Stop and Seize: How Aggressive Policing is Taking the Property of Those Never Charged with Crimes

Many of you in periods 5 and 6 read The New Jim Crow this summer.  Here are two must-read and watch pieces that underscore and illustrate even more acutely the use and impact of asset seizure and forfeiture as explained by author Michelle Alexander in Chapter 2, "The Lockdown." 

The Washington Post, with a blockbuster multi-part investigation into police asset forfeiture practices:
Stop and Seize

CNN on police and prosecutors taking family homes:
Parents' House Seized After Son's Drug Bust

I want all of you to check these out because we will use in class in conjunction with our study the Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties.   You may start leaving comments here, if you wish.  

Ferguson Readings

                                 Photo: Scott Olson, Getty

Here is a very incomplete list of thought-provoking articles on the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the protests as a result and the militarization of local policy forces.


Mariame Kaba with a commentary in the Washington Post:
For Blacks, America is Dangerous by Default 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, THAT Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) writing in Time:
The Coming Race War Won't be About Race


Alex Kane writing for BillMoyers.com:
Not Just Ferguson: 11 Eye-Opening Facts About America's Militarized Police Forces

Local Writer Mark Paul on the California Fix blog:
Assault Rifles and Ice Buckets


Davis, CA:
Davis City Council Calls for Alternatives to Military Armored Vehicle

Fascinating background here on the federal program ("1033") that makes surplus military equipment available to local police departments:  Staff report to the Davis City Council on the Police Dept Acquisition of a Surplus Military Armored Vehicle via the 1033 Program

More to come...

Ferguson, Missouri

The New Yorker's cover for the week we return to school,  Eric Drooker's "Ferguson, Missouri."

 “An artist friend of mine was killed by a cop in lower Manhattan, back in 1991. He happened to be black, and the police officer was never indicted.” Drooker continues, “As a resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I witnessed the blurring distinctions between the police and military during the Tompkins Square riots of the eighties. I’ll never forget the day the N.Y.P.D. showed up in a military tank to evict nonviolent squatter friends from buildings on Avenue B and Thirteenth Street, where I grew up.."

More on Drooker's cover art here.

Ferguson will indeed inform much of what we study throughout the year.  I will be posting links to a variety of articles and commentaries.  This blog will be one platform we use to think, share, challenge, learn...and...well, who knows what else?

See you in one week.