by Nadar Nibris | December 2018
In this article, we will analyze one of America’s hottest political topics, which encompasses issues ranging from institutional racism to the role of Law Enforcement personnel in society. But first, I have a favor to ask. For the next 10 minutes, let’s leave our preconceived notions of what’s true at the door. Prior domain knowledge is vital for making inferences from data. But if we build our statistical models based on preexisting beliefs, we are less likely to get to the right answers and more likely to ask the wrong questions. That was my schpeal on the Philosophy of Statistics. Let’s get started.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [White Culture] [History] [Black Lives Matter]
by Jill Lepore | July 2020
In Philadelphia, in 1705, the governor expressed the view that the militia could make the city safer than the watch, but militias weren’t supposed to police the king’s subjects; they were supposed to serve the common defense—waging wars against the French, fighting Native peoples who were trying to hold on to their lands, or suppressing slave rebellions. The government of slavery was not a rule of law. It was a rule of police. In 1661, the English colony of Barbados passed its first slave law; revised in 1688, it decreed that “Negroes and other Slaves” were “wholly unqualified to be governed by the Laws . . . of our Nations,” and devised, instead, a special set of rules “for the good Regulating and Ordering of them.” Virginia adopted similar measures, known as slave codes, in 1680.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Slavery] [History] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy] [Prison System] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Politics]
by Katie Gagliano | August 2020
…The shooting was captured on bystander video shared widely on social media. It shows at least five Lafayette Police officers approaching a Black man with what witnesses said was a knife in his hand walking away from police toward a convenience store. Video then shows officers open fire near the entrance of the convenience store and at least 10 shots can be heard.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black] [Black Lives Matter] [Bystander Intervention] [Accountability]
by Sarah Lazare | July 2016
* From the floor of the Republican National Convention to the online pages of the Blue Lives Matter Facebook community, it is now commonplace for public officials, police and first responders to openly declare war on Black Lives Matter—the civil rights movement of our times. “After the shooting, when they [the police] talked about the protest, they talked about how violent protesters were,” Mica Grimm, organizer with Black Lives Matter- Minneapolis, told AlterNet. “They never talked about how five people were shot. No one will ever bring that up. They really don’t care that much about protesters.”
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [Black Lives Matter] [Accountability] [Silencing POC]
by Hzfi Ziyad | May 2017
We know the way that Blackness is inherently seen as a threat makes even living while Black a dangerous activity, but what does the irrational and deadly fear of Black people actually sound like when communicated in words? “So I’m working last week and get dispatched to a call of ‘Suspicious Activity.’ Ya’ll wanna know what the suspicious activity was? Someone walking around in the dark with a flashlight and crow bar? Nope. Someone walking into a bank with a full face mask on? Nope. It was two black males who were jump starting a car at 930 in the morning. That was it. Nothing else. Someone called it in. People. People. People. If you’re going to be a racist, stereotypical jerk… keep it to yourself.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege]
by Blacknews.com | March 2019
“Marc Peeples, a 33-year old Black man from Detroit, is filing a lawsuit against three white women who repeatedly reported him to police just to get rid of him in a public park. In the case described as ‘gardening while black,’ the women falsely accused him of being a pedophile and even threatening to kill them.”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Calling Police] [-ing While Black] [2010’s]
