Law Enforcement

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  9/21/2020
  

  Though Often Mythologized, the Texas Rangers Have an Ugly History of Brutality

  by Jonathan S. Jones

  The link between racial violence and Texas law enforcement goes all the way back to the state’s original police force, the Texas Rangers.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  9/1/2020
  

  The History Of Racist Colonial Violence Can Help Us Understand Police Violence

  by Sarah Olutola

  Racial ideologies and practices of social control honed by colonial powers are present today in American police tactics and defenses of police abuse against communities of color. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/29/2020
  

  There’s A Reason It’s Hard To Discipline Police. It Starts With A Bill Of Rights 47 Years Ago

  The passage of a "Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights" in Maryland set the tone for other state laws insulating police officers from meaningful oversight.

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• SOURCE: Brennan Center
  8/27/2000
  

  Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement

  A report from the Brennan Center for Justice documents the long history of racism in law enforcement and the lack of attention to recent FBI warnings that white supremacists groups are infiltrating law enforcement agencies. 

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• SOURCE: Vanity Fair
  8/25/2020
  

  Blue Bloods: America's Brotherhood of Police Officers

  by Eve L. Ewing

  “How many unions are there where you’re assigned a gun and told you can shoot people?” Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner asked me during a phone interview. “I mean, they have superpowers. They are given superpowers over the lives and freedom of other people. Over the integrity of their bodies.” 

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• SOURCE: The Intercept
  8/24/2020
  

  Tilting At Windmills: The FBI Chased Imagined Eco-Activist Enemies, Documents Reveal

  At the wind energy industry’s behest, the FBI and DHS gamed out attacks on facilities that they acknowledged face no threat.

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• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  

  The Texas Rangers' Lore Spurred Cultural Fawning and Sports Namesakes that have Long Masked a History of Violence and Racism

  John Morán González (University of Texas) and Benjamin Johnson (Loyola University, Chicago) founded Refusing to Forget, an organization that hopes to educate people about state-sanctioned violence against Tejanos in the early 20th century, including by the Texas Rangers.

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• SOURCE: Slate
  8/4/2020
  

  The Police Lie. All the Time. Can Anything Stop Them?

  A 1961 Supreme Court ruling establishing the Exclusionary Rule--that evidence obtained illegally is inadmissible in trial--spurred a host of police practices to circumvent the rule, most involving lying in reports about the circumstances of a search or arrest.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Federal Agents, “Insurrection,” and the Long, Bloody History of U.S. Counterinsurgency

  by Rachel Ida Buff

  Now, on the streets of U.S. cities, federal agents join militarized police in waging war on Americans who are exercising their lawful rights of freedom of speech and assembly. There is no doubt that the results endanger us all.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/5/2020
  

  Santae Tribble, Whose Wrongful Conviction Revealed FBI Forensic Hair Match Flaws, Dies at 59

  Legal experts said Tribble’s case and other wrongful convictions forced authorities to abandon blame of rogue FBI examiners or bad apples for systemic human error repeated over decades.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  6/26/2020
  

  The FBI Has a History of Targeting Black Activists. That's Still True Today

  The FBI has long disrupted and discredited civil rights leaders. It should put its authorities to better use by holding officers accountable.

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• 6/28/2020
  

  Liberal Reform Threatens to Expand the Police Power--Just as it did in the Past

  by Max Felker-Kantor

  The history of liberal law-and-order reveals that procedural reforms implemented on top of a structure of policing that has been empowered to protect property and control “disorder” are not only doomed to fail but will produce the conditions for more protest and resistance. 

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• 6/21/2020
  

  The Twisted History of Domestic Military Intervention

  by Alan Singer

  The use of federal troops to enforce domestic law and order has usually served the interests of big business and white supremacy; recent calls to send in the troops are not concerned with protecting freedom.

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• SOURCE: ProPublica
  6/9/2020
  

  The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.

  by Wendi C. Thomas

  Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.

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• SOURCE: CNN
  6/02/2020
  

  A 'Hamilton'-esque Scandal Helped Give Trump His Cudgel

  by Gautham Rao

  The real impediment to Trump's use of the Insurrection Act is historical precedent and norms; If Trump doesn't have any regard for them, there is little to stop him from following through on his pledge to deploy the military in American cities. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  4/6/2020
  

  U.S. Labels Russian White Supremacist Group as Global Terrorist

  First time a white supremacist organization Is targeted by terrorism designation.

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• SOURCE: Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
  3/16/2020
  

  Lawsuit: Ice Must Not Destroy Detainee Records

  NARA approved ICE’s request to begin destroying the records in December 2019, despite ongoing concerns and reports of widespread mistreatment of individuals detained in ICE custody.