We All Deserve Better

A case study on how the left cannibalizes its own

Preface

Below is public documentation and an open letter regarding a situation in my community that has been ongoing for the better part of a year. After more than eight months of enduring both online and in-person harassment, and after extensive thought and counsel, I am documenting the details of the situation as I experienced them or as they were relayed to me by trusted individuals.

What I have shared here is my own account of the incidents and can be verified by witnesses to specific events, news media, and through various public accounts. Screenshots are also included where most relevant, but many more exist. The bulk of the facts contained within this timeline are not up for dispute: they have been agreed upon in a courtroom to validate an order of protection.

Regardless, this is not a call out post. This is a clarification of the public record from my perspective, so I have excluded names from this account. Their personal identities are not important - their behavior is symbolic of a larger pattern on the left, and that is what I want to address. I use initials to refer to specific individuals for easier reading comprehension. Any similarity to real names is purely coincidental.

If you see yourself represented in these paragraphs, I encourage you to ask some hard questions about black and white thinking and the politics of perfection, whether you’re leaving room for dignity and humanity, how you’re expressing your pain, and who you’re expressing it against.

Introduction

This letter, primarily regarding the community fallout after the March Against Genocide, organized by Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids (PSGR) members from June 26th-30th, 2025, has been a long time coming. This is my personal accounting of the events leading up to, surrounding, and after the event, how they affected me, and what I wish to document about it.

This situation centers around a 40 year old person who I perceive to be a man, a known activist in Grand Rapids. I believe this person uses both he and they pronouns, and out of respect for their gender identity, I will use gender neutral pronouns throughout this document and any deviation is accidental. I will refer to them as J.

During the March Against Genocide, approximately 3 days into the event, J wrote a post on at least one social platform (Facebook), asking for solidarity and to be “believed” that they were “harmed” and “abused” by me, specifically, during the March Against Genocide. Initial posts included my name and called for people to write their own posts, sharing, “We Believe J.” This assertion is unequivocally false. I did not abuse J.

Shortly after, social media posts and comments began following suit. Accounts made accusations which, from my perspective, weaponized social justice and therapy language to attack my character. There were no specific details about my behavior that were shared that validated their claims. I was repeatedly told to be accountable for abusing J, until the vague assertion that there were “other problems” arose. When I continued to seek clarification of what those problems were and what behaviors or actions of mine I could be accountable to, they provided none except that I “abused J.” When I expressed my frustration, I was accused of being defensive and deflecting.

Very quickly, at the end of the March Against Genocide, the call on social media and from community members was that I attend an “accountability meeting.” This request carried no official reconciliation work or skills, nor anyone with an unbiased stance to facilitate. It was a request from person-to-person that I was expected to fulfil, without concern or question for my own safety or well-being. This created a sense of urgency among other PSGR members, so the meeting was attended by the PSGR co-chair at the time to hear their concerns. After this meeting, PSGR dedicated months to internal conversations and repair, creating a Community Accountability work group, which was then abandoned by every member who advocated for it shortly after it was approved. During this time, a coordinated attack by certain activists within GR surfaced, including multiple attempts to doxx PSGR members.

I have largely been silent about this situation and my reasons are my own. I have had boundaries in place for my own health and well-being that have been repeatedly ignored and demonized.

In various comment sections, as well as in person, I was told I was exhibiting white fragility and deflecting to avoid accountability. I was accused of making up my disability and lying about the many difficult things happening in my personal life. They have falsely alluded to mismanagement of funds or direct donations made to me through mutual aid fundraisers, which is an extremely serious, unfounded, and dangerous accusation.

People who know me or organize with me closely know that I value personal reflection, holding myself accountable, and admitting when I make a mistake. Integrity is one of my most important lived values. I will almost always come back around to try to right a wrong. But, in my opinion, this case hinges on an intentionally false framework - the continual demands for accountability are a false flag to disguise an interpersonal vendetta.

As I have worked through this, my perspective on how to handle it has shifted. I have sought counsel from leaders, friends, and professionals who offered invaluable perspectives. At first, I thought the disciplined thing to do was to rise above accusations that are clearly untrue. Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle. The kind thing, in my mind, was to give everyone space to feel and heal. But then these accusations began to spread and my silence allowed the situation to snowball.

People who I have never even met are commenting on Facebook posts about how “harmful” and “abusive” I am, even today. It has become a situation far greater than gossip. I believe if I do not document and address this situation head on, it will not stop. It has already had a grave cost to my career, reputation, and health. The stories being told are not the truth. As the story continues to spread and change, it has gotten to the point where new people who do not know me have carried the story forward. An entirely false narrative has emerged about the facts of the situation, who I am, and how PSGR operates. It has extended to a defamation campaign against me, any group I’ve organized with, and other activists who have tried to defend me.

This behavior is harmful, unethical, and indicative of a larger cultural problem in west Michigan. We all deserve better.

What is the primary complaint? I didn’t offer to include someone for breakfast during the March Against Genocide. I hurt someone’s feelings. I wasn’t nice. I am a femme person who speaks too directly, without saying please or thank you, and I don’t mince words or couch my language in platitudes, especially when it comes to men. I am unafraid to speak up against chauvinistic behavior. Because I organize in a way that confers authority through participation and action rather than identity and ideology.

J has misrepresented the facts about what happened on the March Against Genocide, how PSGR operates as a volunteer group, and has called for outlandish procedural actions, including for me to effectively stop organizing. When those requests were not placated, J’s actions escalated. They explicitly told a PSGR organizer after they left the March Against Genocide that they intended to get me “canceled.” That organizer showed me the messages because they were concerned for my safety.

I have since witnessed how J weaponized a marginalized community to elicit support against myself and the groups I have associated with, using my identity to create a narrative that myself or any group I have been around are against these communities. I believe this is a concerted effort to undermine both my reputation and that of the Palestine Solidarity movement in Grand Rapids as a whole.

It will never serve the movement to publicize interpersonal grievances, it only ever serves the state. I have wrestled with the ethics of publishing this timeline, both emotionally, politically, and spiritually. I want anyone who reads this to understand how seriously I have considered this action I am now undertaking. I know that agents of the state surveil our movements and look for any cracks to infiltrate and disrupt. But when you have abolitionists acting on behalf of the state, policing their community with reactionary punitive accusations with no material basis, then you are left with few options.

I’d like to preemptively clarify that I think multiple things are true here. I understand this situation in two frameworks: one, where a lot of intense personal feelings exist for very valid material reasons, a lot of which have to do with the intensity of the March Against Genocide. I want to give those feelings space and time and care, especially for those I’ve worked closely with who harbor unresolved feelings about the unexpected level and complexity of work required for that event.

The second framework has to do with personal feelings made into a predatory political agenda to undermine the work and reputations of specific activists in west Michigan. It is this framework I focus on here, which isn’t to say I do not have anything to recognize or apologize for interpersonally. I am sorry to the friends I hurt by being defensive. I feel badly for not being my best self. My door is always open to my friends who want to come back and address their feelings with me.

It is important to note that PSGR members never got a chance to decompress after the intense and life changing experience of the March Against Genocide because we were thrown immediately onto the defensive to account for these accusations. It was confusing and divisive for a lot of well meaning, thoughtful, and compassionate people who were burned out by the exhausting and emotionally draining experience.

Normally, we would have taken a break to consider the wins and opportunities to grow from the March, to take time to feel our feelings from the experience and work through them rather than react from them, and to debrief internal questions and conversations. Instead, we were forced to answer as a group for what should have been an interpersonal conflict.

From my perspective, it was unfair, disingenuous, and intentionally poorly timed. Asking for space and time to think through everything was never an option for the people who “believe J.” It is impossible to address your feelings and be present for difficult conversations when your body is completely depleted, burned out, or in high activation. The fact is, no one thinks logically or thoughtfully under those conditions.

After the March was over, I received what I considered a thinly veiled threat by a former PSGR member whose own chauvinistic behavior has been repeatedly pushed back on by myself and others. I was told “we are going to make you take a break, whether you want to or not.” I refer to him a few times in this document, so I will call him M.

When this started happening, one of my Arab friends framed the situation as hasad. Al Hasad is an Arabic term referring to malicious jealousy where a person wants someone else’s success or happiness taken away from them. It’s similar to what my Australian friends call Tall Poppy Syndrome, where people with public success are intensely scrutinized and ostracised by others under the guise of “egalitarianism,” known as “cutting down the tall poppy.” In other words, people felt PSGR got too big, did too much, “took up too much space,” “took too many community resources,” and therefore it needed to be pruned back - by force.

I want to be thoughtful about providing the timeline to clarify the facts, but also my thoughts and feelings about the situation, in a way that values everyone’s integrity and agency, and does not violate my personal boundaries or ethics. I have included the outline of the St. Paul’s Principles in the appendix of this open letter so people understand the political framework I operate under. I include it in hopes others might be inspired to higher levels of integrity in their political organizing and interpersonal relations.

The timeline of events extends to unrelated actions prior to the March Against Genocide, because those events offer insight into some of the accusations against myself and PSGR. I think it’s also important to note that PSGR is not a monolith - it is a large, diverse mass group representing people from all walks of life, religions, and political ideologies. The only requirement is that people agree to the points of unity, which I have also included in the appendix of this letter. While I have been a big part of this group since 2023, it is not mine. It is the work of the collective that keeps PSGR going and has made it a successful anti-imperialist presence in our community today.

PSGR has averaged 30-80 semi-active members at any given time throughout the past 3 years of my involvement (many of whom have been here since the beginning, and many of whom were brand new after the March, which ultimately broke into two factions once J’s harassment began), with a consistent leadership body composed of myself and half a dozen others. We have been highly organized and effective, which draws people to the movement.

The accusations were levied at me, initially, but very quickly turned into accusations against the entire entity of PSGR. PSGR and “Emerson” have become synonymous in the public discord.

This was evident in the immediate aftermath of the March Against Genocide when a circulating facebook post claiming I “abused” the man referred to above gave my full legal name in order to doxx me. When I advocated for myself and noted that was legally slanderous, the narrative quickly changed to use “PSGR” in place of “Emerson” with all the same talking points. Posts were edited to remove my name and replace it with PSGR. It has further spiraled into an orchestration that PSGR has rebranded itself into other groups like GROW and FRSO. This is false. The same accusations are floated on social media posts, through printed materials, and person-to-person, interchanging my name and organizational names.

My request throughout this process has been to be left alone so I can manage my health, be present to family members in crisis, mourn the loss of friends who have died during this time, and gather my thoughts. Instead, I have been met with repeated harassment that I do not have the emotional resources to manage. No one deserves to be bullied into isolation, forced to account for another person’s lies, or dehumanized because of their health needs - people are not disposable, and anyone trying to create a culture of disposability should be questioned. If their safety is contingent on the dehumanization of another person, that’s not safety: that’s abusive control.

This document is extensive and thorough, documenting a pattern of behavior that needs to be examined and criticized. If you are not interested in the specifics, you are welcome to skip to page to the final section “Conclusion.” Thank you for witnessing.

Timeline

December 2, 2023 - MLK Park protest

• PSGR led an action from MLK Park to congress woman Hillary Scholten’s house to hand deliver a letter demanding she stop supporting funding for apartheid state israel after she refused to accept our letter at her office and refused to meet with us. Hundreds of people attended, despite the cold.

• Prior to this action, we requested to meet with the group formerly known as Comrades Collective to ask if they would help as safety during our short march. They were also given a speaking slot, which was double the amount of time of any other speaker, effectively acting as the keynote.

• PSGR was still very new and very few organizers had experience doing safety or traffic marshalling. It was our understanding that Comrades Collective was highly skilled and experienced with handling safety from the previous BLM and Justice for Patrick movements in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

• Comrades Collective ultimately agreed to provide safety at the event. The group that showed up to provide safety was an even mix between Black folks and other POC, and white community members.

• During the event, two things happened: one of Scholten’s neighbors, who we later learned supported our action, went into early labor and had to call an ambulance. Additionally, the congresswoman weaponized her relationship with GRPD and called the chief of police, who showed up with a dozen squad cars and double the amount of uniformed cops for a spirited but peaceful protest where we simply delivered a letter to her door.

• Safety members told us we needed to get moving because cops were mobilizing. As we were marching the block from Scholten’s house back to MLK park, the ambulance segmented the march and forced the front to the sidewalk, separating the front and back of the march. There was no communication between the front and back of the march as most of the safeties were concentrated at the back.

• The lead safety car (driven by who I remember being a white woman, but I apologize if I am incorrect about any aspect of their identity, it is not intentional or malicious) was then ticketed for obstructing the flow of traffic. Safety quickly mobilized around the car and escalated to yelling at GRPD. Many of our Palestinian families immediately left once the escalation began. Other organizers stayed to observe the interaction with police.

