In 2011 my graduate thesis was approved & published. It focused on an analysis of looting as an analytical lens to understand how social order is constructed & enforced through anti-Black racial ideologies and discourses, private property norms, and use of exceptional force by the state.
Defund Police – At Home & Abroad: A call to transform international donor assistance.
The demand to "defund police," which has been ignited and accelerated recently, has been a long fought for vision and demand by community organizers and practitioners for years. The analysis and call underlying this demand is predicated on the evidence that we have shifted public resources toward systems and agents of punishment, control, and violence …
Police face backlash over virus rules. Enter ‘violence interrupters’.
Alternatives to police responses to community needs & conflicts are needed now more than ever. But let us not stop with Covid. These & other approaches need to be invested in and prioritized now and in the future.
“Mexico Is Setting a Global Example on HIV Treatment” — But the president’s recent funding cuts to civil society organizations threaten to imperil their progress.
**Featured interview in this article by Anne Deslandes, published by Foreign Policy on November 13, 2019. Available here.** HIV in Mexico is once again a time bomb that will explode.” That’s how Aram Barra described the current trajectory of the immunodeficiency virus in the country at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Mexico City …
Book Launch—City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands – July 11 NYC
I am very happy to host this book launch and moderate the subsequent discussion with Dan Werb, Maia Szalavitz, and Dr. Patty Gonzalez-Zuñiga, and featuring Dan's new book City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands. Having visited and supported harm reduction and community safety work in Tijuana for the past several …
Public health programs are working to address drugs at the border — a wall won’t help
[*Originally published on January 31, 2019 by The Hill] In the center of the muddy courtyard beyond the plywood gate is a rusted-out car that three kids have turned into their playground. Outside, their mother and father meet with a pair of outreach workers. The man is an active heroin user; the woman hasn’t used …
Never mind the noise & lies calling for a border wall — Here are the daily actions saving lives along Mexico’s northern border
While President Trump & the White House made their political spectacle regarding the border wall, I was in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, Mexico. I had been spending time with local, community groups who provide *harm reduction* based services & support for people who use drugs - especially people living on the street or in informal …
Portuguese & Russian language versions of “Police & Harm Reduction” now available
A quick post to share that my guidance document for law enforcement - "Police and Harm Reduction" - is now available for free download in both Russian and Portuguese in addition to English. A Spanish language version is coming soon. As a reminder as to what this guidance document is about: "In many cities around the …
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On the sadness and disgust of unbridled, ugly, & entitled male rage, continued trauma, our broken system, & what it means for all of us.
I watched both hearings yesterday & while it is clear to me that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed not just for the credible allegation, but for his clear inability to not be partial, partisan, and vindictive, more than anything it has left me feeling...I don’t know what exactly. Some mix of gross, disgusted, and sad. ... But I just feel gross and sad. It was bearing witness to a naked ugliness, to the self-entitled rage of men, especially rich white men who refuse to be questioned. It was bearing witness to the visible pain, trauma, and terror that Dr Ford has carried for too long, the remarkable bravery and courage for her to speak out to save our country and rectify this wrong, however inadequately, and the reality that this vile, vile, man who is not entitled to and does not belong on the highest court with power over our daily lives for the rest of his natural life will nonetheless be appointed because patriarchy is still winning, because Republicans value “winning” more than principles and morals, and because most Democrats are incompetent, and because our system, marred as it is, is imploding. This is a sad, sad day.
A public health approach to policing
“We have a choice: do we want to be a repressive or supportive service? We recognize all people are equal before the law & must be treated as such & those most affected must lead solutions.” - Asst Commissioner of Amsterdam @Politie addressing police from around world #AIDS2018 On the last day of the 2018 International AIDS Conference held in Amsterdam, I was lucky to join 25 police and civil society leaders from several countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia on a visit and meeting with the Amsterdam police branch of the Dutch National Police. The meeting was held at the Amsterdam police headquarters. The focus was on what it means to embrace a public health approach to policing. Is this possible? What does it mean for police and society?
