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dingakaa's review against another edition
5.0
This is an excellent primer on police violence in North America. While it is not a comprehensive account from a historical perspective, it is an excellent fly-over, in the form of a collection of essays, about policing in the U.S.A and its impact on the population, primarily people of colour and marginalized groups. The first half of the book discusses how police brutality manifests itself within different contexts, while the second half describes efforts to push back against it, as well as endeavours which are seeking alternatives to state-sanctioned policing. This is a must-have for any bookshelf and an excellent read for those seeking the betterment of society and the defence of its oft-discriminated-against groups.
seventhchariot's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 3.5/5
A very informative and fact-driven book that explores police violence in the united states. I enjoyed the broad focus on police violence on all POC and those in the LGBT+ community, but in some instances, I felt like this book tried to focus on too many aspects without really diving deep into some of the topics discussed.
A very informative and fact-driven book that explores police violence in the united states. I enjoyed the broad focus on police violence on all POC and those in the LGBT+ community, but in some instances, I felt like this book tried to focus on too many aspects without really diving deep into some of the topics discussed.
bookish_ann's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent collections of essays about police violence in America. Much of is it hard to read, just a constant probing of a raw wound, but there are paths to healing as well. I’ll be revisiting sections of this for sure, and sharing them with my friends. Most of them are still uncomfortable with the idea of defunding the police, and this book makes it clear why it needs to be done (and what that would look like) in a straightforward manner.
dianecarroll's review against another edition
3.0
Written in 2015, so pretty outdated in 2020. Definitely disheartening to read people writing about attempts at change happening 5 years ago and knowing that nothing has changed.
ralovesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
RECOMMENDED
This anthology of articles from Truthout is excellent. It took me a couple of months to work my way through these 16 articles, and they were all very instructive and well written. The content is hard because it's all about police brutality, but I learned a lot and would highly recommend it. Hearing different perspectives on the same topic made me think a lot about the assumptions I make about my own community (that it's safe, which it isn't for everyone) and that I don't have to do anything about it (wrong!). It's a book that's good for practicing reading with a listening posture and then reflecting on takeaways based on the writers' lived experiences. The essay I highlighted the most was the final one in the collection: "Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation" by Ejeris Dixon, with lines like this one: "While I don't believe that we can separate ourselves from our privileges, I think we can leverage them toward justice." I'm really glad that I had an opportunity to read this book, thanks to Haymarket Books making it available for free this summer.
---
From the foreword by Alicia Garza
There are now more of us grappling with the contradiction of how to keep our communities safe when those who are entrusted with our protection and safety are rarely (if ever) charged when they themselves are the purveyors of harm.
Black people are being disappeared at the rate of one every 28 hours by police or vigilante violence, yet those who are taking their lives are rarely (if ever) held accountable.
What can and will be done to hold police accountable for the violence that they enact in our communities? What happens when we question the fundamental assumption that police and policing are our only option for community safety?
---
From the introduction by Maya Schenwar, Joe Macare, and Alana Yu-lan Price
What does being safe even mean? How many of our society's assumptions about safety are grounded in racism, injustice and violence? If we can't count on an ever-present state "service" to "protect" us, what can we count on? Is it possible to build toward a world in which we can count on each other?
---
"Killing the Future: The Theft of Black Life" by Nicholas Powers
To be Black in America is to be evidence of theft. It is to be a descendant of human beings stolen from villages, stolen from their bodies, stolen from each other, sold and sold again.
... the police are not creating racism but reflecting it.
The one thing that is knowable is that the end of racism has to free us all or it will free no one.
---
"Killing Africa" by William C. Anderson
Those who are given the job to "protect" us all will "protect" themselves in the name of their institutions, first and foremost. Self-preservation of the state is the primary priority.
Black people are naming our dead and re-energizing against state violence. We have to name Africa. We have to name Africans. We have to name the African diaspora, because freeing Africa means freeing Black people internationally.
---
"Black Parenting Matters: Raising Children in a World of Police Terror" by Elise Nefertari Ulen
We have come this far and refuse to go back. We as a people have come so far.
---
"We Charge Genocide: The Emergence of a Movement" by Asha Rosa, Monica Trinidad and Page May
Only by centering those at the margins (of race, gender, sexual orientation, class and ability) can we actually dismantle and transform our social relationships and institutions to be radically inclusive. We owe it to all of us, lost and living, to engage in the ongoing struggle to transform the world, ourselves and our relationships to each other.
