Politics
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Officer Blane Salamoni, Alton Sterling’s Killer, Has Been Fired
Blane Salamoni—the Baton Rouge, La., police officer who killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016—has been fired, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced Friday. “These [police officers’] actions were not minor deviations from policy, as they contributed to the outcome that resulted in the death of another human being,” Paul said. Officer Howie…
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#AltonSterling: Officers Attempted ‘Lawful Arrest,’ Says Louisiana Attorney General; No Criminal Charges Will Be Filed
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced Tuesday morning that two Baton Rouge police officers will not face any charges in the July 2016 state-sanctioned shooting death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old father of five who was selling CDs in front of a Baton Rouge convenience store when he was gunned down by Officer Blane Salamoni,…
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Where Can Black Children Walk Out to Safety?
To the black students who walked out of schools across the country yesterday: We see you. We watched as you stood there, brown skin shining, braids swinging, voices booming, taking charge and walking in the revolutionary tradition of your ancestors. We saw the fire in your eyes. We felt it burning. Hold on to it.…
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Pain and Policy: Why Reparative Justice Is Needed to End the War on Drugs [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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Why It Hurts When the World Loves Everyone but Us
I’ve been processing seemingly contradictory emotions since the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. I am at once in awe of and humbled by this youth resistance movement and its solidarity efforts, and yet almost indescribably devastated. This feeling of devastation goes beyond the tragic and preventable loss of life; it is connected to the loss of…
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The Hood Incubator: Oakland, Calif., Organization Empowers Black Communities to Take Ownership of Cannabis Industry [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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Dear, Teacher: How Does It Feel to Be an Oppressor?
The New York Daily News reported Feb. 1—the start of Black History Month—that a teacher in a majority-minority school in the Bronx, N.Y., instructed three black children in her seventh-grade class to lie on the floor during a lesson on slavery. Then she stepped on the students’ backs, allegedly to show them “how it feels…
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The Shame Is Not Ours: Black America, Poverty and the War on Drugs [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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Louisiana Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence After Serving Nearly 38 Years in Prison for Rape He Didn’t Commit
Malcolm Alexander, who was just 21 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to life in Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola), was released from prison Monday after Jefferson Parish Judge June Darensburg overturned his conviction. Darensburg made her decision after a reinvestigation by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office determined that…