News

Testimony to Ways & Means Committee Hearing on the City Budget
Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle
June 2, 2018

Good Morning Distinguished Members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today.

For the last several years, the Organization for Black Struggle –in collaboration with our partners in the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression—have been facilitating a community engagement campaign on “Reenvisioning Public Safety.” The goals of the campaign were to take our public consciousness past crime-fighting (reactive) to addressing the root causes of crime (proactive and preventive). The knee-jerk response to crime in our city is to shout more police. That is not the only answer to our crime problems and our current situation is a testament to this fact.

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The Organization for Black Struggle calls on the Circuit Attorney’s Office to do an immediate investigation in the alleged “suicide” of Andre Jones. He was found hanging in his cell this week at the St. Louis Medium Security also known as the City Workhouse. Jones, like other citizens held at the facility, was waiting for his day in court. He had been arrested for assault of a child in November but also like all those in the City Workhouse, Jones was unable to make his bail.

Inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in the Workhouse have long made it a target for criticism. In the last couple of years, organizations like OBS have called for the permanent closing of this hellhole.

We extend our sympathy to the family of Andre Jones. We demand justice for the Jones Family and answers for a justice-seeking community.

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