• During the debrief, we discussed the miscommunication that led to the segmentation of the march. At that time, it seemed like a simple strategic disagreement that was resolved in the moment, but we now understand there was harbored resentment leftover from this event that was never addressed with us.

• After the fact, PSGR agreed to help pay for the citation received by the driver. That money was given to a PSGR organizer to facilitate giving it to the community member who received the citation.

• PSGR members took this opportunity to begin expanding their safety skills and built out a de-escalation and traffic marshalling training to increase the capacity of organizers. Those organizers then volunteered for multiple other community actions, including for Movimiento Cosecha, to help provide Black and brown folks cover using our white bodies. People trained by PSGR to do safety and de-escalation have been consistently showing up for immigrant rights and police accountability actions since then.

• This is the event at which people claim PSGR “uses Black and brown bodies as human shields.” From my perspective, we credentialed a diverse group of people as having experience and professionalism, we asked them to participate and gave them insight into our plan, and they consented to participating in that capacity. We had no control over the actions of GRPD and we did our best to keep our Palestinian families at the front of the march safe from harm.

*These late Spring events may not be in exact order of occurrence. I tried my best to fact check between emails, chats, and other people I knew to be in attendance to confirm the timeline*

April 28, 2024 - Action at Dems

• PSGR did a direct action at GVSU Pew campus, where a large cohort of cops showed up (estimated more than a dozen) to arrest people occupying the Democratic Party gala fundraiser. There were many physical assaults on protesters from private security and gala attendees/Democratic party members.

• J lingered after the group of protestors left and was seen speaking with GRPD.

• Safety members asked them to join the group multiple times but they declined and lingered behind for several minutes. No one heard what they said to officers or knows why they chose to stay behind.

• I informed safeties that it is not our job to police the community, and if someone chooses to stay behind, that is their choice. We prioritized getting everyone else to a safe second location. At the time, I thought maybe they were making sure people weren’t left behind or that the cops didn’t follow us.

Late Spring, early Summer 2024 - J attends PSGR meeting for the only time

• In late Spring or early summer 2024, J attended a PSGR meeting for the first and only time.

• We had been devising a trifold flier since January that we could use in a door to door canvassing campaign to raise awareness about Palestine. At this meeting, we were supposed to vote to approve our final draft of the trifold flier after months of work writing, editing, and designing.

• We started the meeting by reading our points of unity, as is standard practice any time a new member joined the group. There were no objections to the points of unity. We continued onto business.

• Once we got to the trifold flier, J immediately took issue with specific language in our materials. In a section about revolutionary fighters, we talked about how South African liberation fighters were considered terrorists in their day, even up to the early 2000’s, but now we call people like Nelson Mandela a hero and that we view Palestinian liberation fighters in the same vein.

• J took issue with this language and was affronted that we “support violence.” They claimed that they were a pacifist and could not support any group that supports violence and antisemitism. Our points of unity stress that we are internationalists who do not denounce Hamas or any other member of the United Front for the liberation of Palestine. We do not view this as anti-semitism in any form, and have had several anti-zionist Jewish members in our group.

• I pointed out their statement contradicts our points of unity, the political framework for the group, and that we would not be changing it.

• They became agitated when I pushed back against them during the meeting and began arguing with me. I said it wasn’t just my decision, it was the hard work of the entire group that had created this flier, but that as the meeting facilitator, I would not allow the conversation that violates our points of unity to proceed.

• J then began yelling quite loudly and flung their chair backward as they stood up. It flew 2-3 feet behind them and hit a cabinet, rattling the windows. A young domestic violence survivor next to them was accidentally hit due to their escalation.

• They then proceeded to continue yelling as they left our office. With what appeared as full force, they slammed every single set of doors between our office and the outside - four separate sets of doors, each of which rattled the entire wing of the building.

• Later, they admitted to yelling at us for several minutes from the street of the quiet residential neighborhood we met in.

• After they left the room, the more than a dozen organizers present were stunned and confused. Many people exhibited obvious signs of anxiety, but were able to calm themselves down after a short break.

• I was shocked by this behavior and immediately asked if I had done something wrong. Multiple people reassured me that I had not been out of line, and that this behavior was extreme.

• I grew concerned about J’s wellbeing and reached out to a prominent elder who is close to them to ask if this is normal behavior. I was assured it was not necessarily uncharacteristic, but that it sounded like they might need some support, and that this elder would reach out.

• I found this behavior really unsettling as someone who has been harassed and assaulted by men in the past. I was incredibly triggered, but my concern for the rest of the group (which was more than 75% women and gender variant people, who are disproportionately on the receiving end of violence by men) and the need to model calm outweighed my personal feelings.

Late Spring, early Summer 2024 - Community Owns Safety Coalition meeting

• At the last Community Owns Safety Coalition meeting I attended, J said if the group didn’t do the specific style of mutual aid they wanted the group to do, they would loudly and vocally boycott the group and encourage others to do the same, stopping COSC as a whole.

• In a different statement in that same meeting, they said they regularly have lunch with the chief of police.

• No one in the room addressed either statement. I was incredibly confused why J would claim to meet with the chief of police regularly in a room full of abolitionists and police accountability activists.

• I was equally confused why no one would say something about it.

• I was later provided with more information about why no one spoke against J in this meeting by a third party that witnessed an altercation between J and a trans woman at a COSC meeting. In this meeting, J screamed at and threatened her and she stood up to J, which escalated the situation and caused a split in the group.

• Given their previous statement about boycotting the group and what happened at the PSGR meeting they attended, I now understand J is known for being extremely volatile. I do not believe anyone felt safe addressing the statement about meeting with the chief of police or attempting to prevent the group from operating.

May 15, 2024 - Nakba Arrest campaign

• On Nakba day, 2024, four community members were arrested for participating in a protest.

• PSGR launched a fundraiser to raise money for a legal fund to protect free speech rights and support these community members.

• At the time, PSGR members were aware of another prominent Black activist who was facing unjust charges and discussed extending our campaign more broadly in an attempt to push back on the suppression of free speech in GR.

• One of the arrestees began to reach out to the activist to ask if they would like to be included in the free speech campaign or the fundraising efforts.

• On May 19, I attended the memorial for Samuel Sterling and reiterated our desire to include other activists facing charges in our campaign to a different prominent Black activist.

• Eventually they declined our offer, stating that they hadn’t determined their legal strategy with their lawyer and they were hesitant to be too public.

• Later, we were accused of extending solidarity exclusively for optics and to amplify our own campaign on the “backs of Black people.”

March 8, 2025 - International Women’s Day march

• On March 8, 2025, while leading safety for the International Women’s Day March for several thousand attendees, I was threatened with arrest by a GRPD officer, and it was photographed by MLive and later published both on their website and in the paper.

• The officer did not arrest me at the time because multiple people at the front of the march began questioning why I was being targeted.

• Later, the same Black activist facing charges would accuse me of centering and promoting myself based on this interaction.

April 5, 2025 - No Kings rally arrest

• I was once again leading safety for a several thousand person No Kings rally on April 5th, and one hour prior to the event start time, the same sergeant I had attempted to negotiate our route with for the IWD Rally separated me from the rest of the group to arrest me. While my standard practice is to not engage with the police, as the Safety lead and police liaison, it was my responsibility to negotiate the route logistics at the request of rally organizers. I have done so successfully in other cities with no problems.

• GRPD had issued a warrant for my arrest a week after the IWD rally, which I was never privy to, and they waited an additional three weeks to arrest me. I only found this out well after the fact, because they did not tell me why they were arresting me or offer me Miranda rights.

• I quickly became vocal to get the attention of the safeties several dozen yards away. They mobilized to record my arrest.

• The Grand Rapids Alliance quickly mobilized jail solidarity, and people from all around the US called Kent County Jail to demand my release. Because of their hard work and quick action, I was released within a few hours before the march completed at Rosa Parks Circle, and I was able to do a call for solidarity from the stage.

• At the same time, a new group called ACABolition, with many of the same core members as the former Comrades Collective and GR Rapid Response to ICE, had a film screening at Fountain Street Church. I was told later that one of their members was passing out anti communist zines which specifically names a national group active in Grand Rapids, Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

• I received a copy of that zine by a concerned community member who asked why they were passing them out when they know FRSO members personally. I include this information in this timeline because it became relevant later and I believe it is inextricably tied to the accusations against me. There is a lot of crossover between these groups (Comrades Collective, ACABolition, and GR Rapid Response To ICE) and the people who are now accusing me of harm.

April 9, 2025 - Fundraiser launches

• The Institute for Global Education, a long standing social justice nonprofit that houses multiple community organizing group including PSGR, launched a legal fundraiser to support my case.

• After this, members of ACABolition began commenting online about my arrest, claiming it is “inappropriate for me to fundraise for my arrest when a Black woman is facing worse charges and needs the community support more.”

• I began to clarify that I do actually need the support because I am disabled, unemployed, and have been unhoused for a number of years. I did not have the funds to mount a free-speech defense. I was accused of centering myself for attention.

Comments on Facebook after April 9 Fundraiser launches

• My arrest created division amongst the recently formed Indivisible Greater Grand Rapids group, where many members wanted to support me and share my fundraiser in their Facebook group in solidarity, but one member of the leadership board continually deleted the posts due to my proximity to Palestine organizing (she is an avowed zionist).

• This prompted one activist formerly associated with IGGR who I helped organize the International Women’s Day and the No Kings rally with to create a lengthy post calling for accountability within IGGR and asking the community to support me. This went against my advice, as I had asked her to hold off on confronting IGGR until we could have a good faith meeting. I became the center of controversy once again because of this post.

• Many people, both community activists and regular folks, began responding in solidarity to hold IGGR accountable.

• Multiple people associated with ACABolition and GR Rapid Response to ICE began commenting on the post saying we shouldn’t center white people, and I responded in solidarity with them.

• In one comment, it is claimed people only worry about issues that affect them (talking about white liberals). In another, white people shouldn’t be organizing around issues that “don’t affect them,” (regardless of whether that person’s tax dollars are, in fact, funding the situation - even when it is dangerous for the affected community to do so and they have openly called for everyone in the world to organize in solidarity with their cause).

• Shortly after my arrest and witnessing the conditional solidarity of people in my community, I left for a very intense two week international political delegation. When I came back, my nervous system was overwhelmed from the experience, my impending court case for misdemeanor charges, and the commentary from both democrats and anarchists in my community. I was highly anxious but trying to redirect my energy toward doing political work, which gave me purpose. I felt well resourced enough to continue organizing while facing charges.

Early May, 2025 - J’s apology

• When I came back to the US from my trip abroad, I was told by multiple PSGR members that J had begun attending weekly Palestine rallies again and had expressed a desire to apologize to me. The Christopher Schurr trial had been happening while I was away and many members of PSGR not only volunteered for crowd safety, but remained as a constant presence during the trial, providing material support wherever the community requested it. J spent time with many of these people, several of whom were newer to PSGR and may not have known their history with the group.

• I attended a press conference in early May regarding the Christopher Schurr verdict as a legal observer.

• As a legal observer, I stood separate from the crowd participating in this press conference in order to observe the actions of police. J approached me but stood about 10 feet away, casually glancing in my direction every so often, but without approaching or speaking to me.

• I told them they were allowed to approach me, that I heard they had words for me, and that I was open to conversation.

• J apologized for their behavior, owned the fact that they were dysregulated at our meeting the previous year, and had trauma that made it difficult to regulate*. I accepted this apology and we talked about how no one is disposable, and that mental health struggles shouldn’t prevent you from being part of movements for justice.

• I told them I was able to separate my personal feelings and my responsibility as a leader, and we agreed that as long as they can regulate themselves, they are always welcome to come to PSGR events because no one should be gatekept from the movement. They were not welcome to come back to PSGR organizing meetings because they violated the points of unity.

• * Normally, I would not publicly discuss someone’s mental health status because it is inappropriate, and I am not qualified to do so. I mention J’s trauma in this letter because I now know that it is already a matter of public record as J has created and published a podcast about their trauma experiences. The details of this trauma history are inseparable from the experience of the March Against Genocide, which inform their response after the fact.

March Against Genocide introduction

It is important to outline the structure of the March Against Genocide and detail the work that went into it in order to frame the next several days of activity. This will also help resolve some of the questions and accusations J has levied against myself and PSGR members regarding “negligence” on the March Against Genocide. We planned to march from Grand Rapids to Lansing, 75 miles all told, including a couple deviations to our accommodations, across 5 days at the end of June 2025, to raise money for Gaza. In the end, we raised more than $22k and the response from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

Participants joined of their own free will and were encouraged to take care of themselves as needed. No one was forced to do anything, and there were always multiple avenues available for people to leave the action. Several people who were committed to the whole march dropped after the first couple days, but most of them came back for at least one day after that. All participants were asked to sign a release waiver detailing risks of participation. Everyone signed except J, which we realized after the fact. The waiver sign in process was initially facilitated by the man named M in the introduction, and who later agreed that he believed J was “abused.” I do not know if it was intentional that J did not sign a waiver or if it was an oversight.

