SWOP-Phoenix Confronts Social Work Violence: Project ROSE Returns.

 I HEART SWOP-PHOENIX!

----from the Best Practices Policy Project----

Project ROSE faces growing controversy

The  Best Practices' Policy Project: 
May 16th, 2014

Yesterday community members carrying information and harm reduction supplies were threatened with arrest and were not allowed to communicate with sex workers (and people profiled as sex workers) who had been detained by police and forcibly transported to Project ROSE.  Project ROSE is run twice a year and is a collaboration between the Phoenix Police, the ASU School of Social Work, and local social service agencies.  Project ROSE and policing of sex workers in Phoenix in general have come under intense scrutiny because of a long list of rights violations documented by local community representatives. In March 2014, advocates from the Best Practices Policy Project and SWOP Phoenix traveled to the United Nations to raise concerns about these abuses to the Human Rights Committee during the review of the United States under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Organizations in Arizona are continuing to sound alarm bells about the rights violating detentions carried out by Project ROSE. Yesterday, protesters chanted “Rights! Not rescue, rights!” at the entrance to Bethany Bible Church where people caught up in the raids are forcibly transported in handcuffs to “diversion services.” Jaclyn Dairman-Moskal of SWOP Phoenix explained yesterday in a statement released by SWOP Phoenix, there appears to be nothing voluntary about the “services” at the Project ROSE location. ““Project ROSE coordinators claim this program offers voluntary diversion,” noted Ms Dairman-Mosal, “[But] … the program creates a coercive environment, using jail as a threat to intimidate people into participation.” She further explained that, “Over 30% of people picked up in Project ROSE are not even eligible for diversion, and face accumulating criminal charges as a result of these raids. This program is a way to fill jails, not to help our community.”


Local organizations are continuing to seek support for comprehensive, rights-based programs for sex workers, and an end to criminalization. Nationally a group of social workers, Social Workers United for Justice, is petitioning the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) to “demand an end to Arizona State University School of Social Work’s involvement with Project Rose” because it violates socials work’s core professional principles. Last year two social workers described in an editorial in Afilia–a journal of women and social work--how Project ROSE violates the ethical and professional standards of both the NASW and CSWE.

SWOP Phoenix’s full press release of May 15, 2014 is available below.

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Sex Workers and Allies Protest Project ROSE  amidst Growing Controversy

Community Responds to 2-Day Prostitution Diversion Program, a Collaboration between the ASU School of Social Work and the Phoenix Police

What: Rally and Protest at site of Project Rose
When: Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 11:00 am
Where: Bethany Bible Church, 6060 N. 7th Ave
Who: Sex Workers’ Outreach Project (SWOP) Phoenix and supporters

PHOENIX – This Thursday, sex workers and allies return to the site of the Project ROSE Prostitution Diversion Initiative to protest a program that has become a source of growing public debate as people swept up in Project Rose resist felony charges. Twice a year, the Phoenix Police, the ASU School of Social Work, and local social service agencies collaborate to bring sex workers and people profiled as sex workers to the Bethany Bible Church. Under the guide of rescue, adult workers are forced to choose between a 6-month diversion program and criminal charges.

The Sex Workers’ Outreach Project (SWOP) Phoenix is a group of sex workers and allies fighting for self-determination based on the idea that sex work is work and working is not a crime. Programs like Project ROSE ignore the fact that many people who work in the sex industry are not victims in need of rescue, but consenting adults who should not be arrested, coerced into diversion, or incarcerated for working. SWOP Phoenix also recognizes that sting operations like Project ROSE aim to bring in a large number of people, often relying on preconceived notions about who sex workers are, primarily targeting women in poverty, trans women, and women of color.

Over the past year, Project ROSE has come under national and international scrutiny by independent and mainstream media, including Aljazeera America, The Huffington Post, The Nation Report, and Truth Out. The United Nations Office of the Special Rapporteur has also been monitoring Project Rose as an example of racial and gender police profiling.

“Project ROSE coordinators claim this program offers voluntary diversion. Quite the opposite, the program creates a coercive environment, using jail as a threat to intimidate people into participation,” explains Jaclyn Dairman-Moskal of SWOP Phoenix. “Over 30% of people picked up in Project ROSE are not even eligible for diversion, and face accumulating criminal charges as a result of these raids. This program is a way to fill jails, not to help our community. We need real solutions, such as comprehensive, rights-based programs for sex workers, and an end to criminalization.”

"STOP SOCIAL WORK VIOLENCE 

AGAINST SEX WORKERS!"

To learn more about Project ROSE and the work of SWOP Phoenix, click here


Now this was masterful! 
SWOP-PHOENIX outmaneuvers the PHX Police Red Squad!

PUENTE hunger strikers undeterred by Phoenix Police violence and arrests.

I arrived at the PUENTE encampment Tuesday night just after the cops raided it - they waited until after the 10pm news was over and most witnesses had gone home, then shut down all the streets in the vicinity of ICE beofre moving in. There were still about 50 uniformed cops packing up the tents and other property (apparently being organized/directed by Sgt Mark Schweikert - he and his Red Squad were there, doing their dirty work). It was overkill, dear taxpayers.

