The Movement 4 Black Lives and GenForward hosted a conversation on Black Perspectives on Community Safety to highlight a new report released this week measuring Black people’s experiences with policing and incarceration, and their feelings about alternatives to these systems. Dr. Cathy Cohen of the University of Chicago and GenForward was the lead scholar. She explained that the national survey was designed to give a picture of the complexity and nuanced experiences of Black people. By centering the voices of people’s perceptions on safety this data can help us think in imaginative ways about creating movements for just, safe, and healthy communities.

The report begins acknowledging the complicated reality of most Black people in relationship to police. A large majority of the responders fear the police in crisis and emergency situations. A large majority reported that they or someone they knew had negative interactions with police. At the same time a majority of Black people say they would call the police because there are no other sources of help. This dilemma, and the recognition of broader systemic issues, results in widespread support for comprehensive reforms, new initiatives that create public safety, and transforming policing when specific alternatives are offered.

Here is some of the data to consider:

New York is sinking. So is Boston. A recent study from Virginia Tech documents that the entire eastern seaboard is going down. This sinking is not only due to the rise of oceans. It’s directly related to the loss of ground water.

We should be especially engaged with this emerging understanding. While the Great Lakes are the largest unfrozen freshwater ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, they are fed by a complex system of underground aquifers. Most estimates say that our groundwater is the equivalent to all of Lake Michigan. And like our neighbors on the eastern coasts, we have not been good stewards.

Veolia North America and people in Flint agreed recently to a $25 million settlement for damages suffered in the water contamination crisis that began in 2014. This is a welcome victory, in a long and enduring struggle. It is also a powerful reminder of the role Veolia has played in the struggles for justice in Palestine.

Over the last decade, Veolia has embodied the connections between Palestine and Black liberation in the US. It has also demonstrated the effectiveness of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement as a nonviolent, direct-action strategy to challenge Zionism and Israel.

The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) did not result in a cease fire in Gaza. But this does not diminish its importance. The ICJ ordered Israel to take immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide. It demanded that the government take actions “to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide; to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance;” to protect Palestinian civilians, especially the 50,000 women giving birth and to prevent the destruction of evidence related genocide.

This week, as we witness what the International Court of Justice describes as “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip” and it issues a preliminary order requiring Israel “to take actions to ensure its soldiers and citizens adhere to the Genocide Convention,” the issues we face at home can feel less urgent.