Journalist – Historian – Speaker
This case is from 2012, but I first noticed it on this DailyKos diary. It’s a perfect example of the “cult of compliance,” a phrase I’ve been using since 2013 to link otherwise discrete incidents of police brutality, creeping authoritarianism, and broader examples of cultural discourse that venerate compliance as the greatest of all virtues. …
I finished a major corporate (disability-related) project this week and am hard at work on a major non-profit (disability-related) project now. That, plus teaching, plus the book, has slowed me down in terms of writing for mainstream media, but I trust that the depth of these bigger projects is more than worth it. In the …
I missed this story of a police officer tasing a man who was having a stroke. This is from May. The officer has resigned.
I’ve been away over the weekend, so am a bit behind on stories to write. I try not to write when spending family time on vacation! Ahead this week – apologies, deaths by taser, death by gunfire, thoughts on undergraduate achievement. I’m also writing about the Middle Ages, the local Zoo, public intellectuals, and the …
Oral arguments for Sheehan vs San Francisco will begin at the Supreme Court in a few hours (it’s the second case of the day). It will provide the opportunity for the court to do a number of things. Here are the questions before the court: Whether Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires …
“The [naked] man who appeared mentally ill ran at the officer and ignored demands to stop before the officer shot him twice.” Hill and his parents. Used by permissionof the picture’s owner. Yesterday, in DeKalb, GA, a police officer responded to a call about a naked, unarmed, man at an apartment complex. He was clearly …
Yesterday CNN published my new essay on the shooting of a black, homeless, disabled man by the LAPD. I argue that the focus on whether of not “Africa,” as the man was known, was reaching for a gun, is the wrong question. Instead, use-of-force incidents should be assessed by taking a broad time frame, looking …
Yesterday, CNN published a piece of mine on the death of Kristiana Coignard. Here’s how she died [warning – the video is very disturbing, so follow the link with caution]: In late January, Kristiana Coignard, a seventeen-year-old woman with bipolar disorder and depression, walked into the police department in Longwood, Texas, with “I have a …
Recently, video has surfaced of police trying to throw a man in a wheelchair from his chair. Allegedly, the individual ran over the officer’s foot. Here are some other incidents worth remembering. And these are just the ones caught on tape. Brian Sterner thrown from his wheelchair by an officer who thought he might be …
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg decided to skip the grand jury process and charge the officers who killed James Boyd, a man with psychiatric disabilities, with murder. Grand juries don’t want to indict cops. Juries don’t want to convict cops. But at least there will be a day in court. Here’s what the defense will say: …