Author Archives: lindseycpointer

A video from the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding explaining their Police-Youth Dialogue process.

In the lead-up to the February 2021 “Think Tank,” representatives from each of the programs and police departments involved were asked to fill out a survey providing some basic information about their program or approach. This information was then distilled into the one-page descriptions of each program included in this report.

This timely book by Micah Johnson and Jeffrey Weisberg offers an explanation of the need for meaningful dialogue between law enforcement and black youth, a blueprint for implementing police-youth dialogues, best practices and examples, anecdotes and narratives from participants, different models and formats, potholes and limitations, and tangible tools and action steps for starting a police-youth dialogue program.

How to Love Your Enemy: A Restorative Justice Story is a film by Free the People (Co-directed by Sam Martin and Matt Battagli) that documents the work of Longmont Community Justice Partnership, a program that offers restorative justice as a diversion in partnership with police.

In the Redemption Project episode “Officer Down”, Van Jones meets with Thomas Morgan, a former sheriff who was shot in the neck and left to die while responding to a call in 1997. Twenty years after the incident, Tom wants to meet with Jason Samuel, who was the 17-year-old gang member who pulled the trigger. 
Van Jones explores the tensions between law enforcement and marginalized communities that persist today and look at how the principles of restorative justice can help.