Join Workers Dignity this Saturday, November 2 from 12-6pm, for a day of canvassing to get out the vote. We’ll meet up at our Southeast center, 335 Whitsett Rd. We need community oversight of the police department. In the past two years, two unarmed African American men have been shot in the back by Nashville police officers. Most of our members know first hand the violence of racial profiling. The “Driving While Black” report two years ago exposed what we feel and experience on a daily basis.

Last Thursday, Workers’ Dignity hosted a forum with four leaders of Community Oversight Now, which evolved into a discussion about common experiences of police harassment by Latino and Black Nashvillians. The anti-immigrant HB2315 law, going into effect in 2019, will only escalate police racial profiling of immigrant and refugee communities. Participants discussed that a Community Oversight Board (COB) with the ability to independently investigate complaints and issue recommendations would give grassroots organizations a powerful tool to address racial profiling. For many immigrants, a mundane traffic encounter with the police can lead to detention and eventually deportation.

Community Oversight Now leader Theeda Murphy explained, “The COB could also monitor the implementation of HB2315 and its impact upon the public, and publish its findings and make recommendations based upon the bill’s impact on affected communities.”

This inspired members to organize a canvassing day focused on Southeast Nashville, communities in which a new generation of children of immigrants and refugees will be voting for the first time.  

Want to join the canvassing team? Send us a text or call now! (615) 378-7419.