How can I help fight against police brutality and racist policing?

© theringer.com

Edit: 6/10/2020: For academics visiting this page from ISMS’ Reflections on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Academia here are a couple of things you can do:

A. Encourage everyone you know to record the police. Including the police themselves.

B. Email your university’s police department and ask them if they are enacting these research-based interventions to reduce violence against university stakeholders:

1.Ban chokeholds and strangleholds.

2.Require de-escalation.

3.Require a warning before shooting.

4.Require that all alternatives be exhausted before shooting.

5.Require officers to intervene when excessive force is being used.

6.Ban shooting at moving vehicles.

7.Establish a Force Continuum.

8.Require comprehensive reporting.

To see more, click here.

C. You can also hire more black and brown faculty. The PhD Project has already done a lot of work for you. See here to post jobs on their job board.

D. Also, black and brown students who come in through the PhD project have a 95% completion rate. If your university does not have the same PhD completion rate, then maybe you should recruit more students from this source. See here.

E. Finally, expand what you think of as “marketing.” This work would not exist without my advisor, Neal Roese, being willing to “expand the tent”. You can see our previous research here.

“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” — Angela Davis

For those ready to move from grief to action, here is a list of actions you can take today.

1. Volunteer to help ongoing Research: This research project is helping determine what (if anything) happens to police officers after fatal police-involved shootings. Also support research-based solutions to stop police violence.

2. Take political action by calling for change from state and local lawmakers and officials (e.g., calling and writing their offices), and donating funds to bail out organizations for protestors or other on the ground efforts. You can find more information about this via social media and other internet-based platforms (e.g., Google). Click this link for more great information about ways to get informed, take action, and get engaged.

3. If you are financially able, donate to funds explicitly addressing issues of racial injustice:

• George Floyd Memorial Fund: Give to the George Floyd Memorial Fund
• Stand with Bre: Support Breonna Taylor who was wrongfully killed, by signing this petition.
• Minnesota Freedom Fund: The Minnesota Freedom Fund pays criminal bail and immigration bonds for those who cannot afford it. They seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing.
• NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice.
• Unicorn Riot (grassroots news): Support Independent Journalism — Unicorn Riot is a decentralized, educational 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization of artists and journalists. Their work is dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world.
• Donate to community bailout funds.

4. Inform yourself: Below is a short reading list:

• Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black Peopleby Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor explores how the state fails Black people and why protests are a rational response.

• Policing the Colony: From the American Revolution to Ferguson: Adapted from Chris Hayes’s book, this essay covers the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. It considers how Black and Brown people live in a colony in a nation of White people, and how policing mirrors this understanding.

• Violent Protests Are Not the Story. Police Violence Is: This article explains how the racism inherent in the U.S. criminal justice system.

• In Defense of Looting: This article lays out the practical, tactical, and political benefits of rioting and looting.

• Remember, No One is Coming to Save Us by Roxane Gay examines the relationship between racism and the pandemic response.

• For Cops Who Kill, Special Supreme Court Protection: This is a report on qualified immunity, which is the largest barrier to police accountability.

• Whiteness as Property: This is a strong introduction to critical race and abolitionist theory.

• The End of Policing by Alex Vitale examines the broken status quo of modern policing, and that maybe we should abolish it.
• Anti-racism: See this site for resources on anti-racism.
• Dismantle racism: See this site for more information on how to dismantle racism.