Organizing For Change

Anika and Yolande Kwinana planned several Black Lives Matter protests this summer in Arlington. Now they're turning the conversation to policing.

Yolande set up a Facebook Live chat with Police Chief Jay Farr, during which she lobbed questions about use-of-force policies, body-worn cameras and crisis intervention training. She pressed the chief on the lack of transparency surrounding complaints against officers (he said privacy rules prevent certain details from being released) and asked for his thoughts about civilian review boards (he said he was open to the idea) and body-worn cameras (he supports them).

Farr, who recently announced plans to retire in September, says he was struck by Yolande’s willingness to listen to what others might consider tedious explanations of Arlington law enforcement policy. “She has her position, but she’s open to having a discussion,” he says. “She’s not closed to the idea of a conversation.”

In mid-June, Yolande and Anika helped found Arlington for Justice, an advocacy group dedicated to reforming the county’s policing practices, which submitted a list of recommendations to the county board. Among them: funding of body-worn cameras; eliminating school resource officers; ending mutual-aid agreements that result in scenarios such as the Lafayette Square/St. John’s church incident in D.C.; reallocating part of the police budget to mental health services; creating a community oversight board; and ending the policing of minor offenses.

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On June 17, after years of delay, the county announced it would amend its current budget to include $1.05 million in funding for body-worn cameras.

One month later, the county signaled immediate plans for an external review of its police policies and practices.

The Kwinanas, meanwhile, are broadening their network. They continue to work with various advocacy groups, including Justice Forward Virginia (a political action committee advocating criminal justice reform), Black Parents of Arlington, and other local activists, artists and churches.

Between the pandemic, their jobs, parenting and protest work, their days are packed. They’ve had multiple conversations with their daughters about George Floyd’s death, and as a family watched Malcolm X, 13th (the 2016 Ava DuVernay documentary about the intersection of race and mass incarceration) and other films about social justice. Their YouTube channel, Cocoa Life, features videos of their protests and testimony about policing—along with heartwarming clips of the couple talking about their relationship. “It’s difficult for us to be in different rooms, different spaces,” Anika says with a broad smile. “We are connected on so many levels.”

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Brad Haywood, chief public defender for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church and a steering committee member of Arlington for Justice, has been working on police reform for years. Many activists are eager to get involved, he says, “but they don’t take steps to find out what’s already been done. Yolande and Anika are the opposite of that. They’re connecting with the existing advocacy community and they’re very inclusive. They’re taking the time to learn the issues at a detailed level.”

Though they acknowledge the support they’ve received from white community members, the Kwinanas emphasize that it’s not just bad police officers that are the problem—it’s structural racism. Many parts of Arlington are still segregated. Anika says she has been trailed by security guards while shopping. Friends of Yolande’s who live in D.C. express reluctance to visit Arlington because they don’t want to be stopped by police. Some of their daughters’ friends haven’t been allowed to come to their house, they say, because the parents don’t feel comfortable that the Kwinanas are a same-sex couple.

“Arlington is liberal, but there are levels of ‘woke,’ ” Yolande says. “Racial justice has been a fight for 400 years. We are at a point at which we can’t be quiet anymore. It needs to be all-hands on deck.”

Lisa Lednicer is a freelance writer in Arlington.

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