MI Research: What Does Freedom, Inc. Believe And Why Won’t The Mainstream Media Talk About Their Radical Beliefs?

Freedom, Inc. wants to totally eliminate police departments and free almost everyone from prison

Programming by Freedom, Inc. “politicizes” kids, teaches them to use intimidation tactics and to vandalize public property

The radical non-profit received over $500,000 in grants in 2020 from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families

Freedom, Inc., a Madison-based non-profit with vocal anti-police beliefs, came into the spotlight recently after organizing protests and unrest in Madison last summer. It might have come as a shock to taxpayers when Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Daniel Bice revealed that this same non-profit had received $3.6 million in grants from the state of Wisconsin over the past five years.

With Freedom, Inc. playing a bigger role in public policy debates and protests, we looked for more information on their background, beliefs and tactics in the coverage they have received from the mainstream media. For some reason, the vast majority of the coverage of Freedom Inc. fails to mention their radical beliefs or document their aggressive tactics. So, as a public service, we have put together the information for you.

Freedom, Inc. Wants To Do Away With The Police And Believes Looting Is Justifiable

Freedom, Inc. hasn’t minced words about what they’re fighting for: taking police officers out of our schools, getting rid of police departments altogether, replacing the police with pleasant-sounding “community control,” and releasing almost all people from prison.

Many in the mainstream media have depicted the group and its goals as positive and peaceful. However, the mainstream media has missed or deliberately ignored the real nature of what Freedom, Inc. is trying to accomplish.

“We really want people to understand, we are not saying ‘defund the police’ or ‘abolish prisons’ and then put another system of punishment in place,” said Freedom, Inc.’s Executive Director, M. Adams, on a Facebook livestream in June.

“It’s not about ‘fire the one cop,’ or ‘get some training,’ or anything else like that. It’s about this long lineage of harm and domination in the name of white supremacy, in the name of patriarchy,” said Mahnker Dahnweih, Freedom, Inc.’s Community Power Building Coordinator, during the same livestream.

“We tried community policing. We tried black people building relationships with officers and officers building relationships with black people. We tried hiring officers of color. We tried more training for the police, and none of those things have been able to stop putting us in jail, to stop killing us, to stop sexually assaulting us, to stop harming our communities,” said Bianca Gomez, Freedom, Inc.’s Gender Justice Coordinator.

Freedom, Inc. believes it is “completely righteous, completely justified,” in Gomez’s words, to achieve their goals through property damage and looting in downtown Madison. They also believe that “a transformative ass-whoopin” is a justified way to deal with a community member who is targeting young children. As Gomez said in June “I think that’s revolutionary self-defense, I do not think that’s violence.”

“If you are black and you are a victim of racist terrorism, of white supremacy, of capitalist exploitation, of the active violence of this government, then you know the only way for you to survive is to take what you deserve,” yelled Adams in front of the Madison City-County Building on June 1st. “You stop murdering black people and your glass will be safe!”

“The people who own those buildings are fine, they’re okay, they’re alive still, they’re still here. Whatever is in those stores can be replaced. Glass and brick can be rebuilt. What cannot be replaced is a human life,” Dahnweih has said, referring to businesses that were looted on State Street in Madison over the summer.

These messages appear to guide much of the work that Freedom, Inc. does in the community and with kids.

What Does Freedom, Inc. Teach Kids?

A major portion of Freedom, Inc.’s services are directed towards kids and teens. Two of their programs for kids are the Freedom Youth Squad and the Freedom Youth Organizing Camp. The programs teach teens about civil disobedience, vandalism of public property, and how to disrupt local police.

Freedom Youth Squad

The Freedom Youth Squad has made a name for itself by using disruptive tactics, some might argue harassment, against those who disagree with them. One event hosted by the Freedom Youth Squad and Freedom, Inc. invites teens to call the Madison Police Department to “stop business as usual and make them hear us!” Promotional posters for the event refer to police as liars and pigs.

The Freedom Youth Squad may be known more, however, for their harassment of the Madison Board of Education and disruption of their meetings. For instance, during district budget proceedings in 2018, the Freedom Youth Squad blocked voting on the budget through an in-your-face, aggressive demonstration.

Kids and Freedom, Inc. organizers held up a sign that said “No Cops In Schools” while stamping their feet on the auditorium stage, screaming “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” and “F*ck the police!” This is one of the multiple times that the Freedom Youth Squad and Freedom, Inc. have disrupted school board meetings. At another 2018 school board meeting that the group crashed, a Freedom Youth Squad member threw and broke the cell phone of someone trying to record their disruptive behavior.

The kids in the Freedom Youth Squad harass school board members outside of public hearings as well.

In June 2020, kids in the Freedom Youth Squad were responsible for painting “Police Free Schools” on West Dayton Street in front of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) administration building. Members were also responsible for preventing street cleaners from removing their “Police Free Schools” slogan off the street. That slogan alone cost the city around $8,000 to remove.

At that same event, the Freedom Youth Squad vandalized the walls of the MMSD administration building with chalk-drawn anti-police slogans, profanity and slurs. Phrases included “F*ck 12,” which is another way to say “f*ck the police.” Other phrases included “No justice no peace,” “Cops eat sh*t,” “Abolish police,” “community control,” and “restorative justice, transformative justice.”

Some of the kids drew phrases on the walls geared at School Board President Gloria Reyes, such as “Open your purse, Gloria” and “Gloria how do you sleep?”