A People's Tribunal: How San Diego’s Pillars of the Community held the District Attorney accountable for racial disparities in Sentencing

On this episode of the De-Bug the System podcast, De-Bug organizer Ana sits down with participatory defense organizer Laila Aziz. Laila and her fellow organizers at Pillars of the Community, a San Diego based organization, held the San Diego County District Attorney accountable for racial disparities in sentencing. How did they do this? They held a People's Tribunal, inspired by movement leaders of the past. 

With the People's Tribunal, they served their own subpoena to the District Attorney's Office and demanded their attendance to the Tribunal where they laid out the qualitative findings of racial disparity in sentencing in the county, the room filled with pictures of all the young men who were sentenced to die in a California prison. 

In this conversation, hear where the idea came from, how it went down and what Laila and Pillars thinks is next.

Protect Your People!