By Stephanie Thomas-Foo
Trinity Times Correspondent

Washington native Nee Nee Taylor comes from a family of social activists and in today’s digital age with social media platforms, she has powerful tools to deploy her own advocacy and activism.

Taylor used these tools to enable Washingtonians to raise awareness and mobilize opposition to the “Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024” – better known as the D.C. Crime Bill – and though it’s likely to become law anyway, she’ll continue her crusade to ensure effective scrutiny and accountability for law enforcement while dealing with a spike in crime.

In February, the D.C. Council unanimously approved the D.C. Crime Bill to enhance safety and security in D.C. neighborhoods, responding to the surge in homicides, carjackings, retail thefts, and illegal gun possessions in 2023, which created a sense of lawlessness throughout the nation’s capital.

The new law integrates elements from various pieces of legislation proposed or passed over the past year. It re-establishes a prohibition on wearing masks under certain circumstances, toughens penalties and pretrial detention while also easing certain restrictions on police officers.

The act simplifies the process for judges to order detention for adults and some juveniles charged with violent offenses while they await trial.

Scores of D.C. residents and criminal justice reform activists are concerned the new act will give police more power and won’t help to stop crime in Washington, including Taylor.

She believes the new crime legislation is prejudiced against Black people and will “give trigger happy cops full range to execute our Black children for wearing face masks or standing in groups.”

Taylor’s crusade to counteract some of the more egregious aspects of the new crime bill speaks to Trinity Washington University student Danielle Lymore, who sees the need to address the surge in violent crimes in D.C. but is skeptical this is the law to do it.

“Something needs to be done to combat the issues plaguing our city, but I don’t want to see mass incarceration happen to my people in this lifetime again,” Lymore said, referring to the War on Drugs in the late 1980s and early 1990s that left a lot of drug users incarcerated. “We dropped the ball once before by punishing drug users during the War on Drugs initiatives instead of rehabilitating them from the drug usage. The (D.C. Crime Bill) seems like the same type of Band-Aid on a bullet wound solution.”

From serving as a direct-action core organizer for the D.C. Black Lives Matter chapter, to co-founding “Harriet’s Wildest Dreams” – a grassroots organization dedicated to legal empowerment, political and civic education, mass protest, organizing campaigns, and all that would liberate Black lives in the greater Washington area – Taylor has dedicated her life to social justice work.

“I didn’t choose social justice, social justice chose me,” she said. “I come from a family of freedom fighters. My ancestors were a part of the Civil Rights Movement.”

As a child Taylor passed out flyers for her godmother Willie Hardy, a Democratic politician and activist elected as one of the original members of the Council of the District of Columbia when D.C. gained home rule, representing Ward 7 from 1975 to 1981. 

“Willie Hardy and my mother, Rosita Cotton, were freedom fighters,” Taylor told Trinity Times. “They taught me how to fight.”

Growing up in the Stoddart Terrace Projects located in Southeast D.C. helped shape the foundation for her mission for social justice and Black liberation. 

Along with her mother and father, Taylor said she was also raised by the other adults in the subsidized housing units that made up Stoddart Terrace, a village experience where the community looked out for each other despite having limited financial resources. 

“A city filled with historic landmarks often leaves the history of its Black inhabitants behind,” she said.

Taylor’s influences growing up were Black political figures from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton to the late Washington Mayor Marion Barry. 

She witnessed firsthand the systemic inequalities and injustices faced by marginalized groups during her upbringing, igniting a passion for social justice from an early age.

After graduating from the University of the District of Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in business management, Taylor embarked on her activism journey, leveraging social media platforms to amplify marginalized voices and advocate for meaningful change. 

Through powerful storytelling, educational content, and grassroots organizing, she quickly gained a dedicated following and established herself as a leading voice in a continuing mission for social justice. 

After years of serving as a direct-impact advocate for D.C.’s Black Lives Matter chapter, Taylor started her own organization called Harriet’s Wildest Dreams.

Harriet’s Wildest Dreams has made a mission of advocating for incarcerated women, who Taylor believes are overly burdened by the inability to post bail and often left behind bars for minor law infractions resulting in a collateral downward effect on their livelihood. 

“These women have children and are at risk of losing them to Child Welfare Services because they can’t pay a $1,000 bond to get out of jail for driving on a suspended license,” she said, “or who will lose their jobs because they have to sit and wait to go to court 14 days after arrest. 

“It’s these types of issues that seem small to some that we step in and assist to keep mothers with their children and give women who are trying in life the grace we all deserve.”

A $1,000 bail requirement can completely shatter a Black family, Taylor said, which is one of the main reasons why she couldn’t support the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024. 

Throughout her years of activism, she has spearheaded numerous initiatives and campaigns aimed at addressing a wide range of social justice issues, from racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental sustainability, to economic inequality. 

Taylor believes the issues surrounding violence in D.C. is not about groups of two or more standing outside wearing ski masks, but the lack of equitable programs to address the wealth disparity in Washington’s Wards 7 and 8, as well as a system in place that doesn’t foster a sense of trust between law enforcement and city natives.

It’s the grassroots organizations and ground soldiers like Nee Nee Taylor who make an impact and give a voice to the voiceless when it comes to social justice, said Raushanah Bullock, a student success advisor at Trinity. 

“Social justice is a human rights issue and the problem we have in this country is deciding who we accept as human and who we don’t,” Bullock told Trinity Times. “This (crime) bill seems to dehumanize Black and brown people and some of the measures strip them of their rights.”