Chicago is the subject of two distinct visions of crime and crime-fighting. Analyzing how the Obama and Trump administrations address the city, as well as the broader issues of criminal justice, reveals how they both craft narratives about crime and policing.
If the American left wants a plan that provides opportunity, expands freedoms and rights, energizes voters, and appeals to workers, then the Movement for Black Lives and their platform is a fantastic place to start.
If cash remains the main motivating factor for politicians, there is a serious case to be made for criminal justice reform on a much larger scale.
Bill Bratton was synonymous with the broken windows theory, and he was able to evolve his style of police as our understanding of the theory changed.
Racial discrepancies in Police stops cannot be explained by different crime rates among Black Communities.
Beyond Colin Kaepernick’s fundamental right to refuse to stand and salute the flag, the fact that Black Americans are second class citizens needs to be recognized.
For police, legitimacy is crucial: it means that citizens are more likely to comply with orders, report crimes, act as witnesses, assist in investigations and support police power. But, like a teacher on the first day of school, police only acquire a limited amount of respect from their title alone. The rest can be earned through their actions.
When the power differential between police and communities is so large, the “Police-Community Relations” narrative can skew the conversation.
This Department of Justice’s report on the Baltimore Police Department’s practices provides data for what the black community in Baltimore has said for years; they were ignored, criticized, and vilified.
In the coming weeks, I plan on using this space to dig deeper into the concerns of minority communities and the history of crime policy in America. This week, I want to look back at the ideological and political origins of modern crime policy. In order to understand the origins of the modern civil rights struggle, we have to look back at the end of the one that took place in the 1960s.