Flying Squirrel Community Space

Watch Policing the Police-hosted by Enough Is Enough

Watch Frontline's "Policing The Police"–hosted by Enough Is Enough
Another film in the series "Intersections of Rebellion & Accountability!

Saturday, March 17, 2018
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Flying Squirrel Community Space
285 Clarissa St.
Rochester, NY
Suggested donation: $5
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/701209716935044/

Trailer

About Frontline's "Policing The Police”:
(from: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/jun/23/frontline-policing-police/) In a new documentary called “Policing The Police,” FRONTLINE and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb take viewers on a rare, up-close journey inside one police department that’s been ordered to change its ways: the force in Newark, New Jersey.

“Since the 1967 riots that erupted after the beating of a black cab driver by two white police officers, the Newark Police Department has been haunted by allegations of discriminatory policing, excessive use of force, and a severe lack of accountability,” says Cobb, a historian at Columbia Journalism School who has written about issues of race and policing for The New Yorker for years.

After a three-year investigation, the DOJ found systemic civil rights abuses by the Newark police, noting that approximately 75 percent of stops by officers had no legal justification. The DOJ also found cases where police used excessive force against residents, stole their belongings, and arrested people for criticizing or questioning their actions — and it ordered Newark to reform.

With gripping, on-the-ground access, “Policing The Police” gives viewers a raw and complex look at the challenge of changing how cops operate in a place like Newark: a poor city plagued by violent crime, where the victims and the perpetrators are usually black, and the police force itself is largely black and Latino.

The documentary examines the difficulties of fixing a broken relationship with the community after decades of mutual mistrust — from riding along with officers as they conduct “field inquiries” (a practice that was the focus of much of the DOJ’s investigation), to talking with community members themselves, to showing tense internal meetings with top city and police officials. The film also includes candid scenes and interviews with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a former activist who went to college with Cobb, and is now trying to shake up the department from the inside.

“Is it possible to make impoverished, crime-ridden communities safe while still respecting people’s constitutional rights?” Cobb asks. Explore that question in “Policing The Police” — a nuanced glimpse into how topics in the national discussion about race and policing are playing out every day on the streets of Newark, in community members’ homes, and in the city's police precincts. Building on FRONTLINE’s extensive reporting on the effectiveness of the DOJ’s earlier police reform efforts, the film is a must-watch look inside a police force in transition, and a powerful case study in the broader debate over policing in America.

About Enough Is Enough:
The work of Enough Is Enough is twofold. First, we accompany people going through the criminal justice system who have experienced police brutality, racial profiling, and harassment by the Rochester Police Department. We offer emotional and tactical support, demystify the law, attend court proceedings, and provide direct support e.g. rides to meetings with lawyers or court appearances; and secondly, we work toward systemic change in law enforcement through policy recommendations supported by aggregate data and personal testimonies of police violence in our community.

About the film and discussion series Intersections of Rebellion & Accountability:
Enough Is Enough (EIE) has been an integral part of the campaign to pass the Police Accountability Board (PAB) here in Rochester, NY. It looks as if City Council will act in the spring of 2018. Enough Is Enough and the over 75 supporting organizations and affected individuals have moved into the next chapter of this campaign: getting an ordinance passed by City Council that gives the community control over their police department.

The experiences of systemic police violence, structural racism, poverty, degraded housing stock and red lining, lack of jobs, and inadequate education led many communities of color in cities across the nation, including Newark, NJ, and Rochester, NY, to rebel against the oppressive conditions they faced (and continue to face today). Race rebellions consumed Rochester, NY in July 1964 and Newark, NJ in July 1967. The struggle for racial, political, and economic justice continues in both cities, and across the nation.

Over the next few months, EIE is going to be hosting several film events and discussions culminating in a panel discussion. The purpose is primarily educational: to highlight the similarities between Newark, NJ and Rochester, NY and show how one city, Newark, was able to pass its Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which essentially houses all the powers that activists and community members have been demanding for the last half century, and more recently in the proposed PAB, in Rochester:

  1. The PAB must be an agency of the city, independent of the Rochester Police Department (RPD);
  2. The PAB must have independent investigative authority;
  3. The PAB must have subpoena power;
  4. The PAB must have disciplinary power over officers who are found to have committed misconduct; and
  5. The PAB must have the authority to assess, review, and make changes to RPD policies and procedures.

We begin this series with “Revolution ’67.” We will then screen “July ’64” at the end of the month. In March, we will show “Policing the Police,” a documentary updating viewers from 1967 to 2016 where Newark’s new CCRB was passed into law. After this, we'll show “The Force” looking at Oakland, CA’s police department, their history, and their new Police Accountability Commission, a cutting-edge piece of legislation granting disciplinary power among other powers to the Oakland community. Finally, the series will end with an as yet TBA panel discussion with representatives from Newark, Rochester, and Oakland in April.

The film series has three goals:

  1. to be an educational opportunity to inform the public about the PAB;
  2. to compare Newark and Rochester, the struggles in each city, and highlight the very real possibility of getting a PAB here in Rochester; and
  3. to be a mini fundraiser for EIE.

Documents pertaining to each city will be available for participants to take home and review.

Please join us.

Enough Is Enough!