We in Berkshire are fortunate to look on the recent violence from a distance. However, the suggestions to rethink accountability and reimagine policing may be useful in Berkshire as well.
Tag: police
LEONARD QUART: Righteous protests begin to have an effect
Still, I felt that in the absence of any semblance of national leadership, there was a need for more than righteous anger from the protestors.
Alan Chartock: Our racist society
Many people think that the police are the problem but, in fact, they are just the point guards for a racist society.
CONNECTIONS: My hometown is burning
The people on TV keep saying, “We are better than this.” What does that mean? Were we better than this once?
Our duty to create a more perfect union
It is vitally important for those of us who have not been affected by racial discrimination and oppression to be the allies of those who are.
‘Silence’ of GB police ‘cannot go unnoticed’
In a letter to the editor, Mae Whaley writes, “As much as it is necessary for us to stay aware of the overt ways in which police departments across the country are contributing to racism, we cannot allow the constant images and videos of tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades to lower our standards for how we expect our police to behave.”
Alan Chartock: I Publius
Now is a time in which police are under a microscope.
EDITORIAL: Amid Washington leadership void and search for racial justice, signs of hope
This fragile and unprecedented period in the nation’s history is made worse by an abject lack of leadership in the nation’s capital.
POEM: Reflection
it’s our neck
it’s our knee
it’s our knee on our neck
Parking rage on Railroad Street
Three guys in a white Jeep tried to beat up a guy in a blue Subaru over a parking space in front of SoCo.
The police and the press
Obviously, beginning in 1960, the Supreme Court thought that freedom of the press was so important that, while someone might be hurt by the ruling, it was nonetheless worth it.
‘The Children’s March’ at The Mahaiwe, in support of the April 20 National School Walkout
“By next Friday, every school kid in America will have experienced at least three events where they have no doubt wondered how long they must endure the tolerance for guns that has torn apart the fabric of this country and endangered their lives.”
— Documentary filmmaker Bobby Houston, on the screening of his film ‘The Children’s March’
Berkshires mourn a death, wondering how it could happen
A police officer is still a man, a woman, a person; one capable of error, of fun, of love, of joy, and also susceptible to heartbreak just as Ryan Storti’s brothers at the Great Barrington Police Department are now.
Housatonic man charged with 11 counts of larceny, breaking and entering, in drug-related case
John L. Hobart, 32, of Main Street in Housatonic was taken into custody Tuesday, Jan. 26. Further charges are pending in Stockbridge and Sheffield.
Citizen participation is essential for local democracy
In his letter to the editor, Robert H. Jones Jr. of Stockbridge writes: “We [the voters] are reminders to local officials as to their true purpose: to follow the law and to reflect the will of their constituents.”
Chelm 01262: The Cossacks are coming! The Cossacks are coming!
The police state mentality that has gripped our nation is showing itself right here at home. In Chelm 01262. The fight against terror breeds terror.
Intrusive presence of police in Stockbridge
In her letter to the editor, Georgeanne Rousseau of Stockbridge writes: “Does Stockbridge, as Chief Eaton asserts, really need increased law enforcement, and are all the lights and sirens, so intrusive to Town life, truly necessary?”
Connections: Racial conflict in Great Barrington — in 1893
The police were credited with coming and breaking it up, and yet, after they arrived one black man was “used pretty roughly.” When it was over, the white community was angry that the Blacks, clearly the perpetrators in their opinion, were not arrested. The Black community was angry that a young Black man was injured with police present, and perhaps, by the police.
Connections: The Hawthorne Effect – does surveillance modify behavior?
In this world with crime cameras on every corner, cameras on police officers’ shoulders, and a camera phone in every hand, it would be nice to believe that filming/watching is a tool for the improvement of the human race. And yet…