LAPD Launches New Program Allowing Alleged Racial Profiling Victims To Confront Arresting Officers And Discuss Incident

via News One

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is launching a program that would bring officers face to face with civilians who have accused them of racial profiling, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The program called “Community-Employee Mediation Pilot Program” will run about three years and would allow the officer accused of racial profiling and the racially profiled victim the opportunity to discuss the encounter where the alleged incident occurred.

Those who are interested in the meetings would attend only on a voluntary basis. The parties involved will have an impartial and trained mediator, a volunteer that would be provided by the City Attorney’s office

The current program’s mediation sessions will take place in cases that do not involve allegations of physical assault, racially bias, verbal insults, or more serious charges.

If an LAPD officer agrees to participate in the program in good faith, then the department’s investigation in to the accusations against them will be closed.

Officers with two prior complaints in the previous year are ineligible.

According to the L.A. Times, a director from the police officer’s union reportedly told the police commission Tuesday that the union supported the mediation plan and has urged officers to take part in the program.

The New Jim Crow: Dice Raw’s Documentary “Jimmie’s Back” Shares Impact Of Mass Incarceration On Black Men

Via Rap Genius:

The 18-minute “Jimmy’s Back” documentary (directed by Cosmik Vertigo Films) spotlights the issue of mass incarceration in America and includes commentary from a few of the featured artists on the album, many of whom are ex-felons. As Dice Raw puts it, they represent the “truth” behind the album’s message. In the documentary, rappers such as Philadelphia’s rising star and ex-offender K-Dot talk about living in “cells the size of bathrooms” where they were left to their own insanity, only to be returned to another sort of insanity once released back into the streets.

“I grew up in Philadelphia — Philadelphia is not a soft city, you know what I mean? It has a criminal element to it, and poor sections. That’s basically what it comes down to is low economic background, low education… the War on Drugs is a War on Thugs,” says Dice Raw on the tragic state of affairs for Black men in his home city of Philadelphia alone.

“Black people have been fighting for the freedoms and privileges enjoyed by people of ALL colors since Crispus Attucks, without fair or equal representation. Law and order are now code words for ‘get them ni**as.’ Churches, temples, synagogues, the media, police, gun shops, law firms and more will win off of recent things like the Trayvon Martin decision. Don’t believe me — just watch! We released ‘Jimmy’s Back’ as an informative call-to-action to our brothers, sisters and allies in the struggle.”

The footage in the documentary was shot in Philadelphia, and some scenes were excerpted from the “Pull of Gravity” documentary by filmmaker Jon Kaufman.