If you know someone who is dealing with an immigration issue or police violence, tell them to call the AMOR Support Line at 401-675-1414. The Support Line will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will initially have English and Spanish language capacity. By calling this line, community members and bystanders experiencing or witnessing acts of state-sponsored and individual violence will be able to access support.

The AMOR Support Line is a joint effort of six groups, Alianza para Movilizar Nuestra Resistencia (AMOR/Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance), Colectivo Sin Fronteras, DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), Coyote RI, The FANG Collective, and PrYSM (Providence Youth Student Movement).

The AMOR Supprot Line is continuing to fund raise to cover emergency legal costs for our community as a part of the Support Line. Contributions are sorely needed.

At the launch party for the AMOR Support Line, the new phone number was announced with dramatic fanfare.

Sofia Wright explained the history of AMOR and the Support Line, ending with an appeal for financial support. “For me, bringing together the connection between immigration and detention and incarceration and the ACI and the prison system was the biggest thing we could do to unify our fight against one system that breaks down communities of color…

“One of the things we thought after Trump got elected was that we couldn’t hope or assume that other people were going to have the infrastructure we needed to take care of our communities and keep each other safe,” continued Wright. “And we also couldn’t rely on other folks to know how to do that, or know that we could do it well, or give us the dignity we deserve…

“Think about it like this: The police have a full budget. The army, the military, the prison systems have complete budgets. What we’re doing right now is that we’re paying for the healing process. We’re paying for the preventative work that  is trying to get ourselves out of that trauma.”

“If folks are in danger or have been detained, please call the support,” said Catarina Lorenzo and Arely Díaz, “And we can find a way to provide support to your family and to provide legal support, we can provide legal funds for cases… We can also provide ‘Know Your Rights’ trainings, we can provide ‘Family Preparedness’ trainings… There’s also court support and transportation support… There are a wide range of things that we can provide.”

Steven Dy is with PrYSM and leads the Community Defense Project (CDP). CDP “is basically the police violence branch of AMOR,” said Dy. CDP focuses on three areas:

1. Legal Support – “Everyone needs legal support when they’ve been criminalized and demonized by racist policies that keep us marginalized,” said Dy.
2. Community Organizing – “We try to rally around cases, we do Cop Watch, we do rights trainings, because it’s one thing to know your rights, but its another thing to get your rights.”
3. Mental Health – “It’s been something that’s been really hard to do, especially with communities of color, because the way the mental health system has been designed it hasn’t been welcoming towards my grandma or my uncle, or people who have English as a second language.”

Sherry Andrade from the FANG Collective is helping to organize non-violent direct action trainings, art builds, police liaison trainings and jail support. “Soon we’ll be launching our herbal medicine and cooking collective,” said Andrade. “So we’ll be providing street medics and herbalists and folks who are trained in mental health services.”

The launch party ended with a performance from Mariachi de Brown, the Brown University Mariachi Band.

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