Justice for Alwy B-Ball Tournament - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008

Register Now for the Justice for Alwy basketball tournament!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
On Saturday, September 13, the Justice for Alwy campaign against police brutality will be holding its first annual Justice for Alwy 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The tournament will consist of two separate divisions: "16 and under" and "17 and over". Proof of age will be necessary to compete in the "16 and under" division. First prize for the tournament will be $500 for the "17 and over" Senior division and at least $150 for the "16 and under" Junior division.

Registration cost is $50 per team for the Senior Division, and $25 per team for the junior division (a maximum of 5 players per team). The event will be held in Carlton Park, which is two blocks west of Symington and one block north of Dupont.

Registration deadline is September 5 - and the number of teams allowed to compete is limited, so register now!

Contact justiceforalwy@gmail.com to register or call 647.202.0805. Or join the Justice for Alwy Facebook group, and see the Justice for Alwy B-Ball Tournament Event in that group.


Organized by: The Justice for Alwy Campaign Against Police Brutality, Basics Community Newsletter, and the Hood to Hood Movement

Crooked Cops Get Away with Murder...Again

by N. Zahra
Basics Issue#10 (Aug/Sep 2008)


“When they shot my step-son, they shot her too…” exclaimed Byron Debassige’s step-father Mike Vigneault about his grief stricken wife. Ever since the murder of their sons at the hands of Toronto police, the mothers and families of Byron Debassige and Alwy Al-Nadhir have been struggling to keep afloat and continue their fight to know what really happened to their loved-ones. Their quest for justice has become even more urgent in the wake of Special Investigation Unit (SIU) reports being released earlier this summer.

On June 12, 2008 the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) released reports regarding the police murders of 18-year-old Alwy Al-Nadhir and 28-year-old Byron Debassige. In both cases, the reports cleared police of any wrongdoing. The reports have left the families more confused and distraught, obscuring the scant information they had collected in the wake of the murders. Both official reports clash with the information that the families had been given prior to the reports being released. In addition, certain crucial information was missing from the reports.

Nowhere in Debassige’s report does it mention that Byron was schizophrenic. Contrary to what the report says about eyewitnesses, witnesses told the family that Byron posed no visible threat and was in fact singing and laughing when he was approached by the police. Also, the report neglects to mention that Debassige was shot five times. In Al-Nadhir’s case, the report says that Al-Nadhir tried to grab the officer’s gun from him. This is inconsistent with the scant information provided to the family prior to the report being released when investigators told Al-Nadhir’s family that he had tried to run away.

To add insult to injury, each of the families were disrespectfully treated during investigation. Prior to the report on Byron’s murder being released police used intimidation tactics to get Byron’s mother, Jennifene Debassige, to admit that her son was guilty of some crime and accused her of being a liar. In a phone conversation with Basics, Jennifene described how disrespectful the police were toward her and her family, making her feel even more miserable in her time of mourning.

Salma Al-Nadhir, Alwy’s older sister, told Basics how as the months wore on and the family was becoming desperate to know what happened to Alwy, the SIU’s visits became increasingly infrequent and when they did visit, their story would change every time. This uncertainty caused much anxiety for the family, especially to Alwy’s mother who continues her fight to know what really happened. In fact, the SIU did not even have the decency to present the report to the family the day it was released.

Both families have come together to demand justice and are seeking to unite with other families who have been through similar ordeals. They are calling on all those who have similar demands and their supporters to unite and demand swift coroner’s inquiries! More importantly, that killer cops have been cleared once again by the SIU shows how useless that organization really is.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the only people capable and trustworthy of overseeing the police are THE PEOPLE themselves.

Families must unite to demand a complete overhaul of the SIU and its replacement with a truly civilian body that holds the police accountable for their crimes.

Ultimately, whether or not the Ontario government overhauls the SIU, only the action and organization of the people can put an end to police brutality. Let’s organize for Justice for Alwy and Byron, Justice for All, now!