This event ended up having 6 coordinators: 4 main coordinators, and two assistant coordinators that joined during the March to help ease the burden of logistics.

1. I acted as the march coordinator - doing marketing, soliciting sponsorships, coordinating donations, doing social media before and during the event, doing safety, route planning, soliciting overnight accommodations (I had help sourcing accommodations from one other person), and logistics for marchers

2. Volunteer coordinator, who coordinated rides and scheduled volunteers helping with breaks during the march

3. Donations/logistics coordinator, who managed water, medical supplies, and snacks

4. Two additional positions were filled during the March

   1. One person jumped in mid way to source locations for breaks, which ended up being very helpful and appreciated

   2. One person was in charge of moving Marchers sleeping bags, extra food and provisions, and backpacks between locations, helping set up tents as necessary

5. Hot meal coordinator, who also helped with the website, marketing, and legal release / participant waivers

Throughout the march, we had a medical doctor join us for several days who was available to provide sound medical advice to marchers as needed. We also had a registered nurse join us for the first and last days. Three of the marchers who attended the entire event were previously trained as street medics by the West Michigan Care Collective and jumped in to help as needed. We also worked with the West Michigan Care Collective to have a dedicated street medic available on the volunteer team who drove to breaks to care for marchers as needed. They were available for all days but one, and their assistance was instrumental in making this event happen.

There were 27 people who walked every single day and required overnight accommodations in 4 different cities (we started with more than 30 daily marchers, but ended with 27). We averaged approximately 50 participants every day, and had more than 75 people registered from around the state to join for at least a couple hours of the March. We provided three hot meals for every participant - breakfast for the people staying overnight, and lunch and dinner for all other participants and volunteers, which we took counts for the previous night and prior to each meal to ensure there was enough food. Those meals were coordinated from Grand Rapids and driven out to our location three times per day.

While marching, we had lead- and follow- cyclists for safety. They each had a bike cart that carried our ample medic supplies, portable toilet and popup privacy tent to respect the property we were passing by, coolers containing ice water and various electrolyte drinks, cheese, and numerous types of snacks, crackers, protein and cereal bars, chips, and cookies for all dietary needs. We knew we had multiple participants with food sensitivities and did our best to accommodate them (one participant brought all their own food that they didn’t end up needing because we were able to accommodate their complex diet).

We ended up taking a break every other mile in order to accommodate bathroom and food needs, especially during the most sweltering days. Volunteers mobilized to provide safety, shaded cover, and took participants to brick and mortar bathrooms as needed.

They set up and tore down our break station multiple times per day in the heat and in the rain. When participants expressed they wanted a kiddie pool on the first day, a volunteer went out and bought one with her own money. When we needed shade while walking, volunteers went and bought a couple dozen umbrellas we could use as shade. We had cooling ice packs, hand fans, electrolyte powders, and anything else participants needed to beat the heat.

Volunteers also carried our overflow snacks, which ended up being multiple large rubbermaid totes worth of snacks for every dietary type, which were available on every break and which we used to restock the Marcher supply on the bikes. There was always plentiful food, cooling supplies, water, and medical supplies for everyone.

The coordinators managed teams of more than 30 people each, though I am sure there was some crossover between drivers, logistics, and hot meals volunteers, so I cannot confirm exactly how many people volunteered to make the event happen since our debrief ended up being sidelined by what happened with J.

People jumped in off the street to provide popsicles and ice water to marchers as they passed by, friends joined the volunteer team without ever having signed up to volunteer. This event was a labor of love by all who participated.

We marched through cities on sidewalks where it was available, and against the flow of traffic in rural areas on somewhat narrow shoulders as needed. On a few occasions, we were required to cross the street to walk with the flow of traffic to avoid obstructions and to cross highway on-ramps. We did our best to keep participants safe and the action legal. At any point, if a participant expressed a desire to leave or a specific need, volunteers quickly mobilized to make that happen.

It was a massive undertaking coordinated entirely by volunteers dedicating dozens and dozens of hours to a cause they felt was worth the sacrifice of their time, energy, and money.

All of the information included below about the occurrences on the March Against Genocide are accurate to the best of my knowledge, and have been corroborated by multiple witnesses.

June 26, 2025 - MAG day 1

• First day of March Against Genocide, we walked 17 miles from Grand Rapids to Lowell in sweltering heat. Morale was high, and our volunteer team stopped with us every mile or two to replenish our supplies and offer us shade.

• At our lunch stop, I coordinated with the doctor who joined the march to talk to one woman who was feeling unwell. The doctor said she did not yet have clear signs of heat-related illness (specifically, she did not have heat exhaustion or heat stroke), but if she was feeling poorly, it was a risk to continue.

• We presented her with multiple options: a volunteer could drive her home for a break and she could come back another day if she wanted, she could ride around in an air conditioned volunteer car for a while to give her body a break, or she could continue marching knowing the risks to her health. She chose to leave for the day, but she ended up coming back before the end of the March.

• When J says someone had heat stroke on the march, this is the only situation they could be referring to. Another woman joined for a few hours later on the March and had a bad heat-related reaction due to her medication (not heat stroke, but side effects of medication), and she promptly left the action. She was also well attended to by our medical team.

• During daily debrief at our overnight accommodations, J offered a very emotional disclosure of trauma history that organizers were not aware of relating to being forced to walk for long distances (this is the subject of their public podcast, otherwise I would not disclose it here). Marchers immediately rallied around them to offer emotional support. After dinner, J was driven to their car, went home to their own bed, and came back the next morning. Most of the rest of the marchers stayed overnight and slept on the floor of a church.

• When the meal coordinator asked for feedback on food from the first day, J responded in a way that, according to the coordinator, was “surprising and out of proportion compared to all other marcher feedback.” J claimed they were not fed and no one would share the packed lunch with them, that everyone ate everything before they could get it. The coordinator noted leftovers while cleaning and inventorying food for the next day, indicating plenty of food had been available. The lunch was buffet style and freely available to all participants.

June 27, 2025 - MAG day 2

• On the second day of March Against Genocide, we walked 16 miles from Lowell to the Ionia Free Fair Grounds, which was our overnight accommodations.

• Half way through the day, I noticed the backs of J’s legs were severely sunburned. As the march coordinator in charge of safety, I approached them and said “Wow, J! Your legs are really sunburned! You should put on some sunblock!” I was direct and friendly. This was witnessed by multiple people.

• J seemed to flinch and then become immediately defensive. They raised their voice and said “Don’t tell me what to do!”

• Their response was unexpected and bordered on yelling, which triggered a trauma response in my body. I froze. I believe they noticed the change in my body language, as well as the response of others around them. They changed their response.

• They said “I mean, if you’re going to tell me what to do, at least say please. I don’t like it when people tell me what to do. You should at least say please and thank you.”

• I noticed a tightness in my chest and backed away from the conversation. I said “my bad” and walked away. J still seemed agitated, but was calming down.

• An hour or so later, we were taking a break at a roadside park and I noticed J calmly seated with a couple other people, including a trained street medic and PSGR organizer. They were not engaged in conversation, so I approached J to apologize.

• I said “hey J, I’m sorry for the miscommunication earlier. I was not trying to tell you what to do. I noticed you have very severe burns on your legs, and as the person in charge of everyone’s safety here, I wanted to make sure you’re taking care of yourself.”

• I believe I addressed their initial agitation and big response and let them know it made me feel very anxious. They disagreed with how I framed the interaction, indicating they had done nothing wrong, dismissing my anxiety, and that I was misinterpreting their response. I said that I respectfully disagreed, but that what mattered most is that they were taking care of themselves. I asked how often they were reapplying sunblock (they weren’t), and that they might also benefit from using some aloe to soothe the burns they already had.

• J admitted that they needed to be taking better care of themself, and I agreed it was important.

• The conversation quickly escalated after this point. In a matter of moments, J went from saying “yeah, I should take better care of myself,” to repeatedly saying “I’m bad, I’m bad.” They then punched themself in the face several times, hard enough that we could hear the blows landing from several feet away, and they then ran a few yards away into the woods.

• The marchers in the direct vicinity were stunned and confused. The PSGR member trained as a medic asked if she should follow to make sure they were okay, but I said no, that was not a good idea. J had disappeared from view, which would require her to disappear from view as well. They are approximately 6’3”, weighing well over 250 lbs, and just exhibited violence toward themselves, and she is a young woman half their age and half their size. They needed space to regulate and come back to the group safely.

• I recognized at that moment that something about me was triggering J to behave this way. Of the few times I had interacted with this person previously, three of them had resulted in them either yelling at me, throwing something, or hurting themself. I immediately removed myself from the situation and said this behavior was beyond my skills and capacity. I felt unsafe and highly anxious, unsure whether J would escalate their behavior further.

• After I left, three separate women approached me and expressed grave concerns about J continuing on the march (one PSGR member and two participants). They were shocked at witnessing this behavior and felt they were a danger to other participants. I thanked them for their concerns and said I would address it with the organizers.

• The following information comes to me second hand from a participant I will refer to as B, which was relayed to me on the final day of the march. He is not a PSGR organizer, but has participated in many PSGR actions in the past and is a trusted community member. B said J came back to the small group shortly after I left, and he helped calm J down. B had brought along several legal cannabis products to help medicate marchers by request. He offered J a dab from his pen, and J declined saying they didn’t want to be altered while walking. B agreed they could hang out at the campground and do a dab after the day was done. B explained that throughout the day, J repeatedly expressed their admiration and gratitude for B, thanking him for the friendship, and expressing how excited they were to do a dab when they got back to the campground. When they returned to the campground, tents were set up and everyone’s luggage was unloaded. B expressed to me that J did not ask to do a dab once they returned to the campground, but repeatedly encouraged B to leave the area and go take a shower before the bathroom was too busy.

• That night, J again elected to be driven back to Grand Rapids by a volunteer to sleep at home. The volunteers needed to clean up dinner, collect laundry, and complete other tasks before leaving the camp site, causing an hour or two delay between the end of dinner and giving marchers rides back to their cars. The volunteer giving J a ride back described them as highly anxious to leave. The volunteer also clarified during our debrief that once J was in the car and had left the campsite, they were in good spirits.

• 11pm - I went to bed, exhausted and in pain.

• 11:16pm - J sent a message to the Marcher Information chat asking if there is an official breakfast time for the following morning

• 11:17pm - I wrote a casual response as I wound down for bed clarifying that breakfast was for folks who were staying overnight.

• At the same time, another message came through the chat saying a backpack was missing that had very important medications in it. I immediately got up to coordinate with the marcher who sent the message to find out what was going on. I learned that a very old Jansport style backpack in rough shape had gone missing. It contained a wallet with cash, credit cards, and ID, as well as cannabis products, and very important medications, and nothing else (effectively mostly empty). I learned that the backpack belonged to B, who had separated himself from the group and was walking around the campground to calm down, as he was very concerned about not having his medication. Several other PSGR organizers and March participants were already looking for the backpack.

• 11:23pm - J responded to my initial message saying it was “outrageous and poor care for marchers who are accommodated in so many other ways.”

• 11:27pm - I responded to J and explained that breakfast amounts were planned ahead of time based on how many people were staying the night, and that we expected people driving from home every day to come prepared in the morning, but we would feed them lunch and dinner. There are a number of people in the chat who are joining for a day here or there and I wanted to clarify expectations for everyone, not just J.

• 11:40pm - J responded saying they didn’t have money for breakfast. I was unable to respond because I was trying to problem-solve the backpack crisis in camp.

• Over the course of several hours, we searched every trash bin and dumpster, woke up every marcher to search their tents and belongings, called all the volunteers who left for the day and had them empty their cars on camera to search for the backpack just in case they missed it by accident. All of the participant belongings were in large clear contractor bags situated under a pop up canopy in the middle of camp, surrounded by tents and vehicles. We confirmed that three participants left for the day, but that two of them were picked up right after dinner, before the backpack went missing. There were dozens of people milling around, but no strangers entered camp. There were several very nice backpacks, pieces of technology, expensive items of clothing and camping supplies, but the only thing missing was B’s mostly-empty 20-year-old backpack with cash, meds, and cannabis products.

• I found B walking around the Ionia Free Fair Grounds, worried about what would happen if he did not take his medication. I started searching for pharmacies open nearby to request an emergency dose of medication, but all clinics and pharmacies were closed, and his doctor’s office did not open again for multiple days. Organizers offered to pay to replace his medication and ID cards.

