Tag Archives: crime

It’s not as catchy of a slogan, but “Let’s Incentivize Communities to Start Creatively Shrinking Police Forces, Collecting Data on What Works and What Doesn’t, and Go from There”

While I’ve always been against the militarization of U.S. police forces, and in favor of more transparency, accountability and civilian oversight, I have to confess that I’ve never taken calls to “defund the police” very seriously. When, in the past, I’ve heard people say that we should abolish the police, I’ve thought that they were […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 85 Comments

Our racist president, being a racist, says something racist

I didn’t want to write about Donald Trump’s most recent racist statements, as, to be honest, I didn’t see as how any good would come of it. It was just a week or so ago that we were talking about how he’d told four freshman Congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “crime infested” […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 92 Comments

75 hours in Baltimore…. celebrating the Monkey Power Trio’s 23rd day as a band

The weekend of October 21st marked the 23rd meeting of my one-day-a-year pseudo-band, the Monkey Power Trio. For those of you who might not be familiar with our origin story, it all began back in 1995 with a promise between old friends one hot, summer afternoon in Brooklyn. On the spur of the moment, we’d […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Monkey Power Trio, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Mentions of civil rights on the White House website give way to pro-cop propaganda citing fake facts about inner city (read “black”) violence

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the “civil rights” page that used to reside on the White House website is now gone. It apparently disappeared at noon, just as Trump was being sworn in as President. In its place is a page titled Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community, which begins like this, […]

Posted in Civil Liberties | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Does this safety pin make you feel unwelcome or unsafe?

After Trump’s victory of last week, as incidents of racial intimidation started to become more commonplace across the United States, some on the left began wearing safety pins as a sign of solidarity with members of those communities most at risk that. [This practice, for what it’s worth, was borrowed from British progressives, who began […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Civil Liberties, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 107 Comments

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