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Voting justice group Common Power turns to tech in time of COVID to reimagine outreach

Lisa Stiffler

July 01, 2020 |

GeekWire |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Common Power has over 2,000 volunteers, mostly white retirees, who reach out to voters and lobby elected officials for things like widespread mail-in ballots. The small, racially diverse paid staff run many traditional voter engagement programs, such as phone banks and voter-registration drives. The organization also focuses on partnering with local organizations and provides extra capacity in the form of trained volunteers for campaigns in 20 states. All programming has become virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic and substantial time has been spent training volunteers on the new technologies.

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The housing policy that's turning back gentrification

Nick Bowlin

June 30, 2020 |

High Country News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

A "right-to-purchase" policy has enabled nonprofits to purchase residential buildings in gentrified neighborhoods in order to prevent the displacement of those relying on rent-controlled housing. Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is a Bay Area nonprofit leading the cause to counter gentrification and prevent developers from purchasing residential buildings that house low and moderate-income households. MEDA has purchased and managed 32 buildings and is one of fewer than 10 nonprofits in the area that exercise the "right-to-purchase" policy.

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Northern Ireland's police transformation may hold lessons for the US

Laura A. Weinstein Donald Beaudette

June 26, 2020 |

The Conversation |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Ireland

With lessons for American police-reform advocates, the transformation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary – a militarized enforcer of inequality hated by the people of Northern Ireland – into an entirely new organization was founded on the necessity of community support. Neither easy nor simple, this 20-year process, following 30 years of conflict, intentionally included recruiting local Catholics in order to win local support. Citizen oversight served as another pillar of the new structure, which still has problems but has won critical political support from Sinn Féin, the leading nationalist political party.

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How to Defund the Police

Alexis Okeowo

June 26, 2020 |

The New Yorker |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

On the front lines of the defund-police movement, groups like Elite Learners and Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy mediate conflicts in ways that have lowered violence without the involvement of police, thus reducing arrests and incarceration at the same time. CMS workers often use the Cure Violence approach of "violence interruption," a form of outreach by community members to offer needed social services while preventing violence. The city, which credits these programs with a 15% decline in shootings in 17 precincts in a three-year span, is expanding the budget for this to nearly $50 million per year.

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Police Training In America: How Can We Fix A Broken System?

Meghna Chakrabarti Grace Tatter

June 25, 2020 |

WBUR |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Police training often is the suggested fix after controversial incidents of alleged brutality, but training is only one piece of a much larger set of cultural, racial, and social issues. Reforming training in de-escalation tactics on its own has not generally changed a warrior mentality that preaches dominance and hypervigilance to counter perceived resistance or threats with overwhelming force, say a journalist who covers policing and a former police officer and researcher who studies use of force policies. They examine one fatal shooting and why training failed to prevent tragedy.

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San Quentin's Breakthrough Prison Newsroom

Emily Nonko

June 25, 2020 |

Politico |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

San Quentin Prison's media created by the men incarcerated there have gone beyond rehabilitation of individuals to a broader mission of promoting criminal justice policy reform by reframing the narrative about those who have committed crimes and the system's inequities. Through San Quentin News, the podcast Ear Hustle, and a series of dialogues between incarcerated men and criminal justice officials, their stories have shed new light on prison life and those held in prison, and formed a cadre of journalists who gained experience behind bars and have become prominent advocates on the outside.

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When it comes to police oversight, many watchdogs lack teeth

Rob Kuznia Casey Tolan

June 25, 2020 |

CNN |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The most effective civilian oversight agencies that act as watchdogs over police discipline are empowered to conduct independent investigations, impose discipline on individual officers, and influence disciplinary policy. One of the strongest, in Oakland, forced the police chief out of office over police shootings and diversity on the police force. But the lessons to be learned in this field come more often from the many examples of structural flaws that render civilian oversight powerless to counter the wishes of the police, or even to be listened to.

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9 Departments and Multiple Infractions for One New Jersey Police Officer

Rukmini Callimachi

June 24, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Woodlynne, New Jersey

New Jersey’s responses to police misconduct offer stark lessons in how certain failures can allow troubled officers to hop from job to job undetected. The state lacks a central database of police misconduct and remains one of only five states that cannot revoke an officer’s credentials because of performance. In one case, an officer with serial failures at nine departments, involving 16 incidents in which people he arrested got injured, the red flags that should have been raised never were, allowing him to mistreat residents of majority-Black neighborhoods despite a record indicating racism and brutality.

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Mississippi: Local Groups offer financial aid to black businesses shunned by federal stimulus

Aallyah Wright

June 24, 2020 |

Black Star News |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Mississippi

Black businesses in Mississippi are receiving a financial boost from a nonprofit that seeks to level the playing field for rural African-Americans in the state who have historically been overlooked when it comes to federal aid. Higher Purpose Co is a black-led economic justice nonprofit that has raised $400,000 for entrepreneurs and has received over 2,500 applicants. The nonprofit has given up to $5,000 to small businesses with 20 or fewer employees.

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In Germany, Confronting Shameful Legacy Is Essential Part of Police Training

Katrin Bennhold Melissa Eddy

June 23, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

To prevent its police forces from ever again being turned into militarized and politicized tools of an authoritarian state, Germany requires all police trainees to visit former Nazi concentration camps and learn in detail how the Nazi regime used police as a tool. Though the historical comparisons to American policing of racial minorities is not equivalent, the explicit effort to break from a shameful past as a mode of cultural change is instructive. Other reforms include strict separation of police and military and a decentralized structure to keep unchecked power out of the hands of a single agency.

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