Notes

Foreword

  1. 1 See chapter 4 in this volume.
  2. 2 See John Arvanitis, “The U.S. Prisons Network: A Cheap Supply Chain With No Checks & Balances?,” CSRwire, June 11, 2014, available at
    www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/1383-the-u-s-prisons-network-a-cheap-supply-chain-with-no-checks-balances.
  3. 3 Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, “Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes,” updated edition (October 2013), available at http://mxgm.org.

Introduction

  1. 1 Los Angeles Police Department, “The Origin of the LAPD Motto,” available on the LAPD website, www.lapdonline.org.

1. Killing the Future

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on April 29, 2015.
  2. 2 “Is Ferguson Feeding on the Poor? City Disproportionately Stops, Charges and Fines People of Color,” Democracy Now!, August 27, 2014, available at www.democracynow.org.
  3. 3 Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (September 2014): 564–81, doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595.

2. Ring of Snitches

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on March 31, 2015. Original supporting documents uncovered by Aaron Miguel Cantú and referenced in this chapter can be viewed in the online version of the article at www.truth-out.org.
  2. 2 Rob Warden, The Snitch System: How Snitch Testimony Sent Randy Steidl and Other Innocent Americans to Death Row (Chicago: Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Convictions, 2004), available online at www.innocenceproject.org.
  3. 3 Alexandra Natapof, “Beyond Unreliable: How Snitches Contribute to Wrongful Convictions,” Golden Gate University Law Review 37, no. 1 (2006): 108, available online at http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu.
  4. 4 See www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction/informants.
  5. 5 State of Illinois, “Report of the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment” (report published April 2002), available online at http://chicagojustice.org.
  6. 6 Bob Egelko, “Law Requires Corroboration of Cellmate’s Testimony,” SFGate, August 1, 2011, available at www.sfgate.com.
  7. 7 Kevin Michael, “Jailhouse Snitch Testimony Is Backfiring in California,” Vice, March 18, 2015, available at www.vice.com.
  8. 8 American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, and Michigan Campaign for Justice, “Faces of Failing Public Defense Systems: Portraits of Michigan’s Constitutional Crisis” (report published April 2011), available at www.aclu.org.
  9. 9 See The National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the University of Michigan Law School, www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration.
  10. 10 “Police Officer Kills Wife, Self,” Lawrence Journal-World, February 22, 1999.
  11. 11 Paul Egan, “Attorney Grievance Official Says He Was Fired for Reporting Vicious E-mails,” Detroit Free Press, July 30, 2014, available at http://archive.freep.com.
  12. 12 Lacino Hamilton and L. C. DeVine, “Irrational System,” Confabulator, September 13, 2013, available at http://nofrillnews.wordpress.com.
  13. 13 United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, “Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department” (report published March 4, 2015), available at www.justice.gov.
  14. 14 David Ashenfelter and Joe Swickard, “Detroit Cops Are Deadliest in U.S.,” Detroit Free Press, May 15, 2000, archived by The Police Policy Studies Council at www.theppsc.org.
  15. 15 Nick Bunkley, “Detroit Police Lab Is Closed after Audit Finds Serious Errors in Many Cases,” New York Times, September 25, 2008.
  16. 16 Steve Neavling, David Ashenfelter, and Gina Damron, “Dangerous Debris, Evidence Left in Closed Detroit Police Crime Lab,” Detroit Free Press, May 27, 2011, available at http://archive.freep.com.

3. Amid Shootings, Chicago Police Department Upholds Culture of Impunity

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on October 22, 2014. This investigative story was published more than a year before the launch of the Citizens Police Data Project by the Invisible Institute, an interactive database of police misconduct complaints. The database, when first published in 2015, contained more than 56,000 misconduct complaints for more than 8,500 Chicago police officers, whereas the 2014 Truthout story analyzed a subset of this disciplinary data, merging it with other meaningful dimensions, including known shootings and employee information on current officers. Read Alison Flowers’s and Sarah Macaraeg’s follow-up stories on the Chicago Police Department at www.truth-out.org.
