- In “The End of Policing,” Alex S. Vitale argues that police reforms implemented in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri — from diversity initiatives to community policing to body cameras — fail to acknowledge that policing as an institution reinforces race and class inequalities by design.
- Related: 4 Disabled People Dead in Another Week of Police Brutality
- Related: Special Report | Killing Him While He's Dead; This Didn't Have to Happen.
Rashmee Kumar, the Intercept
To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up here to receive the latest updates <http://evergreenedigest.org/contact> from all reader supported Evergreene Digest.
October 15 2017 | Images from the mass protests in St. Louis last month against the acquittal of a white former police officer in the fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith felt like déjà vu: raised fists, Black Lives Matter signs, swarms of police armed in full riot gear. But this time, as police made arrests on the third night of protests, they began to chant “Whose streets, our streets” — a refrain that, stolen from the voices of protesters, mutated into an unsettling declaration of power, entitlement, and impunity.
So far this year, 773 people have been fatally shot by police, according to the Washington Post, while independent databases that include other causes of death by police report tolls above 900. In the three years since the flashpoint of Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, pushes for reform have reverberated through all levels of government, most notably from former President Barack Obama’s policing task force. And yet, much like gun violence itself, police brutality in the United States remains stuck on repeat. A new book published last week goes beyond the rhetoric of reform to interrogate why we need police at all.
Rashmee Kumar is the copy editor at the Intercept. She has previously worked at Guardian US, NJ Advance Media, and the Star-Ledger. She graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in journalism and media studies.
Full story …
Related:
4 Disabled People Dead in Another Week of Police Brutality, David M. Perry, the Nation
Supporters hold up signs during a 2014 protest in support of Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill homeless man who died after a violent confrontation with Fullerton police. (AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill)
- Police don’t need better training; they need to stop treating noncompliance as justification for violence.
- Related: It's Time for People with No Country to be Unapologetically Selfish and Intolerant.
Related:
Special Report | Killing Him While He's Dead; This Didn't Have to Happen. Compiled by David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest
- Part 1: Killing Him While He’s Dead
- The problem isn’t that so many people are hurt and angry; the problem is that more aren’t.
- Part 2: Sacramento Police Said They Were Making Changes. Then They Killed Stephon Clark.
- This Didn't Have to Happen.
(Rachel Orr/Washington (DC) Post; iStock) 
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $1, you can support 
To stay on top of important articles like these, 
evidence of terrorist connections. That policy came from the highest levels of government; that’s why a suit brought on behalf of some of those men sought damages from top officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The Supreme Court has just denied the men’s right to sue those officials. What does that mean for accountability when powerful people make unconstitutional policy? We’ll hear from Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. (MP3)