• Meanwhile, J continued to escalate in the chat and I was unable to respond. They expressed feeling hurt, neglected, and unwelcome, requested people to speak up on their behalf, and asserted there is a “pattern of neglect,” “unethical leadership practices,” and “unilateral decision making” that must be accounted for. They did not indicate what they meant by those statements outside of being asked to eat breakfast at home. They claimed their “valid requests” were dismissed and minimized.

• One of the March Coordinators who was not at the campground called J and was on the phone discussing their concerns for an hour. That coordinator then called me while I was searching for the backpack and we discussed J’s concerns. I expressed that I did not have capacity to manage J at the moment given the crisis in camp and my increasing exhaustion, that I deeply appreciated that coordinators willingness to help J, and I affirmed that J had access to plenty of food outside of breakfast - many different kinds of snacks listed in the section above. The coordinator expressed sympathy for J, and I agreed that J was clearly having some sort of disproportionate stress reaction to the situation and that we needed to handle their feelings carefully. I also affirmed that we are not mental health professionals, and J may need more care than we can offer.

• I finally went to bed after 1am and woke up less than 5 hours later.

• After a sleepless night wandering around the fair grounds worrying about his cash, cards, and medication, B went home and did not return until the final day of the March.

June 28, 2025 - MAG day 3

• On the third day of the March Agaisnt Genocide, we walked 17 miles from Ionia Free Fair Grounds to Portland, and then we were driven in groups to our accommodations 10 minutes away.

• 6:23am - I shared my live location via Google in the Marcher Information and Driver chats so people joining for the day knew where to find us. My location was also shared with the lead volunteer organizers for food and logistics.

• 7:51am - J did not join us for the day. They continued messaging the chat, said their need for care was minimized, invalidated, and dismissed. Two people responded, one volunteer with professional support skills who expressed messaging them separately, and one marcher who expressed that volunteers are doing their best and we should all stay focused on the mission.

• 8:13 am - I finally had a moment to follow up with the messages and apologize to J for not responding sooner, apologized that my response made them feel neglected and that was not my intention, clarified the need for people to come prepared but that they were always welcome, and expressed that the team is doing everything possible to ensure everyone is safe and well cared for. I let them know if they had specific concerns, they should message a member of the coordinating team directly rather than the main chat.

• Around 2 pm, while still in the middle of the most grueling direct action I’ve ever done, I received my first Facebook message from a well meaning GR activist asking me to have a conversation with her and a prominent Black activist stemming from “recent interactions with J on the march.” I received multiple other messages like this over the course of the weekend and responded to each expressing the situation was far more complex than J was portraying it. One of those messages comes from an elected official who becomes central to the ongoing harassment later. They are all friends with J.

• 5:27pm - J messaged the chat asking if they can join marchers for social and emotional support at the overnight accommodations. Our overnight accommodations were not public knowledge for the safety of the host on this particular night. They did not address their earlier accusations. The same support professional responded saying she would message them directly. One marcher responded that they would love to see them, and I responded saying they were absolutely welcome, but that we only had room for a specific number of cars at the accommodations and they would need to get a ride with a volunteer. Again, the location was private and marchers were shuttled there.

• When J sent this message, we were taking a break on a church lawn. I spoke with one of the coordinators who is close with J about their mental health and we discussed the events of the previous day, their emotional volatility, and the concerns expressed by other participants. We were torn between wanting to include them, not wanting to make their mental health worse through the experience, and wanting to keep other participants safe. We pulled in one of the other coordinators for the discussion, and the three of us decided we could not make this decision on our own. We gathered all PSGR organizers volunteering or participating in the March and opened the discussion for a democratic decision. More than a dozen people were present for the conversation, and the overwhelming majority expressed it felt unsafe to allow J to continue. We devised a plan for their friends to discuss their participation with them and encourage them to back out.

• Sometime after 6:30pm, while we were discussing J’s participation in the March and formulating a plan, they showed up to our location unannounced.

• When they arrived, they had a black eye from where they repeatedly punched themself in the face the previous day.

• A small group of their friends invited them into a conversation and discussed the intensity of the march with them, ultimately prompting them with the idea to leave the march. They agreed it was in their best interest to leave.

• Our food and luggage coordinators were setting up at the private location. Based on the speed of the group, they anticipated arrival no later than 7pm. They became increasingly alarmed as my location was stagnant and all communication ceased in all chats, channels, and texts. The food coordinator had the meal ready for 4 hours before the Marchers arrived around 9:20 PM. It was several hours before confirmation of safety was made because we were busy trying to problem-solve the crisis with J.

• Once we arrived at the accommodations for the night, we discussed the plan of PSGR organizers who are their friends creating a separate group chat for J to debrief. These friends were tasked with alerting them that they were being removed from the main marchers chat since they would no longer be on the March Against Genocide.

• 2:21am - J sends a message to the main March Against Genocide group chat saying “We do not stand in solidarity with palestine unless hospitality is treated as paramount”. They directly equated my request for them to eat breakfast at home due to limited supplies with the forced and intentional starvation of millions of Palestinians.

June 29, 2025 - Day 4

• On the fourth day of the March Agaisnt Genocide, we walked 14 miles from downtown Portland to Grand Ledge.

• 7am - I confirmed J had been added to the second group chat and we removed them from the March Against Genocide chats.

• The previous few days were some of the most intense days we had, having to walk through extremely conservative rural areas with very few safe stopping points. We were threatened with violence on multiple occasions, two of which were very credible threats.

• On day 2 in Saranac, we were stopped on the public right of way under a row of power lines and a man next door threatened to shoot us with his AR - openly, in a public gas station across the street, with multiple witnesses.

• On day 4, in Eagle, we are threatened, intimidated, and verbally harassed by a group of men at a private fairground we had sought permission to have lunch at, and the owner kicked us out. We had to quickly mobilize to leave the location and drive out in multiple cars. It was stressful and chaotic. I was the last to leave to ensure everyone made it out safely. Organizers were understandably very stressed and disturbed by this situation. I did my best to help calm people down, but I was already well beyond my bandwidth physically, and I worried that my attempts to calm people down were received as dismissive of their feelings in the moment. I reinforced our need to model calm for the rest of the Marchers. We offered to coordinate rides for all participants by the end of day 4 to our next location to shorten the route and prioritize people’s safety, but all participants declined and insisted on finishing the day’s walk. Several trans people expressed their fear from being intimidated by the group of men and that it was because of this fear that they must continue. The conversation revolved around the fear that Palestinians must face daily, just for existing. It is obvious the group is exhausted but was trying to keep morale high. I was so proud of them and, despite also wanting to quit, I continued with them.

June 30, 2025 - Day 5

• On the last day of the March Against Genocide, we walked 12 miles from Grand Ledge to a restaurant where we took a couple hour break, and then finally to the state capitol building.

• B came back to the March and disclosed the details mentioned in the Day 2 summary, including that he was almost certain his backpack was stolen and that he thought he knew who stole it. I disclosed this information to the rest of the PSGR organizers at a meeting after the march. He had agreed to provide this information on request, but since this is a legal accusation, we left it in his hands to follow up on. He declined our previous offer to help pay to replace his stolen medication and credit cards, saying he understood the risks outlined in the liability waiver and was okay to accept the financial burden.

• When the March started in the morning, I was on Zoom for my final court hearing to settle my previous misdemeanor charges. This was a very stressful situation as it was my final hearing before deciding if I would plead “not guilty” and take my case to trial. I was still receiving messages from J’s friends politely but insistently asking me to be accountable for how I treated them. I politely offered screenshots and said I disagreed with J’s framing of the situation, and that I was unavailable to meet with anyone.

• Later that day, coordinators of the march finally disclosed to me that J had been sending multiple people increasingly concerning messages about their mental health. Coordinators, one of whom was previously a mandated reporter, facilitated getting them professional emergency mental health support, and J declined needing assistance. It is important to note that several people reported speaking to J about getting immediate and emergency attention, but when this was suggested they changed course and reiterated they were fine and did not need help.

• It was at this time I learned that they had texted one of their friends in PSGR that they were out to get me “canceled.” I also learned that J was using ChatGPT to create lengthy fake conversations. These distorted conversations were between “Palestinians” and “Emerson” wherein I “take accountability” for not being hospitable to J, and how that was equally as egregious as the genocide and forced starvation Palestinians are enduring. J sent these conversations to their friends in PSGR. I was shocked and unsettled by this behavior and I did not know what to make of it. It is known that ChatGPT contributes to mental instability by validating psychosis. I cannot say whether that is true for this situation because I am not J, but the “conversations” represented an extremely distorted version of reality.

• I averaged approximately 4 hours of sleep per night during the March Against Genocide while walking 12-17 miles every day in sweltering heat. While I was immensely proud of our accomplishments, my body was absolutely done for. On day 3, I began having an extremely painful autoimmune reaction causing blisters under my tongue, which had now progressed to blisters all over my mouth, under my tongue, and covering my lips. Eating was very challenging and painful by day 5, and I was not able to consume any electrolytes - just water. I pushed through the final miles and rallied at the capitol.

• As soon as the march ended, I somehow managed to drive back to Grand Rapids and begged my sister to take me to urgent care. I was put on an intense regimen of steroids, mouth flushes, and antibiotics, which made me feel sicker in different ways. I was really not doing well at this time, and my family was worried about me.

• J and others continued to message and comment on the PSGR instagram, and as one of three people logged into the social media accounts, I was responsible for reading and moderating those comments.

• J began posting publicly on Facebook about how I “abused” them, claiming the March was poorly organized and dangerous, stating that PSGR is authoritarian, and garnering sympathy from their friends who share the posts.

• In comments on circulating social media posts, an increasing number of people told me I must take accountability for J’s claims. Very few people asked for details or clarification of what happened, and the details were dismissed when offered.

Screenshots from the initial conversation with J

Additional conversation with J before they were removed from the chat

July 5 - Message from a sponsor

• I received a Signal message from someone in Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War who attended the March Against Genocide saying they “got a strange email from J about his not being given breakfast, etc.” This person continued on, saying “I assume he sent it to all the endorsing groups.” There were more than 30 endorsers of the march. KNOW forwarded the message to the PSGR email account for our records.

July 9 - Meeting with BCS

• A couple of months prior, PSGR had been invited to a grassroots organizing development project bringing together multiple groups in conversation about shared values.

• On July 9, PSGR received an email requesting group representatives meet with the three project facilitators to discuss our finances.

• Since this email came immediately after the March Against Genocide’s success, I responded to clarify the nature of our fundraiser and our relationship with our fiscal sponsor (the local non profit who supported our donation efforts). The facilitators still requested to meet in person. Myself and another PSGR representative agreed to meet on July 30th. I was later told at the meeting that my initial email clarifying our finances was “doing too much.”

July 17, 2025 - Good Trouble rally

• I was a scheduled speaker at the Coalition To Oppose Trump rally at Ah-Nab-Awen Park on behalf of PSGR.

• When I was introduced to speak, J yelled and jumped up and started pacing around, coming close to the staging area.

• J and two additional activists stood between me and the crowd (about 20 feet away). Based on their facial expressions and body language, this struck me as an attempt to intimidate me.

• We then marched to Calder Plaza.

• After the march, when we arrived at Calder Plaza, one of J’s friends - a prominent Black woman organizer - began following me around. I told her I was unavailable to speak to her because I was busy doing logistics for the event. She continued to follow me around and calling me to get my attention until she finally cornered me into a conversation while I was talking to two members from another organizing group.

• Initially the conversation went well. I expressed that a local nonprofit raised money as a legal fund and that money is available to her if needed, as she was facing charges at the time. I also expressed that my lawyer was interested in representing her pro bono and would love to speak with her. She dismissed both attempts at solidarity.

• One person left the conversation to do another task. The tone of the conversation shifted and she accused me of causing problems in the community. She accused me of abusing J, calling them a good friend. She demanded I be accountable for abusing J, and claimed I was avoiding accountability by not attending any follow up meetings with J or their friends. She equated my unwillingness to meet with J’s BIPOC friends as racism.

• I continually expressed that I was not emotionally available to have the conversation and provided her with a list of reasons why, including a personal family crisis. She explicitly said she “doesn’t care.”

• Every time I spoke, she interrupted me. She continued to ask me questions and then interrupted me, causing me to be unable to finish any of my thoughts. She then accused me of interrupting her, and when I pointed out that it was actually her interrupting, she said “I’m allowed to interrupt you.”

• She accused me of racism. The Chicano man standing with me disagreed with her and attempted to defend me, saying her version of events was incorrect. She accused him of being tokenized by me and insinuated I was using him for optics. She later misspelled his name online in a rant about the interaction, which, in my opinion, made it seem like he was a white man instead of Chicano.

• Later, I heard from a third party about a conversation she had with West Michigan Care Collective members about the interaction and I learned that her version of events made it seem like I was antagonizing her, despite witnesses to the contrary.

