How broken policing is breaking our democracy

<p>Days before a jury convicted Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, a group of boys on bicycles were stopped by police officers in the town of Perth Amboy, New Jersey.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_XXK2qzz8Y&t=962s">Footage uploaded by one of the boys</a> shows the predominantly Black and Latino group riding close to cars and popping wheelies, but nothing seems illegal. Multiple squad cars appear; the kids, who say they’re far from home and afraid of losing their bikes, try to get away before being pulled over.</p> <p>One officer tries to defuse the situation, promising the kids he won’t take their bikes if they stay on the right side of the road; the kids even applaud him as he walks away. But then a second officer, a sergeant, starts grabbing at one of the kid’s bikes. She yells at a Black boy for challenging her, arrests him, and seizes all of the kids’ bikes. The first officer, the one who seemed nice at first, backs his colleague.</p> <p>The legal justification for the bike seizure is <a href="https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/1384882691838025732">an obscure city ordinance</a>, enacted in 1939, requiring that cyclists obtain a license to operate a bike and display a tag on their vehicle. The absurdity of the pretext helps illustrate the grim reality behind this interaction: For millions of Americans, this is what the government looks like. In many communities, especially poor Black ones, police harassment, arrest, and incarceration are routine parts of life — shaping how they understand the nature of the American state itself.</p> <p>This has a dangerous — and not widely appreciated — effect on our democracy.</p> <p>A swath of political science research shows that contact with the criminal justice system, through a serious encounter that ends in incarceration or merely low-level harassment like a bike seizure, can make people more distrustful of the government in general. This, in turn, makes them less likely to vote and participate in civic life — believing the state can’t be made to serve people like them.</p> <p>Derek Chauvin’s conviction shows that, sometimes, police can be held accountable for their worst excesses. But these <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/21/22395598/derek-chauvin-guilty-verdict-george-floyd-police-shootings">rare victories</a> belie the structural damage done by our current policing system, a constant grinding pressure on Black communities that serves as a quiet disenfranchisement machine.</p> <p>The number of Americans with firsthand exposure to the criminal justice system is staggering.</p> <p>Between <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Americans-with-Criminal-Records-Poverty-and-Opportunity-Profile.pdf">70 and 100 million Americans</a> have some kind of criminal record — meaning they’ve been convicted of a crime, incarcerated, or have a pending criminal case. This number, high as it is, significantly understates American police exposure: <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-solve-just-2-of-all-major-crimes-143878">many arrests do not result in convictions</a>; the vast majority of traffic and street stops <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pbtss11.pdf">do not lead to arrests</a>. Obviously, these interactions are distributed unevenly: A wealthy white person is far less likely to be imprisoned or stopped on the street than a poor Black one.</p> <p>In their 2014 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KE0068C/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"subtag_max_length":99,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"ascsubtag","subtag_query_data":{"_encoding":"UTF8","btkr":"1","ascsubtag":"[]vx[p]22158536[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'><em>Arresting Citizenship</em></a>, political scientists Amy Lerman and Vesla Weaver examine the consequences of this “unprecedented” carceral state for American democracy. They argue that hostile interactions with cops and prosecutors serve as a kind of negative civic instruction — alienating millions of Americans from the institutions that, in theory, are supposed to serve them.</p> <p>“Instead of developing the tools and ethos of engaged citizens, they learn to stay quiet, make no demands, and be wary and distrustful of political authorities,” Lerman and Weaver write.</p> <p>To explore this effect in more depth, Lerman and Weaver analyzed several large datasets and conducted roughly 100 in-person interviews in six cities. What they found was startling: America has a separate socio-political reality, which they call the “custodial lifeworld,” for individuals and communities with high exposure to the criminal justice system. For these citizens, coercion is the only government they really know, and it shapes their view of the political system far more than elections or tax policy ever could.</p> <p>“Democracy don’t get you a second chance,” Renard, one of the interviewees, told Lerman and Weaver. “Once you mess up, you given your life over to the government, because they got you.”</p> <p>The skepticism about the state on display in Renard’s comments — a “deep and sometimes totalizing sense of political alienation,” as Lerman and Weaver put it — shapes the way people touched by the system act. The police have taught them, through oft-brutal lessons, that “they are not voluntary participant in democratic politics, but involuntary subject to intervention from the state.”