Alwy Al-Nadhir



Byron Debassige

Canada’s Free Trade Deal With Narco-Terrorist Government Colombia

by Jeremias De Castero
Basics Issue #10 (Aug/Sep 2008)

On June 7th, 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez signed a free trade agreement, pulling both of their countries deeper into the miserable economic system of capitalism. The experience of free trade for working Canadians over the last two decades has been immiserating: jobs have been shipped to the more exploited countries of the world; our public resources, like education and health care, are being privatized; and Canada is participating in endless wars abroad.

As the deal was being worked out in June 2008, it’s interesting to note how much talk there was in the Canadian media of how Colombia has become so much more democratic under its current president Uribe. Well if this trade deal is about free trade, and we know how destructive free trade has been to the world in the past decades, then what kind of democracy is the media talking about? Let’s sum up the “democratic” advances Colombia has made under Uribe to get an idea of what kind of democracy the Canadian government has in mind:
Since Uribe became president of Colombia in 2002 under the banner of ‘democratic security’, Colombian society has become more militarized and more impoverished.

While supposedly more than 15, 000 right-wing paramilitaries have been decommissioned, most have been reformed and rearmed into other organizations. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Army of the People (FARC-EP) have sustained their worst casualties in more than 15 years. At the same time as the Colombia military has waged war against the FARC-EP revolutionaries, the state’s war against the general population has stepped up as well.
In the last 20 years, the paramilitaries and the military forces have assassinated more then three thousand trade unionists, both leaders and ordinary workers, and hundreds of community activists, human rights workers, and citizens critical of the government.

Throughout the same period there has been an intense increase of poverty in Colombia, with an ever-increasing impoverishment of normal workers. Colombia is also the country with the second highest number of internal refugees in the world, a number that is increasing every day. This is the ‘democratic security’ that Uribe and his government offers.

Uribe himself has a long history of connections with paramilitaries, drug gangs and just general plain old corruption. When Uribe was governor of the Antioquia province, it is known that he would have nightly meetings with paramilitaries in his governmental compound, giving them lists of union leaders and other community organizers to target for assassination. His policies as the President have been a mixture of privatization, conservatism in regards to social issues and an opening of Colombia to the exploitation of foreign companies. None of these brutal and exploitative policies would be possible without the support of foreign imperialist nations like the U.S. and Canada.

Uribe’s regime receives massive aid in the form of military hardware, technology, military officers and contract mercenaries, costing the American tax payers nearly a $1 billion per year.

On March 1, 2008 the Colombian military made an incursion into Ecuadorian territory to bomb a site of FARC’s revolutionary leader Raul Reyes, killing him as well as 20 others. The affair caused an international stir as Colombia broke international law, leading to a deterioration of relations between Colombia and its neighbours, particularly Venezuela and Ecuador.

Finally, as a foreign policy chess piece, Uribe is much more friendly to the counter-revolutionary policies of American and Canadian governments. Currently, Latin Americans in almost every country on the continent are building massive revolutionary movements for socialism. Colombia is the sole country in Latin America where the fascist right-wing is being firmly propped up with the help of America and Canada, even though the Colombian people in the countryside have waged 40 years of insurgency against the government.

Therefore, the Colombian military provides a sure foothold in Latin America for those foreign powers wishing to stamp out people power in the neighbouring countries.

The Canadian people have nothing to gain and much to lose from Canada’s free trade deal with Colombia. Exploited workers and oppressed people in Canada must stand alongside Colombians in their struggle against the Uribe government, because it is a struggle against the American and Canadian governments too.

Canada’s Dirty Colonial Past: The Residential Schools Genocide

by Alok Premjee

On June 11, 2008, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to the some 100,000 living survivors of Canada’s more than century-long Indian Residential School system. His apology touched upon some of the atrocities aboriginal children suffered, which included physical torture, sexual abuse and rape, prohibition of native languages and cultural practices, inadequate food, shelter, and medical treatment, and, worst of all, being kidnapped from their families.

These acts of violence largely destroyed aboriginal ways of living by forcefully assimilating its survivors into Canadian society. Harper admitted that the logic of the Federal Government and the Catholic, Anglican, and United churches from the 1870s onward was to forcefully assimilate the aboriginal population (which they classified as “inferior beings”) into Canadian culture. Provisions were built into the 1884 Indian Act to legally force aboriginal children to attend these schools, and to arrest and/or fine parents for resisting these terms. The Indian Act was a legal-genocidal document not only in cultural terms: with a close to 50% mortality rate in the residential schools, the government of Canada and churches in Canada oversaw and administered a physical genocide of indigenous peoples. The last of these residential schools were closed only recently in the 1990s.

