News & Commentary

On March 13, 2020, Louisville police officers killed Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, during a botched no-knock raid on her apartment. Her death was one of the thousands of police killings that drove the largest protests in American history that spring and summer over policing and racism in the United States. But as demonstrators continued to march in Louisville’s streets, the local Fraternal Order of Police entered into secret negotiations with the city on their next contract, and used that opportunity to lobby for extraordinary protections for officers that would block any meaningful changes to how Louisville approaches public safety. U

In the early 1920’s, Black Americans were under the siege of direct and indirect racial violence with widespread lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and race riots across the country. And yet the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma was thriving. Its streets were lined with successful Black-owned businesses and Black professionals. The district was so successful that the area was dubbed “Black Wall Street.” B

The 2021 Democratic primary for district attorney in Philadelphia had all of the elements of a political drama: a reformer incumbent who spent his career challenging the criminal legal system versus a career prosecutor whom the current DA fired at the start of his tenure. A powerful police officers’ union trying to hold onto political power by boosting the challenger with a series of theatrical stunts. The old guard of the city’s Democratic party committee refusing to endorse the incumbent while progressive elected officials supported him. I

This piece first appeared in Just Security. O

Last week, my staff and I watched alongside the rest of the nation as the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would consider a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortion starting at 15 weeks of pregnancy. This news left us feeling scared about the future of abortion access and thinking about how a bad decision could be devastating for patients like ours, for whom access to abortion is not only life-affirming, but often life-saving. U

In a year that has seen

Four and a half years ago, the use of surveillance technologies by local police and governments was growing exponentially. There were many factors behind this rapid growth, but the two most significant were (1) the ever-increasing pool of federal grant money that was being made available for surveillance tech purchases, and (2) that in almost every jurisdiction, local police were empowered to make decisions about acquiring and using surveillance technologies unilaterally and in secret. Because it is hard to oppose a specific local surveillance tech acquisition when you don’t know it’s happening, surveillance tech use by local police was turning into a runaway train. W

One week ago, the Supreme Court announced it would consider a major case about abortion. The case, which directly challenges Roe v. Wade, raises the question of whether states can ban abortion. The legal right to abortion is at stake. Y

One year ago today, George Floyd was brutally murdered in broad daylight by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin over 9 minutes and 29 seconds as he pleaded for his life. Floyd’s murder sparked the largest protests in U.S. history. W