchased from this reading list, we will be sending a book to someone who is incarcerated.
Books Are For Everyone: A Banned Books Week Reading List
Banned Books Week—October 5th to 11th—is an annual celebration of the freedom to read, and the aspiration that books should be accessible to all. In recognition of Banned Books Week 2025, Haymarket is...
www.haymarketbooks.org
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mayaschenwar.bsky.social
I'm honored to share the winners of the 5th Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize, given in memory of my sister. Both essays this year reflect on the stark, inherent violence of prison, and convey a key message for our time: Where there is injustice, there is resistance. truthout.org/articles/ann...
Announcing the Winners of the 5th Annual Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize
The prize honors the work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors who are writing toward a more just world.
truthout.org
interruptcrim.bsky.social
"One of the most insidious things about prison is that it tries to mute us. It can’t take our voices away, but it can make it harder for them to be heard...Amplifying our voices is empowering and powerful. And you can help by joining any number of advocacy efforts."
lewispants.bsky.social
Talking to folx in prison reminds me that people have been living with extreme authoritarian conditions, including censorship and denial of trans health care, prior to this moment. Let's listen when they tell us how to get through it and what they need. #solidarity truthout.org/articles/bei...
Being Trans Behind Bars in Florida Was Already Hard. Under Trump, It’s Worse.
Trans people in prison are at the front lines of the increased targeting that trans people are facing under Trump.
truthout.org
interruptcrim.bsky.social
🗓️ Oct. 16 at 1 PM ET in Philadelphia: Our co-founder @dreanyc123.bsky.social will be joining others on a panel at the CenterLink Leadership Summit, "Still Loving, Still Fighting: LGBTQ+ Traditions of Resilience, Organizing, and Mutual Aid."

Learn more and join: www.lgbtqcenters.org/CenterLink/S...
Screenshot of event webpage text: "Thursday, October 16th

Still Loving, Still Fighting: LGBTQ+ Traditions of Resilience, Organizing, and Mutual Aid
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Wyeth Ballroom

Description:
As we face roll backs in civil rights protections and health access, new pressures from anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans legislation, and increasing rates of violence and harassment, what can be learned from previous models for building community power? In this session our panelists reflect on their experiences with intersectional movements for liberation, survival, and visibility to draw out strategies that might help us shape responses to current struggles. Join us as we delve into stories from ACT UP and health justice, abolitionist organizing, LGBTQ+ communities in Latin America, and initiatives for trans justice to explore the lessons that live in our collective history of courage and resilience.  

Speakers:
Kris Hayashi, ACLU
Wilfred Labiosa, Waves Ahead Corp, CEO/President
Andrea Ritchie, Interrupting Criminalization, Co-Founder
Jose Demarco, Black and Brown Community Control of Health, Founder
Priy Jindal, Mosaic Medical LGBTQ+ Program, Nurse Practitioner"
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motherjones.com
"We're going to do whatever it takes to keep her safe."

How families are fighting to survive Trump's war on transgender kids
"We're going to do whatever it takes to keep her safe"
How families are fighting to survive Trump's war on transgender kids
www.motherjones.com
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melissagiragrant.com
In this case, ADF “cited several scholars to support its argument that conversion practices should once again be permitted. Two of those experts, however, told the Guardian that ADF had ‘profoundly’ misrepresented their research, which discussed the ‘psychological damage’ of conversion therapy.’”
samtlevin.bsky.social
NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.

Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"
Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say
Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth
www.theguardian.com
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erininthemorning.com
Three SCOTUS cases saw movement this week targeting LGBTQ+ people: A conversation therapy case, a shadow-docket case on trans passports, and a sports ban that will determine equal protection for trans people.

