Monthly Archives: May 2022

(Alyssa Shao | Daily Trojan)

In recent years, cops have been criticized more than they ever have been in America. As Black Lives Matter protests were held all over the country, systemic police brutality was brought to the forefront of the conversation. Movements to abolish the police have seen more support than ever.

But in the midst of all this, it is often asked where the Department of Public Safety fits in. Do they even count as police? Should they be abolished? The answer to both of these questions is yes.

While they may not appear to be, public safety officers, one of the two types of DPS officers, have trained at the Los Angeles Police Academy and share the same powers of arrest as LAPD officers. While possessing these powers, they do not have to comply with legislation that LAPD has to, such as the Racial and Identity Profiling Act.

But the LAPD ties dont stop there. DPS is operated through a memorandum of understanding they have with LAPD. DPS has even had several controversies hiring those fired from LAPD, employing former officers who were fired for deeds like racial harassment (current USC lieutenant Peter Foster), false statements (current USC sergeant Frank Trevino), excessive force (current USC sergeant Steven Alegre), failure to diligently investigate a fellow officer (current USC sergeant Rodney Peacock) and more.

DPS, like all police, should be abolished. While many call for reforms of this system, this simply is not enough. The damage that police have done cannot be undone by different policing, especially as policing was created as a system that upholds racism.

The modern-day police itself began as slave patrols that were formed to return runaway enslaved people to their owners and stop uprisings. Centuries of change and reform only have resulted in the continuation and expansion of this racism, such as their enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act and their internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

DPS, another result of reformations, stays true to its racist roots as it disproportionately targets Black and Latinx people. In 2019-2020, 31.7% of DPS stops involved Black people, a demographic that makes up 5.5% of the student body, 8.8% of staff, 3% of faculty and 12% of the people in the University Park area. In 2019, Alpha Phi Alpha, a Black fraternity, and Omega Phi Beta, a Latina sorority, had a tailgate surrounded by a fence and a swarm of DPS officers, while other tailgates did not. DPS does not make campus more safe; it only serves as an apparatus that profiles, arrests and polices people, making them less safe in the process.

DPS doesnt protect USCs campus it encroaches upon the surrounding two-mile radius outside of campus, surveilling, patrolling and profiling local residents who, apart from their proximity, have no connection to our institution, with no say on their part. DPS has over 300 cameras on and off campus, tracking countless non-University-affiliated individuals 24/7.

Reform of DPS in particular has resulted in the most milquetoast of changes, such as the creation of the independent DPS Community Advisory Board. CAB oversees DPS but has no power to do anything in lieu of DPS abuse, rendering it about as useful as a pedestrian watching a high-speed car crash is. They can watch all they want, but that doesnt change anything.

Simply put, police reform does not work, and example after example proves it. How can a system built to be violent toward people of color be reformed to serve these same people? It cant.

DPS, which had a net operating budget of $48,890,000 in 2018-2019, was one of the largest private campus public safety departments in the United States according to its website.

This obscene sum of money could be put toward community-based models that work toward actual safety and support, such as food, shelter and mental health resources that address the needs of those who would otherwise commit crimes out of desperation.

Scholar and activist Angela Davis, who wrote the essential abolitionist text Are Prisons Obsolete? (spoiler alert: her answer is yes), was invited by USC last June to to discuss the various intersections of activism, feminism, prison abolition, politics, writing and more. Davis also wrote an article aptly titled California must lead the way in abolishing school and university campus police in The Sacramento Bee.

Why bring Davis to talk about prison abolition if as an institution, USC wont abolish DPS, an instrument of the carceral system Davis seeks to abolish? The only answer is that USC is performative no, complicit in the violence toward people of color.

Abolition is the only way forward. A new future cannot be built on an old, violently racist foundation such as our police system. DPS is a law enforcement department that trains at the LAPD Police Academy, holds the power of arrest that police hold and hires (failed) police officers. DPS and police in general must be replaced with real public safety that is in the best interest of not only USC and Trojans, but the surrounding community as well.

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Imagining USC as a University Sans Cops - Daily Trojan Online

Joseph Knights prolonged battle to secure his freedom was key to the abolition of slavery in Scotland.

Now the remarkable story of his successful attempt to sue a wealthy Perthshire estate owner who made his fortune from West Indian sugar plantations is to get pride of place in a new 26.5 million attraction expected to retell the story of Scotland.

Knight, one of the few black people living in 18th century Scotland, has been chosen to inspire one of six specially-commissioned banners, or standards, which will be hung at Perths City Hall when it reopens in 2024.