  2. 2 We Charge Genocide, “Police Violence against Chicago’s Youth of Color” (report prepared for the United Nations Committee Against Torture on the occasion of its review of the United States of America’s Third Periodic Report to the Committee Against Torture, September 2014), available at http://report.wechargegenocide.org.
  3. 3 On October 28, the Fraternal Order of Police filed an injunction preventing the release of lists “containing information related to complaints lodged against officers covering the time period between January 1, 1967 to the present” to reporters at the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune who requested them by way of the Freedom of Information Act.
  4. 4 See the report forms at http://directives.chicagopolice.org/forms/CPD-11.377.pdf. On October 30, 2014, Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy issued a new directive, General Order G03-02-05, changing the nature of Tactical Response Reports. It was issued sixteen business days after the authors’ second FOIA request for TRR records pertaining to six specific officers, a specific date and location in 2010, and two specific dates and locations in 2011. The authors had initially requested a broader range of TRR records on September 25, 2014. Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140, requires response to a FOIA request within seven working days. The original TRR directive, Special Order S03-02-01 (“Firearm Discharge Incidents Other than Incidents Involving the Destruction of an Animal”), was put in place to “outline Department investigative and reporting procedures in firearm discharge incidents.” General Order G03-02-05, “Incidents Requiring the Completion of a Tactical Response Report,” broadens the use of TRRs to include “incidents which involve a subject fitting the definition of an assailant ... the definition of an active resister … [or] the definition of a passive resister,” “incidents involving the discharge of OC spray or other chemical weapon, a Taser, impact munitions, or a firearm,” and “incidents where a subject obstructs a police officer.” The directive can be viewed online at http://directives.chicagopolice.org.
  5. 5 For this investigation, Truthout used Kalven’s repeater list, among other public data.
  6. 6 Steve Schmadeke and Jeremy Gorner, “Anger Follows Acquittal in Rare Trial of Chicago Cop,” Chicago Tribune, April 21, 2015.
  7. 7 “Dash Cam Video of Police Shooting,” police surveillance video published online by the Chicago Tribune, n.d., www.chicagotribune.com/videos/chi-111020-surveillance-sierra-video-premiumvideo.html.
  8. 8 The following additional police shooters emerged in the investigation. They did not respond to requests from Truthout for comment: Officer Rick Caballero shot Ben Romaine, who was driving away from Caballero, and killed him; he was later awarded the Superintendent’s Award for Valor for the incident, which settled in a civil suit. Officer Robert Haile shot and killed Lazuanjo Brooks multiple times and in the back; the shooting settled in a civil suit. Sergeant David Rodriguez shot Herbert Becker at close range; the shooting settled in a civil suit. Officer Vilma Argueta shot and killed nineteen-year-old George Lash on the Chicago Transit Authority; he received an award for the incident, which was voluntarily dismissed by the Lash family lawyers in a civil suit. Officer Darren Wright shot seventeen-year-old Corey Harris in the back and killed him; the shooting settled in a civil suit. Officers Shawn Lawryn and Juan Martinez shot and killed Esau Castellanos; in a civil suit currently underway, the complaint highlights ballistics reports contradicting the officers’ accounts. Officer Michael St. Clair shot William Hope multiple times in the chest in broad daylight, while Hope was sitting in his car; the shooting later settled.
  9. 9 Wesley Lowery, “How Many Police Shootings a Year? No One Knows,” Washington Post, September 8, 2014.
  10. 10 See www.fatalencounters.org.

