There are valid reasons to be concerned about mass protests emerging during an ongoing pandemic, but the discourse must shift to recognize the systematic violation of public health mandates by police, even in the absence of violence and arrests, as well as harm reduction practices within the protest movement.
Tag: Police Violence
Police Leaders Speak Out: “Women in Law Enforcement Must Have a Seat at the Table”
Black and brown people are too often killed with impunity by police. Now may be a tipping point and we should not squander this opportunity to make fundamental changes in policing.
The fact is that women in law enforcement respond differently. We are not talking about a few token women—but when gender parity is realized, policing fundamentally changes.
Feminism Requires Abolition: Police Aren’t an Adequate Response to Sexual Violence
We have the statistics right in front of us, proving police are not an adequate defense or solution for responding to sexual violence. Anti-abolitionists and white supremacists use these statistics to claim that we need our current system to ensure the safety of women—but shouldn’t these statistics prove that our current system is not working? Why would a system that fails at least one person every 73 seconds be used as grounds for upholding said system?
Bad Cops and Bystanders: How Male-Dominated Cultures Keep Men Silent
Three sworn officers of the Minneapolis Police Department—all adult men—were in a position to interrupt their fellow officer’s abusive behavior and save Floyd’s life. But none did. Why?
How do norms in male-dominated peer cultures like police departments operate to keep men silent, even when they know something is wrong?
#SayHerName: Happy 27th Birthday, Breonna Taylor
June 5 marks what would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday. Activists and members of Taylor’s community urge individuals to #SayHerName—a campaign created to raise awareness about the number of women and girls that are killed by law enforcement officers.
Getting Cops Out of California Schools
17-year-old Stephanie Lopez started advocating at school board meetings for school resource officers (SROs)—armed, district-funded trained police officers—to be replaced with adult hall monitors. By involving staff who would get to know the students instead of giving them citation, Lopez is looking for a more holistic approach to student management.
The Ms. Q&A: The Black, Feminist Subtext of Melanie S. Hatter’s Award-Winning Novel “Malawi’s Sisters”
“It was almost like they were saying, ‘okay, this is our story, we had a sister and this is similar to what happened to us.'”
We Heart: Ivonne Roman’s Solution to Closing the Gender Gap on Police Forces
The number of women in police has remained stagnant over the last 20 years: 13 percent, with only 3 percent serving as police chiefs. Ivonne Roman proposed a solution: change the physical fitness test and its “arbitrary fitness standards.”
The Plain View of Police Sexism and Racism Online
The issue of police brutality and distrust is still pervasive, especially between minority groups and the police. And after taking a look into the Facebook accounts of thousands of officers, the reasons for police distrust have become even clearer.
Campaigning While Black: Janelle Bynum Speaks Out on Police Violence and Being a Better Neighbor
State Rep. Janelle Bynum was campaigning in a neighborhood in her district when a resident called the police on her—because she thought Bynum, a black woman, was “spending a lot of time at homes and appearing to be casing the neighborhood while on her phone.”