Tagged: george floyd protests

Selected Media

George Floyd, Cariol Horne, and the Duty to Intervene

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

Read the full article from Democracy Now! here.

“Horne organized a campaign to pass “Cariol’s Law” in Buffalo, New York. The law codifies the duty to intervene for police officers, whether on- or off-duty, when they see another officer using unreasonable force against a civilian. It also protects those officers who intervene from retaliation. As the protests sparked by George Floyd’s police killing swept the globe, the Buffalo City Council passed Cariol’s Law, and the mayor signed it into law.”

Selected Media

The Chauvin Verdict Represents an Absolute Minimum of Justice

By Elie Mystal

Read the full article from The Nation here.

“[I]f we ignore the structural changes, the hard changes, the necessary changes, we will be back here. We will not break the cycle of violence against people of color or the polarization over whether our lives matter. It is literally already too late for Floyd to be the last unarmed Black man to be murdered by criminal police action. It is already too late for this time to be the last time the country is divided over whether a cop should be held accountable for their actions.”

Selected Media

The War against Neo-Fascism and White Supremacy

By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.

“We, the progressives, beat back by the neo-fascist movement by defeating Trump and acquiring control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. But make no mistake, the Republicans and Trump Nation will continue their intrigue.”

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. / Selected Media

Breonna Taylor’s violent death highlights the dangers of racist gentrification

By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.

“The callous killing of George Floyd triggered a massive revolt against police violence and brutality against Blacks. Hostile and dangerous action against Black folk by white police has a long history. But African Americans have been demonstrating against violent police since at least the Chicago riots of 1919. In 1951, a group of Black activists, including the scholar W.E.B. DuBois and the singer-activist Paul Robeson, took a petition to the United Nations titled ‘We Charge Genocide,’ arguing, among other things, that ‘the killing of Negroes has become police policy in the United States.'”

Selected Media

How I Became a Police Abolitionist

By Derecka Purnell

Read the full article from The Atlantic, here.

“The first shooting I witnessed was by a cop. I was 12. He was angry that his cousin skipped a sign-in sheet at my neighborhood recreation center. I was teaching my sister how to shoot free throws when the officer stormed in alongside the court, drew his weapon, and shot the boy in the arm. My sister and I hid in the locker room for hours afterward. The officer was back at work the following week.”

Selected Media

You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument

By Caroline Randall Williams

Read the full article from The New York Times, here.

“I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South.

If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument.”

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor / Selected Media

The End of Black Politics

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Read the full article from The New York Times, here.

“The revolt in American cities, amid a deadly pandemic that is disproportionately killing African-Americans, suggests that people feel the political system cannot solve their problems. Many have been looking back at the urban uprisings of the 1960s to make sense of our situation. Those protests exposed a shocking degree of racism in the supposedly liberal North. A main demand from protesters then was more black political control of cities.”

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