One year ago, UPI received an urgent call from Liz Blanchard, whose brother, Nelson Valle, was detained at the Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Facility as a result of gang allegations. Liz knew Nelson was living a peaceful life and was no longer a gang member.
Read MoreThe odds of Tina becoming a peacemaker in her neighborhood were slim. Tina’s father was an active gang member. Her mother was only a teenager when she was born. She watched her father battle drug addictions, holidays were rarely celebrated, and her home often had no electricity. However, Tina refused to become a victim of her surroundings.
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When Jose was a teenager, he admits that he made some poor choices that landed him in juvenile hall. While juvenile hall is intended to act as an early intervention, for Jose and thousands of young men of color, it can spark deepened gang involvement as a means of protection for survival in a harsh environment. At 15, these mistakes also caused Jose to be labeled as a gang member on California’s gang database.
Read MoreDespite his transformation, Benjamin’s life and movements continued to be tracked through California’s gang database. The CalGang database includes information on over 100,000 residents, and has labeled children as young as two years old as gang members. This information is available across law enforcement agencies and has the potential to be shared with federal immigration officials.
Read MoreThe Urban Peace Institute (UPI) is proud to announce that Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed A.B. 90, a bill that mandates a massive overhaul to California’s shared gang database system. For the past two years, UPI acted as a leading advocate for change to California’s gang databases, which unfairly labels over a 100,000 California residents, including children as young as two years old, as gang members.
Read MoreThe Urban Peace Institute believes modern policing calls for forming authentic relationships and trust with community. We applaud the City and LAPD for recently expanding the Community Safety Partnership model to Harvard Park.
Read MoreThe Urban Peace Institute will lead efforts to expand the Community Safety Partnership by first guiding a three-month community needs assessment effort to engage over 500 residents and stakeholders.The Urban Peace Institute will lead efforts to expand the Community Safety Partnership by first guiding a three-month community needs assessment effort to engage over 500 residents and stakeholders.
Read MoreThe Urban Peace Academy recently launched a new training session to promote effective violence reduction and community policing strategies. This 12-week training program is currently engaging 27 new participants in Los Angeles, who are learning proven public health approaches to improve safety in the region’s most underserved communities.
Read MoreThe Urban Peace Institute has worked diligently to assist to residents like Arellano to appeal their inclusion on gang injunctions. “In some cases, it took two years, and this included a client who had never been arrested for anything” commented Green.
Read MoreAs part of the Urban Peace Institute’s commitment to ending the mass incarceration of boys and men of color, our team partnered with the ACLU of Southern California and Youth Justice Coalition to uplift civil rights concerns through a lawsuit against the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.
Read MoreAnthony Blockman, who grew up in Venice’s Oakwood neighborhood, is one of the few former gang members who has been successfully removed from a gang injunction with the help of the Urban Peace Institute. Despite taking a positive path in his life and working in steady construction job for over a decade, Blockman was still included in listing of active gang members.
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