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The Law and Police Protect Me, Not Mike Brown
Mike Brown is dead, and it's time to have a real conversation about the role and purpose of the law, and by extension, the enforcers of that law, in this country. The law principally has two...
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If You Don't Leave, We Can't Protect You
When the Washington Post's Wesley Lowery and his counterpart from the Huffington Post were arrested inside a McDonald's, something bigger happened. The St. Louis County Police revealed a lack of...
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#FaceYourPrivilege: What My Own Arrest Taught Me About What Black Youth Face...
A chilled wind blew blustery on the campus of my university on a Thursday night almost ten years ago. It was November, and I'd just left the weekly meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an...
View ArticleKajieme Powell Showed More Concern for Human Life Than Two StLouis Police...
Kajieme Powell was executed last weekend by two St. Louis police officers who were either too scared to properly do their jobs or too incompetent to properly know when an ambling young man with a small...
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It's Time. Let's Have That Conversation About Black-on-Black Crime
When I inevitably get fed up with well-traveled right-wing cliches and write a book detailing the supposed "truisms" that are trotted out in response to a litany of events, the first chapter will...
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Clemson Student Starts Campaign for Racial Reconciliation; Clemson Professor...
Let me start here: David Woodard, Clemson professor of political science, should be fired tomorrow. Clemson University, a place that honors segregationist Strom Thurmond, murderous lyncher Ben...
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Multiple Parties Collude to Murder a Black Man in Wal-Mart; None of Them Will...
Author's Note: As most of you know, I have written on race, criminal justice, and politics here at DailyKos for more than two years. While I will continue to contribute to this community, I have...
View ArticleSouth Carolina Top Prosecutor Called SC Police Shooting a "Clean Shot"
Cross-posted from TheLoneDissent, the new home of my anti-racist and criminal justice writing.Levar Jones was shot by a (now) former member of the South Carolina Highway Patrol earlier this month. The...
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Staying Optimistic in a World Where Judges Named Robert E. Lee Key, Jr....
A couple of decades ago, before he had made waves by bringing the Equal Justice Initiative to prominence, before he had written transformative books, and before he launched me on my path to public...
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White SC High School Football Team Celebrates Win by Making Monkey Sounds and...
Meet the football team at Academic Magnet High School, a public school near Charleston, South Carolina. As you can see here, they're almost entirely white, with the exception of a single teammate....
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The Brandon Rouse Memorial Scholarship: My Friend's Heart Was So Big That it...
The local television news uttered a foreboding refrain. "When we return, some sad news about a local college football player."At 13, I hadn't experienced much loss. All of my heroes were going to live...
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The Texas Death Penalty Machina Unjustly Screwed a Texas Lawyer
David R. Dow, left. With Franklin. Meet David R. Dow. I've written about him a handful of times on this very site, usually in a space describing laudable educators or men who have motivated me to get...
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The Dominant White Response to Baltimore Shows Why Black Residents are...
Imagine for a moment that a man's neck was almost severed, nearly clean cut in the most painful way possible, while in the custody of the people charged with the duty of protecting and serving....
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Grizzard Goes Steinbeck: Introducing Our 48-State Journey in Search of the...
Note from your author: Over the last three years, I've been blessed to share my experiences and perspectives on this site, on matters of politics, criminal justice, race, poverty, and much more. This...
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Brave Houston Lawyer Fights Injustice, Inspires My Moral Bucket List
A little more than a month ago, vaunted New York Times author David Brooks wrote an introspective piece entitled The Moral Bucket List. In that space, a typically pensive Brooks reflected on the...
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On Redemption and Change: How One Man's Story Inspires the Battle to Change...
In a Columbia office building, one older lawyer discusses and debates the issues of the day with the vigor of a much younger man. You'll have to excuse South Carolina's Tom Turnipseed if it doesn't...
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A Part of My Uncle Died in the Vietnam Jungle: Not All Who Die from War Die...
Not until daybreak on the second day of the battle did a helicopter manage to land and evacuate the few survivors, leaving behind the bodies of most of Supply Column 21.There were 564 dead Viet Cong...
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On Invisibility and Exclusion: Texas Police Enforce White Supremacy at...
A civil rights writer's initial approach to the McKinney pool party fallout presents as much opportunity as it does difficulty. Which way do you go, when there's so much to be go-ed? Is it an...
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Kalief Browder's Life and Death: Our Great American Travesty
Creating a collage of the problems in the American criminal justice system typically requires an artist to cobble together multiple faces and multiple stories. There's the wrongfully accused man who...
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Let's Get One Thing Straight on the McKinney Situation: Police-Caused Harm is...
Walk to your local mall this afternoon and pull a gun on someone around you. It need not be a loaded gun. It need not even be a real gun, capable of killing that human being. It only needs to look in...
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