Witness Testimony and Epistemic Justice

Sor Juana claimed the right to be heard as a knower—not merely as a subject of others' judgment. Her writings insisted on her epistemic authority. Epistemic justice in policing means treating community members, especially from marginalized groups, as legitimate knowers about their own experiences and what produces or prevents harm in their neighborhoods. Currently, police often discount community testimony about police abuse or neighborhood needs, privileging official reports and statistical measures controlled by police themselves. A justice system following Sor Juana would center community knowledge: residents' accounts of what policing harms them, what builds safety, what cultural practices are misunderstood as criminal. This doesn't mean all claims go unchallenged, but it means they're heard with epistemic respect rather than default suspicion. When communities are recognized as knowers, policing becomes collaborative rather than imposed.