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Ervin Staub: A Holocaust survivor's mission to train ‘heroic bystanders'

Daniel Gordon Joshua Nevett

October 05, 2020 |

BBC |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

By training police officers to intervene when fellow officers engage in brutality or other misconduct, the New Orleans police department has reduced officers' use of force and increased public trust. After the killing of George Floyd by a police officer whose colleagues did not intervene, the ethical-policing model called EPIC (Ethical Policing Is Courageous) is expanding to dozens more cities as ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement). It is based on the violence-psychology research of Ervin Staub, whose family was saved by "active bystanders" in Nazi Hungary.

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Searching with the Mothers of Mexico's Disappeared

Ana Karina Zatarain

August 05, 2020 |

The New Yorker |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Mexico, Culiacan, Sinaloa

Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

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Northern Ireland's police transformation may hold lessons for the US

Laura A. Weinstein Donald Beaudette

June 26, 2020 |

The Conversation |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Ireland

With lessons for American police-reform advocates, the transformation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary – a militarized enforcer of inequality hated by the people of Northern Ireland – into an entirely new organization was founded on the necessity of community support. Neither easy nor simple, this 20-year process, following 30 years of conflict, intentionally included recruiting local Catholics in order to win local support. Citizen oversight served as another pillar of the new structure, which still has problems but has won critical political support from Sinn Féin, the leading nationalist political party.

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In Germany, Confronting Shameful Legacy Is Essential Part of Police Training

Katrin Bennhold Melissa Eddy

June 23, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

To prevent its police forces from ever again being turned into militarized and politicized tools of an authoritarian state, Germany requires all police trainees to visit former Nazi concentration camps and learn in detail how the Nazi regime used police as a tool. Though the historical comparisons to American policing of racial minorities is not equivalent, the explicit effort to break from a shameful past as a mode of cultural change is instructive. Other reforms include strict separation of police and military and a decentralized structure to keep unchecked power out of the hands of a single agency.

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How Decades Of Bans On Police Chokeholds Have Fallen Short

Monika Evstatieva Tim Mak

June 16, 2020 |

NPR |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States

One of the key police reforms sought after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, bans on chokeholds and other neck restraints, has failed to curb abuses in some of the nation’s largest police departments because of lax enforcement and easily found loopholes in such policies. Despite existing bans, some as old as 30-40 years, multiple people in those cities have died when neck restraints were used during their arrests with few repercussions. Lack of effective training and disagreements over such tactics’ efficacy are among other reasons experts say the practice persists.

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The Doctor Healing Wounds of War in Basilan

Martin San Diego

June 14, 2020 |

Medium |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Philippines, Lamitan City, Basilan

By fostering dialog between the military and rebel soldiers in a region long afflicted with violence, a physician whose clinic exposed her to children’s severe PTSD has helped heal the effects of trauma and the scars of war. Save the Children of War in Basilan has gone beyond its focus on child health and welfare to broker reconciliation talks between rebel groups and the military, in large part by getting both sides to see their opponents’ motives through a new lens. Kidnappings, once rampant, have been nonexistent since 2016.

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Training Police to Step In and Prevent Another George Floyd

Matt Vasilogambros

June 05, 2020 |

Stateline |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

While most police-reform ideas focus on top-down imposition of standards, peer intervention puts the burden on individual police officers to prevent misconduct. Grounded in studies of bystanders’ behavior in the face of abuses by others, the method first was adopted by the New Orleans Police Department in light of widespread misconduct following Hurricane Katrina and has been credited with that department’s “remarkable progress” in shifting its culture. Now its use is spreading nationwide.

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Philly police should adopt this ethics program that reformed NOLA force

Larry Platt

June 04, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Eight years after the New Orleans Police Department served as a model of how not to police, its Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) program has done more to dismantle the “blue wall of silence” than any other reforms. Citizen complaints and horrific examples of brutality have gone down while citizen satisfaction has risen. Now the training of officers in “peer intervention” is spreading nationwide, empowering street officers schooled in the use of peer pressure to stand up to misconduct without fear of retaliation.

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Using a Mobile Phone Survey to Investigate South Sudan's Conflict

Carolyn Thompson

May 11, 2020 |

Global Investigative Journalism Network |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: South Sudan

To tell the stories of victims of forced displacement, property destruction, and occupation in South Sudan, a team of journalists devised a phone survey to gauge the extent of the problem. By surveying hard-to-reach people in refugee camps, one of many barriers to traditional reporting due to the government's repressive tactics, the reporters pinpointed areas where people had been forced off their land, many by government soldiers. The survey was recorded in six languages and was made statistically valid by consulting outside experts and transparently disclosing its limitations.

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Lifelines: Farming Program Helps N.H. Refugees Move Forward From Past Trauma

Peter Biello Alex McOwen

May 06, 2020 |

New Hampshire Public Radio |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Manchester, New Hampshire

Fresh Start Farms is a program by the New Hampshire Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success that invites refugees in the state to apply their farming skills here in America to earn an income. Many of the refugees in New Hampshire are from Somalia and witnesses to the Civil War there—and they carry that trauma with them. Having this outlet, where you can do what you know how to do alongside people who have similar experiences as you, is therapeutic. The program is now moving forward with opening up a storefront despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

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