4. Beyond Homan Square

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on March 26, 2015.
  2. 2 Spencer Ackerman, “The Disappeared: Chicago Police Detain Americans at Abuse-Laden ‘Black Site,’” Guardian, February 24, 2015.
  3. 3 Ibid.
  4. 4 Ibid.
  5. 5 Ibid.
  6. 6 Ibid.
  7. 7 See, for example, Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, “How Slavery Led to Modern Capitalism: Echoes,” BloombergView, January 24, 2012, available at www.bloombergview.com.
  8. 8 See Noah Berlatsky, “America Is Built on Torture, Remember?,” Pacific Standard, December 12, 2014, available at www.psmag.com.
  9. 9 Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (New York: Basic Books, 2014), 141.
  10. 10 Sally E. Hadden and New Georgia Encyclopedia staff, “Slave Patrols,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, last edited October 2014, available at www.georgiaencyclopedia.org. See also Austin Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman (Rochester, NY: William Alling, 1857), excerpted in “The Making of African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500-1865,” National Humanities Center Toolbox Library: Primary Resources in U.S. History & Literature, available at http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org.
  11. 11 Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, “Stop and Frisk: From Slave-Catchers to NYPD, A Legal Commentary,” Trotter Review 21, no. 1 (2013), available at http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review.
  12. 12 Auandaru Nirhani, “Policing Slaves since the 1600s: White Supremacy, Slavery, and Modern US Police Departments,” Rebel Press, January 7, 2012, http://therebelpress.com/articles/show?id=2.
  13. 13 See Gary Potter, The History of Policing in the United States, Eastern Kentucky University Police Studies Online, 2013, http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1. See also David Whitehouse, “Origins of the Police,” Works in Theory (blog), December 7, 2014, available at http://worxintheory.wordpress.com.
  14. 14 Victor E. Kappeler, “A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing,” Eastern Kentucky University Police Studies Online, January 7, 2014, http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing.
  15. 15 Paul Kramer, “The Water Cure,” New Yorker, February 25, 2008.
  16. 16 United Nations Committee against Torture, “Concluding Observations on the Third to Fifth Periodic Reports of United States of America” (advance unedited version, November 20, 2014), website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_COC_USA_18893_E.pdf. The full United Nations “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” is also available at www.ohchr.org.
  17. 17 See Chapter 11 for more information.
  18. 18 Alfred de Zayas, “Human Rights and Indefinite Detention,” International Review of the Red Cross 87, no. 857 (March 2005), available at www.icrc.org. For the full United Nations “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” see www.ohchr.org.
  19. 19 Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project, “Deprivation, Not Deterrence” (report published October 2014), available at www.documentcloud.org/documents/1377704-544f3e9ad7ba4-1.html.
  20. 20 Ed Pilkington, “Freezing Cells and Sleep Deprivation: The Brutal Conditions Migrants Still Face after Capture,” Guardian, December 12, 2014.
  21. 21 American Civil Liberties Union, “End the Overuse of Solitary Confinement” (fact sheet, posted on the ACLU website June 6, 2013), available at www.aclu.org/stop-solitary-two-pager.
  22. 22 Solitary Watch, “FAQ,” http://solitarywatch.com/facts/faq.
  23. 23 George Dvorsky, “Why Solitary Confinement Is the Worst Kind of Psychological Torture,” io9, July 1, 2014, available at http://io9.com.
  24. 24 Solitary Watch, “FAQ.”
  25. 25 See “The Istanbul Statement on the Use and Effects of Solitary Confinement” (statement adopted on December 9, 2007, by the International Psychological Trauma Symposium, Istanbul) and “Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” (report submitted to the UN General Assembly, August 5, 2011), both available at http://solitaryconfinement.org. See also Human Rights Watch, “US: Look Critically at Widespread Use of Solitary Confinement” (statement to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, June 18, 2012), available at www.hrw.org, and Jules Lobel, “Prolonged Solitary Confinement and the Constitution,” Journal of Constitutional Law 11, no. 1 (December 2008), available at www.law.upenn.edu/journals.
  26. 26 Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, “Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes,” updated edition (October 2013), available at http://mxgm.org.
  27. 27 Kevin Johnson, Meghan Hoyer, and Brad Heath, “Local Police Involved in 400 Killings per Year,” USA Today, August 15, 2014.
  28. 28 See chapter 11.
  29. 29 In addition to chapter 11, see A. Pulley, “Chicago Activists ‘Charge Genocide’ at United Nations,” Ebony, November 17, 2014, and We Charge Genocide, “We Charge Genocide Sends Delegation to United Nations” (summary report, December 15, 2014), available at http://wechargegenocide.org.
  30. 30 We Charge Genocide, “Police Violence against Chicago’s Youth of Color” (report prepared for the United Nations Committee Against Torture on the occasion of its review of the United States of America’s Third Periodic Report to the Committee Against Torture, September 2014), available at http://report.wechargegenocide.org.
  31. 31 Adam Hudson, “Libya and Somalia Raids—More Rendition, More Wars in Africa,” Free Your Mind (blog), November 1, 2013, available at http://adamhudson.org.
  32. 32 Jomana Karadsheh, “Alleged al Qaeda Operative Abu Anas al Libi Dies in U.S. Hospital, Family Says,” CNN website, January 3, 2015.
  33. 33 Joshua Keating, “Is the U.S. Leaving Itself Wiggle Room on Torture?,” Slate, November 14, 2014.
  34. 34 Charlie Savage, “U.S. to Revise Bush Policy on Treatment of Prisoners,” New York Times, November 12, 2014.
  35. 35 Matthieu Aikins, “The A-Team Killings,” Rolling Stone, November 6, 2013.
  36. 36 Matthieu Aikins, “Watch Highly Disturbing Footage of Detainee Abuses in Afghanistan,” Rolling Stone, November 7, 2013.
  37. 37 Ibid.
  38. 38 Phil Stewart and Emily Stephenson, “U.S. to Fund Afghan Forces at Peak Level through 2017: Officials,” Reuters, March 23, 2015.
  39. 39 Rod Nordland and Taimoor Shah, “Afghanistan Quietly Lifts Ban on Nighttime Raids,” New York Times, November 23, 2014.
  40. 40 “Obama’s Lists: A Dubious History of Targeted Killings in Afghanistan,” Spiegel Online, December 28, 2014.
  41. 41 Jeremy Scahill, “The CIA’s Secret Sites in Somalia,” Nation, December 10, 2014.
  42. 42 Ibid.
  43. 43 Cora Currier, “CIA Director Describes How the U.S. Outsources Terror Interrogations,” Intercept, March 13, 2015, available at http://theintercept.com.
  44. 44 John O. Brennan, “U.S. Intelligence in a Transforming World” (speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, March 13, 2015), available at www.cfr.org.

