I’m going to be on KBOO — 90.7fm for those in the Portland area, kboo.fm for the rest of the world — talking about the history of police unions.

The show is 6pm, Wednesday, February 4, and I understand I’ll be on toward the beginning.

Here’s the full description, from the KBOO website:

An in-depth look at the history, role and political influence of police unions.

A KBOO Special Forum on Police Unions and their role in perpetuating a culture of police violence. This will be an in-depth look into the history, role and politics of police unions in the light of the post-Ferguson nation-wide uprising against police killings, abuse and impunity.
Three panel discussions will expore this issue from a variety of angles. First will be an overview of the history and role of police unions, going back to the early part of the 20th Century. Guests will include Joseph Slater, Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law and Kristian Williams of Portland, author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.
The second panel will discuss the status and role of police unions from a labor perspective. Guests will include Jonathan Tasini, long-time labor activist in New York; Jamie Partridge, local community activist with the Letter Carriers’ Union and Jobs with Justice; Ahjamu Umi, local activist with the All-African Peoples’ Revolutionary Party and union organizer.
The third panel will look at police accountability/reform/abolition, citzen review and oversight and alternatives to policing. Guests will include Flint Taylor, long-time people’s attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago; Ashlee Albies, attorney with the National Lawyers’ Guild and with the Albina Ministerial Alliance in their ongoing involvement with the Department of Justice Settlement Process stemming from their lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau; Teressa Raiford of Don’t Shoot Portland; Ahjamu Umi.

This Thursday, January 15, the Northwest Film Center will be hosting the premier of the film, Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence.

The Film Center’s website offers this description:

“Media artists and social activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke’s film speaks to the history of police violence in our society, providing a framework for understanding the systems of social control in Portland and its history of exclusion laws, racial profiling, redlining, and gentrification practices. . . . [They] explore alternatives to current policing practices and consider strategies for community safety that do not employ constant surveillance and unneeded violence.”

I talked to the filmmakers about the history of the police, and about my work with Rose City Copwatch.    I’m excited to see the fished version.

Arresting Power

Thursday January 15th, 2015 7pm 

Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium

1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland

My interview for the Crimethinc podcast has been transcribed and issued as part of a free, downloadable pamphlet, titled Police/Policing and Life Without the Police.

Also, it’s not quite an interview per se, but I am quoted extensively in this article on police militarization, from Souciant.

Meanwhile, over at DCSC, we have a Christmas story from Leslie James Pickering, based on his examination of Oregon State Police files.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be in Northern California for two events in the coming days — Dec. 13 in Humboldt and Dec. 15 in Sacramento. (Details below.)

I will read short selections from my new book, Fire the Cops, followed by a more open discussion. In Manilla, I’ll discuss strategic questions and tensions between police accountability work and abolitionist goals. In Sacramento, I will talk about the repression of the environmental movement and put it in the context of everyday policing.

 

Saturday, December 13, noon-1pm

Humboldt Anarchist Bookfair

Manila Community Center

1611 Peninsula Drive

Monday, December 15, 7pm

Time Tested Books

1114 21st Street, Sacramento

hosted by Sacramento Prisoner Support