History News Network

Police

Originally published 09/02/2014
Everybody Wants to Talk About What Happened in Ferguson. Here's How a Constructive Conversation Might Begin.

It’s time to pay up – not in dollars but in commitment to a long-term “national conversation” in many parts of the nation to bridge the racial divide, root out the causes of conflict, and solve them.

Originally published 08/20/2014
How Ferguson Is Playing in the Rest of the World

During the Cold War, the United States was often criticized abroad for its inability to deal with the issue of Civil Rights--and now we are once again.

Originally published 08/20/2014
Ferguson, Missouri: This Is Who We Are

"This is who we are. It’s who we’ve been for a very long time. Godspeed to the people of Ferguson, and to everyone else out there working to fix us."

Originally published 10/03/2013
Shutdown Fulfills GOP’s Confederate Fantasies

It's a way of acting out a deeply held secessionist dream.

Originally published 09/03/2013
Police Need to Be Held Accountable for Attacks on the Disabled

Robert Saylor, a 26-year-old man with Down Syndrome, died after being put in handcuffs by officers outside of a movie theater. That's only one of dozens of recent incidents.

Originally published 05/28/2013
Founder of CT military museum killed by police

A Connecticut man who was shot and killed by the local police at the start of the Memorial Day weekend was identified Sunday by state authorities as a 75-year-old Army veteran and founder of a military museum in Danbury.The authorities said the man, John Valluzzo, was armed with a handgun when officers from the Ridgefield Police Department confronted him in the front yard of his property on Friday just after 5:15 p.m. The officers had responded to a call of a domestic dispute at that address, 423 Ridgebury Road in Ridgefield, along a verdant stretch of sizable homes.

Originally published 03/19/2013
Ten Years of "Police Advisors" in Iraq

Iraqi Special Operation Forces arresting a "suspect" in a training operation in 2009. Credit: Flickr/U.S. Army.Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and that country's descent into anarchy, the United States began assisting, training, and equipping the Iraqi police.

Originally published 08/31/2014
Democrats are part of the problem in Ferguson, too

The halls of an adjourned Congress are ringing with passionate calls to address the civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., which resulted from the lethal shooting of an unarmed black teen by police. The response of militarized law enforcement who view protesters as "the enemy" and the city as a war zone has become a particular focus. But, even if the cries are sincere, every congressional word or movement until November will reflect election maneuvering.Democrats quickly staked a claim to the moral high ground. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) are prominent members of both the House Judiciary Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus. Along with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), they initiated a call for a congressional hearing on the use of excessive force by American law enforcement. The Republicans will almost certainly cooperate, if only because it would be impolitic not to do so. Moreover, the hearing would be post-election and not necessarily lead to a change in law or policy.

Originally published 09/03/2013
The Military Played a Smaller Role in France and the U.S. than in Egypt

The political independence that the military often displays in the midst of revolutionary situations was strikingly absent in both the American and French revolutions. Both depended on militias composed of citizen soldiers. Even as an army was constituted, this remained the case at least for a good while.