December 6, 2015

Laquan McDonald: Same Old, Same Old

Cook County Coroner's illustration of Laquan McDonald's wounds
 -- courtesy of the New Republic
When I began this blog, I was enthusiastic about the forum and set aside the energy and time to write. As the months passed, I have found it increasingly difficult to talk about the intersecting issues of civil rights, politics, and law enforcement. That is to say, it feels as though we are watching history repeat itself in increasingly short cycles with little change in state behavior or it's response to the evidence of misconduct. When the aggrieved communities express their anger and concern, the media responds by questioning whether these protests are only making it harder to effectively police crime and suggesting that these incidents are the outliers, always the outliers. By the time I have begun to wrap my head around an event, we are already on to the next, markedly similar travesty. Writing posts discussing police violence and the blue wall of silence that supports it often has a pointless feel to it, given the police shooting and cover up that is inevitably right around the corner.