---
"A New Year's Resolution: Don't Call the Police" by Mike Ludwig
Taking responsibility for keeping our communities safe and seeking justice on our own terms is not an easy task. It may sound radically ideal, like a dream. This dream, however, is already shared by a critical mass of people. It's a dream of a world without police and prisons, a world where the struggle for true freedom is explicitly connected to our own collective empowerment and mutual compassion.
---
"Community Groups Work to Provide Emergency Medical Alternatives, Separate from Police" by Candice Bernd
Concept: inflicting help
---
"Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation" by Ejeris Dixon
The process of building community safety poses some critical questions to our movements. What is the world that we want? How will we begin to define safety? How do we build skills to address harm and violence? How do we create the trust needed for communities to rely on each other for mutual support?
Gentrifiers/newcomers who are also movement leaders tend to create movements and strategies that are not grounded within the lived experiences of the people most impacted by violence.
While I don't believe that we can separate ourselves from our privileges, I think we can leverage them toward justice.
I believe that bold, small experiments rise and fall based on two fairly simple ideas: planning and perseverance.
The question, therefore, is: What can you help build? What conversations can you start to increase the safety of your community? What new structures or collaborations will you create to decrease your reliance on the criminal legal system?
In activist and progressive communities, we're accustomed to attending one training or reading one essay and then declaring ourselves leaders and educators on an issue. I believe that the notion of instant expertise is contrary to our liberatory values. Safety is not a product that we can package and market. Community safety is not a certification that we place on our resumes. We have the invitation to practice with one of our most precious resources, our lives.
I also want to acknowledge that in these times, taking time to practice can feel like a luxury. The urgency is real.
Even as we act urgently to resist the state violence that is killing our communities, we must also do slow work to develop community safety and resilience.
This anthology of articles from Truthout is excellent. It took me a couple of months to work my way through these 16 articles, and they were all very instructive and well written. The content is hard because it's all about police brutality, but I learned a lot and would highly recommend it. Hearing different perspectives on the same topic made me think a lot about the assumptions I make about my own community (that it's safe, which it isn't for everyone) and that I don't have to do anything about it (wrong!). It's a book that's good for practicing reading with a listening posture and then reflecting on takeaways based on the writers' lived experiences. The essay I highlighted the most was the final one in the collection: "Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation" by Ejeris Dixon, with lines like this one: "While I don't believe that we can separate ourselves from our privileges, I think we can leverage them toward justice." I'm really glad that I had an opportunity to read this book, thanks to Haymarket Books making it available for free this summer.
---
From the foreword by Alicia Garza
There are now more of us grappling with the contradiction of how to keep our communities safe when those who are entrusted with our protection and safety are rarely (if ever) charged when they themselves are the purveyors of harm.
Black people are being disappeared at the rate of one every 28 hours by police or vigilante violence, yet those who are taking their lives are rarely (if ever) held accountable.
What can and will be done to hold police accountable for the violence that they enact in our communities? What happens when we question the fundamental assumption that police and policing are our only option for community safety?
---
From the introduction by Maya Schenwar, Joe Macare, and Alana Yu-lan Price
What does being safe even mean? How many of our society's assumptions about safety are grounded in racism, injustice and violence? If we can't count on an ever-present state "service" to "protect" us, what can we count on? Is it possible to build toward a world in which we can count on each other?
---
"Killing the Future: The Theft of Black Life" by Nicholas Powers
To be Black in America is to be evidence of theft. It is to be a descendant of human beings stolen from villages, stolen from their bodies, stolen from each other, sold and sold again.
... the police are not creating racism but reflecting it.
The one thing that is knowable is that the end of racism has to free us all or it will free no one.
---
"Killing Africa" by William C. Anderson
Those who are given the job to "protect" us all will "protect" themselves in the name of their institutions, first and foremost. Self-preservation of the state is the primary priority.
Black people are naming our dead and re-energizing against state violence. We have to name Africa. We have to name Africans. We have to name the African diaspora, because freeing Africa means freeing Black people internationally.
---
"Black Parenting Matters: Raising Children in a World of Police Terror" by Elise Nefertari Ulen
We have come this far and refuse to go back. We as a people have come so far.
