Gosztola writes: "For more than three weeks, an encampment has flourished
across from Homan Square, a secretive police compound which has come to
symbolize police repression in Chicago. It was launched by organizers from
Black Youth Project 100, who chained and locked themselves to ladders and
shut down the the entrance and exit to the facility on July 20."
Joseph Foster, community liaison for Freedom Square. (photo: Kevin Gosztola)
Freedom Square Encampment Thrives in One of Chicago's Most Neglected Areas
By Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof
17 August 16
For more than three weeks, an encampment has flourished across from Homan
Square, a secretive police compound which has come to symbolize police
repression in Chicago. It was launched by organizers from Black Youth
Project 100, who chained and locked themselves to ladders and shut down the
the entrance and exit to the facility on July 20.
The occupation was also started with the support of the Let Us Breathe
Collective, a grassroots organization which formed after black teenager,
Mike Brown, was killed by a white Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.
During the uprising in Ferguson, the collective raised funds to provide the
community with "tear gas protection and remedies, medical and hygiene
supplies, and water bottles." Similarly, Freedom Square is about building
community by providing meals, books, music, and political education to
residents in the North Lawndale area, which is one of the most neglected
areas of Chicago.
The occupation of Freedom Square also demands the city invest in black
communities, defund violent police systems and incarceration, and work to
build "new systems in order to create a less violent society without police
and prisons."
More specifically, the organizers of Freedom Square call for the defunding
of Homan Square and reinvestment of resources into the North Lawndale
community; justice for the family of Pierre Loury, who was killed by Chicago
police; and a Civilian Police Accountability Council. They also pledge to
remain in the lot across from Homan Square until a "Blue Lives Matter"
ordinance, which could likely be used to criminalize protest against police
as a "hate crime," is fully rejected by city council members.
Joseph Foster, a 55 year-old black man who took on the role of community
liaison for the occupation, has a tent near the front of Freedom Square.
There are a little more than a dozen tents on site, such as those for food,
education, and healing.
Initially, Foster was reluctant to speak too much about the occupation and
thought it best to find one of the organizers. However, as a resident of the
Lawndale community, they encouraged him to speak to reporters about his
experience and tell his story.
Foster was not at Freedom Square on the first day of protesting against what
people call the "American equivalent of Abu Ghraib," Foster said. The group,
which put it together, was on the lot across from Homan for 16 days before
he discovered it.
"I stopped by one day, and asked what they were doing in a tent. They told
me what it was, and I asked what I could do," Foster recalled. "And they
said you can help us and that we have tents if you want to sleep in and stay
overnight."
It did not take long for Foster to become an active participant. He
delegated himself to lead garbage pickup around the block, where Freedom
Square is located. He, along with three others, also took on security. They
each do three-hour shifts and walk around the camp with a flashlight making
certain guests in tents are safe.
Foster keeps track of who arrives and leaves. He greets supporters and
donors. He provides tours of Freedom Square. He also looks after vehicles so
they are parked properly and not towed or ticketed by police. He looks after
cars to prevent vandalism.
What brought Foster to the moment, where he decided to join the occupation,
was the realization that if everyone takes a little time to make a
contribution then a multiracial community that sets an example for the city
and, in fact, the world, can blossom.
"I realize if you all can take your time out, including this interview, if
you can take your time out to come here and get our side of the story, to
get at the truth and not just the conflict between us and the police, but
Freedom Square itself, how it is setup here, the community here," that is
important, Foster said.
"There was a reporter from France that came and did a short interview with
us," Foster explained. "We've had fifteen British students and their
chaperone come to visit us. There was businessmen from Bangladesh that came
to see Freedom Square, and they took a cab from downtown Chicago just to see
us, just to come and talk to us, just to see what it was like."
"And they also said there was a movement in Bangladesh that they patterned
after the civil rights movement here in the United States, and they said
they've made some headway with, and they've gotten some legislation passed
by copying Dr. [Martin Luther] King and other freedom fighters here in the
United States," Foster said.
