Communiqué

IN THE NEWS
Event Snapshots
Challenges to Democracy: The Future of Policing
February 5, 2015
In February, the Ash Center cosponsored a JFK Jr. Forum event on “Challenges to
Democracy: The Future of Policing,” which explored how recent episodes of police
violence and subsequent demonstrations have laid bare the corrosive distrust that
defines relations between citizens and police in many communities across the
country. The speakers included Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey of the Philadelphia
Police Department; Atiba Goff, who is an associate professor of Social Psychology
at UCLA and a visiting scholar of the Malcolm Weiner Center for Social
Policy this year; and Houston Mayor Annise Parker. HKS Dean David Ellwood moderated
the discussion, which focused on how citizens’ perceptions of police and
the criminal justice system are often shaped by race, and how communities can
work to develop more effective and democratic law enforcement agencies.
The speakers outlined several solutions to improve community-police relations,
including: increasing training programs for officers in the areas of race, poverty,
substance abuse, and mental health; educating the public on the roles and responsibilities
of police officers; and encouraging community involvement in shaping
local police forces. While the speakers acknowledged that reforms are necessary
within law enforcement agencies across the country, they stressed that recent
events in Ferguson and New York City are part of a larger system of inequality, including
racial disparities in education funding and a punitive criminal justice system
that makes it very difficult for ex-offenders to participate fully in society.
50 Years after the Voting Rights Act: Strategies for Moving
Forward
February 18, 2015
To mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of
1965, the Ash Center and the Harvard Institute of Politics convened a panel discussion
in the JFK Jr. Forum in February. Alex Keyssar, the Matthew W. Stirling
Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy and an Ash Center affiliate, moderated
the conversation with Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), a senior
House Democrat active on civil rights issues who was the first African-American
elected to Congress from Virginia since Reconstruction. Joining Professor
Keyssar and Congressman Scott was Penda Hair, a civil-rights advocate and cofounder
and co-director of the Advancement Project, a racial justice organization
spearheading litigation that challenges voter restrictions, discriminatory electoral
provisions, and other civil rights violations across the nation.
The panelists discussed strategies for responding to the wave of legislation
at the state level seeking to impose additional burdens on voting, spurred on by
the US Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder that struck down a
key section of the VRA. During the discussion, Hair recounted her legal work
fighting against a variety of restrictive voting provisions in court. Congressman
Scott described his surprise to opposition to rewriting the VRA to conform with
the Shelby case, “We didn’t expect this kind of resistance to such a minor voting
rights bill.” A strong supporter of the VRA’s requirement that certain jurisdictions
receive federal approval known as “preclearance” prior to implementing changes
to local voting laws, Congressman Scott said the provision worked as intended
because prior to its enactment, states were “essentially rewarded for cheating”
by discriminating against African-American voters. Those states, he said, “earned
preclearance” through the poll taxes, literacy taxes, and voter intimidation.
Project on Municipal Innovation Advisory Group
March 26–28, 2015
The Project on Municipal Innovation Advisory Group (PMI-AG) met for the 13th
time at Harvard Kennedy School in March. PMI-AG is comprised of chiefs of staff,
deputy mayors, and policy directors from the country’s 35 largest and most creative
cities. Funded through Living Cities, the goal of this network is to enhance
Dean David Ellwood, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, Philadelphia
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, and UCLA Professor Phillip Goff
discuss The Future of Policing
HKS Professor Alex Keyssar, Penda Hair of the Advancement Project,
and Congressman Robert "Bobby" Scott (D-VA) assess the Voting
Rights Act on its 50th anniversary
Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in Government
program, makes remarks at the March meeting of the Project on
Municipal Innovation Advisory Group
the quality of urban life by connecting city hall leaders to innovative ideas and
then supporting the replication and implementation of those ideas. In partnership
with Living Cities, the Ash Center convenes two PMI-AG member in-person
meetings per year. The theme of the March meeting was Civic and Community
Engagement in Government Decision Making, from a City Hall Perspective. The
PMI-AG members discussed civic and community engagement in relation to Collective
Impact, an approach that represents the commitment of a group of actors
from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a complex social problem;
the policing crisis; and open data, performance management, and application
development.
www.ash.harvard.edu
Spring 2015 Communiqué
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