</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186275_7061_245913" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22464504,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hB-nlQAY0tqvfPBsc2m7ZPyylxs=/0x0:3000x2000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ta-bHVsFZPKGCjOe92MbF3RywE0=/0x0:3000x2000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CL_tOYjVOldogCIrGqgmwvejd4A=/0x0:3000x2000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_JLEGbgfJxQ0gpYvPrEFm56Y6FI=/0x0:3000x2000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QAF230f1Qx40MRcQ-lZl-Nq58w4=/0x0:3000x2000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q5rlh2QLe_FA2hXFPADx1fhG5AU=/0x0:3000x2000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rbHnP7VoNDCFK-4-0sAPf4mGuNs=/0x0:3000x2000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZXIGzovNF_J4b9EhfIdaIVimETY=/0x0:3000x2000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4O5PRPHiLijHhklopXK_3Dt0MsQ=/0x0:3000x2000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="3000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NKib9Vwcn9xXSfPPCbHS7HFp2FQ=/0x0:3000x2000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aGXDS8zslv_WZfk-oRwBGiH3sC0=/0x0:3000x2000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZjoFym4UU6aJXv2q7RdBhnN504o=/0x0:3000x2000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Zjye0oZsoTwe5hc9CjmEAnvWTWw=/0x0:3000x2000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UGDonm8drMLJUG6IBKRHTKw4KyI=/0x0:3000x2000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q4j1_MAkUG_03mDvOg6Jnw1y2nk=/0x0:3000x2000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2UjCWvd4i8_QYkgnj0ilP07ACFY=/0x0:3000x2000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xNo4TOqcJL0Knaue7O9xgLUDg10=/0x0:3000x2000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dknRp4XXULC9hyNk465QGLOX_Cg=/0x0:3000x2000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kR9KeX_V1vhkWm01RfA07gj0Btg=/0x0:3000x2000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464504/1221070385.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">A police car in West Baltimore.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images</cite></span></figure> <p>The result, Lerman and Weaver write, is a withdrawal from political life altogether: “those with criminal justice contact are less likely to participate in civic groups or express their political voice in elections.” These effects vary based on level of exposure to the criminal justice system; while citizens who have been arrested but not convicted are seven percent less likely to vote, individuals who have spent over a year in prison are nearly a third less likely to vote (when eligible).</p> <p>As with all social science research, Lerman and Weaver’s book <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692670">isn’t perfect</a>. But <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Weaver-Prowse-Piston-JREP-online-version.pdf">subsequent research</a> has found some real support for their findings.</p> <p>One study of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3000561">New York’s stop and frisk program</a> found that Black and Latino voters in neighborhoods with lots of stops were less likely to turn out when eligible. A second study found that Black people convicted of misdemeanors were <a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/128563/misdemeanor_draft_spring2018_0.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y">considerably less likely to turn out after conviction</a>. A third found that <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/62/4/550/2461521">women with incarcerated partners were less likely to vote</a>, suggesting that overpolicing socializes both punished individuals and their broader communities into political alienation.</p> <p>In a 2020 <em>Science</em> paper with sociologist Gwen Prowse, Weaver pushes the argument even further — arguing that modern America is defined by a kind of “<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6508/1176.summary">racial authoritarianism”</a> primarily enforced through the criminal justice system.</p> <p>“Drawing on the largest database of narrative accounts of policing in US cities after the Baltimore uprising of 2015, we see that U.S. residents have a sophisticated understanding of the actual operation of democracy and are witnesses to its relationship to authoritarian practices,” Prowse and Weaver argue. “Stopped by police, subject to violation of privacy and displays of force, routine seizure of resources, and unable to freely assemble because of police occupation of their neighborhoods, they described being effectively outside the provisions of the main text of US democracy — the Constitution.”</p> <p>It’s important to put this research in the context of America’s other democratic failings.</p> <p>First, there’s the outdated design of the system itself. The Electoral College privileges voters in a handful of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/22/13713148/electoral-college-democracy-race-white-voters">disproportionately white swing states</a>. The structure of the Senate, where each state gets two votes regardless of population, dramatically overweights <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21011079/senate-bias-2020-data-for-progress">white rural voters relative to urban minorities</a>. Even in the more egalitarian House, rural voters are overweighted because <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/upshot/as-american-as-apple-pie-the-rural-votes-disproportionate-slice-of-power.html">they’re more geographically spread out</a>.