The Portsmouth police department, whose officers have killed two black men this year, act out an operation akin to an army raid to lure new sign-ups. The force has acquired a strong military streak by targeting troops leaving a large navy base in neighboring Norfolk.
Videos: John Oliver: Washington DC Statehood. We Need Truth and Reconciliation. Bob Dylan -- Desolation Row at 50. Affordable Housing Crisis. Pastor Dewey Smith: Homosexuality.
When the then 28-year-old Bryan Stevenson was threatened with a gun by a police officer, he knew better than to run away. But, he argues, young black men are still presumed guilty and dangerous by many Americans. Now executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and part of President Barack Obama’s policing task force, he says only transitional justice can begin to heal America’s racial wounds.
WeTheProtestors.org, a group that has played a prominent role in organizing the protests against police violence and especially the disproportionate use of force against African Americans in the year since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, has put forward a set of ten specific policy proposals aimed at ending police violence, including limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability
Slavery to Mass Incarceration. Mess Within Texas - Sandra Bland's Arrest. Traffic Stop. Are We Really 99% Chimp? The First Openly Asshole President.
Alex Landau, an African American, was raised by adoptive white parents to believe that skin color didn’t matter. But when Alex was pulled over by Denver police officers one night, he lost his belief in a color-blind world. Alex tells what happened that night.
Reader Comments: #BlackLivesMatter and Bernie Sanders; The Value of Protest; US Cited for Police Violence, Racism; Private Prisons; Euro Agreement and Greece; Urban Renewal and Public Space;
Announcement: Rosa Luxemburg Conference - New Takes on a Longtime Classic - New York - August 21 - 22
(Moderator's Note - There will be no Tidbits for the next three weeks)
For years I’ve battled a driving anxiety. I want to get over it, but the mysterious death of Sandra Bland after a routine traffic stop in Texas reminds me that in black women’s lives, safety is an illusion.
Sandra Bland died in police custody in a Texas jail after a traffic stop. In a video shot by a passer-by, Bland protests that her head is being slammed to the ground during her arrest. Local authorities are calling her death a suicide, but friends and family do not believe that explanation. Twitter users have launched the hashtag #IfIDieInPoliceCustody to counter the narratives that often follow the deaths of unarmed black men and women in police custody.
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