America’s Policing Crisis

From The New Yorker’s archive: pieces about the history of race and law enforcement in America. View in browser | Update your preferences America’s Policing Crisis In his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, President Biden called on legislators to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, saying, “We have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our criminal-justice system.” This week, in the aftermath of the Derek Chauvin verdict, in Minneapolis, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces about the history of race and policing in America. In “How Police Unions Fight Reform,” William Finnegan writes about the troubling powers of N.Y.P.D. unions. In “Busted in New York,” the essayist and novelist Darryl Pinckney recounts his arrest on a minor drug charge on the Lower East Side. (“Jail was going to get me over my fear of saying the obvious, because there was no way to ignore all morning the fact that everyone in the cell was either black or Hispanic.”) In “How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City,” Shane Bauer examines the failure to hold officers accountable in Vallejo, California, where cops are responsible for a higher rate of killings than all but one of the nation’s hundred largest police forces. Finally, in “The Invention of the Police,” Jill Lepore explores the evolution of modern urban policing and its connection to American racism. (“To say that many good and admirable people are police officers, dedicated and brave public servants, which is, of course, true, is to fail to address both the nature and the scale of the crisis and the legacy of centuries of racial injustice.”) These pieces offer a kaleidoscopic and penetrating look at a central crisis in American life. —David Remnick From The New Yorker’s Archive A Critic at Large The Invention of the Police Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery. By Jill Lepore | July 20, 2020 Personal History Busted in New York A nighttime walk leads to trouble. By Darryl Pinckney | February 5, 2001 Newsletters Sign Up for the New Yorker Recommends Newsletter Discover what our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Dept. of Law Enforcement How Police Unions Fight Reform Activists insist that police departments must change. For half a century, New York City’s P.B.A. has successfully resisted such demands. By William Finnegan | August 3 & 10, 2020 Letter from California How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City After years of impunity, the police in Vallejo, California, took over the city’s politics and threatened its people. By Shane Bauer | November 23, 2020 You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up. Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our Privacy Policy Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.