Criminal Justice Program

Whose Streets? Building Safe Communities For All--Fall 2020 Symposium Series

Sponsored by the Criminal Justice Law Review, the Criminal Justice Program, and the Center for the Study of Women. This series focused on emerging community-centered alternatives that are taking hold amidst calls to defund the police. During each webinar, a panel of scholars, policymakers, lawyers, and activists looked at an iconic neighborhood space--the street, the home, and the school--and explored the possibilities and legal obstacles to creating new forms of response to public safety incidents that are safe and effective for all.

Symposium series flyer

Session 1: Street | Monday, October 19, 2020

Link to video

In this first session, we examine to what extent neighborhood-driven safety models could replace the police's most visible activity—street-level patrols. Are there better ways to handle "quality of life" crimes than citations and arrests? What other institutions could enforce traffic safety violations? What changes are needed in legal regimes to allow for alternatives to take root? This panel brings together speakers to grapple with these questions.

Speakers:
Ronda Goldfein, Safehouse
Farhang Heydari, The Policing Project at NYU Law
Michael Saavedra, Formerly incarcerated Jailhouse lawyer and UCLA Underground Scholar
Professor Sunita Patel, UCLA School of Law, Moderator

This activity is approved for 1 hour of general MCLE credit. UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.

MCLE Readings:

• Pew Research Center, Majority of Public Favors Giving Civilians the Power to Sue Police Officers for Misconduct
• Benjamin Wallace Wells, Can Minneapolis Dismantle its Police Department?

Session 2: Home | Monday, October 26, 2020

Unpredictable, dangerous, and unfortunately common, incidents of intimate partner and family violence are frequently cited as an obstacle to reducing the police presence in a community. However, recent research by the CDC and others suggests that tough on crime approaches to intimate partner violence are less effective at reducing intimate partner violence than programs that provide early violence intervention, prenatal care, shelter, employment, free preschool, and even green spaces. Yet it is still difficult to imagine a safe alternative response to a dynamic situation where violence has been reported, and victims and intervenors may be in danger of immediate, serious harm. This panel brings together experts to discuss what is at stake and what alternatives can and will work.

Speakers:
Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove, California State Assembly
Mariah Monsanto, BYP100 She Safe, We Safe Campaign
Lisa Sangoi, Movement for Family Power
Dean Allison Korn, UCLA School of Law, Moderator

This activity is approved for 1 hour of general MCLE credit. UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.

MCLE Readings:

• Dorothy Roberts, Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation
• AB 2054, CRISES ACT

Session 3: School | Monday, November 2, 2020

A major focus of the movement to defund the police is the call for K-12 schools and universities to divest from police. Activists argue that police officers on school campuses do not contribute to safety and only serve to disrupt learning environments for students of color, exacerbating educational inequities and contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. At the same time, proponents of school resource officers argue that in a heavily armed society, schools are no longer presumptively safe spaces, and police officers can be positive role models for students, their presence building trust and understanding between officers and young people. Rounding out our discussion on community-driven public safety, we examine current challenges activists face in the movement to divest from police in schools as well as proposed alternatives to officers in schools.

Speakers:
SA Smythe, Assistant Professor, UCLA, Gender Studies & African American Studies
sarah Djato, LAUSD high school student and member-leader of Students Deserve
Jason P. Nance, Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Máximo Langer, UCLA School of Law, Moderator
Additional Speakers to be Announced

This activity is approved for 1 hour of general MCLE credit. UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.

MCLE Readings:

• Leadership for Educational Equity, Emerging Models for Police Presence in Schools,  
• Institute for Policy Studies, Reimagining School Safety
• Abolish the UC, A Disorientation Guide

Previous Criminal Justice Law Review Symposia

Spring 2020 - Fees and Fines Policy in California: Current Research & Pathways to Change

2019 - Reimagining the Criminal Justice System

2018 - Bail Reform in California and Beyond

The first Connecting Art and Law for Liberation (CALL) Festival took place on April 12-14, 2019 and brought together visionary artists, activists, attorneys, advocates and legal scholars to share innovative, cutting-edge collaborations at the intersection of art and law. We committed to hosting this festival every other year and 2021’s festival took place over zoom and was “A CALL to Imagine Abolitionist Futures.” For more information visit the CALL Festival website.