Portside

In hundreds of police departments across the country, the percentage of whites on the force is more than 30 percentage points higher than in the communities they serve, according to an analysis of a government survey of police departments.

Analysis finds of the 15 large US cities in which a majority of officers are non-white, only one – Memphis – has a union leader who is black

Let’s put police unions on a raft and set them adrift. They can reapply for solidarity if they stop abusing the rest of us.

The Great shares a broadly similar style and subject with The Favorite, though it is neither as dark nor as committed to factual accuracy. The series shows the grotesque royal court life of Empress Catherine II of Russia, aka Catherine the Great.

Before rushing to expel police unions, labor needs a larger reckoning with law enforcement’s role in a capitalist-colonialist state.

In 1975 an Anglo-American coup overthrew a democratically elected ally in a demeaning scandal in which sections of the Australian elite colluded. Today, Australia is a vassal state bar none.

Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in 2016 during a fight against a hydroelectric megaproject. In the corrupt narcostate of post-coup Honduras, the killing was the grand finale of a campaign of terror.

(A long read) Cyclone Amphan is the first to hit a densely peopled area during the pandemic, raising issues about its impact on the people, flora and fauna of the Sundarbans, and the role of cyclones in the crisis of human-caused species extinctions.

Before the pandemic and recession, California’s food banks were struggling with an overwhelming need, due primarily to housing costs and large undocumented population. But food banks, meant to be safety nets, fear the worst may be yet to come.

Police | John Oliver. Leonard Cohen | Anthem (w/lyrics). Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution | Movie. Invade Us, Canada | The Daily Show. Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down.