</p> <p>Then there’s the concerted Republican campaign to rig the system in their favor. Because the systemic flaws allow the GOP to remain competitive without appealing to a majority of Americans, the party has decided to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts">double down on the system’s unfairness</a>. Policies like extreme gerrymandering, voter suppression like Georgia’s SB 202, and felon disenfranchisement all serve to enhance the power of its rural white coalition at the expense of non-whites and city dwellers.</p> <p>The criminal justice system’s demobilizing effects are different than either of these two features of our political system. They aren’t the result of an ancient constitution or contemporary partisan conflict, but the unintended consequences of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts">a bipartisan approach to crime control</a> that dominated American politics in the late 20th century.</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186275_310_245914" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22464506,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/l4f0lANW3RLIRD0dkZvT1tL3Dj8=/0x0:6000x4000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ydIYXCyDa1nZ2Hw9Fw_NyKwJxNA=/0x0:6000x4000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FE05eZiV9z5l8DIifmnMQxWEfZ4=/0x0:6000x4000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dR-cM9RnoWosUhuS0W0qyMxr6Ec=/0x0:6000x4000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Is3BUxJBWnjrG9k4qO3DfPvguok=/0x0:6000x4000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HFQxEQwVo7UlMGBjd4Fy_m-zZf4=/0x0:6000x4000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hxHSHnJWRODhv5_MWAH_xa1bphg=/0x0:6000x4000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hjUwEkTDGNQKdlh9wLZYo3ABCZk=/0x0:6000x4000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3l7kqjwREt24zP0LOiJNz8Ep7zY=/0x0:6000x4000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Community Protests In Elizabeth City, North Carolina Over Police Killing of Andrew Brown Jr." data-upload-width="6000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TuRzjRbDFUkyfYG6z6EcKDF9b2U=/0x0:6000x4000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/00ht1SOCCsCPPdBGVI-CyQMoBsg=/0x0:6000x4000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/O1Uk3UlfyMu8fiCLDBusmGtdusA=/0x0:6000x4000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EsWiX0WfUblj3Tcu9h4p4_ATZcU=/0x0:6000x4000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BQhTu1bXf8pSGPrIYiV_nu_m3dM=/0x0:6000x4000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cOx2YXgKy1Feq4CWzRAq3XYLPGI=/0x0:6000x4000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/drk0mtHH7Fj25Ly8fDaHE3d_WHo=/0x0:6000x4000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/efWvaDapy7L43m24Wc0fTVowS1E=/0x0:6000x4000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nhfPsfllBUD-FWUQ65_0ZtnOEe8=/0x0:6000x4000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/911YVfabbn-TTaQqDiBLUSPaKEw=/0x0:6000x4000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6000x4000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22464506/1232469848.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">A demonstrator shouts at a police officer during a protest march on April 22, 2021, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Sean Rayford/Getty Images</cite></span></figure> <p>But because heavily policed neighborhoods tend to be disproportionately Black and urban, criminal justice plays into the same basic problem: in ways big and small, the US political system is unrepresentative.</p> <p>Certain kinds of people have influence over political outcomes wildly disproportionate to their numbers, in a way that just so happens to correlate with the racial hierarchy that’s defined this country since its outset. And this group’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/30/17505406/trump-obama-race-politics-immigration">fears about losing its power</a> seem to be fueling a broad anti-democratic backlash, one that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/4/1/22356594/conservatives-right-wing-democracy-claremont-ellmers">threatens the stability of the system itself</a>.</p> <p>But even if the American system weren’t in a crisis so huge, we should care about the criminal justice system’s damage to our faith in government.</p> <p>In a democracy, we care that citizens feel like they are governing themselves: Arguably, that’s the point of the entire system. If our government is disempowering large numbers of Americans, turning them into subjects rather than citizens, we are doing something profoundly wrong — violating the core promise of a republic for the people.</p> <p>During the New Jersey bike stop, one of the officers asks the kids why they didn’t stop when the police first tried to pull them over. “Because you guys take bikes,” the boy filming responds.</p> <p>There’s a bone-deep distrust of the system embedded in that simple sentence. This child, a citizen of the wealthiest democracy in the world, is saying that he doesn’t trust agents of his government to treat him fairly. And the worst part is that he was right: The cops really did take their bike and even arrested one of his friends to boot.</p> <p>The kids did eventually get their bikes back. The one who was arrested did not face charges.</p> <p>But what lesson should these kids take from that? Certainly not that they can trust the police, or that the government cares about their well-being. What they learned is that their initial instinct — that the cops have it out for them — was right.</p> <br /> <br /> source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman</a>

vox How broken policing is breaking our democracy

Days before a jury convicted Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, a group of boys on bicycles were stopped by police officers in the tow...

