A Nonprofit, Reader-Supported News Organization
The Ferguson riots fast-tracked the debate over whether police should be forced to wear cameras, to protect citizens from abuse and cops from false accusations. Yet officers in Ferguson and elsewhere have demonstrated rogue behavior when they’re being filmed, and few are being reined in. Are more cameras the answer to deeper problems underlying police accountability?
The CIA torture report is as grim as can be imagined, and damning enough proof to change things. But it won’t.
Here’s a hand-picked collection of our best journalism this year. We hope it arms you with the power of information, and inspires you into the new year.
Law enforcement leaks say accused Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev confessed to his role in the attack on two occasions. An open-and-shut case, right? Here’s why neither purported confession is likely to be part of the evidence against him in his ongoing trial.
Why is torching a police kiosk an admirable thing in Syria but cause for consternation in the United States? Why is protest against corrupt central power in one country a good thing—and something to be dismissed in another? WhoWhatWhy asks….WhyWhyWhy
Of all the things that don’t add up in the Boston Marathon bombing case, perhaps the strangest of them all is the killing of MIT police officer Sean Collier. It turns out that what we were told about that wasn’t true—and the actual circumstances look very strange indeed. So does the effort to turn the shooting into a major propaganda moment.
One unanswered question about the Boston Marathon bombing persists: What did Russia tell the U.S. about the Tsarnaev brothers, and when? Here’s why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team is chipping away at the secrecy surrounding that story.
Traditional news outlets have all but abdicated their duty to ask the hard questions. Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen is a case in point – he’s on a first-name basis with the police involved in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture. Klaus Marre looks at what’s missing from the mainstream press at Tsarnaev’s trial.
In a case that fully demonstrates the pervasiveness of surveillance cameras in America, the absence of cameras at one of the biggest trials of the year is glaring. Andrew Quemere examines how the federal courts have managed to stay happily anachronistic.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi reveals what it takes to make it through Gitmo when the American justice system won’t take “I didn’t do it” for an answer.
The incorrect or erroneous testimony of FBI agents could have sent hundreds of innocent people to jail or to their death.
Tensions are running high with members of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s family now in the Boston area for the sentencing phase of his trial. Their hotel was besieged with cancellations and complaints–and bombing victims expressed outrage that the defense paid for the trip out of their taxpayer-funded budget. But this one is not a simple matter of wasteful spending, and the family is worth a closer look.