5. “Never Again a World Without Us”

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on February 4, 2015. Sources for this chapter as a whole include W. D. Carrigan and C. Webb, Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848–1928 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); R. Bauman, review of Lauren Araiza, To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers, American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 2014): 1724–25; R. Delgado, “The Law of the Noose: A History of Latino Lynching,” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 44, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 297; E. J. Escobar, Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); Domingo Martínez Paredez, “Un continente y una cultura,” in Unidad filológica de la América prehispana (México: Poesía de América, 1960); A. Morales, Ando Sangrando (I Am Bleeding): A Study of Mexican American-Police Conflict (La Puente, CA: Perspectiva Publications, 1972): 100–107; S. T. Newcomb, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2008); R. Rodríguez, Assault with a Deadly Weapon: About an Incident in ELA and the Closing of Whittier Boulevard (Los Angeles: Libreria Latinoamericana, 1984); R. Rodríguez, Justice: A Question of Race (Phoenix: Bilingual Review Press, 1997).
  2. 2 Roberto Rodriguez, “Commemorating Victories,” Truthout, November 21, 2009.
  3. 3 American Experience, “Zoot Suit Riots,” Season 14 Episode 10, written and directed by Joseph Tovares, PBS, March 1, 2002.
  4. 4 Roberto Rodriguez, “Pachuco Yo, Ese,” Lowrider 2, no. 4 (1978).
  5. 5 Cecilia Rasmussen, “The ‘Bloody Christmas’ of 1951,” Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1997.
  6. 6 Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez, “$4,000: The Price of a Mexican,” ¡LatinoLA!, August 31, 2001, available at http://latinola.com.
  7. 7 Julia Preston, “Beating Increases Tension on Immigration,” New York Times, April 6, 1996; Roberto Rodriguez, “Beyond Brutality: Scholars Say Repeated Beatings Born in Hate and Police Culture,” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, June 18, 2007, available at http://diverseeducation.com.
  8. 8 “Force at the Border,” Arizona Republic, March 25, 2014, available at www.azcentral.com.
  9. 9 Tim Johnson, “Questions Still Unanswered about U.S. Border Patrol’s Killing of 16-Year-Old,” McClatchyDC, March 21, 2014, www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article24765517.html.
  10. 10 Jesse Paul and Noelle Phillips, “Denver Police Fatally Shoot Teen Girl Suspect; Officer Hit by Car,” Denver Post, January 26, 2014, available at www.denverpost.com.
  11. 11 R. Stickney and Wendy Fry, “Man Dies in Custody at U.S. Border Crossing,” NBC 7 San Diego, December 25, 2014, available at www.nbcsandiego.com.
  12. 12 Christie Locke and Darrell Locke, “Family Statement: Lakota Man Shot by Rapid City Police after Native Lives Matter Rally,” Censored News (blog), December 22, 2014, available at http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com.
  13. 13 Matt Remle, “Six Native Americans Killed by Police in Last Two Months of 2014,” Last Real Indians, available at http://lastrealindians.com.
  14. 14 Betson08, “Skinheads Hunt Native American Family: Guess Who Gets Arrested?,” Daily Kos, July 10, 2011.
  15. 15 Abby Phillip, “Texas Cop Uses a Stun Gun on a 76-Year-Old Driver He Pulled Over for a Nonexistent Inspection Violation,” Washington Post, December 15, 2014.
  16. 16 “2 Killed in East LA Deputy Involved Shooting,” CBS Los Angeles, November 16, 2014, available at http://losangeles.cbslocal.com.
  17. 17 “Family Of Man Fatally Shot By LA County Sheriff’s Department Files Damages Claim,” CBS Los Angeles, December 19, 2014, available at http://losangeles.cbslocal.com.
  18. 18 Walter Einenkel, “Denver Police Erase Video Evidence of Them Flipping 7-Month-Pregnant Woman and Pummeling Her Friend,” Daily Kos, December 3, 2014.
  19. 19 Kate Mather, Richard Winton, and Cindy Chang, “Ezell Ford Autopsy, LAPD Chief Disclose New Details of Shooting,” Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2013.
  20. 20 Tracy Bloom and Nerissa Knight, “Man Dies after Violent Altercation with LAPD Officers a Week before Ezell Ford Shooting, Family Says,” KTLA 5, August 14, 2014, available at http://ktla.com.
  21. 21 Matthew Brown, “Killing of Unarmed Montana Man by Police Found Justified,” Associated Press, January 7, 2015, available at http://news.yahoo.com.
  22. 22 Carl Finamore, “‘Why Did Police Kill Our Son?,’” CounterPunch, December 5, 2014, available at www.counterpunch.org.
  23. 23Police Beat Father to Death in Front of His Wife and Daughter, Steal Daughter’s Camera Afterwards,” Filming Cops, last updated February 25, 2014, available at http://filmingcops.com.
  24. 24 Mark Matthews, NBC Bay Area staff, and wire services, “No Charges in Shooting of 13-Year-Old Andy Lopez by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy,” NBC Bay Area, July 8, 2014, available at www.nbcbayarea.com.
  25. 25 Andalusia Knoll, “We Want Them Alive: The Search for Mexico’s 43 Missing Students,” Waging Nonviolence, October 21, 2014, available at http://wagingnonviolence.org.
  26. 26 Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2014,” available at www.hrw.org.
  27. 27 See “Walkout: The True Story of the Historic 1968 Chicano Student Walkout in East L.A.,” Democracy Now!, March 29, 2006, available at www.democracynow.org.
  28. 28 Eric Struch, “Puerto Ricans Rebelled against Police Violence,” Workers World, July 3, 2006, available at www.workers.org.
  29. 29 Dianne Solis, “40 Years after Santos Rodriguez’s Murder, Scars Remain for Family, Neighbors and Dallas,” Dallas Morning News, July 21, 2013, available at www.dallasnews.com.
  30. 30 Thaddeus Herrick, “Borderline Shootings: Two Cases This Year Raise Questions about Military’s Role on Rio Grande,” Houston Chronicle, June 22, 1997, archived at www.dpft.org/hernandez/chronicle_june_22.html.
  31. 31 Nicole Flatow, “The United States Has the Largest Prison Population in the World—And It’s Growing,” ThinkProgress, September 17, 2014, available at http://thinkprogress.org.
  32. 32 Victoria Bekiempis, “Report: Half of Federal Arrests Are on Immigration Charges,” Newsweek, January 24, 2015.
  33. 33 Brian Charles and Paul Penzella, “Southern California Gang Injunctions,” Long Beach Press-Telegram video, September 2013, www.presstelegram.com/gang-injunctions.
  34. 34 United States Department of Justice, “Guidance for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity” (December 2014), available at www.justice.gov.
  35. 35 Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, “How the Postville Immigration Raid Has Changed Deportation Proceedings,” ThinkProgress, May 10, 2013, available at http://thinkprogress.org.
  36. 36 S. T. McNeil, “Streamlined Deportation: ‘No One Here in This Room Can Help You,’” Truthout, January 3, 2013.
  37. 37 “Operation Streamline: Expedited Indian Removal,” Truthout, October 9, 2013.

