Negotiations on a federal police reform bill have collapsed because Congressional Republicans are willing to stand in the way of lifesaving changes to policing. It is time for state and local governments to take the lead in reimagining public safety. And it is time for all of us to support local leaders who are willing to show leadership and take risks to make it happen. ... read more »

Assembly Bill 490 or Angelo’s Law, authored by Chair of the Select Committee on Police Reform, Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson) passed the California State Legislature. AB 490 seeks to ban law enforcement from using restraints that cause positional asphyxia, a deadly condition that can occur when a person being restrained cannot get enough oxygen. ... read more »

A civil rights investigation that was launched  ...  — a Black man put into a chokehold during an encounter with suburban Denver police two years ago — found a deeply engrained culture of racially biased policing within the department, ... read more »

In recognition of a mass communication sector that has been struggling from dwindling advertising dollars and intense competition from well-funded media conglomerates and a field of small niche publishers since the inception of the internet, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature appropriated $10 million in new funding for ethnic media in the state budget for 2021-22. ... read more »

Black communities through the Los Angeles region, from Pasadena and Pomona to Long Beach and Los Angeles, have endured a lot over the last 18 months. The COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, the follow up of regional and nationwide protests and the reimagining of policing, and now the importance of vaccinating our entire community are just a few. ... read more »

Over the past month, racial equity has been a key part of our national dialogue as we observed the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre and Juneteenth, the oldest nationally recognized commemoration marking the end of slavery in the United States. ... read more »

There will be no probation for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The ex-cop received more than a 22-year prison sentence on Friday, June 25, two months after a jury convicted him of three charges, ... read more »

Assemblymember Chris Holden’s police reform legislation, AB 26, passed the California State Senate Committee on Public Safety. AB 26 establishes clear guidelines for police responsibility and accountability when witnessing excessive force by another member of law enforcement. ... read more »

Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee led to the biggest outcry against racial injustice in the U.S. in generations. ... read more »

Andre Perry, a Brookings Institution fellow, told the Times that some of the surge in Black business registrations could be a signal of personal economic trouble. “This is more about survival than it is about wealth creation. There’s lots of people who have lost their jobs and lost their businesses. People are starting to realize that side hustles are businesses,” Perry said. ... read more »

“We wouldn’t have any of that without Darnella Frazier taking that video,” Crump reiterated. The video was the most damning piece of evidence during Chauvin’s trial, and Darnella took the witness stand and offered powerful testimony to back up the recording. ... read more »

It appears that two important things have happened since the death of Geoge Floyd at the hand of the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota: (1) police continue to kill black men and women either by shooting them or physically killing them by hand. ... read more »

In the midst of an unprecedented pandemic where intimate physical interaction created the risk of contracting COVID-19, protesters called for justice, confronting the hard reality that incidents of police brutality, which have disproportionately resulted in the injuries and deaths of people of color, persisted across the nation.  ... read more / view gallery »

The new report revealed that at least 28 percent of those killed were African Americans, who make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. Although this figure is staggering, the Center for American Progress (CAP) noted that it is almost certainly under-represents the actual number of civilians who died while in the custody of the criminal justice system. ... read more »

History would tell, from the 1880s Black as Black families migrated from the South escaping blatant racism and then Jim Crow, many chose California due to the climate, advertisements regarding employment, healthcare, and overall beautiful life. Many of these Black families landed in Santa Monica beach neighborhoods, including Belmar Park, in clusters, being some of the first to settle in a beach neighborhood. ... read more »