Power over Policing

How to Hold a City Hostage

Historian Stuart Schrader on the untold history of police unions—and how they helped catapult cops to new heights of power and impunity.

The Making of the Deportation Machine

The pillars aren’t new. They were built over decades, with bipartisan consensus.

Renee Good’s Murder and Other Acts of Terror

An interview with Robin D. G. Kelley on how to think about ICE—and the broader history of police violence.

The Grievability of Black Lives

On police violence, the killing of Sonya Massey, and a path to change.

The Right Comes for Milwaukee

Why did the blue city agree to host the Republican National Convention—and to suspend a hard-won police reform for its duration?

Cop Cities in a Militarized World

The United States has long supported the repression of Latin American land defenders. The tactics it exported are coming to the Atlanta forest.

Family Feud

Family policing is deeply unjust. The nuclear family is too.

Without Warrant

Yawning gaps in the law empower police to collect and store massive amounts of data, all on the grounds that it might one day turn out useful.

What We Own This City Gets Wrong about Policing

Its illegitimacy goes far beyond the war on drugs.

Blue Lies Matter

We need to reckon with police lies not only as a form of individual misconduct but as a matter of political speech.

Budgeting Justice

Cities must empower historically marginalized communities to shape how public funds are spent.

Why Policing and Prisons Can’t End Gender Violence

The authors of Abolition. Feminism. Now. discuss why racialized state violence and gender-based violence have to be fought together.

Demanding Justice for the Living

Derecka Purnell discusses her new book Becoming Abolitionists, how she came to join the movement against policing and prisons, and what a just world looks like.

Making Communities Safe, Without the Police

Effective responses to violence—preventing it, interrupting it, holding people accountable, and helping people heal—already exist. We need to learn from and invest in them.

Police Violence Is a Disability Justice Issue

More than half of disabled people experience long-term poverty, increasing the chances of violent police encounters.

Abolition Isn’t Only About Police

We also need to abolish prisons—as well as put an end to counterterrorism. An abolitionist reading list. 

Race, Policing, and the Limits of Social Science

Studying the social world requires more than deference to data—no matter the prestige or sophistication of the tools with which they are parsed.

Police and the License to Kill

Detroit police killed hundreds of unarmed Black people in response to the civil rights movement.

The Long History of Failed Police Reform

A century of failed attempts in Minneapolis.

Getting to Freedom City

A culture of protest takes hold in 1960s LA.

Violence Cannot Remedy Violence

Instead of deterring sexual violence, criminalization has empowered policing and punishment.

Where Do We Go From Here: A Fundraiser for Black Lives

A transcript of our panel discussion on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Police Sexual Violence Is Hidden in Plain Sight

Forms of gender-specific violence are baked into the structure of law enforcement. Reform efforts will fail until we eliminate police discretion over women’s bodies.

How the Law Killed Ahmaud Arbery

In many states, legal regimes sanction the predictable murder of innocent black men. Justice will not be served until the law changes.

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