6. Killing Africa

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on April 17, 2015.
  2. 2 Gale Holland, “Dozens Protest LAPD Shooting of Homeless Man on Skid Row,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2015.
  3. 3 For further commentary, see William C. Anderson, “From Lynching Photos to Michael Brown’s Body: Commodifying Black Death,” Truthout, January 16, 2015.
  4. 4 Lauren Gambino, “Homeless Man Shot Dead by LAPD Was Not Deported Due to Stolen Identity,” Guardian, March 4, 2015.
  5. 5 United Nations Development Programme, “Economic Growth Alone Not Enough to Face Africa’s Emerging Challenges, UN Development Chief” (press release, March 18, 2015), available at www.undp.org.
  6. 6 United Nations Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, “‘Intervention Brigade’ Authorized as Security Council Grants Mandate Renewal for United Nations Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo” (meeting coverage, March 28, 2013), available at www.un.org/press.
  7. 7 UN News Service, “DR Congo: UN Peacekeeping on Offensive after Defeat of M23, Says Senior UN Official,” UN News Centre, December 11, 2013, www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=46721#.VhM9FrRViko.
  8. 8 Cara Anna, “UN Waived Human Rights Concerns over 2 Congo Generals,” Associated Press, March 19, 2015, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/19/congo-pushes-back-against-un-peacekeeping-force-cu.
  9. 9 Ed Pilkington, “Haitians Launch New Lawsuit against UN over Thousands of Cholera Deaths,” Guardian, March 11, 2014.
  10. 10 Richard Knox, “Activists Sue U.N. over Cholera That Killed Thousands in Haiti,” NPR, October 9, 2013.
  11. 11 “UN ‘Immune’ from Haiti Cholera Lawsuit,” Al Jazeera, January 10, 2015.
  12. 12 Abraham Paulos, “U.S. Criminal Deportations and the Future of Black Immigrants,” Huffington Post, February 26, 2015.
  13. 13 Nancy Porsia and Chris Stephen, “Eritrean Migrants Risk Detentions and Beatings in Libya for a Life in Europe,” Guardian, August 1, 2014.
  14. 14 John Hooper, Patrick Kingsley, and Ben Quinn, “Smugglers Abandon Migrant Ship off Italy in New Tactic to Force Rescue,” Guardian, January 2, 2015.
  15. 15 “African Migrants in Israel’s Holot Detention Centre,” Guardian video, December 19, 2014.
  16. 16 Lewis Dean, “Revealed: Dangerous Routes African Migrants Use to Reach UK,” International Business Times, March 19, 2015.
  17. 17 “Yemeni Refugees Fleeing Conflict Arrive in Somalia, UNHCR,” Mareeg.com, March 30, 2015, available at www.mareeg.com.
  18. 18 Mark Anderson, “Norway Minister Threatens to Deport Eritrean Migrants,” Guardian, June 27, 2014.
  19. 19 Jibril Adan, “Kenya, China Partnership to Focus on Industrialisation,” all­Africa, January 10, 2015, http://allafrica.com/stories/201501110109.html.
  20. 20 Murithi Mutiga, “Are the Terrorists of al-Shabaab about to Tear Kenya in Two?,” Observer, April 4, 2015, available at www.theguardian.com.
  21. 21 Brian Ries, “Police Tear Gas Kids Protesting Removal of Their Playground,” Mashable, January 19, 2015, available at http://mashable.com.
  22. 22 Pete Pattisson, “Women from Sierra Leone ‘Sold like Slaves’ into Domestic Work in Kuwait,” Guardian, April 2, 2015.
  23. 23 Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: Forced Relocations Bring Hunger, Hardship,” January 16, 2012, available at www.hrw.org.
  24. 24 Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Targets Shabab Unit in Somalia,” New York Times, March 13, 2015.
  25. 25 Adam Rawnsley, “It Seems a Chinese Missile Drone Just Crashed in Nigeria,” Medium, January 28, 2015, available at http://medium.com.
  26. 26 Nick Turse, “The Pivot to Africa: The Startling Size, Scope, and Growth of U.S. Military Operations on the African Continent,” TomDispatch, September 5, 2013, www.tomdispatch.com/post/175743.
  27. 27 Helene Cooper, Michael D. Shear, and Denise Grady, “U.S. to Commit up to 3,000 Troops to Fight Ebola in Africa,” New York Times, September 15, 2014.
  28. 28 Adam Taylor, “MAP: The U.S. Military Currently Has Troops in These African Countries,” Washington Post, May 21, 2014.
  29. 29 Murithi Mutiga, “‘No Africans’ Chinese Restaurant Owner Arrested in Nairobi,” Guardian, March 24, 2015.
  30. 30 Randeep Ramesh, “More Black People Jailed in England and Wales Proportionally than in US,” Guardian, October 10, 2010.
  31. 31 Ibid.
  32. 32 Mark Townsend, “No Convictions over 500 Black and Asian Deaths in Custody,” Guardian, March 21, 2015.
  33. 33 Ibid.
  34. 34 Significant contributions to the perspective mentioned in reference to the man called Africa came from conversations with a close friend of his who didn’t wish to be mentioned. This friend, who also knew him as “Both” (a name he gained at a halfway house because he spoke about things in twos), spent significant amounts of time around him. Africa’s friend spoke of him in the highest regard and shared many stories of the good things people had to say about him. Africa’s friend also shared that he was an aspiring writer who had completed at least two books and hoped to have a career in Hollywood. It’s my hope that my telling of his story lives up to any standards of writing he may have had for his own work. Rest in peace, Africa.
  35. 35 “We are here alive today because our ancestors dared to dream / From Africa they lay in the bilge of slave ships / And stood half naked on auction blocks / From Eastern Europe they crowded in vessels overloaded with immigrants / And were mis-named on Ellis Island.” Poem written for Common, The Dreamer / The Believer, with Maya Angelou, Lonnie Lynn, James Fauntleroy II, and Ernest Wilson (Warner Bros. Records, 2011).

