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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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We lost a member of the EJUSA family last week. Bonnita Spikes was a force, a fierce and fearless organizer whose impact on communities across Maryland and beyond is immeasurable. Every time Bonnita told her story, people listened. Her strategic vision, her warmth, and her persistence helped to end the death penalty in Maryland and…
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Six Newark, NJ, residents and five police officers sit in a semi-circle in a local community center. They’re listening as a Black man, mid forties, recounts a tale of being hit in the head by a police officer as a teenager while hanging out with his friends after school. As he finishes his story, he…
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