The attraction explores how Scotland was shaped by people, places and events uniquely associated with Perthshire, including the Stone of Destiny, which will go on permanent display there after being relocated from Edinburgh Castle.

Knight will be featured alongside key figures and episodes from the Jacobite Risings, the Battle of Culloden the Highland Clearances in the banners installation, which is expected to remain in place at the new-look City Hall for up to 10 years.

Knight, who was adamant there was no legal basis for slavery in Scotland, spent four years trying to secure his freedom after being refused permission to leave the service of John Wedderburn and move out of his Ballindean estate after falling in love and marrying Annie Thomson, a chambermaid who worked for him.

Their relationship and the legal battle has already inspired the development of a new play, written by May Sumbwanyambe, which will be launched by the National Theatre of Scotland at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in October.

Knight was eventually successful in his case in 1778, effectively making it illegal to own a slave on Scottish soil, although slavery was not abolished throughout the British Empire until 1833.

Perth & Kinross Council, which is leading the City Hall redevelopment, has set aside 10,000 for each of the six commissions for its banner installation.

Its brief for artists states: This is an exciting opportunity to create work that tells a vital part of the story of Perth and Scotland, to be placed in a major new museum in the centre of Perth.

"We want this new work to tell new stories about historic events, stories that deserve to be heard and have not been told before.

"Within the new museum is a key space on the ground floor immediately adjacent to the Stone of Destiny display area.

"It is intended as a space for reflection and contemplation in terms of the impact of history on people and place.

Fiona Robertson, head of culture at Perth and Kinross Council, said: These new commissions are one of the ways in which we are supporting artists through new opportunities to create work for the stunning City Hall museum.

JP Reid, exhibitions and interpretation officer at Culture Perth and Kinross, the trust which will run the new museum on behalf of the council, said: Scotlands major historical events like the Clearances and the Jacobite Risings had a profound and very particular impact on people and places in Perth and Kinross.

"These new commissions will commemorate those important moments.

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Slave's legal battle in Scotland to inspire work of art for new national museum in Perth - The Scotsman

Activists involved in the 2012 abolition of capital punishment in Connecticut say the perspectives of murder victims families was the key element in their campaigns success.

Even Michael Lawlor, the states criminal justice czar at the time, confirmed that those testimonies made huge impressions on lawmakers and the media.

There were many arguments that were effective in abolishing the death penalty, but none was more effective than the authentic voices of individuals who had experienced these tragedies in their own lives. Not the families of the persons who had been condemned to death, but the families of the people who had been killed, Lawlor said during a recent webinar sponsored by Equal Justice USA to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Connecticut victory it helped orchestrate.

Another goal of the virtual panel discussion hosted by EJUSA Executive Director Jamila Hodge was to share strategy ideas with anti-death-penalty movements in other states and to demonstrate that success often leads to changes in other areas of criminal justice.

Those changes have included mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession near school zones, raising the age of juvenile jurisdiction and changing all drug possession charges to misdemeanors, among others.

The families of murder victims were key in shaping the criminal justice reforms that followed the abolition of the death penalty in Connecticut, said Lawlor, a member of the states House of Representatives until 2011, when he became the governors undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning.

I think the voices of victims have been in favor of progressive reforms for a system that has the goals of preventing crime, making sure other people dont experience the kind of victimization that they themselves had experienced. To me, the end goal here is to have less crime.

How am I going to get mad about somebody taking my sons life, and now I want to take somebody elses childs life? The boy that murdered my son, he had a mother. I couldnt live with myself if I took that life.

The boy that murdered my son, he had a mother. I couldnt live with myself if I took that life.

Coward said her message to politicians about murderers was powerfully simple: Just put them in jail and let time do what it has to do. Let them live with what they did. I think the mind is a better source of getting at you than just killing off people. You cant kill everybody.

She also opposed the death penalty because the millions of dollars it requires for incarceration and decades of appeals before execution. That money would be better spent providing financial and mental health assistance to victims relatives, she believes. Especially for those in urban areas.

Theres a whole lot of inner-city families who dont say anything about what they are feeling on the inside. They just go through it. Its like a fog that you go through, and you just maneuver your way around life. Its just so unfair. Especially these mothers and fathers who have young children and they have to work.

Another criticism of state-sanctioned executions is that many have been improper, and often racist, applications of death penalty statutes, she and other panelists said.

Race was a high-profile issue in the Connecticut death penalty debate after the home-invasion murders of a white mother and her two daughters in 2007. The surviving father, a physician severely injured in the assault, actively opposed abolition, and a 2009 bill repealing the practice was vetoed as a result.

