SLAP is a group fighting against the creation of the JHPD.
Stand up for a demilitarized campus and a safe community.
SLAP is an alliance of students and graduate workers organizing to stop the creation of an armed, private police force at Johns Hopkins University. Canceling the “Johns Hopkins Police Department” (“JHPD”) is a matter of urgency: the price of inaction will be the imposition of an illegitimate, unaccountable, and violent police force threatening students, workers, and community members.
We are organizing against the plan because the administration has made clear over the last 5 years that it is unwilling to take seriously the opposition of undergraduates, campus labor, organizers, faculty, and community organizations. We are driven by the all too real threat that a “JHPD” cop, who will routinely harass students and neighbors of color, will kill someone and be held unaccountable by an undemocratic and corrupt university.
Why should you be concerned that JHU is building a private police force?
Since the JHU administration proposed the plan in 2018, the “JHPD” has been met with opposition from community and student organizations. Why? Because it would be an unaccountable, undemocratic, and inherently violent police force. If formed the “JHPD” would:
Inherently threaten members of JHU and surrounding communities with violent, heavily armed, and poorly trained police officers.
Provide no mechanism to ensure accountability for abusive officers or take seriously peoples’ concerns about the JHPD
Stifle democracy and repress social movements on and around campus.
Endanger under documented community members and students
Provide no measures to battle sexual assault, the crime most reported on campus.
Militarize JHU campuses and surrounding neighborhoods.
What can you do to promote a safer campus and Baltimore community?
We will organize against the administration's attempts to form the JHPD until it is fully canceled and in doing so, continues a struggle which has existed since the university first presented this plan. As the sit-in of 2019, mobilization during 2020, the fluorescence of mutual aid networks during the pandemic, disrupted MOU town halls, and recent efforts show, students have been critical in halting implementation of the JHPD. As students and graduate workers we are essential in stopping this plan. Through organization and direct action, in collaboration with community organizations, the JHPD can and will be canceled. We base our approach on the concrete analysis of the forces in favor of this violent police force and a belief in our collective power. This involves the development of strategies and tactics as dynamic and sophisticated as the administration’s. Only an organized student body building popular power can make this happen. No better time than to start now!
What is ‘militarization’ and what does the JHPD have to do with it?
The JHU”s militarization of Baltimore, or use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers to surveil and police communities, is a direct threat to the flourishing of local residents and students. Therefore, alongside calling for the immediate cancelling of the “JHPD” we call for a demilitarized campus and community. This involves standing in solidarity with those struggling for social justice and self-determination across the globe. This solidarity requires fighting against the violent threat of the “JHPD” here at home. Indeed, the methods and techniques of oppression used to police Baltimore are literally the same ones that form the basis of the IDF’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people right now.
According to the JHU Public Safety Office website, the Accountability Board “empowers community members from JHU and the surrounding neighborhoods" in helping shape the JHPD plan.
Yet, watch as a representative for the JHPD evades answering questions from the public for over 40 minutes during the Accountability Board’s annual and legally mandated meeting with the public on October 26, 2023.
Contact
Email
resistingpolicing@gmail.com
Instagam
slap_against_police