04/29/2026
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We need transformative justice in the city of Winston-Salem! Lit City remains steadfast and committed to the call we made in 2021 in the wake of the in-school shooting that occured at Mt Tabor High School. In this current moment, the criminal legal system, everyday yt racists, and (s)kinfolk - who oughta know better! - are joining in calls to get tough on youth crime, charge children as adults, arrest and charge parents, and charge bystanders. These calls always ultimately do more harm, than heal. The truth is that we will not arrest, charge, and cage this problem away. We cannot allow the system to successfully engage in what we have called "disaster carceralism." We tried to unpack this in the excerpt below from our 2021 statement:
"One of the most important aspects of transformative justice is that it calls us away from our dependence on systems that “at best” are response-based, and at worse, germinate and exacerbate the very issues we seek to overcome. It helps us avoid the pitfall of thinking that police, prisons, surveillance, and detention centers are how we get free and create peace. In the wake of this tragedy, we have seen key players in our city’s power structure engage in what we might call “disaster carceralism.” The word “carceral” refers to systems of punishment and captivity like policing, prisons, monitoring, detention centers, etc. Similar to “disaster capitalism”, disaster carceralism is an attempt to seize a moment of tragedy to further the economic drain, strengthen the systemic grip, and boost the public approval of “solving” issues of violence with law enforcement. As calls are being made for more SROs, more cops, so-called “zero tolerance policies”, and metal detectors in schools, it is important that we don’t repeat the mistakes that some within the Black community made during the carnage of the 90s “crack era.” It is well documented that anti-Black politicians committed to anything but the well-being of Black communities, called for and created “get tough” policies that created mass incarceration during that era. The often overlooked reality of that moment is that some well-meaning Black folks who genuinely wanted safety, echoed and championed these calls to their community’s own peril. As a result they were complicit in causing more devastation and criminalization, not restoration. Let us not make that mistake in this moment. We need radical (root-cause) solutions, not carceral ones.
The carceral state has mastered the art of (re)legitimizing itself in the wake of tragedies, but study it closely and you’ll see that carcerality helped create the climate of peer-on-peer aggression in our communities. Leaning on its structures and employing its logics will not get us free, nor will it heal us. More police, more SROs, more cages, more surveillance, more punishment, more metal detectors, more “reforms” will not save us. We the people must create, sustain, and expand community-controlled systems of care, safety, accountability, healing, and transformative justice."
(Full article: https://drummajorsalliance.wordpress.com/2021/09/07/lit-city-drum-majors-alliance-co-statement-on-the-shooting-at-mt-tabor-high-school/ )