Since 1969, Foster has lived in Chicago. He moved here from Shaw,
Mississippi, a city which he says is in the Bible Belt right off Highway 61.
From the 1960s, Foster remembers his mother, older brother, and two sisters,
along with other family members talking about Dr. King. His mother cried
when Dr. King was assassinated. She also cried when President John F.
Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. "At that time, black people
figured the hope for a better life was through the Kennedys."
Just over twenty years ago, Foster was in a bar fight. One of the men
involved died from an injury he suffered. Prosecutors aggressively punished
him for "murder," when it should have been involuntary manslaughter. He was
sentenced to 20 years in prison and served time in multiple Illinois
penitentiaries.
As a result of two incidents in prison, he was put in solitary confinement
for a 6-month stint twice. However, though Foster said the sentence was
excessive, he took advantage of what was available while he was in prison to
better his life.
"I went to school," Foster recalled, "And at this time, the state was paying
for college classes for all inmates but have since ceased paying for any
inmates' schooling. I went to school for eight years. I have two degrees, an
associates in applied science and bachelor of arts, which I got within a
14-year period."
Foster added, "I read a lot of political material while I was incarcerated.
I talked with a few activists that were incarcerated. I had a chance to view
how the world actually operates, and I needed to try and do something about
the injustice that not only plagued the black community but other
communities in the city of Chicago and really around the world. So, when I
got released from prison, I started protesting with different groups,
anything that I felt was valid and that was going to advance black, white,
green, yellow relationships between the masses."
"And I've been doing it for 20 years since being released from prison."
Foster acknowledged the concern many had on the first day of the occupation
that police would rush the encampment, tear it all down, and charge everyone
with disorderly conduct. The residents live across from a police fortress,
where officers come out and gawk at them. They keep track of identities, no
doubt checking to see if any have outstanding warrants to they can
intimidate organizers if possible. The officers drive down the street and
the alley staring down residents every ten or fifteen minutes. But the
people involved, including those from the community, who are treated as
disposable human beings, have defied fear to build up the community,
something much better than what the city government has had to offer them.
One of the reasons Freedom Square is still standing is because Lawndale is
an area that most Chicagoans do not really care about. As Foster noted, "The
Lawndale district doesn't get the amount of funding from the city that it
should. Streets lined with potholes. The parks are unkempt. City sidewalks
grow grass three feet tall, where it would normally be cut in other areas."
To Foster, he believes the powers that be simply hope that they stay out of
the way in Lawndale and by winter go away so the city never is forced to
take any sort of meaningful action.
"We may not be here for a very long time, and what I've gathered from the
lessons I've learned from these freedom fighters and freedom fighters of the
past-you want to at least try and raise the consciousness level of the
community," Foster shared. "And I go out talking to all the older guys and
try and get them to get up here and bridge the gap between the young
generation and my generation."
"A lot of the guys, they will come up and oftentimes they will come up and
say a few things. But I think a lot of people in this neighborhood, they
feel what's the use because nothing is going to change. I try to explain to
them that this time things will change. We have a bigger and better plan."
Foster passionately believes in the vision and community of Freedom Square
because generous people from all over the city and its suburbs, like
Naperville, Schaumburg, and Westchester, have stopped to contribute to the
success of the encampment. It also is a multiracial community that is able
to feed 150 people a day, which is a very powerful example to anyone
interested in advancing causes of social justice.
"There was an 83-year-old white man from Westchester that said he was with
Dr. King on the day that he was actually assassinated and went to the
hospital with Dr. King and Reverend Jackson," Foster shared. "He stayed and
talked to me for about an hour. The man was phenomenal. And he had to be
there. He knew facts and figures that I didn't know."
According to Foster, the elderly man planned to tell a hundred of his
friends in Westchester about Freedom Square and something would be delivered
to the encampment just about every day from that point onward.
