The #NoPVEinCalifornia coalition was successful in persuading the CA State Legislature to remove funding to staff the Preventing Violent Extremism program (renamed as Creating Safer Communities).
The state program, modeled after the federal Countering Violent Extremism, doles out grants to social service and educational institutions to try to identify incipient terrorists in their midst.
The NoPVEinCA Coalition celebrates the critical step taken by the state Legislature and the Committee on Budget to refuse state funding for PVE and CSC, surveillance programs modeled after the DHS and FBI’s “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) program, in response to community demands amplified and supported by the Coalition’s work.
Tracy Rosenberg, Advocacy Director at Oakland Privacy, states:
“Oakland Privacy completely rejects the methodology of CVE and CSC programs. Funding social service agencies and educational institutions to profile their constituencies as incipient terrorists based on religious or racial markers and vague behavioral characteristics will not keep us safe. Defunding these programs continues California’s rejection of the racist and xenophobic iniatives devised by the federal government that seek to criminalize the immigrant experience. Young people of color, in particular, deserve our support as they explore their identities. Educators and social service agencies should not be deputized as the eyes and ears of the surveillance state.”
See the full coalition statement here.