The Latest
The Problem Isn’t Just Police—It’s Politics
Sociologist Alex Vitale explains how the U.S. policing crisis begins with politics—the decision to embrace neoliberal austerity and to turn the social problems it creates over to police.
Getting Judges on the Side of Abolition
Success in transforming the criminal justice system will depend on convincing judges to shift how they relate to—and rely upon—police in their criminal courtrooms.
Confederates in the Capitol
The National Statuary Collection announced the unification of the former slave economy’s emotional heartland with the heart of national government.
Imagining American Utopia
On Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy Three Californias, rereleased this year in a single volume.
The Shape of Epidemics
Epidemic waves serve not just to predict but also to persuade. Their special blend of mathematical and moral messaging will shape the future of the pandemic.
Policing the World
The link between modern policing and the U.S. national security state means they will have to be democratized together.
A Perfect Storm of Vulnerabilities Could Determine the 2020 Election
Here’s what we should do.
Accept Nothing Less Than Police Abolition
Reform efforts drain public money that could instead have been invested in caring for communities.
America’s Long War on Children and Families
A new book shows how Trump’s family separation policy belongs to a much longer history of child-taking by the U.S. government.
End Qualified Immunity
We need not wait for Congress or the Supreme Court. State attorneys general and city law departments can—and should—lead the charge themselves.
Hold Prosecutors Accountable, Too
In order to achieve lasting change, we must remedy systemic problems across the criminal justice system—not just among police.
A New Age of Protest Music
Through online fan communities and digital platforms like TikTok, popular music is finding powerful new ways to shape everyday activism, protest, and resistance.
Black Bereavement, White Condolences
“This sudden attention to the ongoing grief of black life can also feel like a slap in the face. Didn’t you notice we were dying?”
How a Conservative Legal Perspective Just Saved LGBT Rights
Gorsuch’s majority opinion tossed out the old common sense about sex, even as its logic buttressed other kinds of state control.
The Unfinished Project of Enlightenment
What Jürgen Habermas’s sweeping history of Western philosophy leaves out.
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