Police drug raids and how they are related to public health and structural racism will be the focus of a three-person panel at the next Conversations on Race and Policing.

“Police Drug Raids: Context and Consequences in Public Health and Structural Racism” will be presented beginning at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 5, on Zoom. The program can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/97960458784.   

The panelists for the program are:

  • Hannah Cooper of Emory University. She holds the Rollins School of Public Health Chair of Substance Use Disorders Research and directs Spark, the Rollins Program on Substance Use Disorders. Her scientific expertise includes studying the social determinants of drug-related harms, with a particular focus on harm reduction and health equity. She has published widely on police brutality as a social determinant of health, and recently co-authored a book on the topic with Dr. Mindy Fullilove, titled “From Enforcers to Guardians: A Public Health Primer on Ending Police Violence.”
  • Pete Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University. He is a professor in the university’s School of Justice Studies, with expertise in the areas of police and criminal justice militarization, and criminal justice theory. He has published many books and articles on related subjects, as well as testified for the U.S. Senate on police militarization. Recently, Kraska has been working on the Breonna Taylor legal case, and also developing model legislative policy with Campaign Zero.
  • Leslie Salas-Hernández, a doctoral candidate in Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Her research is focused on studying and mitigating the impact of the criminal legal system on health. Her dissertation is centered on police violence and is currently evaluating training at a large police department.

Conversations on Race and Policing began in the aftermath of the May 25 death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers. A video of the incident posted on social media has led to widespread protests, the firing of four police officers, the arrest and conviction of one officer on a second-degree murder and related charges, the other three on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder – and a spotlight worldwide on race and policing.

Previous forums also are posted online (more recordings will soon be available for viewing) on the CSUSB History Club Lecture Series YouTube channel.

The series is organized by CSUSB students Marlo Brooks, Zoralynn Oglesby and Evelyn Jimenez, and university faculty members Mary Texeira (sociology) and Jeremy Murray (history), Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library, and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.  

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.