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For All Mankind’s season 2 finale is the best TV episode of 2021 so far

<p><strong>Spoilers for</strong> <em><strong>For All Mankind</strong></em> <strong>season two follow after the introduction.</strong></p> <p>“The Grey,” the season two finale of AppleTV+’s alternate history series <a href="https://www.vox.com/22316108/for-all-mankind-review-apple-tv-plus"><em>For All Mankind</em></a>, is the best TV episode I’ve seen so far in 2021. It’s tremendously exciting, packed with game-changing moments, and full of character beats that hit perfectly. I haven’t seen a drama series have a season finale this good in ages.</p> <p>The entire second season, which is set in a world where the US and USSR colonized the moon in the 1970s, has built, slowly but surely, to what amounts to a Cuban missile crisis on the moon, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/4/4/8343635/outlander-starz-interview-ron-moore">showrunner Ron Moore</a> puts it. As the season nears its end, hostilities between the two countries ramp up on the moon, leading to casualties on both sides. That escalation of tensions reaches its apex in the penultimate episode, where Soviet cosmonauts overrun America’s moon base, killing several astronauts, some of them thrown out into the merciless vacuum of the moon’s surface after an explosion.</p> <p>The finale takes place in the hours after that event, as the cosmonauts attempt to take over the American moon base, the remaining astronauts hide out and try to save the day, and a handful of American and Soviet space voyagers on their way to the moon attempt to figure out what’s happening before war breaks out. Oh, and did I mention there’s an unstable nuclear reactor in the American base that needs to be fixed? And nobody knows about it but the US military who had it secretly installed? Yeah.</p> <p>“The Grey” did the thing I want a great season finale to do, which is bring all of the season’s storylines to a head, knit them together in surprising ways, then leave lots of intriguing threads dangling to pick up in the next season. The finale’s tease of season three (which is already in production) is deliciously enticing.</p> <p>So for those of you who have seen the finale — or don’t mind spoilers — here are my five favorite things about it, with thoughts from Moore throughout.</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619184606_6594_230656" data-cdata='{"asset_id":8635113,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gw6X7UXOquaCyM-6YswCKbj2qzM=/0x0:1800x197/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2AXbr-s24K5ROgg322cQsYpxBvs=/0x0:1800x197/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SDjHMZsRQNiemDoBJp90os_Qrl0=/0x0:1800x197/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vYb8mRqR6Vl6rE2BDzGEyghJr8Q=/0x0:1800x197/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5V4QZuAQwmyCg-Zz68ehFHi8yWI=/0x0:1800x197/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FJGD-N7tf_byTCcV41Ce8OzRihY=/0x0:1800x197/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZqExFE_9dEPFrSOnvN8vL7eHC3I=/0x0:1800x197/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LafExKAWAp3X4YHKiidn3l1RkX0=/0x0:1800x197/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ORx30dqqOcW7DIlfvmJ1RPxf92Q=/0x0:1800x197/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="WandaVision Spoilers!" data-upload-width="1800" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j4sPeeKHAj7sYw4jLHD_jOnVf-c=/0x0:1800x197/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ea3CsbDCEHjLXqCYmrCyWJ__bRA=/0x0:1800x197/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/x9nG5bJ40Su0d02HTRHovisLycw=/0x0:1800x197/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dMMGTOg1jGKdBxLQLTjCtj-mf_k=/0x0:1800x197/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MTjjEGhKUKKI5daxHTpDP_aiyN0=/0x0:1800x197/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y6gr6FMSnqzX-mhg0_PRD8ZkYOA=/0x0:1800x197/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OBvpqGF3nD7CsIAAvfYUWo5vwzo=/0x0:1800x197/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WrSnNTNe0GdfBbJJft0N9W_J10s=/0x0:1800x197/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1GxYaH4-ZY9bXiekfBWyT8TsDco=/0x0:1800x197/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KkcCYtad4q-hY-7c4QIo9U_bC4s=/0x0:1800x197/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1800x197):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png 1920w" /></picture></span></span></figure> <p>The second season of <em>For All Mankind</em> had a massive number of stories to juggle. That’s in keeping with how sprawling the show’s cast has become. There are 11 series regulars who all have storylines that need to wrap up, and that’s before you get to recurring characters both fictional and historical.</p> <p>Yeah, we don’t <em>need</em> to hear Ronald Reagan tell everyone just how much he liked seeing the US and USSR come together for a handshake in space — which somehow eased international tensions by reminding everyone on planet Earth of their better angels — but it wraps up his storyline nonetheless. (That this show gave a tiny storyline to a real-life president who appears onscreen almost entirely via telephone calls is part of why I love it so.) And the storylines that <em>do</em> matter, both global (the battle for the moon) and personal (Ed Baldwin’s ongoing pain and frustration), get wrap-ups that dovetail beautifully.</p> <p>What’s even more impressive isn’t just that every storyline wraps up but that every storyline wraps up in a way that ties its resolution into the larger struggle for dominance of the moon. Ed’s journey this season has largely been defined by powerlessness, for instance. His sorrow over the death of his son, Shane (in season one); his inability to stop his daughter, Kelly, from going to the Naval Academy; his wife’s infidelity — all combine to give us a <em>very</em> good idea of just why Ed might listen to the devil on his shoulder and blow the Soviet spacecraft out of the sky at the episode’s climax. But he doesn’t. He chooses to listen to Sally Ride(!), who tells him he doesn’t have to do the violent thing. An uneasy peace lasts another day.