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. @MNFreedomFund has my full support. Some of y'all need to be careful of bandwagons.
The entire grievance is based on the idea that they "only" spent $200K on bail for protesters when that is the sum that was needed. Should they have paid extra for bail bc folks donated millions? Or should they make a long term plan to continue emptying cages? Plans are helpful.
Bail funds are essential. W this story that I told recently, for example, who do y'all think collected that bail money ppl donated to get me & my friends out? Who do you think put those funds toward freeing an imprisoned survivor when we didn't need them? https://twitter.com/MsKellyMHayes/status/1270900052299571204?s=20
A bail fund did that. We did the going to jail part, but w out them, those arrests wouldn't have gotten Naomi any closer to freedom. Getting ppl out of cages is as fundamental to the struggle for abolition as anything we do. It is a moral imperative. Bail funds help us do that.
I have collaborative experience w bail funds bc I am an abolitionist organizer & they are the ones who are collecting donations & volunteering long hours to get people out of cages. A whole lot of ppl who talk a good game about the system are not getting anyone out of its grip.
Even in cities that have funds that have gotten big enough to have employees, some of y'all are imagining that all wrong. The work these folks do is exhausting. Nobody's getting a cushy job at a bail fund, even a well funded one. That's not a thing.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Chicago's bail fund has fought relentlessly for the ppl locked up at Cook County Jail. How many ppl can say that? Talk to ppl in communities where bail funds do their work. Talk to the organizers they build with. Bail funds are more than piggy banks.
Also, if you want to take on the system, please learn how it works. Those of you saying bail just feeds the system do not understand bail and it shows. When people go to court, the money comes back and is used to free others. That's why the call it a "revolving bail fund."
Bail funds are favorite targets of the right-wing, neoliberals & police btw. Ppl who hate that bail funds are emptying cages. Cops like to be able to sentence arrestees to time themselves by hitting ppl w charges they won't make bail on. Who pushes back against that? Bail funds.
My collaborations w bail funds have been some of the most meaningful projects I have ever been involved with, bc we did education work and connected w people & folks walked free bc of it, getting to leave jails & immigration detention centers, sometimes dozens of ppl at a time.
To me there is nothing more heartening in the world than emptying a cage & knowing someone has escaped the dungeons of the state. I'm so grateful to bail funds for those moments.
When ppl get bailed out of immigration detention, they will often alert the bail fund that helped about someone else who's in danger and needs to get out fast. This work is so important. https://twitter.com/MsKellyMHayes/status/1217469945526804481?s=19
For folks who need text for that image:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2554299347937426&id=100000721566451
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2554299347937426&id=100000721566451
If you were coming from a good place & fucked up on this bc you didn't know all the things I've tweeted here, I understand. That happens. But please don't double down out of defensiveness. We have important work to do together and that work takes humility. https://twitter.com/MsKellyMHayes/status/1001117818987925509?s=19
