Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance

Community Empowerment and Education - MoGo hosted a series of town halls in an effort to empower and educate community members about local initiatives that impact their day-to-day lives. Our panels included the authors of the local ordinances and initiatives as well as their "championsX and supporting organizations. Our town halls delved into a ranked choice voting initiative, surveillance oversight, and an ordinance aimed at eradicating racial profiling and biased police practices. Attendees at each town hall were provided with a resource guide created by MoGo that included the ins and outs of each initiative, key terms with definitions, and presentation slides from the town halls. Through our town halls, we empowered no less than 133 community members who attended or watched online. MoGo also organized various calls to action around various social and racial justice issues, including the PrOTECT (Preventing Overpolicing Through Equitable Community Treatment) ordinance aimed at curbing racial profiling in the city of San Diego. MoGo supports other base-building, community organizing, and advocacy organizations in our region to address social injustice.

Litigation - MoGo, along with other local civil rights lawyers, successfully settled two lawsuits against the City of San Diego in federal court on behalf of Black Lives Matter protesters, after they were arrested by the San Diego Police Department (SDPD). SDPD refused to give the plaintiff-protesters' phones back upon their release from jail. As part of our settlement, the City of San Diego agreed to implement a new policy requiring officers to either seek and obtain a warrant to hold or search any phone they seize, or to return the phone within a reasonable amount of time. The new, pioneering policy provides a series of protections for people whose phones are taken from them. We also continued to help community members who submitted "community concerns" about injustices experienced by community members.

Freedom Fund: Through our Freedom Fund program (which we winded down in 2022), we provided 21 services which included the purchase of bus passes; plane, train, and bus fare; gas costs; hotel stays; and rental assistance to ensure clients had their needs met in order to make it to their court appearances. These services totaled $4,901.54. We also continued to distribute go bags containing soap, socks, underwear, granola bars, tooth brush, tooth paste, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, and a brush for clients in federal court as needed upon their release from jail.