Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon

Overview

Media artists and social activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke’s film speaks to the history of police violence in our society, providing a framework for understanding the systems of social control in Portland and its history of exclusion laws, racial profiling, redlining, and gentrification practices. Through conversations with community leaders that include Walidah Imarisha, author of the “Oregon Black History Timeline,” JoAnn Hardesty, and Rev. LeRoy Haynes of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice & Police Reform, Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch, and Kent Ford, founder of the Portland Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the filmmakers explore alternatives to current policing practices and consider strategies for community safety that do not employ constant surveillance and unneeded violence.