The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis has drawn historic levels of interest in police misconduct and drawn condemnation from law enforcement leaders nationwide. As a reporter covering law enforcement for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey,...
Month: June 2020
Don’t Fall for the Myth of the “Outside Agitator” in Racial Justice Protests
Over the last few days, we’ve seen a national uprising against racism and police brutality. In response, the first instinct of the defenders of the status quo was to unite behind an old talking point: the uprising was carried out by “outside agitators” from beyond the...
The Promise of Street Rebellions
The flames burned both for Floyd and for the vanishing dream of a moral economy. “In America the processes of racial subjection and material dispossession are inseparable.” As we emerged from a weekend in which legions of protesters in Minneapolis and other cities...
“Bad apples” are not the problem: America’s police have a long legacy of brutal misconduct
The Osmonds," a Saturday-morning cartoon from the 1970s, always ended with a sickly melody that stays permanently in my mind. "One Bad Apple" was about unrequited love (from girls, rather than cops). I knew the lyrics before I understood what "bad apple" meant, or,...
The Story Has Gotten Away from Us
A narrative, by its nature, is a contained thing. Some bits get trimmed out in the interest of coherence. Some get cut for time or space. Always, a storyteller makes choices, choices that are informed by her worldview, to collect material in support of a thesis, a...
All Four Officers Involved in George Floyd Case Will Face Charges
The public has protested for nine consecutive nights following George Floyd’s death on May 25 and one of the goals—that all four of the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) officers who were on the scene for the deadly encounter are charged—has been met, national...