January 5, 1968: the Prague Spring Begins January 5, 1968: the Prague Spring Begins
What would later become known as the Prague Spring began with the ascension, on this day in 1968, of the reformist Alexander Dubček to the post of first secretary of the Communist ...
Jan 5, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
Why This Socialist Feminist Is For Hillary Why This Socialist Feminist Is For Hillary
The stalled revolution for gender equity won’t be won simply by installing a woman in the White House—but it can’t hurt.
Jan 5, 2015 / Feature / Suzanna Danuta Walters
Mario Cuomo’s Patchwork Quilt Mario Cuomo’s Patchwork Quilt
In his electrifying 1984 convention speech, Cuomo forged a new liberal vision drawn from his own ethnic experience.
Jan 2, 2015 / Eric Alterman
A Migrant Worker’s Death Sheds Light on China’s Labor Underground A Migrant Worker’s Death Sheds Light on China’s Labor Underground
Zhou Xiuyun, a 47-year-old mother from Henan Province, was killed by police while demanding back wages.
Jan 2, 2015 / Michelle Chen
Mario Cuomo Was So Very Right—Especially on the Death Penalty Mario Cuomo Was So Very Right—Especially on the Death Penalty
The late New York governor made it his mission to speak up for a moral politics and governance.
Jan 2, 2015 / John Nichols
January 2, 1920: Anti-Radical Raids Across the Country, the First Red Scare January 2, 1920: Anti-Radical Raids Across the Country, the First Red Scare
After World War I, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer led a campaign to arrest, imprison and deport thousands of supposedly subversive political radicals. Almost 1,000 people were...
Jan 2, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
5 Books: Who Polices the Police? 5 Books: Who Polices the Police?
Alex Vitale is an associate professor at Brooklyn College specializing in urban politics and policing. “Popular concern with policing has long been driven by high-profile tragedies,” he says. “What’s new is people organizing against more mundane forms of mass criminalization, like stop-and-frisk and ‘broken windows’ policing.” How should we understand these new battles? Vitale offers five starting points. PUNISHED Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios Buy this book This powerful ethnography, a favorite of my students, tracks the corrosive effects of policing and the criminal-justice system on low-income young people of color in Oakland. Rios’s close connection with them allows him to tease out the ways in which they adapt to the constant harassment and humiliation of the “youth control complex,” on the streets and in school, enforced by the police. What often results is a vicious cycle of criminalization and incarceration, and these young men attempt to maintain their dignity in ways that often backfire, deepening their social and economic isolation. OUR ENEMIES IN BLUE Police and Power in America by Kristian Williams Buy this book This taut antiauthoritarian manifesto provides a well-researched overview of the oppressive nature of American policing. While sometimes engaging in generalizations and ad hominem attacks, its unapologetic indictment of the police provides a refreshing antidote to the liberal pleadings that police can be improved with a bit more training. Williams reminds us that the origins of American policing lie in racial oppression and class division. He looks to communities of revolutionary struggle—the IRA in Northern Ireland and the ANC in apartheid South Africa—for examples of self-policing. HUNTING FOR “DIRTBAGS” Why Cops Over-Police the Poor and Racial Minorities by Lori Beth Way and Ryan Patten Buy this book This groundbreaking study relied on hundreds of hours of police-car ride-alongs in two unnamed cities. While police often say that arrest rates are racially skewed because minority neighborhoods produce crime, Way and Patten found that officers looking to make arrests go out of their way to target people of color for drug violations and other petty crimes, often leaving their assigned patrol areas to “hunt” for such easy arrests. The book further proves that the “war on drugs” encourages the over-policing of communities of color. COP IN THE HOOD My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District by Peter Moskos Buy this book This highly readable ethnography reveals the pointlessness of contemporary urban-policing practices. Most striking is its portrayal of the utter futility of the “war on drugs” from the perspective of both the police and low-income communities of color. Moskos gets deep into the origins of “vice” policing and describes in painful detail the corrupting influence of quotas and other numeric performance measures, showing how they produce unnecessary arrests, undermine relations between the community and cops, and devalue preventive policing. CITIZENS, COPS, AND POWER Recognizing the Limits of Community by Steve Herbert Buy this book This study of West Seattle demonstrates that so-called community policing expands police power rather than empowering civilians. Communities don’t have the organization or expertise to counter the bureaucratic weight of local police. Instead, police/community interactions become an opportunity for police to produce the appearance of cooperation while encouraging residents to provide information. Herbert’s findings suggest that demands for community control are doomed to failure, and that we should look to larger political structures to control the police.
Jan 1, 2015 / Alex S. Vitale
The Nation’s 150th Anniversary The Nation’s 150th Anniversary
From groundbreaking investigative journalism, to cutting cultural commentary, to unmatched political analysis, there’s a lot to celebrate.
Jan 1, 2015 / The Nation
A Reality of Their Own: Jameis Winston, Rape and Seminole Fandom at Florida State A Reality of Their Own: Jameis Winston, Rape and Seminole Fandom at Florida State
Florida State administrators and football fans are involved in a dangerous, highly lucrative exercise in creating their own reality about sexual assault.
Jan 1, 2015 / Dave Zirin
January 1, 1959: Fidel Castro Seizes Power in Cuba January 1, 1959: Fidel Castro Seizes Power in Cuba
Unless you have been violently evicted from your country’s presidential palace, you are already having a better new year than Cuban president Fulgencio Batista was having at this p...
Jan 1, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac