March 2025 Newsletter
Policing and Social Justice Project
Sex Work
We now have 1-minute trailer for our documentary Sex Work: It’s Just a Job directed by Tami Gold. Please share it with others.
We have also created social media pages with the help of our Communications Fellow Aaron Cohen. Please follow us:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sexworkfilm
Instagram:
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/sexworkfilm.bsky.social
X:
Sex Work: It's Just a Job (@Sexworkfilm) / X
Reach out if you want to host a screening or otherwise support the film: itsjustajobmovie@gmail.com.
On March 4th, our Organizing Fellow Kate Dempsey and Student Intern Ella Hauck will be traveling to Albany to lobby for Cecilia’s Act, which would effectively decriminalize sex work in New York State.
GANGS Coalition
On February 24thThe New York City Council’s Public Safety Committee held a hearing on a bill to abolish the NYPD’s gang database. This bill has been the primary focus of the GANGS Coalition, of which we are members. We helped develop questions for Councilmember Tiffany Caban that allowed us to get the NYPD to admit on the record that they have no independent evidence that the database is effective in reducing crime and that school police play a role in putting students in the database. Below is some coverage of the hearing followed by Prof. Vitale’s testimony before the committee.
NYPD and NYC councilmembers face off over tracker of alleged gang members - Gothamist
NYC Council, NYPD brass duel over bills to eliminate gang database, testing teens for DNA
Testimony on the NYPD Criminal Group Database
International Drug Policy
We continue working with Colectivo Justicia Racial (Bogota) and Justice Collective (Berlin) to develop abolitionist approaches to international drug policy. Christy Thornton from NYU and Naomi Braine from Brooklyn College-CUNY have joined our planning group while Juan from RATS steps back temporarily. We have two upcoming events. On March 27th we will be hosting a conversation with Angelica Duran-Martinez, author of The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops, and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico. In late April we will be hosting a networking event at the International Harm Reduction Conference in Bogota (exact timing TBD).
Let Mitali know if you are interested in being on our list of people to invite to these and future events: mitali@justice-collective.org.
School Policing
On March 1, we participated in the launch of the 2025 Dignity in Schools Campaign calling for replacing school police in NYC with more restorative justice programing and student supports. On March 13th, we will testify in support of this effort at the New York City Council.
Transit Policing
We were asked to provide assistance to Assemblymember Emily Gallagher of Brooklyn in opposing more state funding for subway policing. Gallagher sits on the Assembly Transportation Committee and raised several questions we helped her develop that called into question the efficacy of this intervention and the social costs it imposes. Our full analysis is below.
Upcoming Events
March 3: Lobbying for Cecelia’s Act in Albany
March 13: NY City Council testimony to support Dignity in Schools campaign.
March 17: Police Writers Group
March 26: Prof. Vitale visits Steve Wasserman’s class at John Jay College
March 27: International Drug Policy event with Angelica Duran-Martinez
March 28: Prof. Vitale will be participating in the Criminology Workshop at the CUNY Graduate Center
Staff Notes
We had a great Project dinner this month. More to come.
Book Corner
Endorsements
Maguire, Mark and Setha Low. 2024. Trapped: Life Under Security Capitalism and How to Escape It. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
"As the US and the world experience growing threats derived from high levels of inequality and the related issues of emergent diseases and climate change, we have seen an increase in emphasis on producing security in ways that actually heighten the problem. This well-written and engaging book does an excellent job of analyzing these dynamics and offering an agenda for addressing them."
—Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing
Received
Duran-Martinez, Angelica. 2018. The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops, and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico. New York: Oxford.
Krinks, Andrew. 2024. White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization. New York: NYU Press.
Toward an Abolitionist Epistemology
Social Research: An International Quarterly
Volume 91, Number 4, Winter 2024
Abstract:
The theoretical underpinnings of police and penal abolition can provide important epistemological guidance to social science researchers. A review of the conceptual frames of abolition and the social science theories underlying it provides a basis for an abolitionist epistemology that incorporates insights from queer theory, critical race theory, feminism, historical materialism, and postcolonial theory. An exposition of existing studies that conform to these theoretical frameworks shows this approach’s value.
The article is available here: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/54137 Send Prof. Vitale a note if you need a copy. avitale@brooklyn.cuny.edu.
Critical Police Studies Bibliography
Be sure to check out our Bibliography of critical police studies.
Support
If you want to support our work and hear more frequently about what we’re up to, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions support our interns and community partners. If you are interested in making a more substantial tax-deductible contribution through the Brooklyn College Foundation, let us know.