There have been two constants in Donna Roman Hernandez’s life: trauma and a deep desire to help people. Both elements are deeply entwined. Donna served her community for 30 years as a police officer in New Jersey, retiring as a captain having commanded a domestic violence response team and police in-service domestic violence training unit….
At this point, there isn’t any aspect of life in the U.S. that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic. This is especially true in Black and Brown communities. Covid-19 has magnified every inequity. People are struggling to put food on the table, pay their rent, get high-quality health care, and make sure their kids are…
Reimagining Justice This Month | August 2020 Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Austin Cuts Its Police Budget by About a Third, The Appeal Austin, Texas, is diverting $150 million away from its police department to reinvest…
To transform our justice system, we must change the way we think about accountability. Our culture of punishment as accountability has never made us safer. But there are models of accountability that heal rather than harm. EJUSA has a vision for how this kind of accountability can apply to policing for the damage and pain…
George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police officers has sparked outrage and action across the nation. As protests escalated over the last 10 days, so too has a growing call to defund the police. Many have reacted to this call to action with enthusiasm, confusion, or fear. But this powerful demand does not eradicate our public…
To our EJUSA family, Last week, George Floyd became the latest chapter in America’s history of racial terror when a police officer in Minneapolis killed him in broad daylight, in front of multiple cameras, while three other officers watched. This weekend, the pent-up grief, trauma, and rage that this triggered poured onto streets across the…
For generations, communities of color have experienced deep mistrust of police, resulting from years of institutional racism and violence. Only after the 2014 police murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford, all within a month of each other, did discussions of police violence and accountability become a part of the larger national conscience….