Every volunteer has a unique answer to the question, “Why did you join the ACLU?” Some have a special talent or skill, such as legal knowledge. For many others, the decision stems from personal experience.
Ock Bowers knows what it’s like to have his constitutional rights violated. So he joined the ACLU of Missouri to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“I’ve been at the end of the school-to-prison pipeline and the cash bailout system,” Bowers said. “Both of those have affected me tremendously and I’m a product of them.”
Bowers, who lives in Kansas City, spent months in jail simply because he couldn’t afford to pay bail. Like half a million other Americans, he was arrested and imprisoned without any kind of conviction.
In one instance, Bowers spent four months in prison and lost his job, car and house, only to have all charges dropped in court.
“This is just one of the many, many, many stories of problems in the judicial system,” he said during an ‘Anatomy of the Bailout’ panel discussion. “Usually, it’s very minor offenses that become catastrophic and turn lives upside down.”
This practice disproportionately affects people of color and has wreaked economic havoc on minority communities, while simultaneously creating a billion dollar industry.
Since joining the ACLU last year, Bowers has primarily worked as a legal observer in St. Louis. Legal observers are trained to protect the rights of protestors by monitoring and documenting police actions. In Missouri alone, hundreds of people have become legal observers since Michael Brown was killed by police in 2014.
In the near future, Bowers hopes to play a part in the decriminalization of marijuana, which would put an end to racially biased enforcement of the law and save taxpayers billions of dollars. Until then, he will continue defending the rights of marginalized Missourians and, ultimately, save others from the injustices he experienced.
“My offense a lot of times was just being black,” Bowers said. “At the end of the day, we’re just dollar signs.”