Pandemic Poverty: Out-of-pocket medical costs have pushed half a billion people into financial distress
More than half a billion people globally were pushed into extreme poverty last year as they paid for health costs out of their own pockets during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The pandemic disrupted...
Report calls for creation of a new Civil Rights law in Wisconsin to expand the review of police shootings
A new policy analysis report from the Badger Institute asserts that changes in civil rights law in Wisconsin would lead to better ways of reviewing officer-involved-shootings. The report, Rethinking the Evaluation of Police Shootings: A Proposal to Enhance Public...
Transparency and Reform: Research shows how body cameras have increased police accountability
By Suat Cubukcu, Professorial Lecturer, American University; Erdal Tekin, Professor Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University; Nusret Sahin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Stockton University; and Volkan Topalli,...
The Gaslighting of America: Why justice for the Day of Sedition remains elusive
A newly released surveillance video of the Capitol tunnel in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, shows a sea of angry rioters pushing against dozens of helmeted police officers jammed inside the tunnel. The footage, which several media outlets, including CNN, sued to...
A wake-up call unheeded: America’s Reichstag fire continues to smolder from a far-right threat
“Some Republicans say there were questions about the election in 2020. But that’s like saying somebody yells ‘fire’ in a theater when there is no fire. And then they look at all the people running out and say, you know, there’s a...
Sore losers are subverting Democracy: Outrage over the Big Lie has helped fuel domestic terrorism plots
By James Piazza, Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science, Penn State An attendee at an October 2021 political rally hosted by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk asked: “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The attendee was...
Seeing the Facts: President Joe Biden asks Americans to believe the truth of January 6 with their own eyes
By John M. Murphy, Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign President Joe Biden closed his speech commemorating and deploring the events of January 6, 2021, by asking God to “bless those who stand watch over democracy.” To “stand watch”...
Web of lies: How the treachery of a disgraced former president holds a dagger at the throat of Democracy
“Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so held a dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy.” – President Joe Biden President Joe Biden warned on January 6 of the dangers of...
America’s most shameful day: How we failed to be good stewards of the freedoms that so many sacrificed for
There is a more accurate term than insurrectionists to describe the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on 6 January, forever smearing the seat of the American republic with fear and fascism. Although their activities inspired terror and were planned in part...
Jail time for January 6: Capitol rioters given severe sentences for involvement in Trump’s failed coup
Judges across the United States have been handing down stiff sentences and hard words in recent weeks for extremist supporters of Donald Trump who took part in the 6 January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Since a federal judge sentenced Jacob Chansley, the U.S....
Minority Rule: Trump Republicans do not need to form their own country since they can dominate this one
One year after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington DC, the hard right, anti-democracy faction of the Republican base that led the attack threatens to overtake the party for the long term. This hard-right faction, loyal to former President...
A failure of imagination: When the idea of an armed rebellion goes from conspiracy theory to reality
By Amanda J. Crawford, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Connecticut Americans had to confront a new reality when an angry mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021: Some of their fellow citizens were in the grips of a false reality and had...