But the aftermath left Black victims feeling ignored because their cases rarely got such attention, said Coward, whose son was murdered shortly after the white familys killing.

It was tough because I felt like there was a lot of racism going on at the time, separating the urban community from the suburban. I felt a life is a life, period. He lost a family, but my son is just as important as his family.

Testimony from victims like Coward helped sell other elements of the campaign that eventually resulted in the 2012 repeal, said Kica Matos, vice president of initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice and one of the leaders of the Connecticut anti-death-penalty movement.

It also was important to bring Black people into the leadership of the movement and to push the idea that executing prisoners does not make society safer, she said.

The death penalty is deeply racist. Its really expensive. Its a punishment that focuses on violence. You remove the death penalty and you create space for conversations about reforms in the criminal legal system that actually have a chance at addressing the concerns of impacted communities and the concerns of victims families. Theres an opportunity to test and pilot viable strategies that get at both reducing crime, but also bringing resources to underserved communities that are the most impacted by crime.

Matos added that abolitionists must work quietly to influence decision-makers while also being vocal when necessary: We were loud. We were not afraid to turn the volume up. But we were working ferociously behind the scenes to make sure that both strategies were harmonious with each other.

Lawlor added that it was the campaigns victim-focused public-relations strategy that helped seal the eventual win.

And I think that is a surprise to people, including journalists who are covering this stuff, which is the way the voice gets out into the community and then back to the elected officials. And there were so many journalists who were interested in learning more about the victims perspective. It just changed the discussion around this whole thing.

Related articles:

In Ohio, Republicans are leading the effort to abolish the death penalty

Panel of faith leaders will raise awareness of death penalty injustice

The death penalty is dying a slow death; its time we pull the plug| Opinion by Stephen Reeves

Its official now: Death penalty no more in Virginia

See the article here:

Hearing from victims' families changed the death penalty debate in Connecticut - Baptist News Global

There are no plans to get rid of Arts Council England as part of a review of public bodies, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has told MPs.

Appearing before the DCMS Select Committee today, Dorries said that while the system for distributing arts and culture funding around England - a function carried out by ACE - is "not perfect", there are no plans to axe the organisation.

Asked whether possible abolition of ACE was on her agenda, she replied: "Absolutely not."

READ MORE:

Under plans set out by Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Public Bodies Review Programme will require DCMS to review its public bodies.

It will needto assess whether their function should be delivered by the state, or whether an alternative, such as abolition, privatisation, or a merger is "more fitting".

Quizzed by committee chair Kevin Brennan on the potential implications for ACE, Dorries said that getting rid of the body would result in a need for more civil servants at the department to carry out its functions - something government is keen to avoid.

"If there were a proposal to abolish the arm's-length body that distributes [arts] funding, what we would probably need is an increase in the number of civil servants to do that distribution," Dorries said.

"So I think the argument that we need to reduce the number of civil servants and reduce the arm's length body kind of compete with each other.

"For me what's important is that the money goes out into the areas of the UK where it has never been spent before, outside of the South East and London.

"As Secretary of State of DCMS I would fight very strongly the corner for the distribution of arts funding and the maintaining of levels of arts funding across the UK."

Committee chair Kevin Brennan also quizzed Dorries about ongoing efforts to redistribute arts funding outside of London, expressing concern that some organisations are attempting to "game the system" by registering at postal addresses in parts of the country where they have no roots.

Dorries said she is aware of a London-based organisation in receipt of ACE funding attempting such a thing.

"I have actually spoken to a museum in the far North of England who have been written to by an NPO based in London asking them whether they could register their NPO at the museum's address."

"I am raising this issue at my next meeting with Arts Council England."

As part of a wide-ranging session, Dorries also outlined government progress in relation to efforts to achieve fair payment for songwriters and composers from music streaming, something the committee called for action on in a report published last July.

"As a government we are right behind your recommendations," Dorries said.

"We want to get to a place where we can see all of those unrecouped earnings paid and get to a place where those individual artists receive fair remuneration."

Speaking in a debate in the House of Commons yesterday (18 May), DCMS Minister Julia Lopez, who has responsibility for creative industries, said government is progressing with efforts to address the situation and is considering potential changes to legislation.

Lopez said that the Intellectual Property Office is working alongside industry experts to develop solutions to issues around contract transparency and music metadata.

"That will have an impact on the way in which songwriters and composers are remunerated for their work on streaming," she said.

"We have also commissioned independent research on the impact of potential legislative interventions aimed at improving creator remuneration."

