15 Search results for "police morale"

How the state uses “police morale” to divert from the violence inherent to policing
By Benji Hart Recently, the Chicago Police Department released a video on its Facebook page entitled “You Are Not Alone!” intending to raise awareness about the high suicide rate among its officers—which the video cites as being nearly 60% higher than the national average. The video depicts a uniformed officer reaching slowly for their own […]
Calls to #AbolishICE are counterproductive unless they are also a call to #AbolishPolice
By Benji Hart In the last month, following the emergence of horrific images of migrant children being separated from their families and held in cages by border agents, the call to #AbolishICE has gone mainstream. Most notably, Congolese immigrant activist Therese Okoumou climbed the Statue of Liberty’s base on July 4th following an “Abolish ICE” […]
UCPD’s shooting of student in mental health crisis highlights the academy’s role in police brutality
By Cosette Hampton Last Tuesday night, an officer of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) shot 4th year student Charles Thomas, who was having a mental health crisis. For those familiar with the University’s conflicting statements on safe spaces, trigger warnings and free speech, it should come as no surprise that even students are […]
How growing up in what some called a religious “cult” helped me make sense of police abolition
Editor’s Note: This post contains discussions of sexual and domestic violence. It also contains spoilers of the Netflix film One of Us. I’ve been thinking a lot about growing up Black in the Hare Krsna community lately, owed primarily to the fact that I am currently working on a memoir. But I was most recently […]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel Makes His Pick For Chicago Police Superintendent
Ever since former Chicago Spt. Garry McCarthy was fired following pressure stemming from Laquan McDonald’s murder, there’s been a search for a permanent superintendent for the Chicago Police Department. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made his pick on who he would like to fill the position. Eddie Johnson is a 27-year CPD veteran and current chief […]
Netflix’s ‘Bright’ is copaganda, plain and simple
By Ronnie Boyd Over the holidays, I rushed to watch Netflix’s new original film, Bright, starring the always scrumptious (at least, to me) Will Smith. I went into the film wanting to like it, but knowing there was a high likelihood that I wouldn’t. Even with this awareness, I wasn’t prepared for just how much […]
Black Joy is movement work
by Gloria Oladipo Black joy is revolutionary. Full stop. Oftentimes, white people misinterpret Black liberation movements as movements only about pain, movements only about anger, only about violence and death. And, of course, they involve those things. But joy is foundational. Joy is fundamental. Joy is what we’re fighting for. Joy is what we’re fighting […]
From John Henry to James Evans: Black men married to hard labor in the white American imagination
by Donnie MoreIand I find myself humming the theme of Good Times, quite a bit. It’s calming, in the way only Black Baptist Church Choirs can be calming. In fact, I find all of it pretty calming—Good Times, that is—because it’s so unequivocally Black, that it feels a part of my cultural genome. Now, I […]
Here’s a list of 20 of the dopest Black comics set to takeover 2018. You’re welcome!
By Terrence Sage The following is a list of comics either ongoing or releasing this year. It is focused on either Black creative teams penning the adventures of superheroes, or comics that star Black superheroes in a prominent light!
Couple Fined For Not Removing Racist Graffiti They Found On Their Home
An interracial couple in Stamford, Connecticut is taking a stand against the harassment they’ve received because of their relationship and local police’s inability to find those responsible. Heather Lindsay and Lexene Charles returned home on Jan. 14 to find “N*GGER” spray-painted on their garage door. Since then, the disgusting mark remains, despite the threat of […]
Black Women Activists Talk Back: How We Can End Street Harassment Through Transformative Justice
By: Mari Morales-Williams and Nuala Cabral It’s April 5, 2014, International Anti-Street Harassment day and a crowd has gathered in Love Park, Philadelphia. Two teen girls next stand beside a milk crate while a teen boy stands next to them with a sign that reads, “Share your story on the soapbox.” The girls […]
911 Operator Fired After Racist Rants: ‘Black People are Like Animals’
Dallas, TX 911 operator April Sims lost her job after her lengthy, racist Facebook rants were sent to a local news station: “‘Black people are outrageous! They are more like animals, they never know how to act, just loud [expletive] Always causing problems.”