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street at night

What I Know Today

They didn’t tackle me so much as deliver a hard body check. My phone — I was listening to a voicemail — fell to the ground but I kept my feet, off balance for a second before turning to face one of the guys mugging me. We were under a street lamp on a normally…

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Director's Corner

Blocking Black History Is Just The Beginning

Black History Month ended yesterday. It’s traditionally been a month where we celebrate the achievements of Black people, some iconic and some lesser known but still vital to U.S. history.  Our history is deep, long, complex, and incredibly inspiring to me. It is also an important lens for our work, which is why the growing…

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Will Simpson at The Future of Public Safety Convening

Our Priorities Must Shift

During his 2023 State of the Union Address, President Biden could mention investment into community violence interventions or non-carceral responses only by pairing it with his stated support for continued investment into policing (this comes on the heels of the Safer Communities Act, where the White House funded 100,000 police in communities across the U.S.). …

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Director's Corner
black and white image of man at protest, wearing a mask over his mouth and holding his fist up

The Death of Tyre Nichols

We remain shaken by the murder of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man and father of a 4-year-old son, at the hands of Memphis police in a horrifying display of brutality. The pain we all feel is the too familiar, relentless trauma that policing inflicts. We have been here so many times before. After Minneapolis…

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Statue at the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington DC, USA in October 2013. Photo by Jannis Werner

Dr. King wanted us to act

When I was in college, I served on a committee planning the University of Michigan’s renowned Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium.  That year, Michigan brought Dr. Cornel West, the philosopher, activist, and professor, to campus as the symposium’s keynote speaker. He was a hero of mine (and still is). As a planning committee…

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Director's Corner
ejusa staff in black shirts

The EJUSA Difference

Happy new year! I hope you had a peaceful and joyous holiday season.  Personally, I appreciated the break after a thrilling but fast-paced year. We accomplished so much together thanks to your support, but I want to share one specific highlight of 2022.  When I started at EJUSA, I knew that one of my highest…

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News
group of people talking in a circle

Stopping the chain reaction of violence

Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence — responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Targeting Retaliation: Stopping the chain reaction of gun violence in Paterson, northjersey.com In the aftermath of violence, individuals and communities need safety and healing. The Paterson Healing Collective shows up for…

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News
street art on orange building

Ecosystem in Action

The night before Thanksgiving, legendary Newark street peacemaker Sharif Amenhotep found himself surrounded by legions of city police officers as they sought to confiscate his mini-bus from his vending area on Branford Place and Broad Street. The incident got particularly dicey when officers appeared to be cutting or doing something to the underside of the…

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News
Image of graph that shows steep decline of the number of death sentences since 1990

Hope on the Horizon

In a year in which political campaigns and media drove public perception of rising crime to record highs, support for the death penalty in 2022 remains near the lowest it’s been in 50 years. Even among conservatives, support for the death penalty fell five percentage points, despite a barrage of media stoking fear in the…

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News
book cover with illustrations of black women protesting

Imagining the Possibility of Safety

At the beginning of the summer, our executive director, Jamila Hodge, sat on a panel in a crowded gymnasium in Newark talking about transforming the justice system.  “The system is going to do what it’s going to do,” she said. “It is a machine, and it was built for a purpose, and that was to…

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