Social action of donating funds to reduce racial violence in policing

 Introduction

  There are racial inequities in the U.S criminal justice system due to socioeconomic factors such as poverty and segregation.  Black people are overrepresented in the U.S prisons and police target African Americans when shooting due to implicit racial biases.  The bias is rooted from laws and policies in the criminal justice system that has caused division in the communities. The best approach to reduce the racial inequality is to donate funds to organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. The latter will bring substantial reforms in the criminal justice system by taking social actions such as the Justice Reinvestment Initiative.  Thus, there is a need for criminal justice reform in order to foster a strong relationship between the police and the community.

 Role of ACLU

 The best approach to reduce racial violence in policing is to bring reformation to the criminal justice system that makes harsh criminal justice policies.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) play a significant role in reducing racism in the criminal justice system by defending the fundamental human rights (Weiss, 2017).  ACLU acts as a nation's guardian where it creates new privacy protections and defends people from government abuse.  To fight for our freedoms and cherished liberties, it is important to support the ACLU and through support, ACLU will be in a position of taking legal actions such as challenging the administration that ignores the rule of law, fight freedom, protect voters and people of color, protect the reproduction rights, right to privacy among many individual rights guaranteed by the constitution (Weiss, 2017).

  Role of community in supporting ACLU

    Positive policing require active participation from the community.  People should create successful strategies and realistic expectations and take actions in ending the abusive practices in policing.   According to the ACLU website (2018), the community should identify the police problems such as the use of deadly force, discrimination in arrest,   verbal abuse, lack of accountability and more.   After identification, the community should focus on implementing solutions to the identified problems by supporting profit or non-profit organizations that would establish police practices project.

             I would recommend that the St. Kate should donate the $10,000.00 to the ACLU and the support will enable the organization to establish training programs and seminar where police would learn about cultural diversity.  ACLU will also bring employment opportunity in that through training, the police officers will adhere to the principle of equal opportunity and as a result, they will reduce racist activities such as harassment and discrimination (ACLU, 2018).  In reforming the community policing, ACLU will also ensure that the police officers learn social skills that will help them understand race relations.

  ACLU in the criminal justice system

 In addition to bringing the solution to the community problem through total community involvement, ACLU will also enter in the criminal justice system and reform the U.S correctional systems. Currently, the correctional system is expensive and it is associated with harsh punishment (Austin et al, n.d). Thus, donations to the  ACLU will help solve these problems as the higher amount of funds spent on imprisoning offenders will be used to strengthen the poor communities vulnerable to a high rate of incarcerations.  Black and poor people experience extreme punishment due to social factors such as unemployment, poverty and more (Austin et al, n.d).  ACLU will offer public safety by allocated funds to the communities vulnerable to harsh punishment and aggressive policies.

  However, the process of Justice Reinvestment will require coalitions and networks that will offer support in strengthening the community institutions. The goal of ACLU in reforming the Criminal Justice System is to reduce felony arrest rates,   pretrial detention,   sentence lengths and prohibit life sentences (Austin et al, n.d). Thus, let us provide the ACLU with a greater flexibility by supporting their work.

 

Conclusion

  I believe that supporting non-profit organizations such as the ACLU is the best choice.  ACLU focus on protecting the individual rights by taking affirmative actions toward eliminating discrimination, bridging inequalities and ensuring education and employment opportunities.  I would recommend the St. Kate students to engage in the community to donate the $10,000.00 to the ACLU for it to fight for our equality and freedom. In addition, individuals and organizations should also offer grants to sustain the organization.

 

 

References 

ACLU. (2018). FIGHTING POLICE ABUSE: A COMMUNITY ACTION MANUAL.  Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/other/fighting-police-abuse-community-action-manual

 Austin James et al. (n.d). Ending Mass Incarceration. Charting A New Justice Reinvestment.  Retrieved from:  https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/charting_a_new_justice_reinvestment_final.pdf

 Weiss Brennan. (2017). The ACLU has taken over 100 legal actions Against the Trump administration so far-here’s a guide to the most notable ones. Business Insider. Retried from: https://www.businessinsider.com/aclu-lawsuits-vs-trump-administration-2017-10?IR=T