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My two latest articles both focus, in very different ways, on the position the cops occupy in our highly stratified society.

The first, “Exclusion Zones,” appears in the September issue of In These Times. It describes the policing of public space in Portland, Oregon (where I live), and outlines the race and class dynamics driving the cops’ approach. I link two deaths at the hands of police — those of James Chasse and Keaton Otis — to the agenda established by the local business elite, in particular, the Portland Business Alliance.

The second article considers the role cops played in the labor unrest in Wisconsin earlier in the year, and contrasts it to their more usual job of breaking strikes. Specifically, I try to identify the conditions under which the cops sometimes side with striking workers, and the limits to that solidarity. That article is in the September/October 2011 issue of Dollars and Sense, but isn’t available online.

Last week I did an interview for AshevilleFM.org. I talked a bit about the history of policing, about recent anti-cop resistance, and about the developing politics of police abolition. It’s archived here.

Some time ago I wrote a review of Mike Howlett’s Weird World of Eerie Publications for The Comics Journal.

More recently, I wrote a short essay for the Progressive Populist, comparing two comics explaining the economic crisis — Erich Origen and Gan Golan’s Adventures of Unemployed Man and Seth Tobocman, Eric Laursen and Jessica Wehrle’s Understanding the Crash. The piece is mis-labeled as a review, but it isn’t really evaluative; instead it reflects on the different genre choices and visual strategies the two titles employ.

Old horror or new economics — Which is scarier?

I’ll be speaking at the International Copwatching Conference in Winnipeg.

I’m offering the keynote address Saturday, July 23rd, at 9am. Titled “Making Copwatch Matter,” the talk will consider the political potential of copwatching and the real challenges copwatch groups face.

Then, on Sunday, July 24, at 3pm, I’ll be participating in a panel discussion on copwatch tactics. There, I’ll tell the story of Rose City Copwatch’s debut action — a poster campaign to expose killer cops.

It looks like there are going to be a lot of great presentations at the conference. Check out the full schedule.