Police

Macron's Statements on Police Killing Show France has Far to Go in Acknowledging Racism

by Crystal M. Fleming

Histories of official violence against nonwhite citizens confound the nation's official policy of universalism; President Macron's description of riots as "inexplicable" shows that official colorblindness won't help the French move toward justice. 

The Targeting of Bail Funds is an old Weapon in the Civil Rights Backlash

by Say Burgin and Jeanne Theoharis

Atlanta and Georgia law enforcement's arrest of the leaders of a fund dedicated to securing bail for protesters opposing "Cop City" shows that protest movements have long depended on bailing out activists, and the forces opposed to change have long known it. 

Bull Connor's Police Dogs Shocked the Nation in 1963, but they were an American Tradition

by Joshua Clark Davis

"In 1963 liberal critics condemned the Alabama city’s K-9 unit as a relic of the Old South. The harder truth to accept, however, was that it was actually a product of a new America."

Buried Footage Helped Chicago Police Get Away with Killing 10 Labor Activists in 1937

by Greg Mitchell

Paramount's newsreel division shot footage of the murderous attack on a steelworkers' march in 1937. They sided with the bosses by burying the footage. Even after Senator Robert LaFollette pushed for the film's release, cities banned it from the screen as Chicago prosecutors ruled the killings justifiable. A new documentary tells the story of the film. 

The Police Aren't Part of Change in Chicago

by Dan Berger

A historian critiquing a recent book on Black Lives Matter argues that the political, fiscal and cultural influence of police is so broad that it's impossible to think of meaningful social reform in a society that includes modern police departments. 

Blaming Atlanta "Cop City" Protests on "Outside Agitators" is Familiar and Shameful

by Benjamin Stumpf

Blaming outsiders for grassroots objections to turning valuable parkland over to the police to create an urban warfare training center is an effort to shift blame for violence from police to protesters and to assert that local communities accept the plan. Opponents of civil rights did the same thing. 

The Police Car is PR for Power without Accountability

by Jeffrey Lamson

As the central feature of police technology and the main way that departments present themselves to the public, police cars have long been key symbols in police efforts to claim greater legitimacy, resources and power. 

Law Prof. Joanna Schwartz on How the Police Became Untouchable

Policies that protect individual officers from civil liability, and departments from financial responsibility, have developed into a legal architecture of impunity for American police. 

Welcome to the Predator State

by Michael Gould-Wartofsky

The rise of paramilitary police tactical teams heralds the arrival of a moment when policing drops the pretense of serving and protecting a community and embraces war footing. 

Trauma of Tyre Nichols's Killing Echoes in Many Places

by Michael Honey

A police killing in Tacoma prompts a historian to reflect on the radical traditions of nonviolent resistance led by Martin Luther King, and the need for hopefulness in struggle. 

Evaluating the Perpetually Forthcoming Racial Reckoning

Journalist Wesley Lowery turns to a rereading of James Baldwin and Derrick Bell to consider how the racial identity of the officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death fits into the history of American racism. 

Tyre Nichols's Death and America's Systemic Failure

by Peniel E. Joseph

Nichols's killing, like other police killings, emphasizes the need for what W.E.B. DuBois called "abolition democracy," meaning the "eradication of the institutions, vestiges, and badges of racial slavery and new investments in Black citizenship and dignity." This is more than "reform." 

Refuse a Return to "Normalcy" after Police Killings

by Austin McCoy

Refusing to accept avoidable death as part of American life—from COVID or police violence—is the foundation of change. Americans need to organize a national day of mourning in the form of a work stoppage. 

The Police Killing of Tyre Nichols Was Heinous, but not an Aberration

by Simon Balto

Americans must not continue to presume that violent incidents are external to the basic role and function of policing in society. 

NY Mayor's Proposal to Lock Up Mentally Ill Has Long History

by Elliott Young

The impulse to heal the mentally ill has long battled the impulse to lock them up as a threat to the society. Eric Adams is trying to do the latter while claiming to do the former. 

NYPD Warehouse Fire Jeopardizes Cold Cases, Exonerations

Civil Rights lawyer Ron Kuby called the fire a blow to "the hopes and dreams of uncounted innocent people." 

The Orwellian Rise of "Suicide by Cop"

"Suicide by Cop" emerged as a descriptive phrase in the context of a crackdown on crime and an abandonment of police accountability, making a large portion of killings by officers seem natural and unavoidable. 

Is the Feeling of Safety from Home Security Cameras Worth the Invasion of Privacy?

Historian Matt Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that the cozy relationship between tech companies and police departments threatens to make camera footage less private according to the wishes of law enforcement. 

Jeffrey Dahmer's Accomplices? Racism and Homophobia

by Kidiocus King-Carroll

Dahmer was able to kill repeatedly because the Milwaukee police were indifferent to the safety of gay men of color.

Two Years After George Floyd: What Next?

by Austin McCoy

Despite the massive insurgency of 2020, activists struggle as news media amplify reactionary moral panics about history curricula and crime to justify increasing the funding and power of police departments that have seen superficial reforms at best.