Name: Harrison

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Race & Policing

Date of Fieldwork: January 8, 2019

Name of Organization: PROP: Police Reform Organization Project

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Robert Gangi

Type of Fieldwork: Direct Action

What I did:

We went to the Downtown Criminal Courthouse. We met with Robert and we sat with him through six trials. Five of the people on trial were people of color. He gave us paper and we recorder their names, race, gender, why they were on trial and if they were released or not. We were looking for patterns.

What I learned:

Most of these arrests were for minor offenses and the people could have received warnings. All the police officers that made the arrests were white, and the people arrested were mostly people of color. I wondered if the officers were trying to fill their quotes. Also, some of the officers may have been racist and they made these arrests just because they could. Some of the people arrested were minors and I also noticed that all these arrests were made above 125th Street. This made me think about what I learned about the Broken Windows theory. I didn’t expect to see what I saw.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that a lot of police officers think more about themselves and less about the people they are arresting and how they are feeling. People shouldn’t be prosecuted for minor offenses. I learned that sitting in on trials and observing the court system is a way of being an activist and fighting for social justice.