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 #8toabolition, #cut50, #DefundThePolice, 2020, 9/11, Alicia Garza, authoritarianism, black lives matter, Clementine, crime, David Ware, defund the police, Donald Trump, Douglas Schoen, George Floyd, home invasion, LAPD, law and order, Minneapolis, NYPD, police violence, prison reform, racism, recidivism, Shaka Senghor, the militarization of the police, Tucker Carlson, Ypsilanti police department |
Following are my extremely rough, admittedly incomplete notes on tonight’s meeting of the Ypsilanti Police-Community Relations / Black Lives Matter Joint Task Force. If you were also in the audience, and have something to add, please leave a comment. And, of course, feel free to weigh in on whatever you read below. As you’ll soon […]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged anger, Anne Brown, Anthony Morgan, black lives matter, body cameras, cell phones, Citizen Review Board, Crisis Intervention Team, cultural awareness, Dan Vogt, de-escalation, Eastern Washtenaw Safety Alliance, Emmett Till, Heritage Fest, implicit bias, Jerry Clayton, mental health, mental illness, Nicole Brown, over policing, police violence, racism, sentencing disparities, subject control, Tony DeGiusti, use of force, Water Street, Water Street debt reduction millage, Ypsilanti police department |
On this Saturday’s show, we’ll be joined by Shaka Senghor, the author of the New York Times bestseller Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison. A recent Detroit-based fellow at MIT’s Media Lab, Senghor was released from prison in 2010, after serving 19 years for second-degree murder, a crime which he […]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Detroit, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged arbitration, atonement, authors, Calvin Evans, Commie High, Community High, Dick Soble, dispute resolution, Donald Harrison, drug dealing, drugs, ex-prisoners, gun violence, MIT, MIT Media Lab, murder, Oprah, prison, prison reform, redemption, Shaka Senghor, solitary confinement, The Daily Show, Writing My Wrongs: Life Death and Redemption in an American Prison |
By Mark | December 3, 2015
On episode 26 of the Saturday Six Pack, I spoke at length with journalist Will Potter, formerly of the Chicago Tribune, about his work to bring the criminalization of free speech to light in post-9/11 America. Well, as you may recall, Potter, who is now a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, mentioned during […]
Posted in Civil Liberties, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized | Also tagged 9/11, Eco-terrorism, prison, prison reform, prisoner rights, secret prisons, TED, TED conference, terrorism, Will Potter |
Yesterday the folks at the Huffington Post released a gut-wrenching expose on the treatment of kids sentenced to adult prison in Michigan. The report, titled Cruel and All-Too-Usual, begins with a graphic video accompanied by the following warning. Warning: The following video, obtained by The Huffington Post, shows the rough treatment of a minor by […]