police brutality
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What the Cameras Show Us: Ourselves
When I decided I needed to write this piece, I spent a lot of time wondering whether I could. Whether I should.
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Roxane Gay on Resisting Numbness
There is a new name to add to this list—Alton B. Sterling, 37, killed by police officers in Baton Rouge, La. It is a bitter reality that there will always be a new name to that list. Black lives matter,…
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Philando Castile: A Rumpus Roundup
On Wednesday evening, police shot and killed St. Paul Minnesota resident Philando Castile after stopping him for a broken tail light. More than five hundred police shootings have occurred so far this year, and Alton Sterling’s Philando Castile’s death might…
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Alton Sterling: A Rumpus Roundup
If the regular mass shootings have been the distraction you needed to forget about America’s ongoing police violence, Baton Rouge, Louisiana would like to remind everyone that, too, is still a problem. On Monday evening, police shot and killed 37-year-old Alton…
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This Week in Short Fiction
This is supposed to be a story. This is the first sentence of “The Alive Sister,” a powerful new work of flash fiction by Megan Giddings published at The Offing on Monday. In it, two little black girls are playing…
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Police Boycott Beyoncé’s Formation Tour
In a bid to epically miss the point, select police unions are protesting Beyoncé’s “Formation” video and Super Bowl performance due to the artist’s use of imagery comments on police brutality. The Tampa Police Benevolent Association has issued a statement encouraging all union members…
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The Rumpus Interview with Alida Nugent
Alida Nugent talks about her new book You Don’t Have to Like Me: Essays on Growing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding Feminism, the messiness and realness of sex and sexuality, and putting likeability last.
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When Actions No Longer Exist
Language is a great way to communicate, and an even better way to avoid it altogether. This “Interactive Guide to Ambiguous Grammar” ensures no one will ever decode what you’re really saying.
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Intersections, On the Anniversary of the Rodney King Rebellion
The city has risen up in response, and rebellion is taking many forms.
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Baltimore: A Rumpus Roundup
On April 12th, four Baltimore bicycle police arrested 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Gray sustained injuries while in police custody. He asked for medical assistance repeatedly before slipping into a coma. A week later, he died.
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Reasonable Cause
The Torres family learned how Christopher died from watching the news the next day. At a press conference, the department’s chief public-safety officer said that two officers had tried to arrest Christopher at home, but, when he resisted and grabbed…
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This Week in Short Fiction
This week, last week, men who have taken lives are walking away unpunished, unquestioned even. We have their victims’ names: Mike Brown. Eric Garner. We have their final words: Hands up, don’t shoot. (Six shots fired.) I can’t breathe. (Repeated…