Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck will be among the keynote speakers at a UC Irvine symposium Friday titled “Race & Policing: Defining the Problem and Developing Solutions.”
Fortunately, the all-day event is free.
Unfortunately, you still need to RSVP and the UCI ticket page indicates it is sold out.
Beck is to be the lunchtime keynote speaker at the symposium that coincides with the anticipated launch of the UCI Institute for Policing in Society, a multidisciplinary policy think tank that will study all facets of policing to inform a future of policing in America that is defined by democratic principles, protection of civil rights and civil liberties, and evidence-based policy.
Multidisciplinary also defines the symposium presenters: UCI School of Law; UCI School of Social Ecology; Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost; Office of the Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs–New Narratives initiative.
Topics for panels that will be presented throughout the day include: street-level policing; “After Ferguson: What is happening on the ground to address the current challenge to police-community relations;” police accountability; new directions and new challenges for policing; and “Race and Suspicion.”
One wonders what Orange County law enforcement makes of this event? I'm reminded of the police chief, upon hearing that Hillary Clinton was pushing for police reform, responding, “It's not police that need reforming.”
Anyway, the morning keynote speaker in the UCI Student Center, Pacific Ballroom D, is Wesley G. Skogan, a Northwestern University political science professors whose Institute for Policy Research has studied fear of crime, the impact of crime on communities, public participation in community crime prevention, victimization and victim responses to crime. His newest projects include an evaluation of the Chicago Police Department’s procedural justice and legitimacy initiative, and a redesign of the National Crime Victimization Survey.
The evening keynoter is retired federal judge the Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin from the Southern District of New York. The William J. Clinton nominee is known for her intellectual acumen, demanding courtroom demeanor, aggressive interpretations of the law, and expertise in mass torts, electronic discovery, constitutional and complex litigation. Her best known decision is Floyd v. City of New York, in which she found New York City’s stop and frisk program unconstitutional. Perhaps you've heard the foe of Clinton's wife speak about this lately.
Scheindlin is also known for her decision in United States v. Awadallah, in which she found that the material witness statute unconstitutional and granted bail to a friend of the September 11 hijackers, who was accused of perjury in recounting his knowledge of the hijackers and their activities. She authored an article on the “War on Terror” and more recently on the need for police to wear body cameras.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.