Days after Miles Jackson and Daunte Wright were murdered by police, this incident was recorded in a grocery store.

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First-hand accounts revealed that this cop was kneeling on this man's back because he stole a bottle of alcohol. The cop was kneeling on it in such a way that the man was not able to put his hands behind his back, and he punched him prior to recording. Also, an employee related that people get caught for stealing all the time and never treated like this. So, the police can call things procedure, but predictably pick and choose to whom what procedures are used.

At least four Black people watched this in horror (one is off camera) wondering if they are witnessing the next murder. The Black community literally feels safe *nowhere*: not in their homes, cars, certainly not walking their dogs, not in daylight or at night. There are at least four white people doing nothing and one employee who laughed about it.

Australia’s Labor Party’s recognition of Palestine as a State on March 30 is a welcomed position, though it comes with many caveats.

Pro-Palestinian activists are justified to question the sincerity of the ALP’s stance and whether Australia’s Labor is genuinely prepared to fully adopt this position should they form a government following the 2022 elections.

When I met a seven-year-old girl named Guljumma at a refugee camp in Kabul a dozen years ago, she told me that bombs fell early one morning while she slept at home in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Valley. With a soft, matter-of-fact voice, Guljumma described what happened. Some people in her family died. She lost an arm.

Troops on the ground didn’t kill Guljumma’s relatives and leave her to live with only one arm. The U.S. air war did.

There’s no good reason to assume the air war in Afghanistan will be over when -- according to President Biden’s announcement on Wednesday -- all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from that country.

Since 1871 the Civil Rights Act has held state and local officials—including police officers—legally liable for damages if their actions violate a citizen’s Constitutional rights. 

That’s until the Supreme Court punched a huge hole in the law, making it now nearly impossible to hold police officers accountable—even for acts that clearly violate the rights of citizens.  Such actions multiplied massively under the war on drugs.

As part of that “war,” state and local police departments, in the 1970s, ramped-up their acquisition of military equipment and adoption of military-style tactics, including the use of Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) and no-knock drug raids. 

The timing is curious. Just as police departments began gearing up their war-like tactics, the Supreme Court created a legal defense—known as qualified immunity—in time to protect police officers engaging in such tactics.

By the mid-1990s, according to criminologist Peter Kraska, nearly 90% of U.S. cities with a population over 50,000 had a SWAT team—almost double of what existed in the mid-1980s.

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Jack Barns punched his cell phone, texting. The intercom on his desk buzzed. He tossed the cell phone onto the desk with a clatter and punched the in-desk phone.

“Yes, Louise?”

“Ms. Sachs and her party are here for their 10 o’clock.”

“Tell ‘em to swing it in,” and they did.

“Come in, let’s sit over here. The view is better. Anyone care for a drink?” Barns said.

“Tequila and a Coke, in separate glasses, for Mr. Smith Wilson,” Louise said without prompting.

“Ms. Sachs will take Zia-Zong tea and Mr. Papilov will have black coffee, correct?” she said, walking to the bar on the side of the room.

Their drinks dispensed, Louise left the room and closed the door behind her. Papilov pulled a flask from within his coat pocket and spiked his coffee.

“Well?” Barns said. “Where do we stand?”

“You said not to poke around PPD yet. Did you make your call?” Sachs asked.

“No, because there’s something else,” Barns said.