Some thoughts after after watching the videos of Kyle Rittenhouse try to turn himself in to police & the police drive right by him. And what this reveals about the other side of anti-Black racism in policing and how this further undermines our safety. In the video, Kyle walks toward multiple vehicles and they zoom …
“Looting as Pathology of Order.” The ways in which looting is invoked to recreate oppressive and racialized forms of social control & order.
In 2011 my graduate thesis was approved & published. It focused on an analysis of looting as an analytical lens to understand how social order is constructed & enforced through anti-Black racial ideologies and discourses, private property norms, and use of exceptional force by the state.
Police face backlash over virus rules. Enter ‘violence interrupters’.
Alternatives to police responses to community needs & conflicts are needed now more than ever. But let us not stop with Covid. These & other approaches need to be invested in and prioritized now and in the future.
Book Launch—City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands – July 11 NYC
I am very happy to host this book launch and moderate the subsequent discussion with Dan Werb, Maia Szalavitz, and Dr. Patty Gonzalez-Zuñiga, and featuring Dan's new book City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands. Having visited and supported harm reduction and community safety work in Tijuana for the past several …
Public health programs are working to address drugs at the border — a wall won’t help
[*Originally published on January 31, 2019 by The Hill] In the center of the muddy courtyard beyond the plywood gate is a rusted-out car that three kids have turned into their playground. Outside, their mother and father meet with a pair of outreach workers. The man is an active heroin user; the woman hasn’t used …
Never mind the noise & lies calling for a border wall — Here are the daily actions saving lives along Mexico’s northern border
While President Trump & the White House made their political spectacle regarding the border wall, I was in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, Mexico. I had been spending time with local, community groups who provide *harm reduction* based services & support for people who use drugs - especially people living on the street or in informal …
Q&A: Looking for Answers on Law Enforcement Killings
A new study finds official public health data on law enforcement-related deaths in the US fails to accurately record and report deaths. I spoke with Justin Feldman, the study’s lead researcher, about the implications of these findings.
Moving toward a closed society, not a safer society: our unspoken response to mass shootings in America
The claim that "nothing happens" after mass shootings in America is false. What happens, time and time again, is more securitization, militarization, and surveillance of the sites where the shootings took place: clubs, universities, elementary schools, and now hotels. Meanwhile, we fail to address the one common feature among all these incidents: access to and …
Why Declaring ‘War’ on Mexican Drug Cartels Is a Bad Idea
A recent proposal for US Congress to “declare war” on Mexican cartels in order to curb the growing number of fatal opiate overdoses of Americans is incendiary and dangerous. Not only would it be ineffective in countering cartels or reducing fatal overdoses in the U.S.; it would lead to lead to the murders of thousands more Mexican civilians, not to mention endanger the lives of American soldiers.
Marc Krupanski 