{"id":135469,"date":"2023-10-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=135469"},"modified":"2023-10-13T00:55:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T04:55:31","slug":"berkeley-law-event-touts-defunding-police-pays-angela-davis-1000-to-champion-decarceration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/berkeley-law-event-touts-defunding-police-pays-angela-davis-1000-to-champion-decarceration\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley Law event touts defunding police, pays Angela Davis $1,000 to champion \u2018decarceration’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled for being soft on crime, hosted a talk with avowed communist Angela Davis about criminal justice reform as the inaugural event<\/a> of his new legal center at the University of California Berkeley.<\/p>\n

After voters recalled Boudin in June of last year over his leniency toward crime, Berkeley\u2019s law school hired<\/a> him to lead its new Criminal Law and Justice Center, where he earns $210,000 per year.<\/p>\n

Davis, a prominent racial activist and scholar who was previously<\/a> on the FBI\u2019s Most Wanted list, supported Boudin\u2019s campaign and spoke out<\/a> against the recall.<\/p>\n

Berkeley Law, in an email to The College Fix<\/em>, confirmed she was given \u201can honorarium of $1,000\u201d for speaking at the Sept. 19 event.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> asked Boudin what he hoped students would learn from the talk but did not receive a response to two inquiries sent in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

Boudin began the panel by praising Davis, who supports<\/a> reparations and argues for abolishing prisons and police, for \u201cthe intellectual firepower she has brought to this movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair then addressed \u201cbacklash\u201d to \u201ccriminal justice reform,\u201d which Boudin attributed to \u201cfearmongering,\u201d \u201cpolice unions\u201d and \u201cRepublican strategists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said the Black Lives Matter movement and related protests in 2020 gave her \u201creason to hope\u201d because they made ideas of prison abolition and defunding the police \u201cmore acceptable\u201d to the general public.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Davis explained, \u201cdecarceration is one of the major strategies we can engage in right now as we try to imagine a moment in our history in which we no longer have to depend on repressive institutions like jails and prisons and police.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to dismantle institutions that cannot assist us in developing a radical democracy,\u201d the Marxist scholar said while commending Boudin\u2019s work as district attorney.<\/p>\n