Ferguson

Five Things You Had to See Online This Week

Arts, Culture & Media

The best song of the decade (so far), the Smithsonian makes GIFs, Nick Offerman recites reddit, Breaking Bad meets Seinfeld, and Lauryn Hill sings about Ferguson.

An arrest after student protests in Missouri

At Missouri, ‘right now, we are facing the backlash’

Conflict
A Ferguson Police officer drives past a mural in Ferguson, Missouri, on March 12, 2015.

‘It’s better to be in the company of seven devils than one policeman’

Justice
A protester in Oakland, California, on  December 3, 2014, wears a sign during a demonstration against the decision by a New York City grand jury not to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner.

England abolished grand juries decades ago because they didn’t work

Justice
Ferguson_immigration_1

At rallies, immigrants show solidarity with the people of Ferguson

Conflict
A demonstrator sits in front of a street fire during a demonstration following the grand jury decision in the Ferguson, Missouri shooting of Michael Brown, in Oakland, California on November 25, 2014.

Just like in Ferguson, police shootings in South Africa prove nothing is ‘post-racial’ just yet

Justice

American cops rarely go to jail for the killings of civilians, and the same goes for police officers in South Africa. And in both countries, the anger at such perceived biases is at odds with the perception that they’ve become post-racial societies after electing black leaders.

A protester shouts with both his hands in the air while marching through a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, on November 23, 2014.

Black communities in England know what Ferguson is going through

Conflict

In 1981, uprisings broke out in communities all throughout England, with poverty and heavy-handed policing to blame. If that sounds familiar to you, black Britons who remember the riots also see similarities in how the US and UK treat minority communities.

A man walks past a burning building during rioting after a grand jury returned no indictment in the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

A Middle East correspondent sees familiar clashes unfold in Ferguson

Conflict

Correspondent Daniel Estrin often files stories for us on the violent outbreaks in Jerusalem and the West Bank. But when he returned home to visit his family in St. Louis, he found himself watching all-too-familiar scenes play out just minutes from his home.

A mural showing Gil Scott-Heron and his trademark phrase, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," is the backdrop for protesters marching through the streets of New York in 2012, demanding justice for slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

A song title from the ’70s is still a rallying cry for protesters across the world

Culture

You can see the phrase scrawled on walls around the globe from Tahrir Square to Ferguson, seemingly anywhere people take to the streets: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” It was the creation of American jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron, whose biographer says he’d enjoy the term’s enduring use.

A police officer patrols the street as a little girl watches from her doorstep in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, on May 27, 2010.

As Ferguson unfolds, a death in Jamaica resurrects the island’s history of police brutality

Justice

The death of Mario Deane in a Jamaican jail cell became the latest flashpoint between citizens and police officers in Jamaica, which has a long history of police brutality.