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Category: Society

Inside Seattle’s ‘autonomous zone’ with free food, free speech, and no police

Inside Seattle’s ‘autonomous zone’ with free food, free speech, and no police

The New York Times reports: On the streets next to a police precinct in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, protesters and officers spent a week locked in a nightly cycle of standoffs, at times ending with clouds of tear gas. But facing a growing backlash over its dispersal tactics in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, the Seattle Police Department this week offered a concession: Officers would abandon their precinct, board up the windows and let the protesters have…

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Most Americans trust Black Lives Matter movement more than Trump to promote justice and racial equality

Most Americans trust Black Lives Matter movement more than Trump to promote justice and racial equality

USA Today reports: The police crackdown to clear protesters from Lafayette Square last week looms as a defining moment in the national debate over race and law enforcement that has been sparked by the death of George Floyd. An exclusive USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly endorse the right of peaceful protest outside the White House – a view held by nearly 9 of 10 people across racial and partisan lines. Nearly 9 of 10 had heard about the clashes…

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Large majorities of Americans support protests over Floyd killing and say police need to change, poll finds

Large majorities of Americans support protests over Floyd killing and say police need to change, poll finds

The Washington Post reports: Americans overwhelmingly support the nationwide protests that have taken place since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, and they say police forces have not done enough to ensure that blacks are treated equally to whites, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll. President Trump receives negative marks for his handling of the protests, with 61 percent saying they disapprove and 35 percent saying they approve. Much of the opposition to…

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After this city dissolved its police department, crime fell by almost half

After this city dissolved its police department, crime fell by almost half

CNN reports: Last week, Minneapolis officials confirmed they were considering a fairly rare course of action: disbanding the city police department. It’s not the first locale to break up a department, but no cities as populous have ever attempted it. Minneapolis City Council members haven’t specified what or who will replace it if the department disbands. Camden, New Jersey, may be the closest thing to a case study they can get. The city, home to a population about 17% of…

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Police think they can get away with anything. That’s because they usually do

Police think they can get away with anything. That’s because they usually do

Bocar Abdoulaye Ba and Roman Rivera write: Minneapolis citizens had already put the city’s police department on notice that Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, might be dangerous. Over his 18-year career, they lodged at least 17 complaints against him, but none resulted in meaningful discipline. Chauvin’s example mirrors a pattern seen in earlier prominent police killings — such as the murder by Jason Van Dyke of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, in Chicago…

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The virus isn’t done with us

The virus isn’t done with us

Alexis C Madrigal and Robinson Meyer write: After months of deserted public spaces and empty roads, Americans have returned to the streets. But they have come not for a joyous reopening to celebrate the country’s victory over the coronavirus. Instead, tens of thousands of people have ventured out to protest the killing of George Floyd by police. Demonstrators have closely gathered all over the country, and in blocks-long crowds in large cities, singing and chanting and demanding justice. Police officers…

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Even when racism doesn’t go viral, it’s still deadly

Even when racism doesn’t go viral, it’s still deadly

Nicholas Kristof writes: Imagine that no one had shot video of George Floyd being killed by the police in Minneapolis. There would have been a bland statement that he had died resisting arrest, and none of us would have heard of him. Instead, the horror of that video has ignited protests around the world. Racism in that video is as visceral as a lynching. Yet there is no viral video to galvanize us about other racial inequities: There is no…

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Why protesters want to defund police departments

Why protesters want to defund police departments

Time reports: When you talk to activists who are pushing to defund police departments, there’s a specific word that comes up often: Reimagine. The idea that police are the only answer to preventing crime and protecting people is one that has been so ingrained into American society that it can be hard to imagine a different reality. But amid a national uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, activists say it’s time to reimagine what the public actually needs. In…

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What’s a journalist supposed to be now?

What’s a journalist supposed to be now?

Margaret Sullivan writes: With the country in turmoil over racial injustice, a public health crisis and devastating job losses, it should be no surprise that journalists are caught up in the tumult. Still, the extent of that upheaval is remarkable. Consider just a slice of what’s happened in recent days: Numerous New York Times journalists publicly denounced their editorial page management for publishing a commentary article by a U.S. senator — headlined “Send In the Troops” — that advocated deploying…

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Mass protests around the globe in solidarity against police brutality and racism

Mass protests around the globe in solidarity against police brutality and racism

The New York Times reports: They were warned by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia against attending Black Lives Matter marches on Saturday because of the coronavirus risk, but tens of thousands would not be deterred. The health minister in Britain pleaded with residents not to gather for similar demonstrations in cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham to stop the virus’s spread. But throngs showed up anyway — despite the cold weather, the spitting rain and warnings by the police…

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Minneapolis City Council member: We must disband the police

Minneapolis City Council member: We must disband the police

Steve Fletcher writes: When I ran for the Minneapolis City Council in 2017, I knew that the Police Department had a decades-long history of violence and discrimination. I ran on a platform of police reform informed by my experience seeing police persistently harass young black canvassers that I worked with as a community organizer, and by the police shooting of Jamar Clark in 2015, which prompted weeks of protest outside the fourth precinct. In 2017, the police shooting of Justine…

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Protesters ‘defund the police’ rallying cry is gaining traction among public officials

Protesters ‘defund the police’ rallying cry is gaining traction among public officials

The New York Times reports: After more than a week of protests against police brutality and unrest that left parts of the city burned, a growing chorus of elected officials, civic leaders and residents in Minneapolis are urging the city to break up the Police Department and reimagine the way policing works. “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” Jeremiah Ellison, a member of the City Council, said on Twitter this week. “And when we’re done, we’re not…

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Police tactics during protests threaten public health across America

Police tactics during protests threaten public health across America

Politico reports: Mass arrests of protesters across the country — many held for hours in vans, cells and other enclosed spaces — are heightening the risk of coronavirus spread, according to public health experts and lawsuits filed by civil rights groups. As tens of thousands of people take to the streets to protest police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the arrest and detention of thousands further jeopardizes the health of demonstrators — and that of police…

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Buffalo police serve and protect each other

Buffalo police serve and protect each other

The Daily Beast reports: A video of Buffalo police officers shoving an elderly peace activist to the ground, then walking by him as a pool of blood collected around his head, shocked the nation. Their colleagues? Not so much. All members of the Emergency Response Team resigned from the unit on Friday in support of the officers who were suspended without pay for their aggression toward Martin Gugino, 75. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of…

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The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968

The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968

The Washington Post reports: As Black Live Matter protests grow across the nation over policing, the deep economic inequalities that African Americans face are coming to the forefront. In many ways, the gap between the finances of blacks and whites is still as wide in 2020 as it was in 1968, when a run of landmark civil rights legislation culminated in the Fair Housing Act in response to centuries of unequal treatment of African Americans in nearly every part of…

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The U.S. military must stand up for its soul in this moment

The U.S. military must stand up for its soul in this moment

Admiral James Stavridis (Ret.) writes: We need to get our active duty military out of the line of fire of domestic politics and off the streets, and turn this mission over to the men and women trained for it. I am old enough to remember the protests of 1968, the destructive energy that ripped through this nation in those days under the twin burdens of racism (and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.) and the country’s enormous protests against…

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