Harper’s apology comes two months after the formation of the International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC), a non-governmental body established by indigenous elders. The IHRTGC has recently made a presentation to members of the United Nations, publicly revealing the whereabouts of some 28 mass graves of the child victims of the residential schools. In total, it is estimated by researchers that about 50,000 children perished in these schools.

Thus, Harper’s shallow and worthless apology wasn’t an expression of Canada coming to terms with its genocidal past, but the Canadian government responding to the mobilization of indigenous people against a long history of Canada’s genocidal policies.

In the criminal justice system, when a criminal is convicted of murder, he or she is punished accordingly. Yet, indigenous peoples are expected to accept shallow apologies for a genocide committed against them.

The only solution to this historical injustice is for indigenous peoples to reclaim their resources and their land in order to begin rebuilding their societies and self-determine their futures. Everything that has been stolen from these peoples by the Canadian government acting on behalf of the rich certainly won’t be handed back without a struggle. It’s up to indigenous communities to take back what belongs to them, as is being done all across Ontario and Canada today. Non-Native working-class people are allies to these struggles because we share a common enemy with indigenous peoples: the Canadian ruling-class that exploits us, lies to us, taxes us, represses us, and sends us to war with other peoples.

SIU clears T.O. Cops of murdering Alwy Al Nadhir and Byron Debassige

Basics Community Newsletter Bulletin
June 13, 2008

On June 12, 2008 the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) released reports regarding the police murders of 18-year-old Alwy Al-Nadhir and 28-year-old Byron Debassige. In both cases, the reports cleared police of any wrongdoing. The families are distraught and unsatisfied with the reports. Both official reports clash with the information that the families had been given prior to the reports being released. In addition, certain crucial information was missing from the reports. Nowhere in Debassige’s report does it mention that Byron was schizophrenic. Contrary to what the report says about eyewitnesses, witnesses told the family that Byron posed no visible threat and was in fact singing and laughing when he was approached by the police.

In Al-Nadhir’s case, the report says that Al-Nadhir tried to grab the officer’s gun from him. This is inconsistent with the scant information provided to the family prior to the report being released when investigators told Al-Nadhir’s family that he had tried to run away.

In both cases, the families will fight for a timely coroner’s inquest in order to find out what really happened to their loved ones. The Justice for Alwy Campaign is bringing together families like Byron’s and Alwy’s who have suffered the loss of a loved one at the hands of police. Together, families affected by police brutality are coming together to demand justice and build a formidable people’s movement to make that possible. Justice for Alwy and Byron now!

The TTC Strike, Back To Work Legislation, and What it Means for Workers

Paulina V.
Basics Issue #9 (May 2008)

On May First 1886, more than 400,000 workers in Chicago held a demonstration during a nation wde labour strike. They were demanding an 8-hour workday and although this was a struggle that resulted in the deaths of several labour activists and leaders it lead to the eventual adoption of the 8-hour workday. From this point on, the First of May would be recognized as International Workers Day in celebration of the rights, struggles and victories of everyday workers.

International Workers Day marks the importance of workers’ fundamental right to hold demonstrations, protests and to go on strike to demand safety, higher wages, union recognition and, ultimately, justice. The purpose of striking is not only to give workers a unified voice, but also to establish social and economic equality between workers and employers. Throughout history, strikes have been a symbol of workers’ collective strength and commitment to justice.

On April 25th when the TTC’s 9,000 strong workforce rejected the contract under negotiation and overwhelmingly voted to strike, thousands of riders were left stranded and frustrated at everything ranging from fare costs, route frequency, dirty subway stations and a supposedly greedy workforce. Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor David Miller reacted quickly and called an emergency session of the legislature-at which time Back-To-Work legislation was passed bringing an abrupt end to the 2 day strike.

