Cause and Effect

The Brutality of Police Culture in Baltimore

What's crucial to understand, as Baltimore residents take to the streets in long-simmering frustration, is that their general grievances are valid regardless of how this case plays out. For as in Ferguson, where residents suffered through years of misconduct so egregious that most Americans could scarcely conceive of what was going on, the people of Baltimore are policed by an entity that perpetrates stunning abuses. The difference is that this time we needn't wait for a DOJ report to tell us so. Harrowing evidence has been presented. Yet America hasn't looked.

I include myself...

The Myth of Police Reform

African Americans, for most of our history, have lived under the power of the criminal-justice system, not its authority. The dominant feature in the relationship between African Americans and their country is plunder, and plunder has made police authority an impossibility, and police power a necessity...

Where is the Lie? This Movement is Right on Time

Millennials across the nation are hot. Thousands of young Americans have been responding appropriately to the police violence, systemic racism, and smear campaigns in the headlines by taking to the streets and local ballot box. Read this powerful call to action written by one young activist...

These are the Most Striking Pictures of the Freddie Gray Protests in Baltimore

Like the police-involved killings of Oscar Grant and Eric Garner and Michael Brown—all young, black men—(Freddie)Gray’s death touched off a series of protests seeking justice and reform of police practices. Baltimore native and self-taught photographer Devin Allen hit the streets to document the deep pain and righteous anger of his city. The photos he produced are searing, intimate, and remarkable.