The Committee for Racial Justice will hold its next monthly workshop via Zoom on Sunday evening, July 12, from 6:30 until about 8:30 p.m. If you are NOT already on the CRJ email list and wish to join the zoom meeting on the 12th, call Joanne at (310) 422-5431.
Racist police violence is now in the national spotlight—as it should be. Two portions of our July workshop will focus on that topic. One speaker, Jennifer Rojas, a Policy Advocate and Organizer from ACLU will discuss the problem of reluctant compliance on the part of police with AB 392, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, and requires attempts by officers to de-escalate as opposed to using force as a first option. The law preserves the “reasonable force” standard for nondeadly force, but creates a separate, higher standard that authorizes the use of deadly force by law enforcement only when “necessary.”
In addition, Lex Steppling, Director of Campaigns & Policy for Dignity & Power Now, will discuss the movement to transform police and reimagine public safety. Lex Steppling has organized most of his life around issues pertaining to state violence from a criminal justice and public health lens. A native of Los Angeles, Lex is home after 7 years of organizing nationally to help push towards a future free from punitive punishment systems and towards a vision of healing and justice.
These are not new ideas for CRJ, but they are gaining unprecedented traction with the public at this time, so that revisiting them and learning about their most current iterations are a must.
Several months ago, CRJ sponsored the showing and discussion of a film on the horrible, disgraceful history of lynching in this country. Though we were not predicting anything at the time, the film helped define the historical context within which we took very seriously an incident at Malibu High School (which happened soon afterwards) in which white students taunted a black student with a noose. This incident has not been resolved, and some are calling for treating the incident as a hate crime. Our CRJ Steering Committee member and longtime community activist, Robbie Jones, will update us on this situation.
We also now have chilling news that nooses have been used in L.A.’s backyard, the Antelope Valley for purposes that go beyond symbolic taunting or harassment. In Victorville, on May 31, a Black man named Malcolm Harsch was found hanging from a tree near the city library. In Palmdale, on June 10, another Black man, Robert Fuller was also found hanging from a tree—in this case, right in front of the town hall. More hangings have occurred in other parts of the country: a young Black man found in a public park in New York City and a Black teenager found on the grounds of an elementary school in Houston. In each of these cases, the police initially reported that they had no evidence for anything other than suicide! Our fourth speaker, Trudy Goodwin, will discuss this tragic and terribly concerning series of events. In addition to being a co-founder of CRJ and a member of the CRJ Steering Committee, Trudy is a healing justice organizer with Dignity and Power Now.
Come join this important discussion.
This event is sponsored by the Committee for Racial Justice.
For more information, call Joanne at 310-422-5431.
Submitted by Joanne Berlin