So why do transit fares seems to rise so often and why do riders feel like they are getting ripped off? Under Mike Harris’ Conservative government of the 1990s the TTC budget, which used to receive 50% of its operating costs from the province of Ontario, was slashed leaving behind an aging and severely under-funded public transit system. Thus while the city of Toronto continues to grow and with it demands for a better transit system, inadequate funding from all levels of government have left the TTC crippled and unable to respond to riders’ needs.

As workers struggling to keep up with the ever-rising cost of living and poor working conditions, the recent TTC strike invites us to reflect on some of the key issues at stake during the demonstrations held leading up to and following the first International Workers Day. If the province refuses to provide adequate funding for public transportation at the same time that it beefs up the police’s operating budget with millions of additional dollars, what message is government sending to transit users who must pick up the tab? If 400 TTC managers earn more than $100,000/per year, who really holds power within the TTC? If workers’ right to strike can be so easily overruled without challenge from any of the main political parties, who can workers rely on to represent their interests? And if the mainstream media and politicians alike purposely and aggressively pit the public against a workforce who has a legitimate claim to better working conditions why do we so easily accept this antagonism when neither politicians nor the media represent our interests?

Preventing employees’ ability to strike over labour relation issues undermines the democratic rights of workers. Strikes are not only a key means for achieving economic justice but strikes also provide an opportunity for all workers to stand beside and support their brothers and sisters struggling for better conditions. Forcing workers to end their strike and stripping them of their right to strike on the basis that they provide an essential service isn’t justifiable and it sets a dangerous precedent that erodes the rights of ALL workers, not just those involved in the dispute.

If more than 1.5 million of us ride the TTC every weekday to get home, to school and to work, we should look for ways to build alliances with the 9,000 TTC drivers and maintenance staff that make this possble rather than divert our frustrations at them. If politicians and mainstream media are so invested in pushing an antagonism between TTC workers and the general public where there isn’t one, why should we buy it? We shouldn’t. We should work together to demand a healthy public transportation system that is well funded, well run and well supported. ∗

Crispin 'Ka Bel' Beltran (1933-2008): Glorious Hero of the Filipino People

Filipinos around the world are mourning the death Crispin 'Ka Bel'”
Beltran. A veteran organizer and people's leader, Beltran died on
May 20 of head injuries sustained after falling from the roof of his
home in Bulacan. He was 75.

A long time trade union leader, Beltran was chairman of the Kilusang
Mayo Uno (“May First Movement”) until he was elected to the
Philippine Congress as a representative of Anakpawis Party-list. He
was a prominent leader in the opposition movement against the corrupt and
brutal rule of current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Beltran was a political prisoner during the Martial Law era of
fascist dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He was again detained by the
Arroyo regime under false criminal charges of rebellion and held
prisoner for more than a year in a hospital prison.

"“I am innocent of the rebellion charge against me",” he said upon
his release. “"It’s neither a sin nor against the law to speak against
graft and corruption and the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians."

Unions, progressive parties, and peoples organizations are paying
tribute to Crispin Beltran and his more than 50-year commitment as an
activist.

"While Ka Bel didn't get his wish that he die in the streets fighting
against tyranny and exploitation, he did not die in vain," said Elmer
Labog of Kilusang Mayo Uno. "His whole life offered in the service of
the Filipino people and other struggling people in the world makes
him a hero no less."

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) hailed his
contributions to journalistic freedom. "Mr. Beltran was a tireless
leader, advocate and ally of workers, including those in mass media.
He was a fighter for press freedom and the right to free expression"
the NUJP said in a statement.

Bayan Muna, a progressive party-list, called his death “an irreparable
loss not only to the working-class movement but to every Filipino
yearning for genuine social change. He was a tower of a man, a pillar
of strength for the progressive people's movement.”

Up until the end, Beltran remained a man of the people. In a
Congress dominated by millionaires, Beltran died still the poorest
member of the House of Representatives, with a net worth of only
50,000 pesos (CAN $1,149).

Basics Editorial
Basics Issue #9 (May 2008)

TCHC website shows this artist’s rendition of Phase 1 of “Revitalization” in Regent Park at Dundas and Parliament.




