Police
65 Articles
The New Jane Crow: Women’s Mass Incarceration
(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a special Just Security “Racing National Security” symposium edited by editorial board member Matiangai Sirleaf. The goal of…
Congress Must Seize This Chance to Help Demilitarize Law Enforcement
A bipartisan Senate amendment would restrict the transfer of US military equipment to law enforcement, including items from bayonets to weaponized drones.
Black Security and the Conundrum of Policing
We are in a new phase of the long police reform debate. Over decades, opaque spending, police staffing practices, expansion of criminal codes, and other factors have made some…
Systemic Racist Police Brutality Shocks the Conscience of Humanity, but is it an International Crime?
(Editor’s note: To mark today’s 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia, Just Security is publishing two articles. In addition to this piece by Margaret deGuzman…
Less Lethal than Firearms, But Only if Used Appropriately
Sometimes, as in the shooting of Rayshard Brooks by an Atlanta law enforcement officer, deaths involve police use of firearms. But as the killing of George Floyd has also demonstrated,…
It’s Time to Stop the Use of Tear Gas Against Civilians
It was a clear day on June 1 in Washington, DC when thousands of people protesting racial injustice and police brutality, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, congregated…
![LEFT - The D.C. National Guard in camo uniforms, helmets, googles, and face masks stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as demonstrators [not seen in the photo] participate in a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 2, 2020 in Washington, DC. RIGHT - British troops patrol the streets of Belfast June 21, 2001 following fierce fighting the previous night in Ardoyne, a mostly Catholic area in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. They appear to be hiding behind a van.](https://i0.wp.com/www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/combo-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C438&ssl=1)
Northern Ireland’s Lessons for American Policing
Not that long ago, Americans would regularly go to Northern Ireland to offer advice on reforming the region’s notoriously repressive policing. Happily for Northern Ireland, and…
Black Lives Matter Might Just Rescue American Democracy
The movement forces Americans to recognize and confront the deep and longstanding connection between racist and authoritarian violence.
The Supreme Court’s Insidious Development of Qualified Immunity
The American policing and criminal justice system is a complex machine, soldered together from a variety of tools and tactics of oppression. By purpose, design, and effect, the…
New Complicity Charges Filed in the Killing of George Floyd
UPDATED As millions of people take to the streets demanding racial justice, accountability for police violence, and the demilitarization of the police, the case against the ex-police…
The United States’ Racial Justice Problem Is Also an International Human Rights Law Problem
An essay by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Professor E. Tendayi Achiume.
National Security at the United Nations This Week (May 29-June 5)
(Editor’s Note: This is the latest in Just Security’s weekly series keeping readers up to date on developments at the United Nations at the intersection of national security,…