• While I was having this conversation, another organizer was speaking to the crowd from the staging area at Calder and remarked on the overwhelming success of the March Against Genocide, congratulating PSGR on our efforts.

• J immediately began yelling that it was not successful and that they were abused. They started to rush toward the woman speaking and another woman stepped in his way to de-escalate. They disregarded her and continued trying to confront the speaker on stage.

• It was only when a man on the stage dropped his banner and rushed off stage to intercept J that they discontinued the aggression and walked away.

PSGR Meetings July - August

• During this time, in the weeks following the March Against Genocide, PSGR went through internal rectification processes to understand what happened with J.

• PSGR had a special emergency meeting immediately following the March to explain the full situation to the group at-large. At the beginning of the meeting, the man referred to above as M brought forward a “solution to the problem” before the group had a chance to discuss what happened. I believe this intentionally circumvented our democratic decision making process in an attempt to control and manipulate the function of the group.

• I pushed back and said we will give the group a chance to hear the specifics, express their concerns, and come up with a plan together. PSGR members decided by vote that the group would release a statement about the success of the March but that we would not discuss J publicly as we fundamentally disagreed with the accusations. We came close to consensus on the plan, with only two out of nearly fifty people disagreeing. PSGR is not a consensus based group, but a democratic group with a leadership structure. The motion to release a statement passed.

• We opened the floor for additional discussion and M’s original “solution” was discussed. M proposed PSGR form a Community Accountability Committee that he would chair as a “neutral party.” I pushed back on his participation in the committee and mentioned it would be better to have our co-chair lead the committee.**

• **The reason I pushed back on his participation was due to several complaints over the past two years about this specific person by women in the group, but I did not address this publicly in the meeting because it would have been inappropriate. Each of the complaints individually were not an issue, but taken collectively, they indicated a problematic pattern of behavior of using the group as a dating pool. These complaints came to a head prior to the March Against Genocide due to a comment from another organizing group about his known “macktivism” but were shelved until after the March. When myself and the cochair attempted to address this behavior later, he accused me of retaliating against him for saying in a later meeting that he agreed that J was abused, and dismissed the seriousness of the concerns brought forward by these women.

• During the emergency meeting we also agreed to the following: any newly formed committees, including the accountability committee, would be brought to our regular organizing meetings for discussion and vote. It was determined there would be no committee until this happened, and that there would not be formal follow up on behalf of PSGR with J until we could have a full meeting session with all members.

• The PSGR co-chair agreed to meet with a friend of J’s to hear their concerns. This meeting was happening before our next regular meeting time. It was initially presented as a one-on-one meeting and not in an official capacity or as part of an “accountability committee” since we had not voted to implement this yet.

• After the meeting, the co-chair messaged the PSGR chat saying they disagreed about releasing a statement about the success of the March based on the meeting they had, and asked for us to refrain from posting. This violated the PSGR norms to respect the group’s previous democratic vote. This sparked an immediate reaction from several long-time PSGR members, who were March volunteers and participants, who witnessed what happened with J, and who attended the emergency debrief meeting. They asked why the meeting was held and who was present. They asked why this sequence of events occurred when the vote determined a different timeline.

• For transparency, the co-chair was not present for the March Against Genocide or at the emergency debrief meeting where we discussed what happened with J, but generously agreed to represent PSGR at this meeting to hear community concerns. It became a hot debate in the chat, where we learned that the meeting was attended by J, a few of their friends, the man referred to as M, and the organizer who spoke to J the night of their meltdown in the chat. Despite several requests, the people who attended this meeting provided no transparency of what was discussed, and instead relied on vague assertions that “there are concerns from the community.” Several members asked for specifics but they were never provided. They were told there will be meeting notes submitted at a later date, but they never were.

• The group was so consumed by the intensity of accusations coming from J that we were unable to do a proper summation of the logistics of the March, leaving many coordinators feeling used, burned, and unheard. These feelings became conflated with what was happening with J, leaving many members confused and alienated. I continue to hope those coordinators will come back to discuss their experiences now that we have had more space.

• We had several meetings spanning dozens of hours that center around J, the accusations, and what actually happened. A small group of mostly new members and people who were not on the March continued to agitate for an Accountability Committee to address the accusations (as well as address internal problems that were forming due to the disruptive nature of J’s actions) for weeks. This group claimed we should stop doing any public events advocating for Palestine while we address J’s concerns. Half of the group vehemently disagreed, stating they were part of the group to advocate for Palestinians, and that should be the group’s focus. Long time members of the group brought up COINTELPRO tactics and how this exact situation mirrored those tactics. These people are accused of fed-jacketing for raising legitimate concerns about how state violence trickles into movements.

• A schism formed with deeply invested PSGR members (long time members and those members who took lead on actions, building the effectiveness of the group), many of whom were on the March and saw first hand what happened, who disagreed and believed there was nothing to be “accountable” for with J; and a faction of people who were mostly peripherally involved with PSGR or brand new to the group.

• The community accountability idea was hotly debated but ultimately passed.*** It is important to note that this took several meetings. Every time the issue was contested, we were unable to move the motion to a vote, until a meeting occurred where several long-standing members were not present. At this time, the group advocating for the Committee pushed for the vote to happen. The group that demanded we form the Committee abandoned the work and stopped attending meetings within weeks of it passing. Several long time PSGR members attempted to take up the Committee and reached out to former members of the group to mediate conversation, but few people responded. Ultimately, this whole process served to exhaust the group of committed core members who were already well beyond capacity, preventing us from organizing around Palestinian Solidarity, and pushed out alienated members who found the process frustrating or disruptive.

• *** I would like to unequivocally state that while a few of the Community Accountability Committee advocates were, from my perspective, attempting to weaponize the structure of PSGR in order to create division and suppress our organizing, the vast majority of people who wanted the Committee were well meaning, compassionate, and deeply feeling individuals. I had extensive conversations with many of the people in the pro-committee camp I consider friends about why it became such a big issue in the group. From their perspective, they wanted everyone, even people outside of our group, to feel heard. I think that is an admirable goal, and I respect every bit of effort they put into trying to create something that could reach that goal. And also, it was not a tactic the bulk of working members of PSGR wanted to engage in, which is why it was so contested. From their perspective, PSGR already had structures in place for internal conversations to happen, and allowing outside influence to interfere in our group opened PSGR up to bad actors.

• Sometime in July, a prominent Black activist who is close friends with J and who initially requested the meeting with me started attending weekly PSGR meetings, encouraging unity and solidarity between organizing groups. She was welcomed and given the same level of involvement as all members, including the ability to vote on actions and logistics, which is available to anyone who joins the group. With this new member, PSGR worked on creating social media graphics supporting Black organizers facing repression in Grand Rapids. PSGR fundamentally recognizes the interconnected struggles of Black liberation and Palestinian liberation. Her presence was a positive addition to the group and she was well received by everyone. At one point in a meeting, she referenced the “need for accountability.” I directly stated in the meeting that every time someone requested accountability, it was for J, and I would not entertain those conversations because J’s accusations were based on lies. I told her that if there were other accusations, people had not brought anything specific forward, despite my continual requests. She was unable to specify what “concerns” there were from the community that did not relate to J. At this point, everything came back around to J.

• I have seen people claim they had “tried repeatedly to get in contact about other issues” which is not true. The only issue ever publicly brought forward other than those surrounding J involved one community member repeatedly harassing the PSGR account throughout June and July about “forcing” people to go to rallies in extreme heat when the government first began escalating against Iran. After the initial debrief of the Winter 2023 march to Scholtens house and the offer to cover fees associated with the citation, the event was never addressed with PSGR again.

• During J’s online agitation, he and his friends repeatedly named me as an abuser, someone controlling PSGR and the people in it, forcing them to vote a certain way, and somehow forcing people to attend rallies in the heat and cold. This online commentary became very public, with dozens of people sharing posts across Facebook. People I do not even know were calling me an abuser. I lost out on job opportunities, and people I was once close with have not only blocked me on social media but will not communicate with me one-to-one.

• Throughout this time, one specific PSGR member who is an advocate for J continued to escalate the situation in PSGR chats. They engaged in volatile and inflammatory ways, inundating the chats with dozens of messages at a time and continuously talking antagonistically with other members in violation of the PSGR points of unity, including outright racist remarks toward a member of the Chicano community. They were repeatedly asked to step back and take some time away from the situation, but they continued to doubledown. It got to the point whereI made the unilateral decision to temporarily disable the PSGR social chat so we could continue mature conversations in person, which garnered further accusations of authoritarianism. Eventually, they were removed from the group altogether after they enabled and participated in the public doxxing of PSGR group members. This person becomes central to the public doxxing of PSGR members later.

July 30, 2025 - BCS meeting

• Myself and another representative from PSGR met with the three facilitators for the grassroots organizing incubator - 2 elected officials and one additional community organizer, all Latine. I presumed based on the Incubators community agreements and organizing norms that this was a confidential conversation. Based on the initial email, I understood the intention was to clarify PSGRs finances after the success of the March.

• The intention of this grassroots incubator was to bring together different organizing groups in Grand Rapids to create a shared language and community around organizing. Each participating group was offered a bursary of $1000 for participation, and we were expected to abide by the group agreements, which include being a truly grassroots group funded by limited direct donations (not a non-profit or a grant funded organization), which PSGR is.

• Almost the entire conversation revolved around clarifying what and who Freedom Road Socialist Organization is, which was never mentioned in the email and was wholly unrelated to the March Against Genocide. This was based entirely on the assumption that any PSGR representative participating in the Incubator would most likely be a Freedom Road member, which is untrue.

• Two of the organizers present admitted that the meeting was called at the behest of the third (a friend of J’s), who primarily led the conversation. They were polite but the undertone of the conversation and the line of questioning regarding Freedom Road was hostile. It is noteworthy that this person is an elected official and is known to associate with the Democratic Party.

• They accused PSGR of not being a grassroots organization, and insinuated that the group is funded by some sort of shadow organization that is orchestrating things behind the scenes and controlling the actions of organizers. This could not be further from the truth. The success of PSGR is due to the hard work, determination, and political framework used by the dedicated volunteer organizers who have built the group over the last several years. The only money we receive is through direct donations from the community and bursaries from this same grassroots incubator. All financial decisions in PSGR happen by democratic group vote.

• We explained who FRSO is - a democratic (meaning all participants have a vote within the political process and agency in how they expend that vote) political organization that teaches people about class-based organizing - and I was asked if I “pay money to the organization.” I explained that I am disabled, homeless, and underemployed with a very limited income stream. I expressed that their reasoning made no sense and asked them if they were members of a political party, and whether they considered being a part of a political party a bad thing. We all agreed it is not a bad thing to be a member of a political party.

• We spent well over an hour discussing and clarifying what FRSO is, with very little time being dedicated to PSGR’s fundraising efforts or our nonprofit fiscal sponsor. The organizer of the meeting continually brought up anti-communist dog whistles and accusations of “authoritarianism.” It became clear to me in this conversation that there was a coordinated campaign among J’s friends to slander certain activists and create a misinformation campaign to delegitimize PSGR’s organizing efforts based on anti-communist sentiments directed at one or two people in the group.

• Despite supposedly being a private meeting with assumed confidentiality, the information in this meeting was shared with multiple other people. The wife of the organizer of this meeting then used this information to confront me on social media months down the line, insisting I “dismissed the concerns of Latine organizers.” I was told by someone else who is also being harassed by this couple that the organizer of the meeting disclosed information from the meeting to her directly a short while later, violating the principles of the community agreement they were supposedly enforcing with PSGR.

• After the conclusion of this meeting, both PSGR representatives left the Incubator by choice: my counterpart due to lack of capacity, and myself due to the hostility and assumptions about participation in other groups by the facilitator of this meeting, their proximity and friendship with J, and my perceived lack of support in this setting.

August 22, 2025 - Js meeting at FSC

• It was brought to my attention that J posted on Facebook that they were holding a “community accountability meeting” at Fountain Street Church at the same time and place where PSGR holds their meetings. They asked for people to come support them at this meeting. It was attended by a couple Black and white women activists, as well as members of the West Michigan Care Collective.

• Many members of PSGR immediately expressed concern for my safety and requested we provide security for our meeting. We considered holding the meeting virtually but ultimately decided to meet in person.

• The meeting was attended by at-risk Palestinian community members, people with sensitive jobs who do not make their organizing known publicly, and many members from marginalized and oppressed communities.

• One person who had been targeted by the accusations was sitting at the front door of Fountain Street Church to direct PSGR members into the meeting. J approached her while she was alone and she repeatedly asked him to leave her alone. They continued to approach her, finally leaving when another person entered the space. She was facilitating security for the meeting, and once all members were escorted into the meeting, she remained near the doors of the meeting space with other security team members.