The future of Toronto’s social housing – how much there will be, where it will be located – will depend on the struggle of the people in Toronto’s social housing communities to demand and fight for better housing.

Residents of Lawrence Heights should brace themselves for the propaganda campaign that TCHC is set to unleash on them throughout the summer of 2008. Starting in May 2008, TCHC will choose its “Consultant Teams” which will begin deploying “community engagement” schemes in the community to get people on board with revitalization. Essentially, people can expect more of the same empty consultations with their “voices” falling on deaf ears.

On February 16, 2008 Basics Community Newsletter and a number of volunteer lawyers organized a legal clinic for residents at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre to fill-out Tenant Rights (T2) and Maintenance (T6) forms to the Ontario Landlord Tenant Board. Many families filled out these forms, with many more calling on Basics to help them with the forms in the weeks and months ahead.

However, TCHC and the Landlord Tenant Board have found sneaky ways to disqualify people’s applications.

In one case, a resident who filled out a claim to the Board was contacted by a TCHC representative asking the claimant to adjourn for another day. As nice as the tenant was, she agreed. Trustfully assuming that TCHC’s legal counsel would take care of the adjournment, the tenant in question did not show up for her trial. The tenant was sent a letter by the Landlord Tenant Board indicating that her case had been thrown out because she failed to show up. TCHC had successfully fooled the tenant from going to her own hearing.

Another claimant – who was also contacted by TCHC requesting adjournment – decided to ignore TCHC and proceed to the Landlord Tenant Board. Even though TCHC said that they could not attend, their legal counsel was in attendance. The results? The TCHC counsel told the adjudicator at the Board that they were not able to proceed with the case and that they had to reconvene another day. The Board went ahead and scheduled another hearing that was convenient for TCHC and not for the tenant. The tenant not only lost a day’s work, but she was sent home with a rescheduled hearing that she couldn’t even attend. In her words: “The system has failed me and this shows that the system doesn’t work for the working poor.”
There is a saying that goes: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’m the fool”. TCHC tenants must learn from the experiences of their neighbours and not be fooled by the duplicitous slumlord.

These cases demonstrate that the law works to the advantage of the powerful. So people need to build their own community power to take control of their communities. So long as communities wield hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in rent money, people need to recognize that they already have community has power; but that power can only be used if organized.

One option left for residents is to flood the Board with cases. It will be very difficult for them to throw out tens or even hundreds of cases, and if they do they’ll only prove to us even more how useless their laws are for the community. The other option, whether or not people use the Landlord or Tenant Board, is to organize themselves into united community organizations to take further actions

The time to organize ourselves is here! Fight back through the Landlord Tenant Board! And if that doesn’t work, let’s unite as a community to fight for better housing! Only the people united have the power to make “revitalization” benefit the people. Contact Basics for more information! ∗

Philippine Legislators Tour Canada for Human Rights

by J.D. Benjamin
Basics Issue #9 (May 2008)

Three Philippine Congresspeople – Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran, and Luz Illagan – conducted a cross-Canada tour in April, meeting with local communities, academics, journalists, and politicians to help raise awareness of the rampant human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Since current President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power in 2001, over 900 activists have been killed and 180 forcibly disappeared. Ocampo and Beltran were victims of abuses through repeated criminal prosecutions based on fabricated evidence and false testimony provided by government agents. These and other abuses have been condemned by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston, man countries and numerous international human rights organizations.

The tour featured public events and press conferences in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, a presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, and a meeting with Manitoba premier Gary Doer.The legislators called on the Canadian government to review the foreign aid going to the Philippines to find out if any funds had been used by the Arroyo regime in its campaign of violence.

Bern Jagunos of the Stop The Killing Network echoed the call, saying, “It’s appalling to think that Canadian taxes may have contributed to the intimidation, detention, torture and executions of innocent people.”

Philippine activists have noted a decrease in the number of killings in the past year and credit increased international attention. Ocampo told Canadian parliamentarians, “The resolute efforts of human rights and people’s organizations, religious groups, and progressive political parties to document cases and bring them up to the United Nations, international bodies, governments and Parliaments paid off in 2007 [and] largely contributed to the noticeable decline in the killings and abductions.”