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Dorries: abolition of ACE 'not on government agenda' - ArtsProfessional

One in four women and girls in the UK have struggled to afford period products in the last year, research has found.

Nearly 83% of those surveyed by charity WaterAid said more needs to be done as the cost of living crisis makes shopping for everyday needs increasingly unaffordable.

Some 2,000 British women, girls and non-binary people who menstruate and are aged 14 to 50 took part in the survey, with nearly a third (32%) saying they are worried they will not be able to afford period products in the future.

One in four (26%) are wearing period products for longer than they should, risking their health - while an additional one in five are coping by using makeshift materials such as toilet paper or sponges.

An anonymous respondent said: "I am using the cheapest toilet roll I can find to use for periods. It's not hygienic or recommended, but it's all I can afford."

With Menstrual Hygiene Day coming up on 28 May, the international charity is calling for menstrual health to be recognised as critical for gender equality, so no one is unfairly held back during their period.

School-aged girls are among the worst affected, with two in five (41%) worrying about adding to the financial burden of their parent or caregiver, and one in five (20%) saying they missed school or work because they could not afford period products.

The charity reported that a third of schools lack decent toilets - another reason many girls miss classes during their periods.

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One student said that cheaper period products would improve their mental health because they "wouldn't have the worry of keeping money aside".

"I wouldn't worry about the fact that I might not be able to afford period products for my next period which would mean I would miss work and university," she said.

In the last year, 22% have relied on free period products from work, school, a food bank or other charity, while nearly a quarter (24%) reported missing social activities.

Girls 'cutting back on food' to pay for period products

A separate survey by Plan International UK also found that girls and young women are using makeshift items because they cannot afford period products - with items like toilet paper, socks, newspaper and fabric used.

Nearly a fifth (19%) have been unable to afford period products at all this year, while one in 10 of the 1,000 UK respondents used a food bank to get what they needed.

Half of girls who struggled to afford period products since the start of 2022 said they had to cut back on food and groceries to be able to buy them - almost double compared with last year.

Read more: See how much your spending has increased over the past five years

Rose Caldwell, chief executive of Plan International UK, said: "As we look to an uncertain future, many more families will face tough financial choices, and more young women than ever are likely to face issues affording the products they need. Period products are a necessity, not a luxury, and they need to be treated as such."

Support provided in recent years includes free period products in schools and the abolition of the tampon tax in January 2021.

See the article here:

Cost of living: One in four women and girls struggle to afford period products in UK - with some cutting back on food, using toilet roll and missing...

In February, Spotifys Frequency, the streamers celebration of Black culture, creativity, and community hosted the Free Studio, a four-day residency to provide the space and resources for Black creators across various mediums to explore and expand their creative boundaries. The process was captured and formatted for a short film documenting the rising artists whose work is making an impact on mainstream culture.

When it came across my desk, it was just like, yes. I just realized at that moment, [that] documentary filmmaking is what I was born to do. And right off the bat, I just felt so connected to this project, shared director Anthony Prince Leslie of Equator Productions during a conversation with VIBE.

Ultimately, this is a creative studio for the freedom of Black expression, and free Black expression for me is being unapologetic in all the unique, complex ways we are as Black people, dancing to the beat of our own drum, sharing our culture without boundaries.

He continued, I just wanted to just show these artists in their true light and who they are. Them being able to be their best self and that shining through their work is the main thread between all of these seven artists that I got to work with.

The Black creators or platforms selected include Mike Brown of The Art Of Letting Go Podcast, visual artist and designer Shefon Taylor, dancer and choreographer Thom Kitt, musician Doechii, rapper Larry June, Vic Mensa, Indigo Mateo, and Richie Reseda of the Abolition X podcast, and music producer Sango.

The team commissioned filmmaker Anthony Prince Leslie to create a documentary exploring Black creativity, expressed Kimberly Summers, Hip Hop and R&B Manager, Artist & Label Partnerships at Spotify to VIBE in a statement describing how some of the artists, as well as the director himself, were selected.

With that in mind, we selected artists that embody the energy of unfiltered, creative expression through their music. Sangos ability to tell a story through different sounds, rhythms, and melodies is undeniable. Hailing from the Bay, Larry June brings an authentic perspective and sound to tracks, which people gravitate to and feel like theyre home. And of course, Doechii is that girl. Her presence, her energy, really cant be explained and it comes through in all of her music and the accompanying visuals. All of these artists prove that blackness is not monolithic and cannot be defined or confined by one genre or sound.