There is much about Freedom Square that evokes memories of the Occupy
movement in 2011. More than anything, it reminds one that the tactic of
occupying space remains a tactic capable of raising the consciousness of the
community to an extent necessary in order to awaken residents and inspire
action.
Responding to the fact that Occupy encampments were able to last through the
winter months, Foster replied, "I would like to have a permanent encampment
here to constantly remind the powers that be that we are watching you like
you are watching us. And if we can get anything going along the line of
winter supplies, I'm willing to stay as long as is necessary to evoke
positive change in the Lawndale community and in society in general."
He applauds and congratulates the youth of Freedom Square, who have taken
the lead and are at the forefront of the occupation.
"The young people that you see milling all around you, they're going to be
the ones to carry the torch and to change things," Foster concluded. "It's
like a dream come true. You've got every race, creed, and color here in the
Lawndale community, which is considered to be the worst side of the city of
Chicago."
Foster continued, "It has been spectacular," and, "There's a lot of decent,
beautiful black people, and white people, and Latino and Mexican people that
live here. And it's through their support that we've been able to feed
everybody for 25 days, a minimum 150 meals a day.
The same day, Jose Landaverde, a community organizer and priest from Our
Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Catholic Church in Little Village, a largely
Hispanic area on the south side of Chicago, led a small solidarity march to
Freedom Square. He stood outside Homan Square and urged the Latino community
to support the occupation.
"The reason why we are here is because we want the Latino community to join
this Freedom Square camp and shut down this building because they are
investing millions of dollars in police in those buildings, and the city is
not investing money in education," Landaverde declared.
"We have a lot of what we call political prostitution, a lot of aldermen and
people who work for the city who prostitute themselves, selling themselves
to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to have our communities in poverty and under police
repression."
Landaverde added, "Then we are here to pray. We give a thank you and
applause to all those people out here, all of those who are here in this
camp because this is how we are going to get social change."
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Joseph Foster, community liaison for Freedom Square. (photo: Kevin Gosztola)
https://shadowproof.com/2016/08/16/freedom-square-encampment-thrives-one-chi
cagos-neglected-areas/https://shadowproof.com/2016/08/16/freedom-square-enca
mpment-thrives-one-chicagos-neglected-areas/
Freedom Square Encampment Thrives in One of Chicago's Most Neglected Areas
By Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof
17 August 16
or more than three weeks, an encampment has flourished across from Homan
Square, a secretive police compound which has come to symbolize police
repression in Chicago. It was launched by organizers from Black Youth
Project 100, who chained and locked themselves to ladders and shut down the
the entrance and exit to the facility on July 20.
The occupation was also started with the support of the Let Us Breathe
Collective, a grassroots organization which formed after black teenager,
Mike Brown, was killed by a white Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.
During the uprising in Ferguson, the collective raised funds to provide the
community with "tear gas protection and remedies, medical and hygiene
supplies, and water bottles." Similarly, Freedom Square is about building
community by providing meals, books, music, and political education to
residents in the North Lawndale area, which is one of the most neglected
areas of Chicago.
The occupation of Freedom Square also demands the city invest in black
communities, defund violent police systems and incarceration, and work to
build "new systems in order to create a less violent society without police
and prisons."
More specifically, the organizers of Freedom Square call for the defunding
of Homan Square and reinvestment of resources into the North Lawndale
community; justice for the family of Pierre Loury, who was killed by Chicago
police; and a Civilian Police Accountability Council. They also pledge to
remain in the lot across from Homan Square until a "Blue Lives Matter"
ordinance, which could likely be used to criminalize protest against police
as a "hate crime," is fully rejected by city council members.
Joseph Foster, a 55 year-old black man who took on the role of community
liaison for the occupation, has a tent near the front of Freedom Square.
There are a little more than a dozen tents on site, such as those for food,
education, and healing.