• We held our meeting and moved through agenda items. There was some contention over a personal post that denounced the allegations against myself and PSGR. As the group was discussing, there were suddenly 6-10 people in the open doorway. The security team mobilized and asked them to leave, stating this was a closed meeting. They formed a line between the people and the meeting.

• It was immediately revealed that these people had come from J’s meeting, including one former PSGR member who is associated with the West Michigan Care Collective, noted above at the end of the PSGR meeting section.

• They claimed they were there to speak during “open public comment.” A Black woman presented a letter from J that named myself as an abuser and demanded that I step down from leadership and effectively stop organizing altogether.

• One person from their group began making racial accusations. A newer member of PSGR engaged with them and stated that this line of thinking is racist; the interrupting group began recording and saying “PSGR is calling Black women racist.”

• Our safety team continued to ask everyone not to engage, loudly stating that this is a private meeting and the woman filming does not have permission to do so. She was live-streaming on Facebook. A PSGR member motioned to adjourn our meeting. The motion passed and PSGR members attempted to clear the room.

• The woman recording began physically blocking the doors from being closed, turning lights back on when turned off, and harassing the volunteers trying to clean and vacate the space. They were repeatedly told that this is a private space, provided for the meeting time and they were not authorized to use it. They refused to leave. PSGR opted to leave, doing what they could to return the borrowed space to how they found it.

• PSGR does not have open public comment. We are not the city commission. We are a group of private citizens. While anyone is allowed to attend as long as they agree with the points of unity, our meeting times are not publicized or open to the general public. We have Palestinian members who are justifiably afraid of retribution against their families in Palestine. We have professional members whose careers could be jeopardized if their involvement in the group became known. We keep our meetings private to keep our members safe.

• This group crashed our meeting with the intent to escalate and doxx members. The filming and livestreaming of the interaction on a public Facebook account showed multiple peoples’ faces and immediately garnered hundreds of views and many more views and comments after the fact. People were named on posts and doxxed in comments despite explicitly asking not to be filmed. It was a mess.

• I did not participate in the conversations happening at the front of the room and some of the above details were relayed to me by the people involved. I was unable to leave the room because I began having a panic attack and my legs went numb. The infiltrating group was chanting “we want Emerson.” It took a while before I was able to stand up and leave, and the safety team called for the end of the meeting.

• Facebook posts afterward framed the situation in the worst light possible while rejecting any accountability for what the interrupting group did to create the situation. They claimed members of PSGR threatened to call the police on them, which is false. No one threatened to call the police. One person from their group began shouting, “I bet you want to call the police on us, you look like the type of white people who would do that! Go ahead! Call the police on us, you know you want to!” and one brand new PSGR member, who had no context for the situation, implied that if it were any other situation, they would be afraid and they might call for help. That is not the same as threatening to call the cops. That is responding to an intentionally escalated situation in an honest way. The livestream started after they crashed the meeting and started yelling at people in the room, so people watching online did not have the context of people crashing our meeting and filming people who asked not to be filmed.

• PSGR is made up of a diverse group of people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We do not expect perfection or assimilation from anyone, as long as they agree with the points of unity. That is why I agreed to let J come back to events initially. They apologized for their previous behavior and I took their word for it. We do not practice perfection politics that mandates everyone have the same opinion. The diversity of experiences came out under duress, which acted as validation for people accusing PSGR members of racism.

October 18 - No Kings 2

• I was leading the safety team for the No Kings march and was scheduled to give remarks from the stage about our plan for the march.

• J was lingering near the side of the stage and we were prepared for a potential disruption. I had safety team members stationed at the side entrance and the front of the stage at Rosa Parks Circle.

• When I began speaking, J began screaming “Justice for J! Justice for J!” They attempted to rush the stage through the side entrance, which was blocked by a male safety member. I was told later that when J realized the entrance was blocked, they brushed up against the safety team member and threw themselves to the ground to fake being pushed. When the safety team member leaned back and did not react, J got up and dusted themselves off, making a joke about how they “fell.”

• J then rushed to the front of the stage, trying to push toward where I was speaking within a few feet of me. One young woman, the same medic who witnessed them hitting themself in the face on the March Against Genocide, was stationed at the front and tried to block them from climbing the stage to get to me. She is half J’s size but still put her body between us to protect me, not knowing if he would intend to cause me harm. J began flailing around and elbowed her in the face, causing a bloody nose.

• I paused my remarks and began calling for safety team reinforcements to the front of the stage to help manage the situation.

• In the meantime, another elder man intervened and started dragging the young woman away as she was blocking J from entering the stage, saying “we don’t do that here” and interfering with the operations of the safety team, causing more of a problem. This man did not try to de-escalate J at all. I watched all of this from the stage as I attempted to continue my remarks.

• Later, I learned that El Vocero livestreamed the speeches and someone sent me the time stamp of J’s disruption. Despite 10k people at the protest, the most audible thing on the livestream is J screaming about how they were abused by me. At this point, J’s slander had surpassed social media accusations and was part of the public record as recorded by a news outlet.

• I ended up being dragged by a car doing safety at this event, breaking my leg. I had to step back from in-person organizing as I was not very mobile and unable to drive. This was the beginning of a months-long stress induced disability flare that completely immobilized me and caused permanent damage to my body. I was well cared for by my community but continued to be the subject of harassment by J.

• At this point, several people advised me to take out an order of protection against J. I was on the fence after months of harassment but my fear of escalation and continued violence outweighed my political idealism around enlisting the State in mediating conflict.

October 22, 2025 - IGE Board meeting

• J posted on a Facebook announcement for the Institute for Global Education Annual General Meeting, which I sit on the board of, saying they were looking forward to attending and to holding me accountable. This drew immediate concern from two long time board members, who moved to provide security at the meeting in anticipation of this escalation. At this point, many people were worried for my safety.

October 22, 2025 - PPO

• After months of continued triangulation and harassment, with several people advising me to seek legal counsel, I finally spoke with someone about the specifics of a Personal Protection Order. I was advised that I do not have to call the police for enforcement, and that if I feel safe to, I can document harassment and submit it as evidence to the court. This advice finally compelled me to file for an order of protection against J. I hoped that a legal order would convince them to stop harassing me and that it would act as a preventative measure. I did so on the assumption I would not have to call the police, and have restricted my activity in the community to avoid any places J might be to prevent a confrontation.

October 24 - more emails

• J sent a bulk email implicating PSGR, Institute for Global Education, Fountain Street Church, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization in a formal notice of harm and requested independent mediation. They sent the email to both the Reverend and administrator of Fountain Street Church, PSGR, IGE, Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War, Grand Rapids Friends Society, the West Michigan Care Collective, and the Dispute Resolution Center of West Michigan. None of these groups were involved in the organizing and execution of the March Against Genocide except for PSGR.

• WMCC responded to clarify their involvement and state they were collecting testimonies to use in a healing process. This offer to solicit testimony was never extended to PSGR members who disagreed with J, and the completed testimony was never delivered to any PSGR member. The only reason we became aware this was happening was because J included them in this email chain.

• At this point, the chair of IGE’s board became a target by J for “aiding violent extremists.” J’s framework of the situation continued to escalate - first, they framed me as an abuser, and then they accused me or any group I am a part of of being violent.

October 27, 2025 - PPO

• My request for an order of protection against J was granted

December 23, 2025

• Some time at the end of November, I was served with papers by J refuting the order of protection and was scheduled for court early December. I planned to attend over Zoom, but our court date was rescheduled. I was encouraged by others in my community to go to court in person and to bring witnesses to provide testimony.

• On December 23, 2025, I attended court to uphold the order of protection against J. I brought multiple witnesses, two of whom testified to J’s behavior on the March, their continued harassment against me, and their behavior at the No Kings rally.

• When it came time for J’s defense, they openly lied to the Judge, which was refuted through sworn witness testimony.

• I had a dozen witnesses in the court room, and J brought one witness over Zoom, the same organizer and March Coordinator who spoke to them on the phone during their initial meltdown in the chat the second night of the March.

• Two witnesses testified on my behalf, but the witness for J would not speak or turn on their camera. Ultimately, no one testified on J’s behalf. When asked direct questions by the judge, J was evasive and defensive.

• None of the details describing J’s behavior in this document are up for debate. J themself agreed to the timeline and sequence of events in open court. The only thing they disagreed with was one point in the timeline, which I clarified above in Spring-Summer 2024 as being unsure of the exact dates.

• The judge expressed annoyance at J badgering one of my witnesses with inappropriate questions that did not directly pertain to the matter. Ultimately, the judge ruled in my favor to uphold the order of protection, instructing J to stop contacting me, stop contacting organizations I work with, and to stop approaching me in public.

• Since J is no longer able to be in contact with me, the harassment from this point on extended from people in their known social circle who organize within a specific group, which is still a violation of the order of protection.

January 3, 2026 - JP arrest

• Organizer JP was arrested on camera by GRPD after a protest and her arrest went internationally viral.

• This was one of the first actions I was able to attend since I broke my leg, and I went as a supporter, not as an organizer.

• It was freezing cold and snowing, but a couple hundred people showed up to oppose intervention in Venezuela.

• When it became clear that there was energy for a quick 15 minute march, I helped pull together people I have previously trained in safety for an impromptu team, and find another person to help lead the team.

• Later, JP disclosed to me that GRPD illegally questioned her about two people they considered organizers of the event, one of whom was clearly me despite not leading the march, and that she suspected GRPD would try to come after me.

• IGE launched another fundraiser to top up the community defense fund after my charges last year to assist JP with paying a lawyer to dispute her charges.

January 20, 2026 - Threads comments

• I received misdemeanor charges in the mail, and I posted about them online and to talk about how GRPD intentionally targets people they perceive to be organizers in order to suppress leftist political movements and free speech rights.

• I began receiving harassing comments on Threads by two women who are friends with and organize with J, one of whom is the partner of the elected official who questioned me about my involvement with Freedom Road.

• She posted a total of 6 comments claiming I was “perpetuating harm in the community” and that I was “avoiding hard conversations with BIPOC organizers.” She said “It was actually crazy for you to tell a queer, Latine person directly involved in movement spaces and a local elected official that you didn’t have the capacity and then never reach back out with curiosity.”

• I had previously had a two hour meeting with that same person she said I wouldn’t talk to, and the only thing they brought up was my assumed involvement in a completely unrelated organization. People continuously asked me to meet to be accountable about J’s demands without ever providing information about the other vague accusations of “moving poorly in relation to POC.”

• She continued to say it’s “crazy for you to not show up to meetings and calls to accountability with Black and brown folks” - framing it as though my refusal to meet was about anything other than their friend J’s harassment and violence towards me. She repeated the accusation that I “center myself in movements” and claimed that I don’t stand with other protestors affected by police violence, despite my continual attempts to reach out and provide resources and support. When I offered that support, I was accused of tokenizing and doing it for optics.

• Through these messages, I came to understand that there is a constant double standard based on identity politics and political differences projected onto me in order to obfuscate the situation with J and make it appear that I am simply racist and “perpetuating white supremacy culture.” When I uphold my own boundaries, I am accused of being fragile and refusing accountability. When I point out the inconsistencies, they claim I am violent. When I ask for a list of the specific behaviors they’re referring to rather than just their feelings about me, I am met with silence. They continue to claim I enact harm in the community without ever specifying what that harm is.

January 23, 2026 - NLG doxxing

• The PSGR/West Michigan Care Collective member who was removed from the group due to violating the points of unity (when they facilitated the group of J’s friends to film our meeting) doxxed me in the MI statewide NLG chat by posting a screenshot of my social media with my legal name attached, asking a “hypothetical question” about whether someone would be “allowed to continue” to be a legal observer with the NLG if they had a PPO against an activist.

• Several people pointed out that given the screenshot had a legal name attached, it didn’t feel like a hypothetical situation and, without knowing specifics, it was inappropriate to comment on. Others took the message at face value and engaged in a hypothetical conversation about abolition and enforcement, positing that taking out a PPO presumes someone is willing to call the police, which should preclude them from being a legal observer. The conversation ends up being dozens of messages long.

• Since I had the original commenter blocked, I did not know the conversation taking place was about me until someone in a meeting told me about it. Once I was told about the situation and read the screenshots, I had a panic attack which caused a serious flare of my underlying disability and made my health worse.

• I clarified the facts within the NLG chat - that I never had any intention of calling police and that I planned to document violations of the PPO to submit to the court as needed, but that I hoped the order of protection would be preventative.

• I spoke with NLG MI paid staff where I clarified my intentions and the situation from my perspective. I was not removed from the NLG chat or from being a legal observer.

February 17, 2026 - Solidarity campaign

• My name was added to the Grand Rapids Alliance’s campaign to drop the charges against JP and one other protestor facing charges stemming from the January 3 protest.

