AL Jazeera quoted Erroll Southers of the USC Price School about how the FBI broadly applies its Black Identity Extremist (BIE) designation. Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent who specialised in counterterrorism, told Al Jazeera that the FBI already considered groups comprising eco-terrorists, white supremacists, anarchists, anti-abortion rights activists and black nationalists as possible “domestic…
Los Angeles Times quoted Jody Armour of the USC Gould School about the large sum a court awarded in damages to a family of a man fatally shot by a San Bernardino County deputy. “The jury was convinced that there was clear and convincing evidence that the officer was not merely negligent and unreasonable in…
To some, it represents the highest ideals of our society. To others, it is a symbol of unfulfilled potential at best, outright oppression at worst. Are we referring to the American flag? Or to American sports? This debate is about more than one athlete or one gesture. It is about an institution, a system of competition, dominance, and deeply ingrained beliefs. In this episode, we examine this balance of power—and the protestors who are trying to change it. In front of a live audience at the USC Gould School of Law, Prof. Jody David Armour interviews ESPN writer Jason Reid about Colin Kaepernick, political activism, and being black in America.
Special thanks to the USC Gould School of Law for sponsoring this event and allowing us to record as part of this ongoing series of conversations bringing you the smartest minds from the University of Southern California and beyond, wrestling with the defining challenges of our time.
To listen to this episode of Our American Discourse, click the arrow in the player here. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, or Google Play.
On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles erupted into chaos and violence after four white police officers were acquitted in the beating of African American Rodney King. The Hotel Play asks what, if anything, has changed in the past 25 years?
Join Jody David Armour, Paula Cizmar, Aubrey Hicks, and David Sloane as we think about race, Los Angeles, art, and social movements. We look at the moment that was the uprising in 1992 and how community organizing that grew out of that moment became a movement.
To listen to the Price Projection Room discussion of The Hotel Play, click the arrow in the Soundcloud player at the top of this post. Or download and subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or Google Play.
In part 2 of our discussion of Cop in the Hood by Peter Moskos, we discuss the notion of discretion in the legal system – by police all the way to prosecutors & parole/probation boards. We think about discrimination in enforcement made possible by discretion. We think about conflicts of interest in investigations of police misconduct – especially in relation to the war on drugs. How should we move forward?
We ask how to define “good” policing, as we discuss sociologist Peter Moskos’ Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District. What expectations do we put on police officers? How do police departments measure success? What should we measure for success? What does “law and order” mean? Do police receive the right kind of training to deliver the service communities want them to provide? How does Baltimore differ from Los Angeles? We also discuss the epic policy failure of the War on Drugs and the idea of legalization.
For the first time in its 167-year history, Los Angeles County has seven female police chiefs leading local law enforcement agencies. The USC Price School of Public Policy brought together all seven police chiefs on March 15 for a special discussion titled, “When Women Lead: Breaking Barriers, Building Communities.”
Why are so many homicides committed by black Americans? There are really only two logical possibilities: Either they are innately more homicidal, or something has happened to them to put them in such a position.
The first possibility is, by definition, racism. It assumes that blacks are biologically different. Of course, any decent scientist can tell you that that’s not true, as can anyone who spends any time with black people.
Bostic explains his research on the relationship between private investment and crime and how to use the police system as an economic development tool.
The shooting and killing of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, Missouri police department last August touched off a wave of protest around the country and brought a national spotlight to the topic of police violence in the U.S. Along with the killing of Eric Garner in New York a month earlier,…