7. Say Her Name

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout, September 18, 2015.
  2. 2 David Montgomery, “Sandra Bland Was Threatened with Taser, Police Video Shows,” New York Times, July 21, 2015.
  3. 3 Ray Sanchez, “What We Know about the Controversy in Sandra Bland’s Death,” CNN website, July 22, 2015.
  4. 4 AJ+, “Sandra Bland Found Dead in Texas Jail Cell” (video, Al Jazeera multimedia channel AJ+, July 16, 2015), www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rEN-6OXFws.
  5. 5 K. K. Rebecca Lai, Haeyoun Park, Larry Buchanan, and Wilson Andrews, “Assessing the Legality of Sandra Bland’s Arrest,” New York Times, July 22, 2015.
  6. 6 Evan Seymour, “In Her Own Words: The Haunting Importance of Sandra Bland’s ‘Sandy Speaks’ Videos,” For Harriet, July 20, 2015, available at www.forharriet.com.
  7. 7 Sophia Bollag, “Locals Hold Vigil, Grapple with Sandra Bland’s Death,” Texas Tribune, July 18, 2015, available at www.texastribune.org.
  8. 8 Breanna Edwards, “At Least 5 Black Women Have Died in Police Custody in July; WTF?!,” The Root, July 30, 2015, available at www.theroot.com.
  9. 9 Moreh B. D. K., “The ‘Female Eric Garner’ Who Suffocated to Death in Police Custody,” Counter Current News, December 27, 2014, http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/12/sheneque-proctor-the-female-eric-garner.
  10. 10 Jane Janeczko, “Kyam Livingston’s Family Sues NYPD after Death in Holding Cell,” Huffington Post, October 23, 2013.
  11. 11 Carimah Townes, “No Criminal Charges for Deputies Who Tased Shackled Woman with Four 50,000 Volt Shocks,” ThinkProgress, September 9, 2015, available at http://thinkprogress.org.
  12. 12 R. Lundman and R. Kaufman, “Driving while Black: Effects of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Citizen Reports of Traffic Stops and Police Action,” Criminology 41, no. 1 (February 2003): 195.
  13. 13 Office of the Missouri Attorney General, “Racial Profiling Data 2013,” Office of the Missouri Attorney General website, http://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/public-safety/2013agencyreports.pdf.
  14. 14 Kathryn K. Russell, The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Macroaggressions (New York: NYU Press, 1999), 36; “Dr. Mae Jemison Was Made to Walk Barefoot,” New York Amsterdam News 87, no. 11 (March 16, 1996): 4.
  15. 15 Michael Zennie and Alex Greig, “Pictured: The Two Women Suing Police after They Were Subjected to Humiliating Roadside Cavity Search as They Wore Only Their Bikinis,” Daily Mail, July 5, 2013, available at www.dailymail.co.uk.
  16. 16 Jacob Sullum, “The War on Drugs Now Features Roadside Sexual Assaults by Cops,” Forbes, May 7, 2015.
  17. 17 Solutions Not Punishment Coalition, “Victory! East Point Police Department to Adopt Most Progressive Trans Policies in the Nation” (press release, Racial Justice Action Center, April 9, 2015), www.rjactioncenter.org/EastPointVictory.
  18. 18 See Andrea J. Ritchie, “Law Enforcement Violence against Women of Color,” in Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2006).
  19. 19 Todd Lighty, “Untold Story of Haggerty Shooting,” Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1999.
  20. 20 Maxine Bernstein, “Memorial Planned to Mark 10-Year Anniversary of Portland Police Fatal Shooting of Kendra James,” Oregonian, April 29, 2013, available at www.oregonlive.com.
  21. 21 Ida Lieszkovszky, “Everything You Need to Know before the Start of the Trial for Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo,” Cleveland.com, April 6, 2015, available at www.cleveland.com.
  22. 22 Peter Hermann, “Baltimore’s Transgender Community Mourns One of Their Own, Slain by Police,” Washington Post, April 3, 2015.
  23. 23 Jessica Testa, “How Police Caught the Cop Who Allegedly Sexually Abused 8 Black Women,” BuzzFeed, September 5, 2014, available at www.buzzfeed.com.
  24. 24 International Association of Chiefs of Police, Addressing Sexual Offenses and Misconduct by Law Enforcement: Executive Guide (June 2011), available at www.theiacp.org.
  25. 25 The Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, “2010 Annual Report,” available at www.policemisconduct.net.
  26. 26 Dylan Stableford, “Bikini-Clad Girl Thrown to Ground by McKinney Officer Speaks Out,” Yahoo News, June 8, 2015, available at http://news.yahoo.com.
  27. 27 Fred Clasen-Kelly, “Witness: Officer Didn’t Have to Shoot,” Charlotte Observer, February 20, 2015, www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article10783382.html.
  28. 28 See Ritchie, “Law Enforcement Violence against Women of Color.”
  29. 29 National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, “NCAVP Mourns the Killing of Queer Youth of Color Jessie Hernandez; Calls for National Awareness on Police Violence Facing LGBTQ People of Color” (press release, January 30, 2015), available at http://coavp.org.
  30. 30 Kimberle Williams Crenshaw and Andrea J. Ritchie, “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality against Black Women” (report published by the African American Policy Forum and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies of Columbia Law School, May 2015; updated July 2015), available at www.aapf.org.
  31. 31 Women’s Prison Association, “Quick Facts: Women & Criminal Justice—2009” (fact sheet, September 2009), available at www.wpaonline.org.
  32. 32 Shana M. Judge and Mariah Wood, “Racial Disparities in the Enforcement of Prostitution Laws” (panel presentation at the Global Challenges, New Perspectives conference, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, November 6, 2014), http://appam.confex.com/appam/2014/webprogram/Paper11163.html.
  33. 33 Alicia Garza, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza,” Feminist Wire, October 7, 2014, available at www.thefeministwire.com.
  34. 34 See http://byp100.org/justice-for-rekia.
  35. 35 Ashoka Jegroo, “Across the US, Activists Shine Light on Sandra Bland’s Mysterious Death,” Waging Nonviolence, July 30, 2015, available at http://wagingnonviolence.org.
  36. 36 The exhibit “Blood at the Root: Unearthing the Stories of State Violence against Black Women,” the curators of which included Mariame Kaba, Rachel Caidor, and Ayanna Banks Harris, ran from August to October 2014 at Chicago’s Holy Covenant United Methodist Church. See Kate Shepherd, “Black Women Brutalized by Cops Are Subject of New Lincoln Park Exhibit,” Chicagoist, August 18, 2015, available at http://chicagoist.com.
  37. 37 Office of United States Congressman John Conyers Jr., “Summary of the End Racial Profiling Act of 2015,” April 22, 2015 (accessed at http://
    conyers.house.gov; file is no longer online).
  38. 38 For insight into why this is necessary, see the NAACP report “Born Suspect: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America” (September 2014), available at http://action.naacp.org.
  39. 39 President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, “Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing” (report published by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2015), available at www.cops.usdoj.gov.
  40. 40 Andrea J. Ritchie, “Policy and Oversight: Women of Color’s Experiences of Policing” (report submitted to the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, January 28, 2015), http://changethenypd.org.