I was particularly troubled to hear these two supporters' accounts of the raid. I hope the Phoenix Police are held to account for their violence.

PUENTE hunger strikers continue their vigil outside of ICE today, sans the tents. The Phoneix Police have done what they can to harass organizers and hunger strikers since the raid - following them to their homes, circling PUENTE's office in their cars, and taking photos of people supporting the strike at ICE. PUENTE members refuse to be intimidated into the shadows.

Please support their efforts by calling ICE to ask that their loved ones be released. One young hunger striking prisoner - Jose Valdez' son, Jaime, has been deported as punishment for his protest already. Other prisoners joining in this effort have been placed in solitary confinement.

Hunger Strike Encampment Evicted by Phoenix PD, 2 Supporters Arrested as Detainee Faces Immediate Deportation

Contact: Caroline Picker, 510-501-7276, media@puenteaz.org, Puente Movement

At approximately 11 pm on Tuesday, February 25, 30 Phoenix police officers descended on the Not1More Hunger Strike encampment, confiscating the striker’s supplies and arresting two supporters, Carlos Garcia and Erika Andiola.  The police reportedly surrounded the sleeping hunger strikers and supporters, aggressively disrupting the peaceful encampment.

The arrests follow several days of threats from the Phoenix PD to evict hunger strikers exercising their right to peacefully assemble.  The group has been fasting since last Monday, President’s Day, in order to demand that ICE free their loved ones from detention and that President Obama take immediate action to halt deportations.

One of the hunger strikers, Jose Valdez, received a phone call from his son, Jaime, in Eloy Detention Center this evening, alerting him that ICE is planning to deport Jaime tonight as retaliation for participating in the hunger strike and organizing to stop his deportation and secure his release.  Jaime has an appeal pending with the 9^th Circuit, and is therefore being illegally and unjustly deported before his immigration case has concluded. 

Watch live at http://puenteaz.org/breaking-phoenix-pd-evicting-hunger-strikes-outside-ice-making-arrests

Phoenix PD sends suicidal man off bridge.

What is wrong with the Phoenix PD? Don't they know how to deal with suicidal citizens without killing us? They would have probably been safer diving behind their cars than firing at him like this, when they thought they were in danger - then he would have had to advance from his position on the wall of the bridge, and they could have hit him with all the beanbags they wanted without sending him off the edge.

I know - Monday morning quarterbacking is easy to do with the cops, and I'm sure they hate it when this kind of thing happens - they all want to be the heroes who save the day- but if we don't rethink how some of these scenarios could otherwise unfold, how will they ever change?

If you need help getting through a crisis, and can't get it from a friend - or just need to bounce things off an objective third party - call these folks, not the police:

National Suicide Hotline:

1-800-273-TALK
(Veterans press 1)

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Threat on Phoenix overpass closes, backs up eastbound I-10

AZCentral.com
by Shala Marks and Kiali Wong - Apr. 18, 2011 12:02 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team

A man is dead after threatening to jump off the Interstate 10 overpass at 43rd Avenue early Monday in Phoenix, forcing the closure of eastbound I-10 at 51st Avenue.

The closure created a massive backup on Interstate 10. On-ramps to eastbound I-10 were closed at 83rd, 75th, 67th, 59th, 51st and 43rd avenues. Traffic was backed up to at least 75th Avenue, a more than 4-mile backup, causing commute times of more than two hours for many drivers.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety recommends McDowell and Buckeye roads as alternate routes. Traffic appears to be heavy on these and other surface streets near the interstate.

The freeway was expected to closed "a couple more hours," said Sgt. Steve Martos, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, at about 11 a.m.

The 40-year-old man was first spotted by a person driving on Interstate 10 at about 4:30 a.m. Monday, said Sgt. Steve Martos, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department. The driver called Phoenix police after seeing the man apparently standing outside of the railing on the 43rd Avenue overpass.

Police arrived, and the man told them to back away, Martos said. The man, who had an article of clothing wrapped around his right hand, also told officers he had a gun.

Officers tried to negotiate, Martos said. The man told officers about his family and how to contact them.

A semitruck was parked underneath the man in case he jumped, Martos said.

At about 5:30 a.m., the man stood up and started to approach police, Martos said. He pointed his right hand and five officers, fearing for their safety, opened fire with beanbag rounds and rifle rounds. A handgun also was used, Martos said.

Officers are unclear if the man jumped or if he was shot and fell off the overpass. Police didn't immediately know if any of the rounds hit the man.

The man fell just north of the semitruck because he had moved from his original position on the overpass, Martos said.

It is unknown if the man had a weapon, Martos said.

After firefighters determined the man was dead, authorities backed away, Martos said. A Phoenix police crime unit is processing the scene, and a helicopter is taking pictures.

A medical examiner also has been called in, Martos said.