Inside the Ferguson Protests
Reading Time: 17 minutes A close look at what set off the Ferguson riots five years ago, and a closer look at the long-term abuse and predation the police subjected black citizens to every day.
Flunking the Test of Character
Reading Time: 4 minutes Officers of the law across all levels are (ab)using their power to oppress others. They find a justification for their actions in the words and actions of their ultimate boss.
Excessive Use of Force Is Not Always a Bad Cop Issue
Reading Time: < 1 minute Police killings are a serious problem in the US. But any honest debate around this issue must include the fact that cops have a tough job: Every day they potentially face citizens who carry more firepower than they do.
Classic Who: The Ferguson Report, Part 1: Breathing While Black
Reading Time: 13 minutes Stories from the DOJ report on the Ferguson Police’s grinding daily abuse of African-Americans — the kind of abuse that probably happens all over America.
A Top Cop Says We Need To Reinvent Policing
Reading Time: 17 minutes Norm Stamper talks about cop culture, how contagious and deeply institutionalized it is and how “awful but lawful” has become an internal standard that real community policing has to root out.
Youth Jailed at Age 16 for Years with No Trial, Kills Self—Who’s Responsible?
Reading Time: 13 minutes Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder spent three years in jail without a trial before the charges were dropped—including more than two years in solitary. His experience left him a broken young man. Before he killed himself, he attempted to expose how authorities employed extraordinary pressure to compel confessions of guilt.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: Finally, a Meaningful Report on Ferguson, MO
Reading Time: < 1 minute WhoWhatWhy podcaster Jeff Schechtman gets the lowdown on the federal investigation into the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri. What was that really about? Was there more to it than an isolated event? In short, yes. Find out in this interview with an NAACP official what systemic issues played a role in generating the deep anger in Ferguson—and throughout the country.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: Civil Unrest and the Violation of Civil Liberties
Reading Time: < 1 minute While covering the Baltimore riots, journalist Shawn Carrie was shot in the head by a police pepperball and held without being charged. These, however, are just two of the very many violations of civil liberties taking place in the wake of civil unrest.
FBI Spy Planes over Baltimore
Reading Time: 3 minutes Revelations that FBI surveillance planes circled Baltimore during the recent civil unrest have civil liberties advocates in a tizzy. Not surprisingly, the secretive Bureau has not been forthcoming about this ominous development.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: Riotland: Flashing Back from Freddie Gray to Rodney King
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s been 23 years since the 1992 race riots in LA sparked by the failure to convict police officers who brutally beat Rodney King. With Baltimore smoldering, what’s really changed?