When I heard noted filmmaker Quentin Tarantino had participated in a rally devoted to opposing police brutality, I thought that was cool. When I heard that the police unions were encouraging people to boycott his upcoming movie, The Hateful Eight, I thought that was funny. But when I heard that the Fraternal Order of Police,…

We are told there is a pipeline in the United States that travels from our school system to our criminal justice system. Correct as the data corroborating the pipeline’s existence may be, it is a flawed way of conceptualizing the issue. There is no pipeline out of schools and into prisons, because schools and prisons…

Many consider Portland, Oregon to be a liberal, hipster paradise where anything organic is not far from reach and everyone loves each other. So naturally, Portland’s largest school, Portland State University (PSU), a setting where students roam free in an urban location, must fit the description. But recent events that have unfolded in the past…

A little ways into The Utopia of Rules, an anarchist critique of state and corporate bureaucracy, author David Graeber asks, “Why are we so confused about what police really do?” It’s an important question, as the problem of police violence and impunity in America can no longer be ignored. For far too long, argues Graeber,…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Ryan Calhoun‘s “Bland, McKenna, and the State’s Psychiatric Weapon”  read by Thomas J. Webb and edited by Nick Ford. It’s clear McKenna’s death was no accident, just as a woman who dies as a result of her husband beating her is no accident. McKenna’s physical condition leaves no doubt that her…

Retired black tennis star James Blake, on his way to the 2015 US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York, had an unpleasant surprise waiting for him outside of his hotel last week. Upon exiting the hotel, he was attacked and brutally slammed to the ground by a large white man. The assailant turned out…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Nick Ford‘s “The Police Don’t Deserve Peace” read by Thomas J. Webb and edited by Nick Ford. It’s been three years and neither of the officers who shot Diaz have been brought to court, nor has anyone else in law enforcement been prosecuted for the crimes during the peaceful protesting or through the…

After Sandra Bland was found hanging in her jail cell from an apparent suicide, her mental health immediately became the focal point of discussion by police and the media. According to law enforcement, Bland had attempted suicide within the past year, but was no longer suicidal. As recently as October, she’d listed herself as suffering from depression. Marijuana…

Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black parishioners because they were black has been charged by the central government with committing hate crimes. Words cannot adequately express the evil of Roof’s actions at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and no decent person would want to say anything that be could possibly be construed…

Mi è capitato spesso di scrivere dell’immunità sistematica della polizia, un problema che solo quest’anno è costato la vita a centinaia di persone. Ma qual è la tattica da adottare contro questa violenza? Come possiamo contrastare questa assenza di responsabilità? Da tre anni, Genevieve Huizarof protesta pacificamente e si interroga sulla questione. All’inizio pensava che…

I’ve written often about the systemic lack of police accountability, a problem which has cost the lives of hundreds of people in 2015 alone. But what tactics should be taken to combat police brutality? What do we do to counter this lack of accountability? Genevieve Huizar has protested peacefully for the last three years and…

Many of us know by now that law enforcement agencies are not required by law to file reports on when the police kill someone. This under-reporting translates into the FBI data that is collected from the police departments to be inaccurate. But other organizations that I’ve mentioned before like Fatal Encounters and Killed by Police…

Sulla scia della rivolta di Ferguson, Barack Obama ha chiesto centinaia di milioni di dollari per armare la polizia di videocamere da installare sulla divisa. Questo, pensa lui, è un modo di responsabilizzare la polizia. E ha ragione. Aumenta la “responsabilità” che già si vede nella giustizia locale. Rende la polizia responsabile agli occhi del…

The recent trajectory of events leading up to the shooting of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, and the nationwide police backlash afterward, have made it clearer than ever how police feel about the public they supposedly protect and serve: they’re terrified of us. For more than twenty years, the Drug War and associated…

In the wake of an uprising in Ferguson, Barack Obama requested hundreds of millions of dollars to arm the police with cameras. This, he thought, was a way of holding police accountable. And he was right, it feeds into the system of “accountability” already in place in local justice systems. It holds them accountable to…

Ironically, the shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown by white Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson is a distraction from the racist police brutality that ravages America. Whether or not Wilson shot Brown unjustifiably, and whether or not Brown provoked the shooting by grabbing for Wilson’s gun, the police — and the government…

Police body cameras are all the rage lately. Al Sharpton wants them used to monitor the activities of cops. Ann Coulter wants them used to “shut down” Al Sharpton. The White House wants them because, well, they’re a way to look both “tough on police violence” and “tough on crime” by spending $263 million on new law enforcement technology….

The night of November 4th in Belem, capital of Brazil’s Para state, was terrorizing. After the death of Corporal Figueiredo, from the Tactical Ops (Rotam) of the Military Police of the State of Para, at 7:30 PM, there was a violent retaliation, killing nine people, according to the official numbers, six of whom were undoubtedly executed….

C4SS Feed 44 presents Thomas L. Knapp‘s “Ferguson: Nixon Would Make a Solitude and Call it Peace” read Christopher King and edited by Nick Ford. I lived near Ferguson for 12 years. I drove an ice cream truck up and down its streets for two summers. I seriously considered renting an apartment in Canfield Green, the…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Trevor Hultner‘s “No, a Soldier Cop on Every Corner Does Not Sound Great” read Christopher King and edited by Nick Ford. The most obvious statement to make at the outset is that neither jaywalking nor suspicion of petty theft nor running away from cops are crimes punishable by death anywhere in the…