Initially, Foster was reluctant to speak too much about the occupation and
thought it best to find one of the organizers. However, as a resident of the
Lawndale community, they encouraged him to speak to reporters about his
experience and tell his story.
Foster was not at Freedom Square on the first day of protesting against what
people call the "American equivalent of Abu Ghraib," Foster said. The group,
which put it together, was on the lot across from Homan for 16 days before
he discovered it.
"I stopped by one day, and asked what they were doing in a tent. They told
me what it was, and I asked what I could do," Foster recalled. "And they
said you can help us and that we have tents if you want to sleep in and stay
overnight."
It did not take long for Foster to become an active participant. He
delegated himself to lead garbage pickup around the block, where Freedom
Square is located. He, along with three others, also took on security. They
each do three-hour shifts and walk around the camp with a flashlight making
certain guests in tents are safe.
Foster keeps track of who arrives and leaves. He greets supporters and
donors. He provides tours of Freedom Square. He also looks after vehicles so
they are parked properly and not towed or ticketed by police. He looks after
cars to prevent vandalism.
What brought Foster to the moment, where he decided to join the occupation,
was the realization that if everyone takes a little time to make a
contribution then a multiracial community that sets an example for the city
and, in fact, the world, can blossom.
"I realize if you all can take your time out, including this interview, if
you can take your time out to come here and get our side of the story, to
get at the truth and not just the conflict between us and the police, but
Freedom Square itself, how it is setup here, the community here," that is
important, Foster said.
"There was a reporter from France that came and did a short interview with
us," Foster explained. "We've had fifteen British students and their
chaperone come to visit us. There was businessmen from Bangladesh that came
to see Freedom Square, and they took a cab from downtown Chicago just to see
us, just to come and talk to us, just to see what it was like."
"And they also said there was a movement in Bangladesh that they patterned
after the civil rights movement here in the United States, and they said
they've made some headway with, and they've gotten some legislation passed
by copying Dr. [Martin Luther] King and other freedom fighters here in the
United States," Foster said.
Since 1969, Foster has lived in Chicago. He moved here from Shaw,
Mississippi, a city which he says is in the Bible Belt right off Highway 61.
From the 1960s, Foster remembers his mother, older brother, and two sisters,
along with other family members talking about Dr. King. His mother cried
when Dr. King was assassinated. She also cried when President John F.
Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. "At that time, black people
figured the hope for a better life was through the Kennedys."
Just over twenty years ago, Foster was in a bar fight. One of the men
involved died from an injury he suffered. Prosecutors aggressively punished
him for "murder," when it should have been involuntary manslaughter. He was
sentenced to 20 years in prison and served time in multiple Illinois
penitentiaries.
As a result of two incidents in prison, he was put in solitary confinement
for a 6-month stint twice. However, though Foster said the sentence was
excessive, he took advantage of what was available while he was in prison to
better his life.
"I went to school," Foster recalled, "And at this time, the state was paying
for college classes for all inmates but have since ceased paying for any
inmates' schooling. I went to school for eight years. I have two degrees, an
associates in applied science and bachelor of arts, which I got within a
14-year period."
Foster added, "I read a lot of political material while I was incarcerated.
I talked with a few activists that were incarcerated. I had a chance to view
how the world actually operates, and I needed to try and do something about
the injustice that not only plagued the black community but other
communities in the city of Chicago and really around the world. So, when I
got released from prison, I started protesting with different groups,
anything that I felt was valid and that was going to advance black, white,
green, yellow relationships between the masses."
"And I've been doing it for 20 years since being released from prison."
Foster acknowledged the concern many had on the first day of the occupation
that police would rush the encampment, tear it all down, and charge everyone
with disorderly conduct. The residents live across from a police fortress,
where officers come out and gawk at them. They keep track of identities, no
doubt checking to see if any have outstanding warrants to they can
intimidate organizers if possible. The officers drive down the street and
the alley staring down residents every ten or fifteen minutes. But the
people involved, including those from the community, who are treated as
disposable human beings, have defied fear to build up the community,
something much better than what the city government has had to offer them.
