Video

Young Men of Color and the Other Side of Harm Addressing Disparities in Our Response to Violence

Attention is increasingly being paid to the disparities young men of color face in our society, including their disproportionate involvement in the criminal justice system as those responsible for crime. Little recognition, however, is given to the fact that young men of color are also disproportionately victims of crime and violence.

Vera convened a panel of experts to discuss the disparities in our response to violence, which included Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Representative, Eight Congressional District of New York, and Kenneth Thompson, District Attorney, Brooklyn, Dr. Richard Dudley, Psychiatrist, New York City, and Rev. Dr. Harold Trulear, Professor of Applied Theology, Howard University School of Divinity. The panel was moderated by Kirsten Levingston, Program Officer, at the Ford Foundation.

For more information about addressing disparities in our response to violence, please download our issue brief.

Related

The Political Consensus Behind Harsh Immigration Policies Is Starting to Crack

As backlash to President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda grows, some lawmakers are reconsidering votes that expanded immigrant detention and ICE power.

Slowly but surely, the political consensus on punitive crime and immigration measures is changing—for the better. Last week, Minnesota Representative Angie Craig provided the latest example of this shift when she apologized for her 2025 vote for the Laken Riley Act, a bill that dramatically expanded the number of undocumented people subjected to ma ...

News
March 13, 2026
News

Vera Selects Insha Rahman As Next President and Director

Vice president for Advocacy and Partnerships will become the sixth leader of Vera in its 65-year history.

Insha Rahman will be the next president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice and Vera Action, its sister 501(c)(4) organization. A leading political strategist and criminal justice expert, Rahman has served as Vera’s vice president for Advocacy and Partnerships and the director of Vera Action since 2020. She will make history as the first ...

News
March 03, 2026
News

A Blueprint for Resistance: How Residents and Local Governments Are Shutting Down ICE Detention in Warehouses

Through zoning ordinances and public pressure, localities fight plans to treat immigrants like packages. Their successes can offer a blueprint for broader resistance.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Todd Lyons has stated his horrific goal of building a deportation system that treats people like packages; “Like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings,” he said last year. To advance this dehumanizing vision, the Trump administration aims to acquire more than 20 warehouses to imprison p ...

News
March 02, 2026
News