The Conversations on Race and Policing series will explore healing after gang violence and community responses to police violence during two free public Zoom programs Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 21 and 22.

Both programs will be streamed on Zoom.

“Healing After Gang Violence: In Conversation with Mia Arredondo and Edwin Cruz” begins at noon Wednesday, Oct. 21. Audience questions are welcome.

Arredondo lost her older brother to gang violence when she was 12. Now a community violence intervention program manager at Champions in Service, she works to prevent violence and support young people across the San Fernando Valley.

Cruz was sentenced to life without parole at 17 for a gang-related crime that resulted in someone’s death. He served 17 years before being resentenced and released in 2024. He now uses peer support and trauma-informed care to help people affected by the criminal justice system heal and reintegrate into their communities.

Both are part of Survivor Action for Equity, a coalition of people who have lost loved ones to homicide and support reconsidering life-without-parole sentences imposed on people barely out of their teens.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, performer, organizer and activist Cat Brooks will discuss her work. Brooks hosts KPFA’s “Law & Disorder,” co-founded the Anti Police-Terror Project and is executive director of The Justice Teams Network. Her work includes supporting communities and families affected by police violence. She also ran for mayor of Oakland in 2018, finishing second to incumbent Libby Schaaf.

Brooks is a frequent presenter in the series. Episodes in which she was featured include in 2021 when she discussed her work with the Anti Police-Terror Project, and most recently in February this year in the aftermath of the separate killings of protestors Renée Good and Alex Jeffery Pretti by federal agents during demonstrations against immigration raids in Minneapolis, Minn.

The Conversations on Race and Policing program began following the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd and its aftermath. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, triggering widespread protests, demands for systemic policing reforms and profound discussions about race and racism. The events also led to the creation of Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing, abbreviated as CoRP.

In subsequent court cases, three other former Minneapolis police officers implicated in Floyd’s death received prison sentences.

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

Since June 2020, more than 140 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions have been posted in the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive.

Programs take place every Wednesday beginning at noon unless otherwise noted. Upcoming speakers include:

  • Nov. 4 – Pete Simi, “American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate.”
  • Nov. 18 – Clay Risen, “Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America.”
  • Thursday, Nov. 19 – Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor,  “Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me. 
  • Dec. 2 – Janet Reitman, “The Inheritance: An American Tragedy in Five Acts.”

The organizing team for Conversations on Race and Policing includes Michael German, Stan Futch, Amber Broaden, Robie Madrigal, Jeremy Murray, Matt Patino and Mary Texeira, representing CSUSB and collaborating community and educational organizations.

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

Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage.