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Connections over controversy: criminal justice department and BSU team up to add BLM flag to display

Katarina Rothhorn

April 21, 2021 |

The North Wind |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Marquette, Michigan

Northern Michigan University's Black Student Union turned its unhappiness with the display on campus of a "thin blue line" flag into a series of deep and open conversations that led to a compromise and a new set of collaborations. The university's criminal justice department had put the flag on display. One BSU member approached the department chair to ask that it be removed. But that led to a long, respectful conversation, followed by meetings of students on both sides. A Black Lives Matter flag was added to the display and the two groups are planning a joint educational program on the issue.

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The invisible shield: how activists and lawmakers are breaking down qualified immunity, Part 3

Herb Boyd Damaso Reyes

April 15, 2021 |

New York Amsterdam News |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

The protests against police abuses in 2020 prodded numerous legislatures to challenge the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from being sued for violating people's civil rights. Colorado's law, the first to pass, was a direct response to the protests, as was New York City's law. While one Colorado lawsuit has already been filed, the full effects of these laws and others in the pipeline won't be known for some time. Proponents say these changes won't transform police culture, but they are necessary precursors to making deeper changes.

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No badges. No guns. Can violence interrupters help Minneapolis?

Martin Kuz

April 13, 2021 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

MinneapolUS puts unarmed community members on Minneapolis streets to prevent street violence, part of the city's effort to redirect resources from the police to other crime-prevention efforts. Four teams of 20 to 30 members, many of them former gang members and formerly incarcerated, have intervened in beatings and potential shootings. They use a public-health approach pioneered by the organization Cure Violence, which has proven effective in other cities.

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Charlotte is taking a new approach to drug cases. It could change lives.

Devna Bose

April 13, 2021 |

The Charlotte Observer |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Charlotte, North Carolina

The Mecklenburg County district attorney stopped prosecuting non-violent, low-level drug cases to free up resources to handle a backlog of more serious cases that built up during the pandemic. The policy had the effect of freeing people from the permanent stain of a criminal conviction and offering them drug treatment as an alternative to punishment.

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What do communities do when the police retreat?

Robert Klemko

April 12, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Little Earth Protectors is one of several community patrol groups that emerged in Minneapolis' unrest after George Floyd's death in police custody. Named for a mostly Native American neighborhood with high rates of violence, the Protectors filled a vacuum left by short-staffed police who had lost support in the community. Patrolling the streets, usually unarmed, the Protectors mediate disputes, discourage drug and prostitution activity, and guard against property destruction. Seven larger groups doing this work have been given city contracts to provide their services if civil unrest breaks out again.

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Once jailed, these women now hold courts accountable — with help from students, retirees and Fiona Apple

Katie Mettler

April 09, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Court Watch PG acts as a traditional court watch program for Maryland's Prince George's County, but with a twist: the two formerly incarcerated women running it turned adversity, in the form of the pandemic's shutdown of trials, into opportunity in the form of a nationwide crew of volunteers watching over Zoom. The watchers attend bond hearings, where people jailed on pending charges try to gain pretrial release. After observing thousands of hearings, Court Watch PG has exposed flaws in the system, which it pushes to reform through the more than 100 "accountability letters" it has sent justice officials.

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There's a new approach to police response to mental health emergencies. Taking the police out of it

Chris James

April 02, 2021 |

CNN |

Broadcast TV News |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team replaces or aids police officers in responding to calls about people in nonviolent behavioral health crises. A collaboration of the city's fire and health departments, the program puts three-person teams – social workers, paramedics, and peer counselors – on patrol to respond to calls or to look for people in crisis. The $4 million pilot project has taken 800 calls in its first four months, connecting people to the care they need without the violence that can occur when police are first responders. The city hopes to expand its hours to 24/7 soon.

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The invisible shield: how qualified immunity was created and nearly destroyed the ability to sue police officers in America Pt. I

Herb Boyd Damaso Reyes

April 01, 2021 |

New York Amsterdam News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, as a direct response to white resistance to Reconstruction-era reforms in the former Confederacy, gave people the right to sue government officials for depriving them of their civil rights. But a series of court decisions from the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s through the 1980s undercut the law's intent, so much so that police officers ended up with "qualified immunity" from liability for rights violations – effectively avoiding accountability, even when they act in bad faith.

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Inside the community patrols in San Francisco's Chinatown

Samantha Michaels

March 30, 2021 |

Mother Jones |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Rising alarm over hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans, particularly the elderly, drew many volunteers to the community patrols that have organized over the past year in the Bay Area. Chinatown Safety Patrol, started just weeks before the Atlanta spa murders, suddenly attracted dozens of people willing to watch over and help elderly neighbors, giving them the confidence to go about their lives on the streets. The patrols serve as a deterrent to predatory violence. They also can deescalate conflict. Their main function is to protect residents in ways that the police can't or won't.

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After crime plummeted in 2020, Baltimore will stop drug, sex prosecutions

Tom Jackman

March 26, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

When Baltimore prosecutors stopped prosecuting most lower-level crimes to ease jail crowding during the pandemic, they discovered that making many fewer arrests did not fuel a crime wave. In fact, crime dropped substantially, counter to what most other cities experienced during the same time. The experiment showed that not prosecuting for drug possession, prostitution, trespassing, and other minor offenses has minimal, if not positive, effects on crime. The policy was made permanent and officials will now connect people with needed health and social services instead of jailing them.

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