Rochester’s next police chief, expected to be named later this month, will walk into an extraordinarily tough job: fighting crime and improving police-community relations. At the same time. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve gotten vivid examples of how hard that will be. There’ve been almost daily reports of shootings, fights, and stabbings. Reining […]
racial profiling
Posted inNews & Opinion
Slim progress on racism since King’s big march
Well, here we are, 50 years after the March on Washington, with commemorative gatherings, speeches, workshops, and media interviews with people who participated in that demonstration on the Mall that hot August day. We have made progress since then, certainly, just as the nation had made progress in the 100 years before the March. It’s […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Race and the Martin-Zimmerman case
The Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case has engulfed the country in a conversation about race and justice, once again. It is tragic that a black teen lost his life in a situation so ordinary that it defines mundane: walking, snacking on candy, and talking to a friend on the phone. How many other teens in this […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Interviews afield: policing and racial bias
“Field interview form.” It sounds like something a reporter might pull from a back pocket. But an “FIF” is not blank or neutral. It’s a controversial tool of neighborhood policing. It’s also an indicator of what people on the street are up to, and what the police are doing about it. That’s why […]
