Cartoons:
I had a review of Joe Sacco’s latest, Footnotes in Gaza, in the March issue of In These Times.
Also last month, I wrote a small article for San Francisco on Sanjay Patel’s illustrated version of the ancient Hindu tale, Ramayana. (It’s not on the web. Sorry.)
Cops:
A small excerpt from Our Enemies in Blue, “Explaining Away the Abuse,” appears on the website of West Denver Copwatch.
I’ll be speaking in Seattle this Thursday, giving a talk titled “Cop Killers and Killer Cops: Political Considerations.”
It’s at Left Bank Books, 92 Pike Street, Seattle, on Thursday April 15, at 7:30 pm.
For more information, see: http://www.leftbankbooks.com/store/Events
If you’ll be in Seattle, please come by — and tell your friends!
Well, actually — just me. But I’ll be talking about Oscar Wilde.
The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair runs Saturday and Sunday, March 13-14, at the San Francisco County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park.
My talk will be Sunday, March 14th, at 1pm in the Auditorium.
I have an opinion piece over on the website of The Oregonian newspaper, Oregon Live. In it, I argue that, since the police insist on misusing their weapons, perhaps we should take them away.
The comment section, following the essay, is crowded with attacks focusing on my employment-status, gender, reading habits, and my alma mater — which is, you know, pretty much what one expects.
The irony here is that disarming the police is actually my attempt at a moderate compromise position. As I’ve made clear elsewhere (for example, in Our Enemies in Blue), I’d rather just not have cops at all.
Update: The moderator seems to be removing most of the ad hominem attacks. The conversation has shifted, instead, toward naked racism. (I must say, I hardly consider it an improvement.)
One commenter, “Gargleblaster,” is working hard to prove (as he puts it) “More black people equals more murders.” Adding to the absurdity, he seems to believe that this generalization, on its own, justifies Officer Ron Frashour’s shooting of Aaron Campbell. But not only was Campbell unarmed, and trying to surrender — he wasn’t even a suspect. The police were there to check on him because his family worried he might be suicidal.
It’s revealing to see who the Police Bureau’s defenders are and the kind of arguments they make: When logic fails, they appeal to simple prejudice.