Understanding "Defund the Police"

11:00 AM Online – Live!
(NOTE that the time is 11:00 AM, not our usual 2:30 PM)

Presented by Alex S. Vitale
“Research-based perspectives on Police reform vs. defunding vs. abolition of police.”

You’ve likely heard the calls for defunding the police, during this summer’s demonstrations against police killings. You may agree and wonder how we could get there, or you may think that defunding goes too far, or you may just wonder what it means. Whatever your reaction, here’s a chance to find out more. Professor Vitale will explain the “defund the police” movement and its relationship to the long struggle for racial and economic justice.

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults to both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. Prof. Vitale is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics and The End of Policing.

His academic writings on policing have appeared in Policing and Society, Police Practice and Research, Mobilization, and Contemporary Sociology. He is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have been published in The NY Times, Washington Post and The Guardian.

Please go to EHSAsheville.org for Zoom information.

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