TWITTER | For all the stinging images of citizens' interactions with law enforcement, Facebook and Twitter can be useful tools for police agencies. The viral videos of departments participating in the Running Man Challenge (where you at, Spokane Police and Spokane County Sheriff'?) is just one example. In Washington state, one BLONDE LADY COP (@BlondeinKevlar) gives an unfiltered, often humorous, perspective of the job on Twitter. For example, she had some words for a security guard who apparently jumped in to "help" with an arrest: "If you jump into the fray, solely because you have a penis and I have a vagina, and end up causing more paperwork, I'm kicking your ass next."
PODCAST | A new podcast from the creators of HBO's documentary miniseries The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, investigates the "culture of crime" in cities across the country. In its first season, CRIMETOWN introduces listeners to the cast of public officials and mobsters who ran Providence, Rhode Island, in the 1970s and for decades after. Front and center is Providence's former felonious mayor, the late Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. The charismatic two-time felon, along with a cadre of crooked cops, mobsters and public officials, blurred the lines between good guys and bad guys.
BOOK | Wesley Lowery, the Washington Post reporter who was arrested in 2014 while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, released a new book about his experience. THEY CAN'T KILL US ALL: FERGUSON, BALTIMORE, AND A NEW ERA IN AMERICA'S RACIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT is a young black reporter's journey around the country covering officer-involved shooting deaths of black males. Lowery offers an occasional look into his internal struggle to maintain objectivity, and poses more questions than answers about race and policing today as he describes scenes from public demonstrations and heartbreaking interviews. ♦
