Skip to main content

This Week in People’s History, Dec 12–18

Portside
1906 cartoon of a Congolese worker being assaulted by a snake wearing the King of Belgium's crown The Heart of Darkness (in 1903), Racism on the Bench (1893), Terror in Lancaster, Pa. (1763), Physician, Heal Thyself (1973), No Taxation Without Representation (1773), Will Sex Work Ever Be Made Safe? (2003), Cleveland Sinks in Red Ink (1978)

Question: When is Shooting a 12-year-old Child Reasonable?

Vincent Warren Center for Constitutional Rights - The Daily Outrage
Answer: When the child is Black and the shooter is a police officer. You're not likely to find any law enforcement person within a 100-mile radius who would dare speak out and say what we all know: this went down badly (not just "tragically," as one of the experts put it) and the officers should be held accountable. Law enforcement culture doesn't allow for people to break ranks without consequences. So please, let's not call these hired consultants independent.

In Rare Move, Community Seeks Murder Charges for Cops Who Killed Tamir Rice

Deirdre Fulton Common Dreams
"We are still waiting for the criminal justice system to enact justice in the name of Tamir Rice," said Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, in a press release. "It has been more than six months since his tragic death and, yet, the people still have no answers and no one has been held accountable. Today, citizens are taking matters into their own hands utilizing the tools of democracy as an instrument of justice."
Subscribe to Cleveland