The rallying cry for community control of police must be extended to the entire governmental apparatus. We have a plethora of governments at the city, county, state and the federal level yet they rarely act on the public’s behalf. That is why elected officials from Idaho to Pennsylvania to Alabama are certain they can get away with using the people’s money for dubious reasons. New prisons and better paid police are all we have to show for sickness, unemployment, and death. . . .
police
Kelly Davis: The Wife That Won’t Go Away
Last year when Keith Davis Jr. was sentenced to 50 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, his wife Kelly Davis made a commitment to fight. The fight that Kelly has committed to is one with many moving pieces— it’s a fight to preserve her own sanity, a fight to raise her children, a fight to get up every day and go to work, a fight to hold on to her marriage, and a fight against the racist and corrupt Baltimore political establishment. For many African women and non-men, it’s a storied fight, old as our arrival . . .
We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
Policing in America is facing a PR crisis. Following the May 25th murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the term “defund the police” has become a rallying cry for thousands across the country. Six months later, however, America has not defunded it’s police force––and in fact, has in some cases taken steps to give police departments even more money. Instead, police forces across America have taken an insidious approach: painting their departments in blackface. After the January 6th Trump riot at the Capitol building, Yoganda Pittman, a Black woman, was named the new Chief of . . .