With $1.5 billion in bilateral trade, $1 billion worth of mining projects, 32 different development programs, and a military and police assistance program that has members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police receiving training in Canada, our government is heavily involved in the Philippines. We must demand that the Canadian government withdraw its assistance to the Arroyo regime and respect human rights of Filipinos!

Sadly, on the morning of May 20, after suffering head injuries due to a tragic accident at his home, Crispin Beltran died in hospital later that day. ‘Ka Bel’, as he was known, will be dearly missed by all Filipinos as their memory of him gives strength to their struggle. ∗






Crispin Beltran in Toronto, August 2008. Rest in Peace, 'Ka Bel'.

Police Raids: How Cops and Landlords Work Together to Destroy Toronto Hoods

by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan
Basics Issue #9 (May 2008)

Since 2004, poor people in this city have had to deal with 6 major police attacks on their communities in Malvern, Galloway, Jamestown, Ardwick, Driftwood and most recently, the downtown East End. These raids involved hundreds of heavily armed cops and RCMP, undercover agents and paid snitches. They have arrested and jailed hundreds of youth, broken households and did absolutely nothing to address the conditions that force and lead people into crime in the first place. They seem directed more at terrorizing the people, and allowing the government, developers and landlords to further rob, destroy and vilify poor, black and racialized communities.

The most recent exposure of these raids was the 2005 police raid on Ardwick Boulevard, a small block off Finch and near Islington. Called “Project Flicker”, the sweep included over 300 cops who stormed the area as residents were still sleeping, arresting around 50 youth. The police claimed that all 50 were members of the Ardwick Blood Crew. Three years later, we find out that well over half of those arrested have been released, 20 were found completely innocent and the rest have had many of their charges dropped. In other words, this was definitely not the huge ‘threat’ the police and media had talked about back in 2005. A lawyer for one of the accused believes the mass arrests were aimed more at showing Toronto was ‘safe’ and open for business during a year when many people were shot in the city.

However the fact that so many innocent people are arrested assaulted and jailed by the cops during these attacks on our neighborhoods is no surprise to anyone who’s experienced a raid. When Driftwood (in Jane and Finch) was raided last summer, Police busted up houses and destroyed furniture, threatened kids and mothers with machine guns, and brutalized and handcuffed a number of people (including a grandmother) for simply being in the wrong house! Many of the people arrested didn’t commit any crime themselves, but were charged with ‘belonging to a criminal organization’, or with simply being in or renting a house where drugs and weapons were supposedly kept.

Besides exposing the violent and brutal tactics used by police, raids are also an example of how landlords and cops work together to oppress our communities. For example, after the 2005 raids on Jamestown (in Rexdale), which arrested around 100 people, TCHC (Toronto Community Housing) evicted the families of many of the youth arrested - before the youth were even put on trial! Many tenants have already been kicked out, while others have (and continue) to fight the notices. Despite the main and obvious point that a whole family has nothing to do with what one member does, the outcomes from other police raids show us that many of the people arrested were innocent to begin with.

The latest major raid TO cops have conducted happened this past February/March 2008. During a six week period, which included a major undercover operation and multiple raids, Police of 51 Division arrested almost 300 people in the Church and Seaton area (just east of Regent Park). According to police, the raid was focused on “drug dealers, prostitutes and aggressive panhandling (begging)”!

In other words, we are supposed to congratulate the cops for throwing in jail the poorest people in one of the poorest areas of Toronto. This comes of course as the city is tearing down Regent Park, and cutting off services to the poor (including shutting down 3 rooming houses and shelters in the targeted area), forcing people further into a situation where they have to beg, sell drugs, or sell themselves to survive or get an income. This raid is clearly just one part of the city’s/TCHC’s plan to take all community housing and poor people out of the Downtown East end (including Regent Park) in order to make way for land developers and condos. The raid was even code-named “Project Revival”, the similar term used to disguise the breaking down (“revitalization”) of Regent and the surrounding area.

So as we head into summer and people in hoods throughout the city are noticing a beefing up of police presence, along with the continued tearing up of our communities, we must be ready to defend our homes against future attacks - whether by the police or their partner landlords. ∗