Rally Against Urban Shield

Rally at 4pm, Resource Fair at 5pm

Today, hundreds of community members will join the Stop Urban Shield Coalition for a vibrant rally against the highly controversial police training and weapons expo known as Urban Shield. The militarized trainings of Urban Shield begin today, and the community rally is scheduled for the same time that the Urban Shield weapons expo will be held.

This year's Urban Shield comes on the heels of president Trump announcing that he will be lifting restrictions to the transfer of military equipment to police departments. The restrictions were placed on the Department of Defense's 1033 program in 2015 by president Obama in response to a wave of public opposition to the extremely militarized police crackdown of protests in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown.

"Sheriff Ahern's Urban Shield fits neatly in line with Trump's greenlighting of military weapons going to police departments and his attack on immigrants," said Sharif Zakout of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. "As Trump is seeking more deportations and increased police militarization federally, Ahern is doing so locally by collaborating with ICE and hosting Urban Shield. They both are waging war on communities of color."

Stop Urban Shield organizers are also planning to hold a resource fair after the rally, aimed at providing workshops, aid kits, and information on how communities themselves can respond to emergency situations without militarized law enforcement. "As we watch a natural disaster unfolding in Houston, with Black, Brown, and poor communities again suffering the brunt of the storm, it is our political duty to prepare our communities for all forms of emergencies," the coalition wrote in a statement. "In Houston, as in many places struck by disasters, we see that it is community members themselves – and not the police – that are the most effective emergency responders."