Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States - Paperback

by Alicia Garza (Foreword by), Maya Schenwar (Editor), Joe Macaré (Editor)

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?

This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police.

Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement's treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting, as well as specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young black men using police informant and the failure of Chicago's much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe.

Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cantú, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez.

Author Biography

Maya Schenwar is Truthout's editor-in-chief and the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better. Her work has appeared in Truthout, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Salon, Mother Jones, Ms. Magazine and elsewhere.

Joe Macaré is Truthout's publisher. He has written multiple articles published at Truthout and elsewhere.

Alana Yu-lan Price is Truthout's content relations editor. She has written multiple articles in Tikkun Magazine, the Chicago Defender and Madison Times.

Alicia Garza is special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and a cofounder of Black Lives Matter.