8. Your Pregnancy May Subject You to Even More Law Enforcement Violence

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on April 23, 2015.
  2. 2 El Grito de Sunset Park, “NYPD 72nd Pct. Officers Slam Pregnant Woman onto Street” (video posted to El Grito de Sunset Park Facebook page, September 23, 2014), www.facebook.com/video.php?v=660936530680965.
  3. 3 Elle Griffiths, “Jeanetta Riley: Shocking Video Shows Cops Shooting Dead ‘Mentally Ill’ Pregnant Woman as She Brandishes Knife,” Daily Mirror, April 6, 2015, available at www.mirror.co.uk.
  4. 4 Julia Preston, “Immigrant, Pregnant, Is Jailed under Pact,” New York Times, July 20, 2008.
  5. 5 Amy Martyn, “A Texas Inmate’s Newborn Died after She Gave Birth in Solitary Confinement, Lawsuit Claims,” Dallas Observer, June 27, 2014, available at www.dallasobserver.com.
  6. 6 Diana Claitor and Burke Butler, “Pregnant Women in Texas County Jails Deserve Better than This,” Dallas Morning News, June 26, 2014, www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20140626-pregnant-women-in-texas-county-jails-deserve-better-than-this.ece.
  7. 7 Anonymous, “Shackled on Rikers Island during an Ectopic Pregnancy,” Birthing Behind Bars, March 6, 2014, available at http://nationinside.org.
  8. 8 See http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/48/III/133.
  9. 9 National Conference of State Legislatures, “Fetal Homicide State Laws” (online resource, March 2015), available at www.ncsl.org.
  10. 10 Brief of Amicus Curiae: Postpartum Support International, Dr. Vivien K. Burt, Professor Michelle Oberman and Dr. Margaret Spinelli on Perinatal Psychiatric Illness in Support of Appellant’s Petition to Transfer, State of Indiana v. Bei Bei Shuai, filed March 9, 2012, http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/2012-03-09%20-%20Shuai%20-%20Brief%20of%20Amicus%20Curiae%20of%20Postpartum%20Support%20International%20et%20al%20-%20Cantor_Foste.PDF.
  11. 11 Anna Halkidis, “Bei Bei Shuai Case Exposes Pregnancy-Suicide Risk,” WeNews, August 7, 2013, available at http://womensenews.org.
  12. 12 Farah Diaz-Tello and Laura Huss, “It Is All Too Easy for Pregnant Women to Be Put on Trial in the United States,” RH Reality Check, March 30, 2015, http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/03/30/easy-pregnant-women-put-trial-united-states.
  13. 13 Kathy Bouger, “Report: ‘Scientific’ Test Used to Convict Women in El Salvador Is Anything But,” RH Reality Check, October 17, 2014, http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/10/17/report-scientific-test-used-convict-women-el-salvador-anything.
  14. 14 Emily Bazelon, “Purvi Patel Could Be Just the Beginning,” New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2015.
  15. 15 Alyssa Johnston, “Lawsuit: Inmate in Solitary Confinement Says Jail Ignored Birth, Leading to Baby’s Death,” Independent Mail, May 23, 2014, available at www.independentmail.com.
  16. 16 See http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/alcode/26/15/26-15-3.2.
  17. 17 National Advocates for Pregnant Women, “Pregnant Woman Files Civil Rights Lawsuit against State of Wisconsin Challenging Wisconsin Law That Permits Jailing” (press release, December 16, 2014), available at http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org.

9. Black Parenting Matters

  1. 1 Originally posted at Truthout on October 1, 2015.
  2. 2 See “The Middle Passage,” in “The Terrible Transformation: 1450–1750,” Africans in America Resource Bank, PBS, available at www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html.
  3. 3 Brendan Wolfe, “Slavery by the Numbers,” Encyclopedia Virginia blog, December 1, 2011, available at http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org.
  4. 4 Robert A. Gibson, “The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United States,1880–1950,” Yale–New Haven Teachers Institute Curriculum Units (1979, volume 2), available at http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2.
  5. 5 Tuskegee Institute statistics. See http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html.
  6. 6 Kimberly Kindy, Julie Tate, Jennifer Jenkins, Steven Rich, Keith L. Alexander, and Wesley Lowery, “Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 Approaching 400 Nationwide,” Washington Post, May 30, 2015.

