#EraseTheDatabase is a campaign to abolish and repair the harm caused by Chicago’s gang database. “Gang Database” is the name used for the maintenance of information about an individual’s suspected relationship to gangs maintained by the Chicago Police Department (CPD). It is inaccurate. It leads to horrible outcomes for individuals and communities. It is inherently and systemically racist. It is an expansion of the police state and ICE. It needs to be abolished. Yesterday.
Gang databases have long been tools for social control used to track and criminalize communities of color. In Chicago, a study found that 95% of the individuals on the gang database were Black and Latinx. For years, Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), and Mijente had been leading a local campaign urging the city of Chicago expand what it means to be a “Sanctuary City” to protect immigrants and US born people of color, particularly those who are targeted by local police. The groups coalesced around the goal to expose and eliminate the gang database in Chicago. In 2021, the coalition is now steered by OCAD, BYP100, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), and GoodKids MadCity (GKMC).
The Collective Freedom Project
The #EraseTheDatabase micro-doc was created as part of the broader, multi-region Collective Freedom Project. Our communities’ campaigns are not relegated to “criminal justice” or “immigrant rights,” but are based in recognition that all of us deserve a world where we can thrive away from police and ICE violence and outside of jails and detention centers. By working at the intersections of the criminal-legal and the immigration systems, our communities are pressuring counties to stop racist policing practices, close jails, and expand second chances. As more wake up to the fact that anti-Black and racist policing leads directly to the growth of detention and deportation, our movements become clearer aligned in our vision and strategies for a more just society.
Learn more about the broader Collective Freedom Project and campaigns in Texas, Atlanta, and California at CollectiveFreedomProject.org. Special Thanks to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Dogmo Studios, and with support from the Four Freedoms Fund.
Learn more about the broader Collective Freedom Project and campaigns in Texas, Atlanta, and California at CollectiveFreedomProject.org. Special Thanks to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Dogmo Studios, and with support from the Four Freedoms Fund.
2018 -- Wilmer Catalán gets released from detention
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May 29, 2021 -- Erase the Database Block Party
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Related Podcast Episode & Series
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Interviewees:
Jalen Kobayashi | Youth Organizer, GoodKids MadCity Wilmer Catalán | Back of the Yard Resident, (in community with) Organized Communities Against Deportation Ralph Edwards | Program Manager, Communities Partnering 4 Peace |
Written, Directed, & Produced by Caullen Hudson
Cinematography by C’airra Cortez 1st AC, Danyelle Norris Editing, Color, Post Sound, Additional Footage, & English Transcription by James Murray Production Sound, Timothy Chan Coalition Coordinators, Xanat Sobrevilla, OCAD & Alyx Goodwin, BYP100 Page Photos & Set Still Photography, Jalen Hamilton |
