Defund to Abolish Colloquium

  • 9 Feb 2021
  • 5:30 PM
  • 10 Feb 2021
  • 8:30 PM
  • Zoom


RSVP here!

Zoom link provided upon registration. |

Please note registration is required, and will close at 12pm ET on the day of each session. If you register after 12pm ET 2/9, you will not receive the link for 2/9, but you will receive it for 2/10.

If you register after 12pm on 2/10, you will not receive the link. Everyone who registers will receive access to the recording of both sessions.

Para leer más sobre el Coloquio Desfinanciar Para Abolir en espańol, ¡haga clic aquí!

Join community organizers, legal practitioners, and activist scholars to unpack and explore strategies to defund and abolish the police, and engage with the imaginative possibilities of a police-free world.

Learn more about our panels below, and more about our panelists here. You can find our brochure here in English and Spanish, and a Take Action resource here in English and Spanish.

Organized by NYU Review of Law and Social Change, in partnership with NYU Black Allied Law Student Association and Latinx Law Students Association, with the co-sponsorship of 40+ NYU Law organizations, and the generous fiscal support of the NYU Law Student Bar Association.

*This event will have live captioning and interpretation into American Sign Language and Spanish. Need other accommodations in order to access this event? Let us know when you RSVP! You can also email us at defundtoabolish2021colloquium@gmail.com with any questions or concerns regarding accessibility.

**This event has been approved for up to 5.5 Professional Practice Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits and is appropriate for both experienced and newly admitted attorneys. If you are interested in receiving CLE credit, please indicate so in your RSVP, and we will follow up with additional details.

***The recording of the event will be available at socialchangenyu.com following the event.

Panel I: Defund Means Defund

February 9, 2021 5:30-6:45pm ET

Panelists will contextualize the current moment, discuss the divide between reformist and abolitionist strategies, and lay out a vision for the future of the movements to defund and abolish the police.

Jamelia Morgan (moderator) | University of Connecticut School of Law
Andrea Ritchie | Interrupting Criminalization
CeCe McDonald | The Black Excellence Collective, Black Excellence Tour, and Black Youth Support Network
Kempis “Ghani” Songster | Amistad Law Project and Abolitionist Law Center
Mimi Kim | Creative Interventions
Mon Mohapatra | 8 to Abolition

Panel II: Abolishing Police Across Intersecting Systems

February 9, 2021 6:45 – 8:00pm ET 

This panel will highlight examples of how policing and criminalization show up in major institutions and industries as varied as technology, education, immigration enforcement, and sex work, and strategies organizers are using to remove police from these systems and spaces.

Deborah Archer (Moderator) | NYU School of Law, Center on Race Inequality and the Law
Jeanette Orellana | Girls for Gender Equity

Jared Trujillo | Decrim NYC

Sarah Hamid | The Carceral Tech Resistance Network

Tsion Gurmu | Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Panel III: Communities Without Police – We Keep Our Communities Safe

February 10 5:30- 6:45pm ET

Panelists will share concrete examples of abolitionist strategies for community safety and discuss their vision for community safety systems that do not rely on policing. 

Zach Norris (moderator) | Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Danielle Sered | Common Justice
Kelly Savage-Rodriguez | Survived and Punished

Kerbie Joseph | Audre Lorde Project, Safe OUTside the System
Lilac Maldonado | The Fireweed Collective

Panel IV: Defunding the Police in Practice

February 10 6:45-8:00pm ET

Organizers waging campaigns to defund the police in cities across the U.S. will reflect on different strategies and tactics to defund the police, what barriers they have faced, and what strategies have proved most effective.

Amna Akbar (moderator) | Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
Anthonine Pierre | Communities United for Police Reform and Brooklyn Movement Center

Chas Moore | Austin Justice Coalition

D’atra Jackson | Durham Beyond Policing and BYP100
James Burch | Anti Police-Terror Project

Truth Maze | Reclaim the Block