A review by erinstewart
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Maya Schenwar

5.0

Haymarket is generously offering this title in ebook format for free. As someone who isn't from the US and who has largely gleaned information about police and carceral violence against Black people in America via social media, this book helpfully contextualises and thematically organises the information. Some of it was new to me, some of it wasn't, but either way it's valuable that it's comprehensive, clear, and multi-vocal (the book is a collection of essays written by several authors). Reading it, it really occured to me how limited it is to try and understand a social movement as complex as BLM on platforms like Twitter (not that Twitter commentary isn't valuable, of course). It's a book that's been relevant for the years since its publication, offering detail on what's going on right now and what has been going on since the beginning of the slave trade. It also offers ways forward and important hope.