Guest speaker to examine, discuss phenomena of police abolition

The topic of police abolition will be the focus of the next Conversations on Race and Policing event when guest speaker Tony Gaskew, a University of Pittsburgh professor of criminal justice presents, “Stop Trying to Fix Policing: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Black Liberation.”

The program will take place on Zoom at noon Wednesday, Feb. 23. It is open to the public and can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/97960458784.

The presentation takes its title from Gaskew’s book of the same name. According to the book’s webpage, “In ‘Stop Trying to Fix Policing: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Black Liberation,’ Tony Gaskew guides readers through the phenomena of police abolition, using the cultural lens of the Black radical tradition. The author weaves an electrifying combination of critical race theory, spiritual inheritance, decolonization, self-determination, and armed resistance, into a critical autoethnographic journey that illuminates the rituals of revolution required for dismantling the institution of American policing.”

Gaskew, a professor of criminal justice and associate dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, has an extensive professional and academic career in the field of criminal justice. He has more than 20 years of policing experience, including as a member of the United States Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) within the Southern and Middle District of Florida.

To learn more on the topic, visit The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system, which has curated a collection of article links on police abolition on its website.

Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP, began in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers. A video of the incident posted on social media led to widespread protests, the firing of four police officers, the arrest and conviction of one officer on a second-degree murder and related charges, the other three on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder – and a spotlight worldwide on race and policing.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 50 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

Upcoming Conversations on Race and Policing, which take place at noon on Wednesdays on Zoom, include:

• March 2, “Midnight Basketball: Race, Sports, and Neoliberal Social Policy,” a presentation and discussion with Douglas Hartman, professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota; and
• March 9, “Everyday Violence against Black and Latinx LGBT Communities,” presented by Siobhan Brooks, professor of African American Studies at Cal State Fullerton.

The series is organized by CSUSB students Marlo Brooks, Zoralynn Oglesby, Evelyn Jimenez, Jade McDonald, Jaime Castro and Connie Cornejo; Mary Texeira, CSUSB professor of sociology; Jeremy Murray, CSUSB associate professor of history; Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage.