Coldsnap Legal Collective volunteer & Know-Your-Rights training

Sunday, 8/24
Merriam Park Library meeting room
1831 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul
1 - 3 p.m.: Volunteer training
3 - 4 p.m.: Know Your Rights training
4 - 4:45 p.m.: Learn about your legal support options

Want to get involved during the RNC?
Are you planning to be on the streets—or not?

Do more than just exercise your rights—PROTECT THEM for yourself and your community!

Coldsnap Legal Collective is working to protect our communities up to, during, and after the RNC.

You (yes, YOU!) can get involved by helping us:
* Coordinate a street team of legal support activists
* Answer phones for our 24-hour jail support hotline (651.356.8635)
* Staff our legal support office
* Facilitate jail and court solidarity as needed

That’s right, you can do any or all of this! You don't need any special skills or experience. You just need some dedication and a willingness to help protect a few thousand of your closest friends. It’s fun, you'll learn important organizing skills, and you’ll get to hang with some awesome people. Seriously, legal support folks are radtastic!

“Wow, Coldsnap, this sounds amazing. I’m dying to help out. How can I get involved?”

Why, just come to one of our open training sessions in August. We’re doing a series of them to train as many people as possible… and so you have no excuse not to come!

TRAININGS

Saturday, 8/16
Hosmer Library meeting room
347 E. 36th St., Mpls
10 a.m. - 12 p.m.: Volunteer training
12 - 1 p.m.: Know Your Rights training

Sunday, 8/17
Hosmer Library meeting room
347 E. 36th St., Mpls
12 - 2 p.m.: Volunteer training
2 - 3 p.m.: Know Your Rights training
3 - 4 p.m.: Learn about your legal support options

Saturday, 8/23
Walker Library meeting room
2880 Hennepin Avenue, Mpls
12 - 2 p.m.: Volunteer training
2 - 3 p.m.: Know Your Rights training
3 - 4 p.m.: Learn about your legal support options

Sunday, 8/24
Merriam Park Library meeting room
1831 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul
1 - 3 p.m.: Volunteer training
3 - 4 p.m.: Know Your Rights training
4 - 4:45 p.m.: Learn about your legal support options

Trainings are free and open to everyone. All of our activities can be done in conjunction with your other protest activities, or you can dedicate all your protest energies to us. We’ll welcome you either way

The volunteer trainings are for everyone who wants to get involved with us during the RNC and its immediate aftermath (e.g., street team, legal-support office). Know Your Rights trainings are for everyone who wants to learn how to protect themselves and their communities when approached by the cops. The legal support options training is for people who want to learn about creating legal support structures for their affinity groups and fostering jail and court solidarity.

Here are the different roles you can take:

STREET TEAM
The street team will be made up of activists who are in the middle of the action and can keep an eye on what the cops are doing, so they can help protect people’s rights in the moment. Distinct from both legal observers and copwatchers, the street team will have a more interactive role of being trained to provide ad hoc legal rights trainings as needed on the street, serving as a vital part of the Coldsnap communications team, and witnessing and reporting police actions.

Good for: For those of you who were planning on being on the streets anyway, because all of this can be done while still participating in any demonstrations you would like to be a part of.

JAIL SUPPORT HOTLINE
Our hotline will be available 24-hours a day before, during, and after the RNC. Protestors will be calling this hotline when they or people they know are arrested. We’ll take down their relevant info and facilitate getting them the support they need as they are processed through the system … turning their one phone call from jail into many. We’ll also be working closely with the National Lawyers Guild to ensure people have access to good lawyers while they’re being held and when it comes time to fight the charges levied against them.

Good for: People with good phone skills who work well in a high excitement, high pressure environment.

LEGAL SUPPORT OFFICE
We’ll need a ton of help to manage our jail support database, make phone calls on behalf of political prisoners, and coordinate our efforts with other support groups.

Good for: People who are detail-oriented and good with big-picture stuff.

JAIL & COURT SOLIDARITY
After activists are arrested, they often need people on the outside to put pressure on the jails and courts to ensure they are treated fairly, are not being abused, and are receiving the care they need. And they always need to know their communities support them! Coldsnap can help affinity groups learn their options for creating jail and court solidarity strategies, mobilize the community to call in to the jails to demand fair treatment, stage rallies outside the jails and courthouses, pack the courts during hearings, and bring media attention to the way political prisoners are being treated.

Good for: People with experience (or want to get experience) coordinating logistics, events, media, etc.

In Solidarity,
*Coldsnap Legal Collective*

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Please note that use of the Minneapolis Public Library System and Saint Paul Public Library System meeting facilities does not constitute endorsement of the beliefs, viewpoints, policies or affiliations of the user by the library board or staff.