• The next day, someone I do not know, who I am told organizes with J’s friends, posted a screenshot of a series of comments on one of my public Facebook posts from a month prior where they claimed I was faking my disability to avoid accountability and I subsequently blocked them, to use as evidence of how people keep demanding accountability from me and I keep refusing. Me blocking Black and brown people who are harassing me is equated with violent racism. This is not the first time I heard this accusation - the same Black activist who harassed me at the Good Trouble rally at Calder Plaza indicated that she should be able to have access to me on social media and that I am deserving of this harassment because I am a “public figure.”

March, 2026 - Another meeting disruption

• While I did not experience this first hand, this story has been relayed to me multiple times as evidence of J’s fixation, which has extended to another long time board member of IGE simply for protecting me from J’s harassment.

• In March, 2026, J crashed a Quaker faith Sunday service attended by an IGE board member to accuse them of being violent and demand the Quakers remove this person from the group. J was quickly intercepted by members of the Church and the board member had a calm conversation later in the lobby.

• It is telling how quickly J escalates to yelling at the target of their fixation, and then how quickly they de-escalate to being perfectly calm and reasonable. It appears to me like an intentional tactic to bully people into submitting to their will, given their pattern of behavior outlined in this document. They claim to be a pacifist but I have only ever witnessed them escalate, yell at people, and be violent - even toward someone who actively practices a pacifist faith.

Conclusion

J insists I only ever talk about this situation when they are present in the room, while simultaneously delivering accusations against my name both publicly and online. The groups they organize with use this same excuse to not address J’s behavior, saying it’s inappropriate to have the conversation about their behavior without them present, even when they continually make that conversation impossible by screaming, throwing chairs, and using other forms of violence to get their way. That is a form of disingenuous abusive control, and their organizing group’s behavior amounts to aiding someone who is truly causing harm in the community.

J immediately insists that anyone asking clarifying questions about the situation is against them. Every time someone questions the narrative, they are ostracized. That acts as coercive control within the community, where people stay quiet to maintain the peace. It prioritizes binary thinking and encourages people to suppress critical thinking or differences in perspective.

Anyone who supports me becomes a public target of J’s harassment. They triangulate other people or groups to isolate and socially penalize people they dislike, including enlisting Black and brown women to defend them. They repeatedly disrespect boundaries, act in unpredictably violent ways, and encourage confrontation. Their narrative has been weaponized to the point that an elected official and their partner are coordinating continued harassment against me and stonewalling anyone they know to associate with me. These are all coercive measures to intimidate and silence people.

In the few times I have interacted with J, their level of aggression has escalated and it makes me feel incredibly unsafe. I do believe that given the right circumstances, they might escalate to physical violence against me. They are a large person - I’m tall, but J is taller. They are loud and imposing. They are not afraid to use their body to their advantage. And J has been fixated on me, specifically, since the March Against Genocide. Despite having conversations and meetings with several organizers within PSGR, J has been insistent on specifically meeting with me. And I have been insistent that I will not meet with or about them at all, which is the source of accusations that I am both avoiding accountability and ignoring the concerns of BIPOC organizers.

I do not trust this person on any level - because of my own experience. The few times I have been in proximity to J, they have been aggressive and violent. The group of people rallying around them are primarily Black women, which provides them a lot of political cover as someone perceived as a white man - and these same people accuse me of “using black and brown people as human shields,” which is exactly what J themself is doing. In Palestine organizing, there’s a very common saying about the zionist entity: every accusation is a confession. I find that statement very apt in this situation. J has accused me of violence, of abuse, and of coercive control without ever defining specific behaviors - because there are none. I am assertive, yes, but not abusive. J’s friends dismiss my concerns about them and say they think J is a safe person, gaslighting me about my own experience. My refusal to meet with J in any regard is to uphold my own safety. My refusal to be “accountable” is because the narrative is manipulated at every turn. This was never a true accountability process - it was a personal grudge made political with therapy language attached to weaponize emotions. Hurting someone’s feelings is not abuse. Asking someone to help conserve resources for the group is not abuse. Refusing to meet with BIPOC activists about someone’s weaponized emotions and lies is not because of white supremacy, it is self respect and preservation.

I believe J is a liberal zionist using Palestinian liberation as a shield to project violence onto a group they do not like because we organize differently than they do, and because some people hold beliefs J doesn’t like. The people rallying around J may be well meaning - I know some of them are, and I deeply respect them otherwise. But they have convinced themselves of a story based on lies, various half truths, and partial stories in order to uphold a narrative that’s convenient for them and doesn’t require them to question the elephant in the room or change their own perspectives.

The continual association between this situation and Freedom Road tells me that this is about way more than just J’s feelings. This is an orchestrated political attack by a group of people who are ideologically at odds with mass organizing. I have seen these tactics play out in cities across the country, as well as in Canada, between anarchists and Marxist-Leninsts. First, it’s a lack of political solidarity. Then it’s social isolation through gossip and stonewalling. Then it’s the dismissal of someone’s safety and wellbeing. Then it’s weaponized identity politics, using systemic language to manipulate an interpersonal situation. This is the process of dehumanization for political gain.

Your experience with J may vary. I am not asking you to excise anyone from your life or from your organizing circles, though J certainly is. I believe J is worthy of love, care, and humanity despite everything that has happened, which is why I have said nothing until now. My silence was my kindness. I have repeatedly proven that I believe in trying to create space for everyone, defying the accusations against me. For every person who is claiming I am racist for not listening to J, a white man, there are two BIPOC people and dozens of Arabs who disagree. Black and brown members of PSGR repeatedly pushed back against the claims of white fragility, white supremacy, and white saviorism, stating they are participating members of PSGR and that they know my integrity and willingness to show up for all movements. And every time a Black or brown person disagrees with J and their friends, they are accused of being tokenized and self-hating.

I have repeatedly asked to be left alone when it comes to J because I fundamentally disagree with their story of events, their framework, and the weaponization of their feelings, and I have been repeatedly met with the statement “I don’t care.” They are committed to their story because it gives them an outlet for their aggression in the face of insurmountable systemic trauma. I’m sure if I were in their shoes, it might feel good taking down someone perceived to be an abuser. But my ethics tell me no one is disposable: not me, and not J.

Since this all happened, a number of people have come to me with stories of their own inappropriate and confusing interactions with J, stemming all the way back to their church youth group days. Several women have come to me with reports of how J harassed them if J simply disagreed with something they said or did. I have been told trans women have expressed these concerns to J’s friends who repeatedly shelter and excuse this behavior, dismissing their concerns of transmisogyny. I was told stories of others witnessing J physically assaulting counter protestors, despite claiming to be nonviolent. Their stories are theirs to tell, but I will say they provide a mountain of evidence that this person needs help and accountability from their friends, not to be enabled. This is a pattern of coercive control, misogyny, and explosive, unregulated behavior. I believe that some of the women who “believe J” are well meaning and want to support and encourage their friend, but they are acting as mouth pieces for a misogynistic man’s slander campaign.

One of the accusations against me is that it’s always me speaking, always me enforcing some standard, always me pushing back against something. That’s why they claim I am authoritarian. But I represent more than just myself. I speak because some people feel safe enough to come to me to express a concern and they know I am always willing to use my voice to speak up, even when it is difficult. That is partially why I am the target. And when they realized that naming me explicitly was a form of defamation, they moved to naming any group I associate with as a smokescreen and symbol for me directly. But it is about more than just me. This process has shown me the depth of anti-communist sentiment among anarchists in Grand Rapids, using dogwhistles, weaponized therapy and social justice language to discredit and undermine the work of mass movement building because it acts as a political existential threat to their ideology and identity based organizing.

Anyone who has organized with me for a while will have heard me talk about identity politics on the left. I used to be an anarchist, formed in the radical liberalism of my Gender Studies department at university in the early 2000s and then in the hardcore anarchist community of post-Olympics and Occupy-era Vancouver. I have been organizing for a long time and have thought a lot about the politics on the left. I’ve witnessed a lot of movements come and go and seen a lot of leftist infighting.

The same people attacking me online would say that me credentialing myself like this is a form of posturing to claim I am somehow better than them, that I am bragging and trying to sound self important. But I credential myself because I have a long material basis to pull my analysis from, and after a lot of careful thought, reading, and analysis, I’ve come to realize that most activists on the left come to their politics through trauma based on their perceived identity. I know I did. And that trauma often fuels their political organizing. Because trauma, identity, and politics are so deeply intertwined, any threat to someone’s politics is a threat to their identity, which triggers their trauma and causes them to act in ways that perpetuate lateral violence against people in their community. Any existential threat to their political ideology is a threat to their very identity.

I could go into depth about the psychology of identity politics and the unhelpful weaponization of standpoint theory and intersectionality (two theories I studied thoroughly in undergrad, so I’m speaking from experience and not just a pop cultural misunderstanding of what those theories say), but instead I recommend reading the the work of political content creators like Clementine Morrigan, Bebe Montoya, and Juno Aventurine. They speak at length about the harmful nature of identity politics on the left and the violent weaponization of “cancel culture.” I don’t always agree with all of their frameworks, but I think it is a very important contribution to the conversation about “cancel culture.”

You cannot cancel a person. You can interrogate their actions, but you cannot undermine a person’s humanity for minor social differences. They do not deserve to disappear just because you dislike them. And any so-called abolitionist participating in punitive measures to cancel a member of their community over subtle political differences is not an abolitionist, but a deeply traumatized person grasping to uphold their humanity at the expense of someone else’s. It involves a level of immaturity that breeds selfishness over collective wellbeing. People are perverting the language of systemic theory and projecting it onto interpersonal experiences, denying the humanity of people around them. It is overtly harmful.

The intention of this document is to revisit that idea of harm. The accusation from this small but very loud group of people is that I have caused harm to members of the community. Maybe I unknowingly have (we all do - it is the nature of being human), but I did not harm J. I want to examine the language surrounding these accusations.

By claiming I “move poorly in relation to POC” the underlying accusation is that my refusal to meet with any Black person regarding J is racist, because all Black people must immediately be believed and heeded, no matter the situation. This accusation in itself tokenizes people of color and creates a monolith out of groups of very diverse people. I do not know most of the people trying to “hold [me] accountable.” We have not created the trust necessary to enter into those conversations, and their escalations only alienated our relationships further.

In my opinion, J seems to think I have infinite power to convince people to do things and manipulate outcomes, which justifies the abusive behavior toward me. One organizer even went so far as to comment on JP’s arrest going internationally viral, claiming we somehow “made” it go viral for attention.

J and their friends are using tactics reserved for people with real authority - officials with the ability to get people fired, to influence their housing, who have control over the mechanisms of the state - against people they know in their community. I may be white, but I am still queer, nonbinary, disabled, and homeless. Each of the people who are accusing me of harm are safely housed, stably employed. They are punching down instead of up.

I saw one comment that said to take my “self centered whiteness back to Canada.” It’s unbelievable to me that these so-called activists don’t see how they are replicating the racist, punitive, divisive system they are trying to combat. No one should have to justify their existence or right to be in a space, and telling someone to “go back to where they came from” reinforces the isolationist rhetoric the United States has bred into the right. The Black woman who confronted me at Calder Plaza said that phrase directly to my face, and others have repeated it online. This same activist claims Grand Rapids is “her city” and if she doesn’t want you operating in it, you won’t.

PSGR has received the accusation that the group “takes up too many community resources,” but what does that mean? If they are using “PSGR” as a smokescreen for my own legal defense fundraising, then it means their solidarity is conditional at best. If they are referring to PSGR’s own efforts at fundraising for Palestinians, then it means they do not see Palestinians or the genocide as worthy of their care, which puts them in the same category as zionists - not only is their solidarity conditional, but it is selfish and based on their identities alone. Solidarity should be paramount.

A lot of people have been involved in PSGR over the past 3 years - hundreds of people have contributed their time and energy toward building a movement for a free and liberated Palestine, toward connecting the dots between US imperialism at home and abroad, and have helped build a thriving anti-war movement. Hundreds of people show up on a moment’s notice in sweltering heat to protest the criminal actions of our war mongering government because we have built the spaces for them to do so. This doesn’t happen out of nowhere. It takes dedication, discipline, strong leadership, and a high level of organization to build a movement like this.

