Brief #155 – Social Justice Policy Brief
by Inijah Quadri
In the United States, the path to police reform has been a complex and diverse journey, significantly influenced by local contexts and challenges. By examining the police reform efforts in two cities—Baltimore and Minneapolis—we can gain insights into the differences in approach and outcomes in these cities.
Brief #153 – Social Justice Policy Brief
by Inijah Quadri
In the United States, the urgent need for police reform has been brought into sharp focus following high-profile incidents involving police use of force. The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others at the hands of law enforcement have sparked nationwide protests and a deep reevaluation of policing practices.
Brief #160—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
On April 16, 2021 new U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum titled “Civil Settlement Agreements and Consent Decrees With State and Local Governmental Entities.”
The memo was comprised of four points. First, the new memo rescinded a November 2018 memo that imposed restrictions on the traditional use of consent decrees against state and local law enforcement entities. That November 2018 memo was issued by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Second, the new memo instructs that settlement agreements and consent decrees would return to the traditional process of approval that had been in place prior to Attorney General Sessions November 2018 memo. Third, the use of consent decrees again must lay out specifically what the violations are, what remedies are being proposed and how the remedies will address the violations. And lastly, the memo instructs that if monitors are brought in to help oversee the proposed consent decree that the monitors are independent, highly qualified and free of conflicts of interest. LEARN MORE
Brief #3—Criminal Justice
By Marcie Jaffee
Despite broad swaths of Americans protesting in the streets, attempts to pass a police overhaul bill stalled in Congress last week. Both the GOP and Democrats introduced police reform bills, but neither survived the partisan divide, making it unlikely that Congress will take any action toward police reform before the November elections.
Brief #129—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
In 1967 the United States Supreme Court decided the case Pierson v. Ray which decreed for the first time that police officers had “qualified immunity.”
Brief #1—Policing In America
By Laura Plummer
On June 12, amid worldwide protests against police killings of Black people, 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was shot in the back by an officer of the Atlanta Police Department (APD). His death has amplified the calls for police reform at the department.
Brief #21 – Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
Statistics show that black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people, which is why police reform and rebuilding trust between law enforcement and minorities is so important in today’s climate. Local leaders have proposed using the funds to expand law enforcement, invest in social services, or develop technology used to prevent gun violence.
Brief #9—Criminal Justice
By Laura Plummer
Across the country Americans are demanding an end to police violence in their communities, with different activist groups calling for different solutions. Chief among these are reform, defund and abolish.
Brief #14—Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
The police use of deadly force in America is a plague; the Washington Post reports that cops kill around 1,000 people per year, a number that has remained steady since 2015. There is an even bigger problem with the police use of deadly force – they disproportionally target black Americans in deadly force incidents, and this issue is unfortunately nothing new.
The numbers are alarming in cities across America. If we take a look at Minneapolis, where ex-police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, Minneapolis Police use force against black people seven times more than against white people. Since 2015, there were 11,5000 instances of force documented in Minneapolis; at least 6,650 of those instances involved black people. While white people make up 60% of the population in Minneapolis, force was only used against them 2,750 times. These numbers are similar to the rest of the country, where black Americans are twice as likely to be killed by police as white Americans. The Washington Post reports that police will kill 36 out of a million black Americans, while police will only kill 15 out of a million white Americans. The statistics are troubling, considering that black Americans only make up 13% of the population, yet account for so many instances of police-involved deadly force.
Brief #22—Criminal Justice
By Laura Plummer
Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the U.S. and the largest city in Pennsylvania. It has a population of just over 1.5 million, with roughly equal percentages of Black and white citizens (42 and 41 percent respectively).