Arguments on the Left: Policing

Arguments on the Left: Policing

Five short essays from Michael Walzer, Aviva Stahl, Elizabeth Glazer and Patrick Sharkey, Randall Kennedy, and Jasson Perez.

A Consistent Approach to Policing by Michael Walzer

“We have written so much about the police in recent months but said too little about what we really want and expect from them.”

The Cost of State Surveillance by Aviva Stahl

“[Surveillance] programs are not only damaging to their targets, but ineffective in achieving their stated aims.”

A New Model of Public Safety by Elizabeth Glazer and Patrick Sharkey

“Tight-knit communities where residents have access to basic resources and strong local institutions are safer places to live.”

Why We Need Good Police by Randall Kennedy

“Even after a massive redistribution of resources . . . there will remain a need for an agency with the authority to use force to investigate, restrain, and detain those who insist upon criminally victimizing their neighbors.”

The Problem of Police Nationalism by Jasson Perez

“Police nationalism is rooted in conservative ideas of law and order, expressed these days in the rhetoric of Blue Lives Matter, but it has also been sustained by decades of liberal police reform.”