</p> <p>Knitting together personal and global stakes like this is incredibly difficult, but, again, “The Grey” manages this feat for nearly 20 separate characters in ways both big and small. According to Moore, that was possible because the writers decided early on that the season would culminate with a “Cuban missile crisis in space” scenario, then gave themselves enough freedom to determine precisely what that would mean. (For a while, they thought the final showdown would be in Earth’s orbit, not on the moon.) Thus, they could also subtly tilt every single storyline toward knowing that World War III would nearly break out — then be averted — in space.</p> <p>“It was a lot of just sitting in the writers room and rebreaking the story and moving the cards around on the board to figure out what the rhythm of it was,” Moore said. “But we did know from the beginning of the season that our people in the space program were going to be caught up in the missile crisis and ultimately provide the solution to it.”</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619184606_4310_230657" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463362,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rCU7_sviLb_C-qRaUUEvsnV1esE=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sE65utzIJGNaFagwTycuokfoOi4=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ifkeuy8GQcT5tFSG25_cn7wFgLw=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R1m9XaZOPgLpfvGHAS36yFP9GMQ=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c9B7yDaRr7VEiU5qgHF9imFwWLU=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GihfGAG4YH1_pi46TMByK-cK4Js=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xK4eeS5qxIcwM9WOC5WjnT8v_Rg=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BQ7AyKD2J1XnqkHI7Io_sPcFatM=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eow3bKRhDivXIjFy2GRBzysTTDo=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) sees a Soviet spacecraft." data-upload-width="3840" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TlD70avdD_NZzuNRioVp9sy70RM=/0x0:3840x1918/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Yn0RZEZNGzBqj_wYV_i2gEVXsSg=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mTZ79tpYERFLwhlCfSiJYXjzDeM=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Fcf59USqghuXAXrHXXPLWvBRdgU=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iT_i6ClJ4eahRCdd68EtN4kgOz8=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QcqkX0x4B_rwycft5UvqdaAROa0=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JgOkDqhqm5whjkNcEBs8T5SG0jE=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/W0K_JL_l9gdoE-qRiEuxqwNtvkU=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gltE9O62WuTdCrqSOGcq5d0xfGI=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wy2Lc0MjJIwglJ8n88CQF8unXBo=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463362/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021004.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Ed Baldwin has to choose between the devil on his shoulder or the angel on the one.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>AppleTV+</cite></span></figure> <p>I’m absolutely fascinated by how <em>For All Mankind</em> plays with alternate history. It’s clear that the show is setting up a world where things are just better because the Space Race never ended. But it never sets up a world free of conflict either. <em>For All Mankind</em> is utopian but not set in an actual utopia. It’s about the kind of ideals that might lead us to a utopia, even if we won’t get there in our lifetime.</p> <p>The season finale ramps this up to almost absurd degrees. After all, the threat of space war is averted not by last-second diplomacy between leaders but by an American woman and a Soviet man deciding, against orders, to go ahead with a planned docking of their spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. They shake hands. Everybody realizes just how far things have gone, and cooler heads prevail.</p> <p>When I break down the plot like that, it sounds ridiculous, right? Global geopolitical tensions are eased by a <em>handshake</em>? But <em>For All Mankind</em> understands the power of a symbolic gesture, and it offers a fundamentally hopeful view of humanity without ever becoming naive about our many failings. It has carefully built its storyline in a way that makes you say, “Oh, of course!” when a handshake saves the day.</p> <p>Moore’s previous work on space-set shows has always complicated the utopia/dystopia divide. He spent the first several years of his career working in the fundamentally utopian <em>Star Trek</em> franchise — but his most notable contributions to the franchise were on <em>Deep Space Nine</em>, a series about how hard it is to keep utopia once you have it. His later series <em>Battlestar Galactica</em> was famed for its grim plot twists and serious tone, but Moore would rather you not call that series a dystopia.</p> <p>“I thought of <em>Battlestar</em> as hopeful in that it was people who were in an incredibly nightmarish, apocalyptic scenario but were always struggling toward the light. They tried to make tomorrow a better day. They held on to their democracy and cared about civil rights and tried to make a better world in the face of almost insurmountable odds,” Moore said. “<em>For All Mankind</em> is saying it can all be okay. If we try hard enough, if we work hard enough, if we have the courage of our convictions, we can achieve great things.”</p> <p>Does living in a world that’s ... not a utopia (to be charitable) make it harder to work on a show with utopian ideals? Not really, says Moore.