Resources

Understanding violence through a public health lens addresses the crime as well as the environment in which the crime took place. This is done by taking into account the risk and protective factors that surround a person, their community and the community in which they live. Reimagining public safety means identifying community-led and/or supported solutions and strategies that stop the bleeding today and investing in the dismantlement of the systems of inequity.

A resource detailing a few key facts about police response to domestic violence and highlighting defunding police as a survivor led anti-violence strategy that stops police from looting resources survivors need to prevent, avoid, escape and heal from violence – and puts more money into violence prevention and interruption, and meeting survivors’ needs.

This kit is designed to consolidate the information regarding Invest Divest strategy and resources for Louisville, Kentucky. This kit is intended to be used for the following: refer to this document for campaigning at the social media level, share this document with your base, and hold teach-ins and trainings on the uses of narrative and social media for this campaign, post directly from your own personal channels, and share to and from the partner organizations listed here.

“Racism is a public health crisis,” according to a May 2020 statement from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). This means that racism — whether unintentional, unconsciously, or concealed — has affected Black Americans’ access to equal and “culturally competent” health care. This page goes into the effects of police encounters and footage of police brutality on Black Americans, as well as giving an overall view of mental health among the community. This resource also includes further resources for mental health help.

The ongoing scourge of police terrorism has reinvigorated an important national conversation about policing and incarceration — their history, purpose, and practice. While some have called for reforms, like stricter use-of-force policies and enhanced body cam protocols for officers, others have demanded more sweeping change. “Abolition for the People,” a project produced by Kaepernick Publishing in partnership with LEVEL, seeks to end that debate once and for all. Over the next four weeks, the project will publish 30 stories from organizers, political prisoners, scholars, and advocates — all of which point to the crucial conclusion that policing and prisons do not serve as catch-all solutions for the issues and people the state deems social problems.

Breonna Taylor is the only Black woman killed by police whose case is familiar to most Americans. And a Newsy analysis shows even the highest-profile women’s cases receive only a small fraction of the coverage generated by police killings of men. The #SayHerName campaign aims to raise awareness of the connection between race and police violence and make sure the stories of Black women are being told.

Historically, Black women, girls, and femmes have not fit the most accessible frames of anti-Black police violence. Consequently, it is difficult to tell stories about their lost lives that people recognize and remember. Their precarity is buried beneath myths, stereotypes, and denial. But the heartbreaking truth is that Black girls as young as 7 and women as old as 93 have been killed by the police. Explore a special zine issue highlighting the victims of police violence and an interactive webpage to learn more about the women that #SayHerName represents.

A report that looks into who foots the bill for law enforcement settlements and judgments in locations around the US. Findings should expand courts’ and scholars’ understandings of the impact of lawsuits on police reform efforts, inspire experimentation with budgeting arrangements that encourage more caretaking and accountability by law enforcement, and draw attention to the positive role government insurers can and do play in efforts to promote risk management and accountability in policing.