Events

Santa Clara Valley chapter monthly meeting – meeting with the San Jose IPA

The ACLU-NC Santa Clara Valley Chapter’s monthly meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 15th, starting at 7PM in the Humanist House, located at 1180 Coleman Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110, between Avaya Stadium and CostCo, on the east side of the avenue.  We express our gratitude to the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley for providing the venue for this event.

Directions and parking:

Please visit https://goo.gl/maps/ZxyTz for a map of the area.  A photo of the building is attached to this announcement.  You can access Coleman Ave from US-101 (De La Cruz Blvd exit) or from I-880 (Coleman Ave exit). The building can be accessed from the Santa Clara CalTrain Station—take the free #10 bus east. The driveway on the right side of the building (when facing the building from Coleman Avenue) leads to the parking lot and the entrance to Humanist House, which are at the back of the building. Large orange cones will mark the driveway. Overflow parking is available in Aviation Avenue, which is the street behind the parking lot of the Humanist House.

Program:

The first part of the meeting will be the monthly meeting of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California, including local updates and discussion.

Following that, our guest speaker Mr. Aaron B. Zisser, who was appointed the Independent Police Auditor of San Jose in September 2017, will talk to us in his new role.

Mr. Zisser spent much of his career as a civil rights attorney in Washington, D.C., with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning in 2009, he spent four years with the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, leading complex “pattern or practice” investigations and monitoring of correctional facilities, state psychiatric hospitals, and statewide mental health and disability services systems. Subsequently, in the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division, he led statewide and other large?scale cases addressing discrimination in student discipline based on race and psychiatric disability, racial segregation, and harassment based on sex and race. His work at the Justice Department involved extensive community outreach and engagement, reviews of internal investigations of use of force and allegations of misconduct, and negotiation of remedies directed at system reform.

Mr. Zisser settled in the Bay Area in 2015 and worked as an independent consultant and attorney for independent civilian oversight agencies at the state, regional, county, and city levels. This work included extensive court monitoring of the Illinois state prison system, reviewing the Santa Clara County Jails’ complaint and internal investigations procedures on behalf of the Blue Ribbon Commission chaired by former IPA Judge (ret.) LaDoris Cordell, reviewing and advising the police oversight agencies for BART and San Francisco, and advising the California Attorney General’s Office on its investigations of youth?serving agencies. Mr. Zisser has spoken at national conferences and to local groups on civilian oversight models, is a member of the National Association for Civilian Oversight in Law Enforcement, and has volunteered with a city commission on disability issues in Oakland and on police reform efforts in San Francisco.

The agenda for this meeting will be:

• 6:30PM – 7:00PM:  Registration/Networking
• 7:00PM - 7:30PM:  ACLU Santa Clara Valley Chapter Monthly Meeting
  • Latest ACLU updates on key initiatives, workshops, etc.
  • Discussion / Q&A
• 7:30PM - 8:15PM: Presentation by Mr. Aaron Zisser, Q&A

There is no charge for this event. Seating is on first-come, first-served basis.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

ACLU-NC Santa Clara Valley Chapter