Prior to the zeitgeist of the term “Hostile Architecture” there was a long history of exclusionary and defensive design. Large walls and moats seem like odd historic hiccups, romanticized in media and history, but nevertheless served to keep certain people in and others out. Societies have since found far more subtle ways to tell people they are not welcome in a space.

We are witnessing the genocide of Palestinians. Anti-oppression is not pro-terrorism. The slaughter of innocents is not liberation.

The War on Drugs catchphrase and campaign became ubiquitous in the early ‘70s when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act into Law, declaring drug use “public enemy number one.”

But who really was the State’s “public enemy number one?

We share and feel the anger and hurt caused by this crisis and understand the urgency to do something. Anything.

However, we have to avoid resurrecting the war on drugs and other failed policies from the past. What we truly need are effective solutions based on research and real-world experience.