Reading (For Nerds)

Communists Around Every Corner: The Ideological Weapons of the New Cold War

On June 26, Donald Trump signed an executive order on "Protecting American Monuments." The order was Trump's response to the protests against anti-Black police brutality and systemic racism that have wracked the United States since the murder of George Floyd. On the same day, the White House website published an address given by National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien two days earlier about "The Chinese Communist Party's Ideology and Global Ambitions." Both of these documents are notable for shamelessly deploying McCarthyite, anti-communist rhetoric that uses the threat of "Marxism" as a boogeyman to authorize both repression at home and imperial aspirations abroad.

ByMatthew Van Duyn

A History of Police in Schools

In 1967, the Tucson School District in Arizona launched what was perhaps the first modern school resource officer (SRO) program. Prior to this, police interaction with schools had been minimal and largely enforcement based.1 In 1953, for instance, police were assigned to schools in Flint, Michigan to check juvenile delinquency as a youth crime panic comingled with racial tension in the town. What was proposed in Tucson was something different, however. Police were not being placed in the schools to prevent crime, but to improve community/police relations.

ByBrian Platt

Sheriffs Gone Wild

Last week, Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney stared at his keyboard and boldly told his Facebook followers that he would not enforce any Covid 19 related stay at home order. He went on, “I believe that preventing business owners to (sic) operate their businesses and provide for their families intrudes on our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” He vowed that he would “always put your constitutional rights above politics or popular opinion.” Heroism had called and Fortney was accepting the charges.

ByBrian Platt

Seattle's Other Gods

Once, the gods of the earth dwelled upon its surface, they danced upon its mountains and swam in its rivers. Though they made earth their dominion, they did not suffer the arrival of man and would not allow this new beast to look upon them. As men spread across the plains, the godswere driven first into the hills. As men scaled their slopes, the gods moved into the forest until, intime, even those were abandoned.

ByProfessor Ambrose J. Hoag

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