One of the reasons Freedom Square is still standing is because Lawndale is
an area that most Chicagoans do not really care about. As Foster noted, "The
Lawndale district doesn't get the amount of funding from the city that it
should. Streets lined with potholes. The parks are unkempt. City sidewalks
grow grass three feet tall, where it would normally be cut in other areas."
To Foster, he believes the powers that be simply hope that they stay out of
the way in Lawndale and by winter go away so the city never is forced to
take any sort of meaningful action.
"We may not be here for a very long time, and what I've gathered from the
lessons I've learned from these freedom fighters and freedom fighters of the
past-you want to at least try and raise the consciousness level of the
community," Foster shared. "And I go out talking to all the older guys and
try and get them to get up here and bridge the gap between the young
generation and my generation."
"A lot of the guys, they will come up and oftentimes they will come up and
say a few things. But I think a lot of people in this neighborhood, they
feel what's the use because nothing is going to change. I try to explain to
them that this time things will change. We have a bigger and better plan."
Foster passionately believes in the vision and community of Freedom Square
because generous people from all over the city and its suburbs, like
Naperville, Schaumburg, and Westchester, have stopped to contribute to the
success of the encampment. It also is a multiracial community that is able
to feed 150 people a day, which is a very powerful example to anyone
interested in advancing causes of social justice.
"There was an 83-year-old white man from Westchester that said he was with
Dr. King on the day that he was actually assassinated and went to the
hospital with Dr. King and Reverend Jackson," Foster shared. "He stayed and
talked to me for about an hour. The man was phenomenal. And he had to be
there. He knew facts and figures that I didn't know."
According to Foster, the elderly man planned to tell a hundred of his
friends in Westchester about Freedom Square and something would be delivered
to the encampment just about every day from that point onward.
There is much about Freedom Square that evokes memories of the Occupy
movement in 2011. More than anything, it reminds one that the tactic of
occupying space remains a tactic capable of raising the consciousness of the
community to an extent necessary in order to awaken residents and inspire
action.
Responding to the fact that Occupy encampments were able to last through the
winter months, Foster replied, "I would like to have a permanent encampment
here to constantly remind the powers that be that we are watching you like
you are watching us. And if we can get anything going along the line of
winter supplies, I'm willing to stay as long as is necessary to evoke
positive change in the Lawndale community and in society in general."
He applauds and congratulates the youth of Freedom Square, who have taken
the lead and are at the forefront of the occupation.
"The young people that you see milling all around you, they're going to be
the ones to carry the torch and to change things," Foster concluded. "It's
like a dream come true. You've got every race, creed, and color here in the
Lawndale community, which is considered to be the worst side of the city of
Chicago."
Foster continued, "It has been spectacular," and, "There's a lot of decent,
beautiful black people, and white people, and Latino and Mexican people that
live here. And it's through their support that we've been able to feed
everybody for 25 days, a minimum 150 meals a day.
The same day, Jose Landaverde, a community organizer and priest from Our
Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Catholic Church in Little Village, a largely
Hispanic area on the south side of Chicago, led a small solidarity march to
Freedom Square. He stood outside Homan Square and urged the Latino community
to support the occupation.
"The reason why we are here is because we want the Latino community to join
this Freedom Square camp and shut down this building because they are
investing millions of dollars in police in those buildings, and the city is
not investing money in education," Landaverde declared.
"We have a lot of what we call political prostitution, a lot of aldermen and
people who work for the city who prostitute themselves, selling themselves
to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to have our communities in poverty and under police
repression."
Landaverde added, "Then we are here to pray. We give a thank you and
applause to all those people out here, all of those who are here in this
camp because this is how we are going to get social change."
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
