Chalking/ Signs Tactics

Name: William Reyes

Course: Social Movement 5:30 pm

 

Chalking/ Signs Tactics

 

           

            The theory of non-violent direct action relies on tactics for raising awareness in order to bring about social change and social justice. There are many forms of effective tactics ranging from non-violent to the most extreme. However, for the course we will be using the non-violent tactics to send out our message about the injustice of criminal justice system. First, the plan is to raise awareness about the social component of sanctions in the criminal justice system. The idea at first was to raise awareness to the fact that infraction such traffic infractions and penalties that carried a heavy burden on the poor specifically. Because the poor is the largest part of the population that relies on some form of vehicle and often is targeted with infractions that do not take into account the economic condition of the individuals. Penalties that at first can be minimal, if the individual has the access to some means of employment and income which can help in solving the problem. However, for many who are unemployed but still dependent on their vehicle that is an opportunity to employment, infraction can be a detrimental condition. When the person with the infraction fails to pay the fines it can turn into a warrant. Second individuals with a warrant stopped by the police often end up being arrested. Which are a problematic situation and the record can limits the chances for employment. Thus, reducing the ability to find employment. In addition this problem can have a negative effect on the person trapped in the system, which can force people to have a negative view of police officers as they are the ones who hand out the infraction.  Putting officer who already have a dangerous job in policing the people.  So, the purpose of our movement is to raise awareness to these facts. With the use of non-violent tactics. We have to rely on four component frameworks to support our goal in recruiting individuals (1) Diagnosis, (2) Prognosis, (3) Motivation, (4) Identity, each of this tactics, will be design with the purpose to reach and convince our audience.

            For the purpose in raising awareness with the use of Chalking / Signs. Ideally having and easy name that people can remember would be the best tactics. However, as a group we decide to call our movement "The Injustice Criminal System" which suggest that there is injustice in our criminal justice system. Once we agree to the name of our movement, we were given specific instruction not to deface private properties or vandalize walls or equipment. The reality is that movement are not limited to the medium to raise awareness. We can send our message by the use of social media, newspapers, flyers, or television and radio. But in this case of this limited constrains of chalking all we had to do was to draw messages on the sidewalks and anywhere people could see our colorful art display on the floor of the University Campus.

            The experience to go out and deface public property do not seems so radical. However, there were other groups with message of their own with the goal to raise awareness to their cause, which can limit the space for our message. Fortunately there was plenty of space. We chose the most transited areas in hope that people would read our message. We chalk the floor with colorful pictures of jails and incarceration with the name of our cause. Colorful painting and capital letter with suggesting pictures of money being arrested. Which now seems a little confusing but at the moment it seems to fit our cause. If we had another chance to do it again we would probably had define our message even more. But at the time it seems to make sense, we painted the name our cause in different fonts with different colors. It took a while because it drawing letters on the floor can be a difficult thing but we manage to get as much as we could. That was our first steep to build awareness for the second part of our tactics.