Across the United States, police are shielded from both public and departmental accountability by multiple layers of contractual and legislative protections.
Our experts look at why people of colour are being hit harder by COVID-19, New Zealand’s success in eliminating the virus, and the latest on drug trials.
There is no good police versus bad police. Police are police. They are the states’ organ of repression. There are a myriad of better scenarios than the current one.
That George Floyd died at the hands of four police officers is uncontested, but interpretations of his death and its aftermath differ greatly. The result is two starkly opposed narratives.
It’s nearly impossible to avoid close contact when protesting, and easy to forget the risks. An infectious disease expert answers key questions about how to avoid spreading the coronavirus to family.
Many law enforcement agencies fail to adequately investigate misconduct allegations and rarely sustain citizen complaints. Disciplinary sanctions are few and reserved for the most egregious cases.
Opinions about demonstrations are formed in large part by what people read or see in the media. This gives journalists a lot of power when it comes to driving the narrative.
Joyce Dalsheim, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Persecution is central to Jewish collective memory. So when armed police entered ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem to close synagogues due to COVID-19, some residents reacted with fear and suspicion.
After a fire killed 66 inmates at a Venezuelan jail in March, news stories portrayed the country’s prisons as lawless. The real backstory of this deadly riot is more complex — and maybe a bit scarier.
Donald Nieman, Binghamton University, State University of New York
One of the harshest critiques of white racism appeared 50 years ago in the federal government’s own Kerner Commission report. And racism may be why the report’s recommendations were largely ignored.