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Canada's largest school district ended its police program. Now Toronto may be an example for U.S. districts considering the same.

Kalyn Belsha

June 19, 2020 |

Chalkbeat National |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, Toronto, Ontario

Prompted by Black Lives Matter protesters and informed by a controversial survey of high school students on their feelings about having police stationed in their schools, Toronto pulled police from its schools in 2017 and since then has refuted warnings of a spike in misbehavior and crime. While arrest numbers and data on students’ current feelings about safety are unknown, Canada’s largest school system at least proved that it could address unhappiness with a police presence without decreasing safety.

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Can Floyd protests break cycles of police brutality and racial unrest? History has lessons.

Jessica Mendoza

June 19, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Just as the Emmett Till murder helped inspire protests in the civil rights era, which in turn led to the passage of civil rights and voting rights legislation, the protests over policing in 2020 already have sparked reforms and could lead to even more dramatic social changes. Policing and racial inequity often lie at the root of protests, past and present. The question is whether the predominant focus will be on riots and violence or on the underlying grievances that concern public policy.

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These Black Students Have Fought Over-Policing In Schools for Years

Zach Schermele

June 17, 2020 |

Teen Vogue |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minneapolis school board’s vote to remove police from public schools arose not only from protests over the police killing of George Floyd, but also from a long-term advocacy project to end the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. Local youth activists for years have piggybacked on a national movement to stop the racially disparate practice of criminalizing student misbehavior. A coalition of groups, nationally and in Minneapolis, marshaled evidence of the racial inequity of such policing and the benefits of reinvesting the money saved on police in restorative justice programs and other services.

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Food drives around Chicago continue a tradition of revolutionaries feeding the community

Matt Harvey

June 17, 2020 |

The TRiiBE |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Many organizations are holding food drives, providing hot meals, and delivering essential items like groceries and diapers to children and their communities in underserved Chicago neighborhoods. Based on a tradition of providing free breakfast to kids started by the Black Panther Party, the initiatives began as a way to serve those participating in Black Lives Matters protests and shifted to reach communities, most of which are food deserts that rely on corner stores that have closed because of protests. The communities have many needs and some organizations plan on continuing to provide additional services.

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How nonprofits are getting people out of metro Detroit jails during COVID-19 pandemic

Angie Jackson

June 16, 2020 |

Detroit Free Press |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Detroit, Michigan

Nonprofit bail funds, which use donated money to pay the bail of low-income people held in jail on pending charges, have won the release of about 55 people in Detroit during the COVID-19 crisis. Beyond the immediate need to free more people from an environment that makes social distancing difficult, the bail funds are part of a larger movement challenging a system that disproportionately affects people of color. The combination of bail payments, bond reductions, and administrative releases have reduced Wayne County's jail population by almost half.

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How Violence Interrupters Brokered An End To Anti-Black Attacks In A Latino Neighborhood

Pascal Sabino

June 16, 2020 |

Block Club Chicago |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

When protests against police violence turned into looting and anti-Black violence in some Latinx neighborhoods, violence interrupters from groups such as UCAN, EnLace, and Chicago CRED brokered a peace agreement that almost immediately ended that violence. The outreach workers’ years-long relationships and training in dispute mediation gave them credibility to address historic racial tensions among gangs in Lawndale and Little Village. The violence could have escalated, but three days of negotiation – and a sense of common cause against racism in policing – united the neighborhoods.

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This Seattle protest zone is police-free. So volunteers are stepping up to provide security.

Gregory Scruggs

June 16, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

In Seattle's police-free street encampment that sprang up during protests over policing abuses, a mostly unarmed group of volunteer "sentinels" has defused a number of potential problems while largely avoiding the use of force. Trained in de-escalation and mediation tactics, the sentinels have used listening techniques to understand people's anger or mental state. Among the incidents they have addressed: fights, attempted vandalism of storefronts, visits from armed people who wanted to confront a supposed leftist threat, and the attempted arson of a police precinct building.

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How Decades Of Bans On Police Chokeholds Have Fallen Short

Monika Evstatieva Tim Mak

June 16, 2020 |

NPR |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States

One of the key police reforms sought after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, bans on chokeholds and other neck restraints, has failed to curb abuses in some of the nation’s largest police departments because of lax enforcement and easily found loopholes in such policies. Despite existing bans, some as old as 30-40 years, multiple people in those cities have died when neck restraints were used during their arrests with few repercussions. Lack of effective training and disagreements over such tactics’ efficacy are among other reasons experts say the practice persists.

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Youth Are Flipping an Abandoned North Carolina Prison into a Sustainable Farm

Christina Cooke

June 15, 2020 |

Civil Eats |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Wagram, North Carolina

A former North Carolina prison has been reclaimed by the nonprofit Growing Change to teach sustainable farming to youth who otherwise might be doomed to their own prison terms without an effective intervention. The 9-year-old program, while small, is meant to serve as a model for reusing many other shuttered prisons as the nation’s incarceration numbers fall. Boasting positive effects on recidivism, the program’s focus is the racially diverse youth of the rural, impoverished eastern part of the state – the same people who disproportionately get imprisoned.

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Can implicit bias training help cops overcome racism?

Candice Wang

June 15, 2020 |

Popular Science |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Implicit racial bias has solid scientific grounding, and training programs to make police officers aware of it and overcome its effects in their work have been widely embraced. But it is hard to measure whether such training reduces police brutality and racially disparate law enforcement. And there are many ways in which such programs fail, in part by force-feeding entire police departments a message they resist. There are ways to cure these flaws, including by making it voluntary and letting its lessons ripple out more organically in a police department.

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