10. Big Dreams and Bold Steps Toward a Police-Free Future

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on September 16, 2015.
  2. 2 See http://fergusonaction.com/demands.
  3. 3 Ibid.
  4. 4 Organization for Black Struggle, “Quality Policing Initiative,” available at http://obs-stl.org.
  5. 5 See www.joincampaignzero.org.
  6. 6 Graham Rayman, “Eterno and Silverman, Criminologists, Say NYPD’s Crime Stat Manipulation a Factor in Recent Corruption Scandals,” Village Voice, November 29, 2011, available at www.villagevoice.com.
  7. 7 Bernard E. Harcourt and Jens Ludwig, “Broken Windows: New Evidence from New York City and a Five-City Social Experiment,” University of Chicago Law Review 73, no. 1 (Winter 2006): 271–320, available at http://lawreview.uchicago.edu.
  8. 8 According to Communities United for Police Reform. See http://changethenypd.org/issue.
  9. 9 “Cops or Soldiers?,” The Economist, March 22, 2014.
  10. 10 See www.laforyouth.org.
  11. 11 See http://cangress.org/our-work/share-the-wealth.
  12. 12 See www.spirithouse-nc.org/collective-sun-ii.
  13. 13 See http://alp.org/community/sos.
  14. 14 The StoryTelling & Organizing Project (STOP) is a project of Creative Interventions, a resource center committed to creating and promoting community-based interventions to interpersonal violence: domestic or intimate-partner, sexual, and family violence. See www.stopviolenceeveryday.org.
  15. 15 Ending broken-windows policing is the first in a series of solutions proposed by Campaign ZERO. See www.joincampaignzero.org/brokenwindows.

11. We Charge Genocide

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on September 23, 2015.
  2. 2 Adam Hudson, “1 Black Man Is Killed Every 28 Hours by Police or Vigilantes: America Is Perpetually at War with Its Own People,” AlterNet, May 28, 2013, available at www.alternet.org.
  3. 3 The name comes from a 1951 petition to the United Nations, which documented 153 racial killings and other human rights abuses, mostly by the police.
  4. 4 The video “For Damo” can be viewed online at www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32911-we-charge-genocide-the-emergence-of-a-movement.
  5. 5 Mariame Kaba, “We Do This For Damo . . . ,” Prison Culture (blog), May 20, 2015, available at www.usprisonculture.com.
  6. 6 Mariame Kaba, “To Damo, With Our Love . . . ,” Prison Culture (blog), December 1, 2014, available at www.usprisonculture.com.

12. Heeding the Call

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout, with original artwork by Sarah Rosenblatt, on March 7, 2015.
  2. 2 Mary Green, “Oprah Winfrey’s Comments about Recent Protests and Ferguson Spark Controversy,” People, January 3, 2015.

13. Our History and Our Dreams

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on September 22, 2015.
  2. 2 See Britney Schultz, “Taken from Families, Indigenous Children Face Extreme Rates of State Violence in US,” Truthout, July 12, 2015.
  3. 3 “Stop Angela at Wounded Knee,” Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1973.
  4. 4 Quintard Taylor, “From Esteban to Rodney King: Five Centuries of African American History in the West,” in The American West: The Reader, edited by Walter T. K. Nugent and Martin Ridge (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999), 282.
  5. 5 William Loren Katz, “Africans and Indians: Only in America,” William Loren Katz (personal website), February 23, 2007, available at http://williamlkatz.com.
  6. 6 For example, in the Crazy Snake Rebellion of 1909.
  7. 7 Derek Royden, “The Other 1%: Healing the Wounds of Native American Tragedies on Turtle Island,” Occupy.com, September 2, 2015, available at www.occupy.com.
  8. 8 See Kelly Hayes, “Transformation, Reparations, and Radical Education,” Transformative Spaces (blog), March 4, 2015, available at http://transformativespaces.org.

14. A New Year’s Resolution

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on December 26, 2014.
  2. 2 Tongo Eisen-Martin, “We Charge Genocide Again! A Curriculum for Operation Ghetto Storm: Report on the 2012 Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes” (study guide published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, May 2013), available online at http://mxgm.org.
  3. 3 Mike Ludwig, “‘Walking While Woman’ and the Fight to Stop Violent Policing of Gender Identity,” Truthout, May 7, 2014.
  4. 4 American Civil Liberties Union, “The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests” (report published June 2013), available at www.aclu.org.
  5. 5 Ibid.
  6. 6 Mike Ludwig, “Why the People of Ferguson Can’t Trust the Cops,” Truthout, August 21, 2014.
  7. 7 Jihan Hafiz, “Special Report: Ferguson Police Profiling of Blacks a Major Funding Source for City Budget,” Real News Network, October 3, 2014, available at http://therealnews.com.
  8. 8 FBI Uniform Crime Reports, “Crime in the United States 2012: Table 55,” available at www.fbi.gov.
  9. 9 See www.drugwarfacts.org.
  10. 10 For example, the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national advocacy and capacity-building organization, works to promote the health and dignity of individuals and communities who are impacted by drug use. See http://harmreduction.org.
  11. 11 See Mike Ludwig, “While Congress Fails on Syringe Exchange Funding, Activism Fills the Gap,” Truthout, December 21, 2014.
  12. 12 See Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds., The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence within Activist Communities (Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2011).

15. Community Groups Work to Provide Emergency Medical Alternatives Separate From Police

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on September 14, 2015. Some original supporting documents referenced in this chapter are available to view online at http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32782-community-groups-work-to-provide-emergency-medical-alternatives-separate-from-police.
  2. 2 See http://criticalresistance.org/chapters/cr-oakland/the-oakland-power-projects.
  3. 3 Critical Resistance, “Victory for Oakland Residents as City Attorney Dismisses Controversial Police Gang Injunctions,” (press release, March 6, 2015), available at www.commondreams.org.
  4. 4 Critical Resistance, “The Oakland Power Projects” (report published March 2015), available at http://criticalresistance.org.
  5. 5 See http://whitebirdclinic.org/cahoots.

16. Building Community Safety

  1. 1 Originally published at Truthout on August 25, 2015.