</p> <p>“The world that we’re in makes me want to write a show like this more. It drives me to encourage people, to inspire people, to touch people. To make them think and hope and to give them the impetus to do bigger and greater things. The world is such a mess, and we’ve screwed it up so badly. It makes me want to do a piece that makes people want to make change,” he said.</p> <p>(Because I just wanted to know, I asked Moore why, if everything in <em>For All Mankind</em> world is different, the pop music is the same. He said the production briefly considered having artists record new songs in the style of their old ones as a nod to the differences in reality, before realizing just how much work that would be. Plus, having a few tethers to our reality helps keep viewers oriented in what happened on this version of Earth. The familiar pop hits stayed.)</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619184606_6984_230658" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463366,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lX6Ut_9qv3K8OHQWMpGzAxYZJtk=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gRNuoMHtDvZMwiisEKf3q90g4Fg=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PBD3zxeIWCQovDU4YyUTBMMftaA=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DKHAQuF4r8PJHKqJD0WWYe_Brro=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2ZlYriztNqTsJ845vNamxpbz4Us=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A0AQY0CM1Htw9zuT7_xzQB3ntBs=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CL_eGwrGWsR6htaZW5ceFlLxnkU=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GDTnl-9s42Xg9fqKk8zHNb99TAY=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/E8rXzTGdQKu6M1xeLTDWcntmhOU=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Tracy (Sarah Jones) realizes that she has to do something incredibly dangerous to save lives." data-upload-width="3840" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zJ1RBa0sqb9TvuCcUO111PeihuY=/0x0:3840x1918/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YfLwn-dsD7ref5cV1f-4XePtM_U=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QIh46-apV4UkXJPZqQYWEyI4RC4=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5DsCJTQ62KDwe06gM7-U5R_GuvY=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KyDc9x1r_4NmlNK7bgnkYn8Er74=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ndse7cSG1QX9LSEv2crt3hxPvFU=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/itAMSyCi3mLP2-gvLrQzrZxRIO8=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ylb0ZDFZxkeA8zYkDjTpDw2TceQ=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5OFkKJBLWsScTaYoxHo2XtgVD4I=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gBVyih7Wohos_tcH3QY9AMVYF_o=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463366/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021001.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Not Tracy! She was my favorite character!</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>AppleTV+</cite></span></figure> <p>Alas, Gordo and Tracy Stevens — whose rekindled attraction to each other drove much of the last few episodes of the season, once they were both on the moon — sacrifice themselves not just for their fellow astronauts (whom they save by averting a nuclear meltdown) but for each other.</p> <p>The two run out onto the surface of the moon, wrapped in duct tape to protect themselves as much as possible (which is not much), stop disaster in its tracks, then try in vain to get back to the base. But when Gordo stumbles, Tracy stops to help him, and their bodies simply can’t take that long in a vacuum (where a body can survive <em>maybe</em> 15 seconds). They get back inside the base, but they both die.</p> <p>Moore’s explanation of why this happened is so much better than anything I could say, so I’m turning it over to him:</p> <blockquote> <p>I’ve always been fascinated with the idea that you can survive in a vacuum longer than what science fiction usually says. It usually says your head explodes, and that’s not true. So I thought it would be cool to show somebody survive in a vacuum. So we knew one of them would have to run across the lunar surface and back. Then it was about which one of them it would be.</p> <p>But once just he or she does it, it’s not that exciting. It’s predictable. Then somebody said, “Unless he dies.” And oh, shit. Do we want to kill Gordo? I don’t want to do that. Well, what if it was Tracy? I don’t want to kill Tracy. Everyone kind of shied away from it. But the next day, somebody said, “I still keep thinking about killing either Gordo or Tracy.” We had the same arguments. “You can’t do that. They’re the best characters. People would lose their minds.”</p> <p>Then someone said, “What if you kill both of them?” That’s even crazier! What are we talking about? They’re two of the best characters on the show, my god. But it just kept coming back. It was that story that wouldn’t let go of you. And at one point, I said, “Tell me what’s a better ending to the Gordo-Tracy story? Say we don’t do this, and say we bring them back in season three and four and beyond — what’s the best ending to that story that’s better than this?” It took a few weeks before we reconciled ourselves to it. It was undeniable as the best ending for them. As much as we love the characters and the actors, we couldn’t say no to it when it was that good.</p> </blockquote> <p><em>For All Mankind</em> has called its shot from its earliest moments. Its very first episode features a montage of characters watching the Soviets land on the moon, beating the US there by a few weeks. (This is where the series’ history splits off from ours.) Included in that montage is a family of undocumented Mexican immigrants crossing the American border, who include among them a little girl named Aleida. Why does the montage feature this seemingly random child? The show plays coy, but season two begins to unspool Aleida’s destiny.