My friend Jennifer Morales is a queer parent to a Black son who has fallen into a nightmarish legal rabbit hole inflicted by an infamously racist small Wisconsin town police force and judicial system. Jennifer is a courageous and mighty friend, incredible organizer, and fiercely supportive force in her community who has done so much for so many people through her organizing work. Now we, her friends and community -- especially those of us who are white and do not carry the more expensive and dangerous burdens of racism on a daily basis -- have an opportunity to step in and support her and her son.

If there's anything we've learned in recent years, it's that being Black in America is expensive. Also, if you're Black, no matter what kind of situation you're in, the police are a force of danger or potential danger, not a resource for safety and protection.

 

This story is unfortunately all too familiar for many BIPOC families around our country & state, many of whom know intimately the in's and out's of the mind boggling legal entrapments folks can fall into at the hands of law enforcement just by going to the grocery store, driving their cars, relaxing in their homes; let alone being in any kind of unsafe situation where help is needed.

 

Jennifer tells the story below of how her son seeking support from police with a simple 9-11 call has led to a gamut of impossibly outrageous false felony charges and punitive measures, based on outright lies by law enforcement & events that simply didn't occur. So far, Jennifer has had to foot the bill to the tune of thousands of dollars for lawyer support, long bus & train travels to and from L's town including hotel rooms, tickets, and food, and the expenses wrongfully thrust upon this family in this ordeal have only just begun to roll out.

 

Sadly, not all Black and Brown folks who are wrongfully targeted by police on a daily basis, slapped with felonies for crimes they didn't commit, and forced to take plea deals by aggressive DA's and prosecutors have family and community resources to support them through these times. Also, there is truly no amount of money that can cover the trauma inflicted on victims of police racism and their families who are inevitably drawn into the web of state-inflicted harm in these cases, but we can help ease the burden of some of these massive expenses for this innocent hardworking Black man and our dear Jennifer, and all commit to the lifelong practice of abolition and antiracism work in our own lives and communities.

 

Here is the full story, told by Jennifer, with her son's name given as "L" to protect his identity:

 

"My son, L, is facing false felony charges stemming from a 911 call he placed to the police in his small Wisconsin town on Memorial Day. He and his girlfriend were having an argument about her unauthorized use of his debit card, spending hundreds of dollars he needed to pay their rent. While they were arguing in their apartment, she clawed at his face and he dialed 911 to get police assistance in de-escalating the situation and getting her out of the house.

 

Although they had both calmed down by the time police arrived, and both insisted there was no reason for the police to get involved further, the officers arrested L for disorderly conduct. After some time at the jail, they sent him home with an order to appear in court a few days later to pay a fine."

 

Let's pause here, because L receiving and paying for a misdemeanor when he was the one who called 9-11 for support to begin with and his girlfriend did not ask for charges to be pressed is bizarre injustice enough, no? But, as is usually the case, things get worse.

 

"L showed up to court, paid his fine, and afterward, a county prosecutor announced that he was being charged with a set of felonies (strangulation/suffocation and false imprisonment) as well as the disorderly conduct misdemeanor. Because he is the only source of income for the household (girlfriend and kids), the judge allowed him to be released with an ankle bracelet, so he can go to work. Even though neither L nor his girlfriend asked for a no-contact order, the judge banned L from going home and he is currently not allowed to be within a block of their shared home or to contact his own children. L is a great dad and he’s crushed to be separated from his children.

 

All of the people in this situation are white, except for L. His lawyer believes, as I do, that L is facing these trumped-up charges because he is Black. The small-town police and the county DA’s office are both legendary for their racist attitudes and prosecutorial overkill. L’s girlfriend has consistently said the charges are fake and is willing to testify to that effect.

 

We have retained a lawyer who has experience with the prosecutor assigned to this case and we’re hoping she can get the charges dropped. But in the meantime, I’ve spent my miniscule savings to retain her because we think the best way to win is a show of force right at the start. It would be such a huge help if this community could gather around L right now and help him fight these false charges. The costs to our family in the past week have been enormous. We would be so grateful for any financial support you can offer to help L escape this racist attack on his family and his freedom."

 

Wrongfully convicting, framing, and forcing vulnerable people - usually Black and Brown folks - through the legal system and into plea deals for crimes they didn’t commit is a key profit pipeline for the prison industrial complex. According to a report put out by the University of California Irvine, "African Americans are only 13% of the American population but a majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated. They constitute 47% of the 1,900 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations (as of October 2016), and the great majority of more than 1,800 additional innocent defendants who were framed and convicted of crimes in 15 large-scale police scandals and later cleared in “group exonerations." (Read the full report here.)

 

Hopefully Jennifer and the family lawyer's efforts pay off and the charges are dropped. However, this could be just the beginning of a lengthy, expensive process of injustice for this family. Please donate any amount you can, and share this within your networks!