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Jason D. Williamson, Staff Attorney with the Aclu’s Crminal Law Reform Project, to Speak at William Paterson University on October 16 on the Police and Communities of Color

--Program is presented by University’s Gandhian Forum for Peace and Justice

Jason D. Williamson, a staff attorney with the Criminal Law Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, will present a lecture, “The Police and Communities of Color,” on Thursday, October 16, 2014 at William Paterson University in Wayne as part of the Gandhian Forum for Peace and Justice. The lecture will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Ballroom B of the University Commons on campus. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.

In his talk, Williamson will assess the realities of policing in the United States and discuss strategies for reform in policing in communities of color.

Williamson is a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, focusing on Fourth Amendment, police practices and indigent defense reform litigation. He began his legal career with the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, and later served as a defense attorney and founding member of Juvenile Regional Services in New Orleans. Williamson earned a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

William Paterson University’s Gandhian Forum for Peace and Justice seeks to engage high school, college, and university students and teachers and community members in innovative and practical ideas, actions, and programs that promote peace and justice through cooperative engagement, dialogue, and respect for opposing views and opinions. Previous lecturers have included Doug Henwood, editor and publisher of Left Business Observer; Jo Comerford, executive director of the National Priorities Project; Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun; Aftab Seth, India’s former ambassador to Japan, Vietnam and Greece, and Norman Finkelstein, author of What Gandhi Says About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage.

This program is co-sponsored by the William Paterson University Department of African World Studies, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Race and Gender Project, Criminal Justice and Criminology Program, Legal Studies Program, Pre-Law Program, Cotsakos College of Business, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Office of the Provost.

For additional information, contact Steve Shalom, professor of political science, at 973-720-3433 or shaloms@wpunj.edu.