Alex Vitale, Who Wrote the Book on Police Reform, Says Issue Is Politics, Not Training

In a recent interview with Lee Camp, well-known police reform author and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project, Alex S. Vitale, sheds light on the recent murder of Tyree Nichols and America’s ongoing fight for police reform.

Lee Camp
By Lee Camp
Alex Vitale Lee Camp Feature photo

Alex S. Vitale is a Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project. His book, “The End of Policing,” has been highly praised, and he has become a well-known figure in debates over policing in America. In this interview with Lee Camp, Vitale shares his insights into the recent events surrounding

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How Civil Asset Forfeiture Could Undermine Efforts to Defund Police

The public has little control over the police budgets, and no control over their external revenue sources like asset forfeiture, which massively contribute to the expansion of the police state.

Ella Fassler
By Ella Fassler
Police Reform Feature photo

Shadowproof —Between 2001 and 2017, the federal government seized $40 billion from ordinary people and high profile criminal defendants, including major corporations, through asset forfeiture. The money was funneled into the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF), a trust founded in 1984 through the Comprehensive Crime Control Act as part of the War on

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10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War

Much as unaccountable police in riot gear are a danger to our communities, so, too, an unaccountable military, armed to the teeth and functioning largely in secret, is a danger to the world. 

Medea Benjamin
Zoltán Grossman
By Medea Benjamin
And Zoltán Grossman
Minneapolis Riot Police

Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat our cities as occupied war zones. In response to

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Polls: Four Weeks of Protest Have Radically Altered American Views on Police

American voters now support sweeping changes to policing; 83 percent want a ban on racial profiling, 92 percent want police to be required to wear body cameras and White Americans’ concern over police violence has increased by 50 percent since 2019.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Black Lives Matter Photo of the day

Just four weeks of protest have radically altered Americans’ views on the police and what their role in society should be. Once almost exclusively the domain of activist groups, moves to comprehensively change, defund or even abolish the police are rapidly gaining momentum with the public. A new study published this week by Data for

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The System Is Rigged: Qualified Immunity Is How the Police State Stays in Power

Lawyers tend to offer complicated, convoluted explanations for the doctrine of qualified immunity, which was intended to insulate police from frivolous lawsuits, but its real purpose, writes constitutional attorney John Whitehead, is to rig the system,

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
DC Protests Feature photo

CHARLOTTESVILLE (Rutherford) –– The system is rigged, the government is corrupt, and “we the people” continue to waste our strength by fighting each other rather than standing against the tyrant in our midst. Because the system is rigged, because the government is corrupt, and because “we the people” remain polarized and divided, the police

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Struggle Theater: Don’t Let Theatrics Shroud the Reality of Systemic Oppression

America’s power brokers are hoping murals, kente cloth, and a series of half-baked legislative reforms will appease activists into giving up the fight for real change.

Eleanor Goldfield
By Eleanor Goldfield
Black Lives Matter Feature photo

The crowd cheered. I hustled to slide the fresh battery into place, snap the latch closed, click on, and survey the scene. On their knees, protestors in front of the newly erected fence applauded as a cop on the other side took a knee. Around him, other cops seemed to take no notice, shifting in their riot gear as the sun slowly dipped behind the

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