</p> <p>Aleida is really, really smart and has all the makings of being a fantastic NASA engineer. In season two, she gets a job working at the space center as an entry-level problem solver, and the show is very smart about finding ways to let her be smart without making her a genius whiz kid. She’s still a woman in her early 20s, rough around the edges and terrified of being abandoned. (Her father was deported at the end of season one, and she spent most of her adolescence surviving all on her own.) But she gets to make small suggestions that help solve big problems, and that makes her a character whose future you’re invested in.</p> <p><em>For All Mankind</em> has a roughly seven-season plan, with each season jumping forward to a new decade. That would take the show, ultimately, to the 2030s. Therefore, most of its cast won’t be able to continue for the entire run of the show, as they will simply become too young to play their parts. Already, the core characters from season one — who were in their 30s in the 1960s and ’70s — will be in their 50s or even 60s when season three jumps forward to the 1990s. The actors will still largely be able to play those parts with the help of makeup, but that won’t be true forever.</p> <p>Therefore, it’s vital that the series develop new characters who will take over for the original ensemble, then prepare characters who will take over for <em>those</em> characters in the series’ final years. And Aleida is almost perfectly positioned to be present in every season of the show. If it runs seven years, it would trace her life from childhood to old age, giving the show one single touchstone present in every season.</p> <p>Plans, of course, can change. Gordo and Tracy were originally meant to continue with the show for at least one more season, and the big event that closes the finale (more on that in a second) wasn’t always scheduled to happen in season three. But “The Grey” underlines that this show is about something bigger than any one character. It’s about the idea of something better, waiting out there in the solar system.</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619184606_2837_230659" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463370,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/b2O5N0976xFw1W7CsbEwqSsCROw=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wzz6BIU8FNhdzjnnF0lPs1JaETw=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/joZcgTDHi86T8_fTpZhlD08K9mI=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XS1Ytv4gv2f8EGJ1LQAVBE5DKkM=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FMmoAAZ_37qFz2KcbN4VcVHf5Vw=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YqRJgOMJ-_ONVI0WKIxcDMTMhWA=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3PcdM3S04D4_sFn_ZgTwaWEe30E=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oSdbWMePYrUAQmF9TyjGhamf2b4=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/X_sTHc4lipjZlJyr-BjUakyv06Q=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Margo and Ellen watch the mission from the control center." data-upload-width="3840" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gv7CjHzvBz3AF2nvYCu3prKPAqU=/0x0:3840x1918/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KSeQQ48YEemDIuI_SHBzOSH9Y-E=/0x0:3840x1918/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lVWOBzgunLNOjqqRkzVDv-z7S1A=/0x0:3840x1918/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WEST8dkUHOVHB1fs495Iqz59S5I=/0x0:3840x1918/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5TLxKDlyILY-kenA9_d_T0RdunU=/0x0:3840x1918/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RqvJbU7d_uyxlGOyaNc0qjlsLr4=/0x0:3840x1918/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0VRHMDb1HQB6rU-mZMLJ9fqlmT0=/0x0:3840x1918/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BopVfI0CHoYv1JrNjzERbD4fMxo=/0x0:3840x1918/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R_WfqS2sbRGKrRa0HHIfhO0ZdfY=/0x0:3840x1918/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XYpfkePu7JjPofC_c6Jp7Ont8jI=/0x0:3840x1918/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x1918):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463370/For_All_Mankind_Photo_021006.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Who’s going to Mars? We don’t know, but we can be pretty sure Margo and Ellen will be there to talk them through it (if they’re American, at least).</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>AppleTV+</cite></span></figure> <p>The finale ends with the familiar chords of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o">Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,”</a> signaling that season three will take us to the 1990s (1994, to be precise). And, yes, there are a bunch of character notes that will surely spool out next season, from Ellen’s continued rise through the ranks of a Republican-controlled government, even as she’s having to hide that she’s a lesbian, to Margo unwittingly becoming someone the Soviets think they can recruit as a spy.</p> <p>But that’s not what I remember about that closing montage in the slightest. No, I remember the camera swooping up into the sky, past the moon, and on to Mars, where a boot lands in the red soil. Originally, Moore says, there was talk of having Mars be the goal of season four, but getting humanity there in season three ended up being way more exciting.</p> <p>So somebody is going to Mars in season three, and even though we don’t know who it is (or what country they’re from), it’s a delicious tease for what’s to come.</p> <p><em>The first two seasons of</em> For All Mankind <em>are available on AppleTV+. The third season is in production.</em></p> <br /> <br /> source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2021/4/23/22396461/for-all-mankind-season-2-finale-recap-the-grey-review-ron-moore">https://www.vox.com/culture/2021/4/23/22396461/for-all-mankind-season-2-finale-recap-the-grey-review-ron-moore</a>

vox For All Mankind’s season 2 finale is the best TV episode of 2021 so far

Spoilers for For All Mankind season two follow after the introduction. “The Grey,” the season two finale of AppleTV+’s alternate history ...

