OBS Responds to the covid-19 pandemic

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OBS's response to covid-19

“This is what happens to us” Washington Post article on failed response by cities to COVID-19

Poor reporting of data, which initially masked the fact that the disease was disproportionately affecting black communities, remains a problem even as states move to reopen their economies.

Today, Americans living in counties with above-average black populations are three times as likely to die of the coronavirus as those in above-average white counties, according to an analysis of census and other data by The Washington Post.

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Prosecutors’ Statement on COVID-19 & Incarceration

Today over 30 elected prosecutors representing more than17 million people across the country issued a joint statement recommending immediate actions to mitigate community spread of COVID–19 amongst the 2.3 million adults and children held in prisons, local jails, youth correctional facilities, immigration detention centers, and other forms of confinement. Key recommendations include:

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Statement on St. Louis’ Jail Population

Guardians of the status quo, like Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the reactionaries of the Post-Dispatch, and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, are doing what they always do when their systems of power are called into question: they resort to scare tactics. In the 1970’s, it was “welfare queens” robbing you of your heard-earned money’ in 1988, it was Willie Horton lurking around the corner; and now, it’s the scourge of hardened “criminals” roaming the streets. These headlines sell papers; they win elections; and they concentrate power. If only the headlines weren’t a lie.

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Open Letter on Voter Protections during COVID

The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is a nonpartisan statewide network working to protect the right to vote in Missouri. For more than a decade we have worked to promote access to the ballot and remove barriers to voting. In the wake of the threat posed by the COVID-19 crisis, we urge the adoption of the following measures to ensure the accessible, safe and orderly conduct of the 2020 primary and general elections.

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COVID-19 and the Color Line

Black Americans are dying of COVID-19 at much higher rates than whites, and nowhere more so than in St. Louis. This is the result of racist policies which collapsed the social safety net while setting blacks in the path of danger.

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Organization for Black Struggle
P.O. Box 5277
St. Louis, MO 63115
(314) 367-5959 | contactus@obs-stl.org