Patrisse Cullors - NPR "With Fleets Of Planes, Artists Take To Skies Nationwide To Protest Mass Detention"

NPR | July 4, 2020

“As Americans celebrate Independence Day, a group of artists and activists are flying pro-immigrant, anti-incarceration messages in the skies. They hired fleets of airplanes to sky-write their slogans over 80 locations, including immigration detention facilities, jails, courts and the U.S./Mexico border.

[…]

‘Care, not cages’ is the phrase artist Patrisse Cullors sent over the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. The co-founder of Black Lives Matter chose to echo the rallying cry of L.A. activists fighting mass criminalization of immigrants and U.S. citizens.

‘L.A. County is the largest jailer in the world,’ she says. ‘Half of the people that are in the jails are there because they can't afford bail. If someone goes inside who's undocumented, instead of being released, they're actually given over to ICE. So what we are challenging the county to do right now is to actually invest into our communities through an alternatives to incarceration fund.’

Each of the sky-typed phrases were followed by a hashtag leading to a website by immigrant justice organizations involved in the project. Among the participants were an ACLU lawyer, Central American immigrant organizations and Native American and Japanese American activists.”

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