---
"We Charge Genocide: The Emergence of a Movement" by Asha Rosa, Monica Trinidad and Page May
Only by centering those at the margins (of race, gender, sexual orientation, class and ability) can we actually dismantle and transform our social relationships and institutions to be radically inclusive. We owe it to all of us, lost and living, to engage in the ongoing struggle to transform the world, ourselves and our relationships to each other.
---
"A New Year's Resolution: Don't Call the Police" by Mike Ludwig
Taking responsibility for keeping our communities safe and seeking justice on our own terms is not an easy task. It may sound radically ideal, like a dream. This dream, however, is already shared by a critical mass of people. It's a dream of a world without police and prisons, a world where the struggle for true freedom is explicitly connected to our own collective empowerment and mutual compassion.
---
"Community Groups Work to Provide Emergency Medical Alternatives, Separate from Police" by Candice Bernd
Concept: inflicting help
---
"Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation" by Ejeris Dixon
The process of building community safety poses some critical questions to our movements. What is the world that we want? How will we begin to define safety? How do we build skills to address harm and violence? How do we create the trust needed for communities to rely on each other for mutual support?
Gentrifiers/newcomers who are also movement leaders tend to create movements and strategies that are not grounded within the lived experiences of the people most impacted by violence.
While I don't believe that we can separate ourselves from our privileges, I think we can leverage them toward justice.
I believe that bold, small experiments rise and fall based on two fairly simple ideas: planning and perseverance.
The question, therefore, is: What can you help build? What conversations can you start to increase the safety of your community? What new structures or collaborations will you create to decrease your reliance on the criminal legal system?
In activist and progressive communities, we're accustomed to attending one training or reading one essay and then declaring ourselves leaders and educators on an issue. I believe that the notion of instant expertise is contrary to our liberatory values. Safety is not a product that we can package and market. Community safety is not a certification that we place on our resumes. We have the invitation to practice with one of our most precious resources, our lives.
I also want to acknowledge that in these times, taking time to practice can feel like a luxury. The urgency is real.
Even as we act urgently to resist the state violence that is killing our communities, we must also do slow work to develop community safety and resilience.
readingwithmerb's review against another edition
5.0
Informative and factual essay collection surrounding systemic racism and police brutality within America. Not only does it focus on the black American struggles, but on Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and Asian communities. The first half covers different topics, and using facts and examples, portrays the realities of the American justice system and how history and racism plays a part. The second half covers organizations and strategies to alternative protection measures. Easy to understand and accessible for individuals living outside America who are not familiar with the political justice system. Definitely an eye opener that is worth the read. If anyone tells you that police brutality to certain communities is not real, shove this in their faces. They’ll see just how many cases of injustice comes from policeman in America, and how these systems are in place to protect and yet are failing horribly.
sonofcrunch's review against another edition
5.0
The community health organizing discussed in the second half of this book give me, an RN, such hope for a future where emergencies don’t automatically require the presence of someone whose too often primary tool is their firearm on site. A better world is possible.
chilarome's review against another edition
5.0
An extremely insightful look at policing, the varied and intersectional communities they impact, and ways to subvert and replace their structure and purpose, this book should be fundamental reading for every burgeoning abolitionist. It challenged my assumptions about policing and what the solutions should look like. It made me grieve all over again for the deaths of people whose names I had already pushed out because new names took their place.
It also made me hope again. The second half of the book is wholly devoted to trying to solve the issue and make our lives as a community so much better. It empowered me with ideas about how to make my neighbors’ lives better and, in turn, make our city a better place to live.
Shoutout to Haymarket Books for giving this anthology away for free back in Spring 2020 - please support them if you can!
It also made me hope again. The second half of the book is wholly devoted to trying to solve the issue and make our lives as a community so much better. It empowered me with ideas about how to make my neighbors’ lives better and, in turn, make our city a better place to live.
Shoutout to Haymarket Books for giving this anthology away for free back in Spring 2020 - please support them if you can!
gn606's review against another edition
4.0
Super informative short essays. The first half discusses and analyzes cases of police brutality and state violence in the United States and how young poor Black, hispanic, and indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted. The second half aims to resolve these issues by offering policing alternatives. The contributors examine what’s possible and what’s already being done in various communities. If you’re are moved by the current movement and looking for an introduction to police brutality I would recommend!