News & Commentary

The Clovis Unified School District has a problem. School administrators in this small town in California’s Central Valley can’t seem to stop punishing students for being themselves. But this week, the school board took a brave leap into the 21st century and amended the dress code – bringing it into compliance with California law for the first time in recent memory.

Where we spend our money says a lot about our priorities. That’s why California’s legislature must reject the governor’s plan to spend $250 million more taxpayer dollars to build new jails.

This week, we’re attending the “Color of Surveillance” conference in Washington, D.C., meeting leaders and activists from across the country who are shining a light on discriminatory surveillance. When technology advances, the tools of surveillance change but the color of surveillance remains the same. Here in California, we’re seeing communities fighting back against the secretive purchase and unaccountable use of surveillance technologies like Stingrays, license plate readers, and social media surveillance software.

Today we sent a letter to the Department of Justice. Racist and homophobic texts by SFPD officers again demonstrate why a review of department policies alone—with no enforceability—is not enough. We need a pattern and practice investigation.

One day after Fresno PD’s fourth shooting this year, the department released body cam footage of police killing Freddy Centeno last September and claimed that the shooting was justified. But why is the shooting still shrouded in secrecy?

ACLU lawyers are used to taking on injustice and speaking out on behalf of our clients. This time the discrimination happened to us.

Bills sponsored by the ACLU of California would help move us forward.

In the early hours of March 3, 1991, George Holliday stepped onto his balcony and saw police begin to beat a motorist on the street below. He then pulled out a video camera and filmed an incident that would become synonymous with police violence and misconduct: the beating of a young African American man named Rodney King by several Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers. News stations across the country broadcast the footage of King lying on the ground as officers viciously kicked and struck him repeatedly with nightsticks. 

When Twitter released its most recent transparency report in late February, users got their first glimpse into the content the company removes for violating its terms of service after it receives formal legal demands. This is a step forward.