On July 8, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School held the second virtual event in its summer series, “A Path for Change: Policing in America,” hosted by the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, in partnership with the Office of Inclusion & Engagement and the Toll Public Interest Center’s Social Justice Programs. The series is part of a yearlong colloquium, “Achieving Racial Justice,” previously announced by Dean Theodore Ruger, Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, as one of many initiatives Penn Law will be implementing in the coming months “to work internally and externally against anti-Black violence and racism and to promote meaningful change toward a more just reality.”
Wednesday’s event, “Structural Frustrations: Challenges to Implementing Change,” was a panel discussion moderated by Executive Director of the Quattrone Center John Hollway.
Panelists addressed the ongoing outcry for racial justice and police reform in the U.S. They pointed both to procedural deficiencies specific to the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) and to more widespread problems of community alienation as challenges that continue to make public safety elusive in American cities.
Angelica Hendricks, Policy Analyst for the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission began the conversation by cautioning that “reform done incorrectly can be more dangerous than having no reform at all. It could lead to communities believing that the problems have been solved. It could lead to a false sense of security, false sense of hope,” she said. “What I would like to do is make sure that the community is always involved in every step of every policy proposal, because there are some proposals that do more harm to the community than good.”
Read more at Penn Law News.