The 11-minute documentary uses its time well, portraying the meaning and motives behind each talents lifes work. This is done by capturing behind-the-scenes footage at recording studios, dance studios, recording sessions, and intimate conversations with Leslie in the artistic community fostered by Frequency. Developing the visual encompassed its own creative process and as a filmmaker, Leslie moved with intention.

I wanted to show these artists in their own world and who they are and this bubble. Because sometimes we find ourselves and realize that were in our own bubble. So technically, I got this angle thats streamlined throughout each artist where were overhead with the fisheye lens, shared the Brooklyn-bred filmmaker. It creates this circular motion around all the artists and we get to live in their world for a second, overhead, and see what it looks like in the snapshot. Then we dive into who they are and try to dig a little bit beneath the surface, metaphorically. Theres a lot of, Hi, my name is. And I think I just wanted to get to the meat of it.

Spotify Frequency was launched in May 2021 as the brands way of empowering Black creators. The division was created in direct response to the current social and political climate in which Black voices in music, fashion, business, and more continue to be left out and their contributions underappreciated and underrepresented. Officially, Frequency is described as a global initiative and holistic destination for celebrating Black art, entertainment, creativity, culture, and community both on- and off-platform.

Frequency is invested in exploring Black creativity and highlighting the importance of creating spaces dedicated to it while celebrating Black creators. Our goal with Frequency is to continue to build community and highlight the different stories and sounds through intentional partnerships with artists, producers, songwriters, and creators, explained Summers.

Watch the Free Studio Documentary directed by Anthony Prince Leslie presented by Spotify Frequency above.

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Premiere: Spotifys Frequency Presents The Free Studio Documentary Showcasing The Freedom Of Black Creativity - Vibe

ON TUESDAY afternoon (May 24th), a new BBC radio docudrama, I made with fellow producer Deborah Hobson, will chart the life and times of a remarkable forgotten black British hero, who died 225 years ago. It is called The Amazing Life of Olaudah Equiano and is being broadcast at 4pm on BBC Radio 4.

Sadly, programmes like this made by black independent production companies like ours, The-Latest Ltd, are rare. When I asked a Radio 4 executive commissioner if she knew of any others working with her history department she said a forlorn no. Its as if, in British broadcasting, the game-changing Black Lives Matter movement, spearheaded by radical youth demanding change, had never happened.

An outstanding autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, was published in 1789, and became a bestseller in the authors own lifetime.

It ran to nine editions and attracted support from many notables. Among the aristocrats Equiano managed to charm to sponsor its publication were the Royal Duke of York.

He also got prominent figures to do national newspaper book reviews, including leading womens rights campaigner Mary Wollstonecraft.

By any standards, the life of Olaudah Equiano was incredible. An Igbo born in the kingdom of Benin, in 1745, in what is now Nigeria, Equiano was enslaved as a child. He was transported to Barbados, where he stayed for just a couple of weeks, and then to the British North American colony of Virginia. He also spent time on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

Equiano was bought as a boy by Royal Navy lieutenant Michael Henry Pascal, who forcibly renamed him Gustavus Vassa, after a reforming Swedish king in a play the officer liked. Equiano became Pascals unpaid servant.

Equiano was taught to read, write and do maths on British naval ships he was on where classes for crew were common. Later, Robert King, an American Quaker and merchant, bought Equiano and encouraged his slave to earn money by working as a trader with him.

Equiano became a gauger, a weights and measures person who inspected bulk goods aboard ships that were subject to tax. That meant he was too valuable to his master to be put to work as simply a plantation slave.

In 1766, Equiano did something that was very unusual at the time when he bought his freedom from King for what would be about 10,000 in todays money the same amount his master had paid for him. It is significant King was a Quaker because they were in the forefront of the abolition movement.

As a sailor, Equiano had a life of travel and adventure. But it was as a free man living in London in the 1780s that he found fame when he became involved in the abolitionist movement.

Most British school children are taught white MP William Wilberforce was the most significant abolition movement campaigner. But Equiano proves that is not the full story. Outside parliament, Equiano, working with people like Thomas Clarkson, who briefed Wilberforce, were arguably just as important.

Equianos book, the first of its kind written by a former slave, played a huge role by shocking British society with its vivid description of the horrors of the Atlantic Ocean Middle Passage when human cargo from Africa were transported in appalling conditions from Africa to the Americas and Caribbean. Some academics put the number of slaves at 15 million over 400 years more than a million of them dying at sea.

Equiano died in 1797, 10 years before parliament outlawed the British slave trade. It was almost 30 years afterwards that slavery itself was abolished in British territories. There are some places in the world where it still exists today.

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Remembering the amazing life of Olaudah Equiano - The Voice Online