As the debate over who will access body camera footage in D.C. continues in advance of the expansion of the District’s body-cam program, Delroy Burton—chair of the D.C. Police Union and panelist on “Technology and Police Accountability”—has consistently argued for greater public access to footage. See his position quoted in the article below, and come to the panel on Friday at 3:30 to hear all sides of the story.
“With More Body-Worn Cameras Coming, Debate Shifts To Who’ll Get To See Video”
In a Mother Jones profile written this past summer, Intersectionality panelist Andrea Ritchie talks about Rekia Boyd and the other black women who have been killed at the hands of police. As the Police/State Symposium nears, arm yourself with knowledge about the issues!
“Police Kill Black Women Too—and We Don’t Talk About it Enough”
Police Kill Black Women Too—and We Don’t Talk About It Enough
It’s hard to believe, but this episode of The Phil Donahue Show was recorded 20 years ago! Watch closely as Professor Paul Butler makes his argument for racially-based jury nullification. Butler’s argument is as compelling and provocative today as it was in 1995. All six parts of the episode are available on YouTube.
Don’t miss out on Professor Butler’s keynote address this Friday, at The Georgetown Law Journal’s volume 104 symposium, Police/State: Race, Power, and Control.
Witnesses say he was handcuffed. USA Today emphasizes his criminal record. Protests and a call for accountability have ensued in the wake of another police shooting of an unarmed black man. Will the call be answered, or will the use of Police/State force against Jamar Clark receive that multi-syllabic stamp of social approval—”justifiable”?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/11/16/minneapolis-police-shooting/75859132/
Professor Arjun Sethi, moderator of the panel on “Intersectionality in the Police State,” has helped to spearhead advocacy efforts which successfully led the FBI to suspend the development of a new anti-terror program targeting Muslim schoolchildren. The game-like web program that would teach students and teachers how to spot and report incipient “extremism,” said Sethi and others, would serve more to further stigmatize Arab and Muslim students than to root out potential terrorists.
For more information about the program and the activist response that rose to contest it, check out this piece in the NYTimes:
To hear Professor Sethi speak more about his work, as he moderates a discussion about the vast array of subordinate identity groups targeted by police violence in the U.S., come to “Intersectionality in the Police State” this Friday at 11:00 A.M. in Hart Auditorium at Georgetown Law, 600 New Jersey Ave. NW.
Professor McLeod, who will introduce and frame the symposium on November 20 in a 9:00 AM address, recently penned this piece in response to the debate prompt: “Will Crime Rise if More People are Kept Out of Prison?”
“Mass Incarceration is a Horrible Failure”
Professor Sethi will be offering Georgetown Law’s first course on policing in the Spring. He is currently director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition, and has previously worked with the ACLU’s Legislative Office. His work focuses in part on the racial and religious targeting of Muslims and people of Arab and South Asian descent in the “counter-extremism” policies of the national security state.
Check out a recent piece he penned on the disconnect between President Obama’s praise for teenage clock-maker Ahmed Mohamed and his administrations counter-extremism policies in the Washington Post.
“Obama Says He Supports Ahmed Mohamed, but His Policies Don’t”
Panelist Cynthia Conti-Cook has exploded the possibilities for public defenders protecting civil rights and holding police accountable.
“The Bad Cop Database”
“President Obama’s Department of Injustice”
Panelist Alec Karakatsanis (“Policing Second-Class Citizens”) of Equal Justice Under Law penned this critique of the rhetoric and reality of the Obama administration’s criminal justice policies.
“Activists Say Police Abuse of Transgender People Persists Despite Reforms”
Panelist Andrea Ritchie (“Intersectionality in the Police State”) shares her practice insights as an advocate for trans people dealing with the police in NYC.
Police/State: Race Power and Control 