NPR 11/25/14 By Laura Sullivan For weeks, Ferguson police and local leaders met with community groups and activists to work out a plan for the aftermath of the grand jury’s decision whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. But any results of that […]
HUFFINGTON POST 10/21/14 By Michael Shank As the Ferguson fight rages on, a potentially more courageous Congress stands ready to return, post-elections, to shut down that which rightfully enraged protestors initially. Last month, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House of Representatives finally took a stand against the […]
POLITIX 10/13/14 By Michael Shank Last month, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House of Representatives finally took a stand against the growing militarization of our police forces and our main streets. Shortly after Congressmen Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) introduced the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement […]
ATLANTA MAGAZINE 09/05/14 By Cameron Albert-Deitch Hank Johnson may have been best known as one of two Buddhists in the House (the other being Hawaii’s Colleen Hanabusa). But the lawmaker, who has served Georgia’s 4th congressional district since 2007, has set his sights on reforming the Department of Defense’s 1033 […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 08/22/14 By Michael Shank and US Rep Hank Johnson America is finally waking up to the militarization of its police forces. This is a good thing and heralds a tipping point in the changing face of policing in the United States. America must realize that […]
RIA NOVOSTI 08/22/14 FERGUSON, August 22 (RIA Novosti) – Harsh policing of protests over the police killing of an unarmed African-American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, showcase a trend towards the militarization of US law enforcement, Michael Shank, a religious group director, told RIA Novosti Friday. “The militarization of the police […]
NEW YORK TIMES 08/17/14 By Jake Flanagin “Ferguson, Mo., has become a virtual war zone,” write Elizabeth R. Beavers and Michael Shank in an Op-Ed for The New York Times. “In the wake of the shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, outsize armored vehicles have lined streets and […]
NEWSER 08/15/14 By John Johnson Critics such as Sen. Claire McCaskill say the initial police response in Ferguson, Mo., actually made things worse because cops were equipped like soldiers of war. No wonder, write Elizabeth Beavers and Michael Shank in the New York Times. The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department […]
THE WIRE 08/15/14 By David Ludwig Elizabeth R. Beavers and Michael Shank in The New York Times on why American police forces are too militarized. Beavers and Shank write that the reaction to protests in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown demonstrate that U.S. police forces have been over-equipped […]
NEW YORK TIMES 08/15/14 By Michael Shank and Elizabeth Beavers WASHINGTON — FERGUSON, Mo., has become a virtual war zone. In the wake of the shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, outsize armored vehicles have lined streets and tear gas has filled the air. Officers dressed in camouflage […]