Writer S. Baum details all of them in our latest.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
Three Supreme Court Cases Targeting LGBTQ+ People See Movement This Week
From sports to passports, these cases may determine the vitality of trans rights in the U.S. for generations to come.
www.erininthemorning.com
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esqueer.net
This has always been a extremely tiny screeching minority demanding that their bigotry dictate that no one else's children can learn of the existence of LGBTQ people.
erininthemorning.com
1. 4 months ago, The Supreme Court gave families a right to opt out of LGBTQ+ education in schools.

Now, in Montgomery County, Maryland, where the case originated, the results are in.

Only 43 families out of 160,000 students have exercised that new right.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
Only 0.03% Opt Out Of LGBTQ+ Education In Maryland After SCOTUS Gives Them A Right To
After SCOTUS gave families a right to opt out of LGBTQ+ education, Montgomery County, Maryland is reporting only 43 families took them up on it.
www.erininthemorning.com
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dlknowles.bsky.social
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
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katieprout.bsky.social
At least 6 unhoused Chicagoans have been abducted by federal agents since September: 2 have been released, while the status of the remaining 4 is unknown. But the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness is investigating reports of an additional 19 people disappeared.

chicagoreader.com/news/make-it...
Make It Make Sense: ICE targets Chicago’s homeless community
Plus: state and local leaders crack down on anti-ICE protesters and advocates ask the chief judge to keep ICE out of county courthouses.
chicagoreader.com
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olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
We know more about the massive military-style raid on a Chicago housing complex thanks to the reporting of @southsideweekly.bsky.social, @blockclubchi.bsky.social, and neighborhood resident Eboni Watson who chronicled the event. Among the emerging questions: what's real estate's role in this?
section of text from South Side Weekly's coverage, which says: "The building was purchased by Wisconsin-based investor Trinity Flood in January 2020, according to Cook County records. On October 1, the day after the raid, a judge reviewed an emergency motion from Wells Fargo seeking to appoint Matthew Tarshis of Frontline Real Estate Partners as the property’s receiver. 

Flood purchased three multifamily properties in South Shore in 2020. The neighborhood, which had the highest number of eviction filings in Chicago from 2015-2019 according to the Law Center for Better Housing, has seen a rise in outside real estate investors since the 2017 announcement of the Obama Presidential Center’s construction in the neighboring Jackson Park.

Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the building in mid-2024, bringing a $27 million lawsuit against Flood for missed loan payments. In late 2024, the City began closing its largest migrant shelters and, through state funding assistance distributed via Catholic Charities and moving support from New Life Church, relocated many families to buildings such as this one."
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allisonbetus.bsky.social
Folks, if ICE shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball on camera, what do you think they do to people behind closed doors?
flglchicago.bsky.social
Here’s video of the incident
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Reposted by Interrupting Criminalization
robertmackey.bsky.social
The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America
A federal judge had blocked Trump’s request to deploy California national guard to Portland
www.theguardian.com
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esqueer.net
ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.
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detentionwatchnetwork.org
We’re enraged and heartbroken by the rising deaths in ICE custody. Huabing Xie, from China, died Sept 29 after being held at Imperial Regional Detention Facility. At least 20 people have died since Trump took office as he moves to triple ICE detention by the end of this year. #CommunitiesNotCages
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jackjenkins.me
NEW: I spoke to clergy and faith leaders who've joined protests at the Chicago-area ICE facility.

Three say they've been shot with pepper balls, sometimes while praying.

All say ICE is also violating their religious freedom, and one is arguing it in court. religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...
Religious protesters say ICE threatens religious freedom in Chicago
(RNS) — Despite potential danger, religious leaders and faith activists have been a visible presence at Chicago-area ICE protests, some waving signs with slogans such as ‘Love thy neighbor’ and ‘Who w...
religionnews.com
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Reposted by Interrupting Criminalization
prisonculture.bsky.social
This very very very bad. I cannot stress this enough. I said that they crossed the Rubicon with arresting Ras Baraka several months ago. This is very bad and portends more bad things for regular people.
royalpratt.bsky.social
The President of the United States is calling for the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois to be jailed.