I have been accused of “centering myself in the movement” and those same people have made the demand that PSGR should be led by a Palestinian. My background is in community organizing and public policy, and I have been trained by a national organizing task force. I was central to the movement because I am skilled and had the time to do the work. The assertion that PSGR (a solidarity group at its core, for anyone and everyone) could only be led by a Palestinian is identity politics at play, where the appearance of something matters more than the reality. The people making these accusations are proving how out of touch they are with the Palestine solidarity movement by making these claims. It is incredibly dangerous for Palestinians, Arabs, and any non white person to front a movement for Palestinian liberation because anti-imperialism work fundamentally threatens the ideology of the State and makes them a target for repression and retribution. Leqqa Kordia was only just released from detention after a year of confinement for the “crime” of writing an op-ed and attending a protest. One of the Palestinian founders of PSGR had to step back from organizing because their parents faced threats by the israelis whenever they flew back to Palestine. Palestinians are also existentially exhausted from decades of witnessing the murder and dehumanization of their family members on a scale many people cannot comprehend here in the United States. There is a long history of solidarity between Black people in the US and Palestinians for that very reason.

I’m sure there are specific situations and interpersonal relationships where I can be accountable to my behavior. I can think of several situations where I was not kind, but being brusque or direct, especially in the heat of the moment during an intense action, is not abuse. I am human and not perfect and would not expect emotional perfection from anyone else. Any interpersonal grievance should involve individual conversations, not a public slander campaign with a list of demands to disappear.

Individuals also have the personal responsibility of taking ownership of their emotions, gaining more perspective, and working through their feelings without forcing others to join the process. Weaponizing interpersonal issues into political attacks undermines our social cohesion. Grand Rapids is a small town, and the group of people who are dedicated to organizing and creating space for change is even smaller. Trying to ostracize any one of us for minor infractions, whether it’s through mean-girl behavior or an all out cancel campaign, on the basis of ego and ideology, recreates the punitive conditions we are working against.

The reality is, I and many others helped change the shape of organizing in west Michigan away from reactionary politics and toward proactive mass organizing, which threatens the identity of “award-winning activist” and “boss babe CEO” types. These folks have even claimed it was both inappropriate and irresponsible that I didn’t set meetings with Black and brown activists when I moved back to Grand Rapids to “ask permission” to organize, as though they are the gatekeepers of who “gets to” use their voice.

The fact is, PSGR was formed well before I came along, by a group of people who include Palestinians working for their own liberation, and I helped shape into a highly disciplined group along with dozens and dozens of other people. We have had contact with thousands of people throughout the US and raised tens of thousands of dollars for Palestine. This is not a drain of community resources: it’s generative and ripples across movements both in Grand Rapids and beyond. Dozens of people have skills they didn’t have before. They were able to take ownership of projects from protests or educational workshops to artivism and information creation because there was a highly organized, inclusive space to do so.

Anyone is allowed in PSGR as long as they agree with the mission and points of unity. But one man proved from the beginning that they stood against the mission of PSGR, and chose to politicize a personal beef against an organizer they don’t like. This ultimately comes down to a difference in organizing philosophy and the refusal to accept a diversity of tactics. The group of activists claiming abuse organize very differently from myself and those in the groups I belonged to. They work in small affinity groups, a clique of mostly their friends which acts as an echo chamber for their feelings. From my perspective, they isolate people they don’t like, refuse to work with people who have different ideas, and act suspicious of anyone different from them.

To some people, “diversity of tactics” means they escalate and escalate, confronting violence in ways that are brave but also not for everyone or right for every situation. To me, a diversity of tactics involves nuance, and means creating a path for people to engage in any possible way in the movement, from direct actions to letter writing campaigns to political education. Diversity of tactics includes creating family friendly spaces as well as escalated material disruptions. It takes every form. It includes anarchists, small non hierarchical affinity groups, Marxist-Leninsts, and mass groups. Many leftists take for granted their lifetime of unlearning propaganda and expect everyone to absorb their tactics and ideas without the education to get them there. Because of the internalization of trauma and the conflation with the political, it requires a type of unattainable perfectionism. In my experience, this type of activism is heavily based in shame, both internal shame and the shaming of others when they don’t get it “right.” I’ve seen this mentality in action time and time again. If someone shows up to a protest wearing the wrong outfit, they’re mocked or ridiculed, and then called fragile if they’re affected by it. It is part of the cynical, possessive, punitive culture of west Michigan, but I have also seen it happen in other cities. But the cultural cynicism of west Michigan, specifically, is seeping into our movements and how we interact with each other, and that is a problem for movement building. We should be fierce, disciplined, and determined against the State and its actors while being compassionate, curious, and thoughtful with each other.

Restorative justice is not a punitive process: it prioritizes the humanity of everyone involved, ensuring the full integration of community, not ostracization. What J and their friends have engaged in is not restorative justice or community accountability. So many of us have witnessed in real time how the US empire thrives on the dehumanization of the other in order to uphold an individualistic, isolationist mentality. We’ve watched our government do it to Arabs since 9/11, and watched israel escalate it against the Palestinians since the Al Aqsa flood. It’s easy to hate someone when you see them as an outsider who doesn’t belong. When someone’s identity feels threatened, they lash out, and a lot of people on the left have built their political frameworks around their identities. While tools like intersectionality and standpoint theory are very useful for examining our personal relationships to systemic power structures, the ideas they confer are failing to create cohesion or community across lines of difference. Instead, over the past several decades, the State has found ways to pervert and weaponize identity politics to uphold the siloed individualism that perpetuates capitalism and the dehumanization of the other.

This is why we need a disciplined, structured political framework for organizing based on a material understanding of the world in order to guide our movements forward, rather than easily manipulated personal feelings or the extremely variable concept of identity. I loved reading the work of Kimberle Crenshaw, Nancy Hartsock, and Patricia Hill Collins because they have helped me understand how my relationships to knowledge, identity, and power are formed. These theories were formative for my activism. Audre Lorde herself said there could be “no hierarchy of oppressions” among “those who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children.” These theories are based on a material analysis of lived conditions, but over the years, they have been misrepresented into essentializing identity and treating it as a monolith.

Modern western identity politics without a material lense accompanied with international solidarity breeds selfishness. Lorde also said, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” We need to be fiercely intersectional in our work, which actually means understanding beyond our individual selves, no matter how marginalized we are. When I focus solely on my experience, it causes me to lose sight of the collective. Standpoint theory is about sharing experiences to come to higher levels of understanding about each other in order to build better communities. The Marxists I know are the most deeply loving people I have ever witnessed because they sacrifice their personal identity for the love of the collective, for the wellbeing of the community, over individual desire and gain.

The accusations of authoritarianism against me are dogwhistles based in either misunderstanding or intentional misinformation about what it means to be a Marxist-Leninst. And when you pick apart the narrative and examine who is pushing the story about me “abusing J” forward, it points to a clear pattern of isolation against anyone they think is associated with Freedom Road Socialist Organization. That is why they continue to lump FRSO in with any accusation against PSGR: because it is not about me, it is about the deeply rooted anti-communist sentiment that exists in the United States, which is also reflected on the “left” in liberals and anarchists alike.

Our Cuban neighbors are currently laying bare that implicit Western anti-communist sentiment as they suffer under an inhumane economic blockade designed to enforce maximum suffering for not submitting to US hegemony. I witnessed the beauty and success of their People’s revolution first hand, and I am committed to creating a world where we can eradicate that suffering in the belly of the beast. From my conversations in Cuba, I understand there is little sense of identity politics there, but I could be wrong. However, one older afro-Cuban man described the systemic racist laws under US influence before the People’s revolution and how it was at direct odds with the open and inclusive nature of Cuban society, where white Cubans and Afro-Cubans see each other as kindred. Identity based politics ultimately serve the capitalist state and does nothing to deconstruct the insidious power of monopoly capitalism here at home. Disagreeing with the weaponization of identity politics and attempting to lead a disciplined movement inclusive of everyone makes me the enemy of people who uphold capitalism, whether it is individuals in my community or the entirety of the State.

Marxists use material tools to measure our success. Leninists rely on a leadership structure to help make quick, nimble decisions, and use democratic processes rather than consensus. Discipline helps safeguard our movements from infiltrators, bad actors, and people who would try to harm us (including the State). We examine cause and effect, look to history to understand the current political context, and build large movements beyond small affinity groups based on ideological perfection.

I have seen the same accusations being used against me being baselessly used against other socialists and communists around the country and abroad. While this experience felt deeply personal, dehumanizing, and damaging, I also recognize these same generalized tactics as part of a long tradition of undermining communist movements. By using deeply emotional language and coupling it with identity politics, well-meaning people feel unable to critique or push back on someone’s opinion. I have also seen how damaging it is when people do not speak up early enough to clarify the facts and instead conflate silence with political discipline.

I did not abuse J, and any perceived political infractions by PSGR do not warrant the whole scale defamation that has occurred in the last year. While I have temporarily stepped back from organizing to attend to my health and my family, PSGR is still deeply dedicated to growing the political consciousness of west Michigan, which means continuing to engage liberals and leftists alike around anti-imperialism. The structure of the group defies the personal ideology of J’s anarchist friends. In their eyes, this is our biggest crime - not denying a man breakfast or asking them to put on sunblock. I am a threat because I helped build a successful mass movement and J couldn’t tell me what to do. Then they resorted to undermining the integrity of the group, encouraging a schism amongst our organizers, and harassing anyone who stood in their way until they disappeared from the movement.

As someone who practices dialectics, it has become easier for me to see the big picture and connect the dots of people’s behavior. In my experience, Marxists see the trends in behavior far earlier than others because we are paying attention and analyzing from a higher perspective. I have been naming this behavior as part of a larger problem since the beginning, while others in the community dismiss J’s behavior as simply someone with mental health issues to whom we should be compassionate. And I do have ample compassion. I care deeply about their suffering, but their behavior has been excused for too long, and I will not sacrifice my integrity or well being on their behalf any longer.

I ask anyone who has read this document to take this lesson to heart and learn to be critical, ask for clarification, and to stand against the liberalism that upholds this identity based politic. Of course, it is important to be led by communities affected by state violence wherever it is possible. We must also be most critical of ourselves first and actively work to deconstruct our conditioning and reactivity. We must build disciplined movements full of diverse voices to understand the various ways the State enacts harm against us all. We must agree to hold ourselves accountable to higher and higher standards, to do deep internal work to take responsibility for our emotions, and to put our personal desires aside for the collective good. It is time we become critical of the type of selfish behavior that disrupts our progress, and start building a United Front that respects not only the diversity of tactics, but also the diversity of experiences led by the variously marginalized among us. But that does not mean that only marginalized people can lead the movement forward. We are on the precipice of radical change, and our enemy is better resourced than we can ever imagine. We must all aspire to higher levels of organization to keep ourselves safe, to protect our communities, and to win all that can be won. We don’t have to like each other, but we do have to work together. Otherwise, we have already lost.

Appendix

PSGR Points of unity

We are internationalists. We recognize the global movement on the march to end the occupation of Palestinian land. Chauvinism and disunity with the people of other countries and groups across the United States are not promoted in any capacity. Solidarity is what we preach.

We support the Palestinian resistance. We do not condemn the resistance inside or outside of Palestine. We proudly stand together in this moment and recognize the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to resist the occupation and put an end to settler-colonialism and United States imperialism in the region.

We are diverse and unified. We will not tolerate discrimination against any race, ethnic group, religion, ability, gender expression, or sexuality. PSGR is a diverse group in both backgrounds and politics, and we think it’s what makes us strong. A failure from any member to respect this diversity drives us away from our goal and will result in a ban from meetings and events. Please be respectful and understanding of others. We share a common objective.

We are calling for an end to the occupation. We call for a completely liberated Palestine, the right to return and freedom from all the horrors that have characterized Israeli occupation. These are international demands. We reject any equivalence between an occupied people and their occupiers.

We recognize the complicity of our government. We in the United States have a special responsibility to pressure our politicians, both federally and locally, to divest all business from Israel, to sever diplomatic ties with Israel, to cease the billions of dollars in yearly funding and to halt all weapon sales. Our government and media share full complicity in the ongoing siege and genocide of Palestinians.

St Paul’s Principles

From the TCC4J website

1. Our solidarity will be based on respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of other groups.

• Recognize that under the very broad banners of #BlackLivesMatter or #StopKillerCops, different groups and individuals organize in different ways

• Groups have different tactics, goals, and messages

• You don’t have to participate in actions you do not support, but treat them with tolerance and respect.

2. The actions and tactics used will be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.

• Do not disrupt others’ actions

• This can keep “family-friendly spaces” separate from those with risk of arrest

• When sharing a time and location, come to an agreement on actions with the organizers

• If not in agreement, do your actions at a different time or place

3. Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.

• Public dispute - in the media and on social media - hurts organizing and helps our adversaries

• Authorities use disputes, rumors, bad jacketing, and drama-inducing interlopers to destroy movements

• Our goals are more important than most grievances. Activist disagreements should worked out privately, between activists

• Most agree that individuals doing active harm to community members are an exception

4. We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence. We agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others.

• Don’t be a snitch

• Don’t share plans with authorities

• Don’t trust cops to protect us

• Unless you are assigned to do so by lead tactical during a protest, never, ever respond to questions from law enforcement.