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What justice could look like

<p>Broadly, the reaction to the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s murder was one of relief.</p> <p>“There’s a saying among Black folks,” Veela Ammons, a business consultant and coach based outside Chicago, told me. “It says, ‘It’s not justice, it’s just us.’ And so we thought it was going to be that kind of situation again where even though it was so plain to see, we thought, from anybody’s perspective that this man committed murder, we didn’t think that we would actually get that verdict.”</p> <p>But for many, such surprise and relief also gave way to another feeling. A desire for something more, followed by an idea that became a mantra: that this verdict wasn’t justice.</p> <p>“Accountability was served in that courtroom today, not so much justice,” Mikeale Davis , an accounting major at Georgia State University, told me.</p> <p>“True justice would be served only if George was still here with his family, loved ones, and community,” Miski Noor, co-executive director of the Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based advocacy group, said in a statement.</p> <p>Nothing will bring Floyd back to life, making the justice Noor spoke of impossible. But as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Noor, and many others noted in the wake of the trial’s verdict, ensuring police killings stop is well within the limits of human ability.</p> <p>As D.A. Bullock, a member of the Minneapolis-based civil rights organization Reclaim the Block, told me, “True justice really looks like this never happening again.”</p> <p>In its most basic form, justice can be thought of as protection from wrongdoing. The justice system should protect people from being killed, cheated, or discriminated against. But all too often, it fails to be protective and instead tries to be corrective.</p> <p>Sometimes this corrective action comes through reform — for instance, following Floyd’s murder, 46 percent of police departments instituted chokehold bans, joining the 27 percent that did so before June 2020, according to the advocacy organization <a href="https://8cantwait.org/">8 Can’t Wait</a>. Body camera use is another reform that has spread rapidly in response to police killings; 32 percent of departments <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd13et.pdf">used them in 2013</a>, and <a href="https://www.govtech.com/data/Just-How-Common-Are-Body-Cameras-in-Police-Departments.html">more than half are now believed</a> to employ them.</p> <p>But reform can’t always provide the level of protection — the level of justice — citizens desire. Critics of policing reforms like stricter use of force policies or expanded access to body cameras note that even in places where these reforms have been in place for years, they’ve had little effect on the number of police killings.</p> <p>“Minneapolis was already the poster child for police reform efforts — body cameras, implicit bias training, all of that has been in place in Minneapolis and has not changed how people experience police violence here,” Sheila Nezhad, a policy organizer with Reclaim the Block and Minneapolis mayoral candidate, told me.</p> <p>When these reforms fail to protect — as they failed to protect Floyd — the criminal justice system steps in, meeting wrongdoing with a punishment that causes the person who committed it to suffer.</p> <p>In theory, through this suffering, the person is able to reflect on their actions and come to some revelation about the harm they have caused. Or perhaps their punishment serves more as a deterrent to others, warning them not to behave in the same way.</p> <p>But the problem, Fordham Law professor and criminologist <a href="https://www.vox.com/e/22159109">John Pfaff told my colleague Jerusalem Demsas</a>, is that this places too much of the burden of justice on the individual.</p> <p>“There’s this sort of individualistic approach saying when someone does something wrong, we’ll punish them,” Pfaff said. “While punishing Chauvin is critical and essential accountability for the harm that he did, it doesn’t address the bigger systemic failings that got us here.”</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186723_1548_124324" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463648,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PHI3rWbB-UCLrxrQVqUlcCQBMHs=/0x0:2268x1282/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0Ff_xYgdsqfnAAHm-N8M1t3Xr94=/0x0:2268x1282/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_obH_2UsBDF3RwC2br2PcTwkyIM=/0x0:2268x1282/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mrsNripsSU3nR-U5an9m9vnlT0M=/0x0:2268x1282/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BBoO9p8M1f7B_BLRtRZ5qeRkXLo=/0x0:2268x1282/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/smS4aM0gZ1ta15SXlsr5wHe8Ih8=/0x0:2268x1282/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EVZN_-7p6yKRP_rZNZUNgThEtCw=/0x0:2268x1282/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_OOHkfuf17tKjYSvJANBjzoYusc=/0x0:2268x1282/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4Y6_1ghKJQEduk5HAIX-HxzP6Sg=/0x0:2268x1282/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Chauvin, in a grey suit, white shirt, and blue tie, puts his arms behind his back as a sheriff’s department officer in a brown uniform prepares to handcuff him. " data-upload-width="2268" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ev8KfaXVzP3j1rFbWxSiB4x2IAI=/0x0:2268x1282/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oVxujSO8ca3k7jJip5FDAL6mZNU=/0x0:2268x1282/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0eOsi3SARB4Er6uS6Jj5mp27_YI=/0x0:2268x1282/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JcSgtAOoyedkBfimr5hncLdXaMc=/0x0:2268x1282/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZGXEakRY99_3eY5djkYKNRpdS1o=/0x0:2268x1282/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8aU-JtB0mUrN5OC8DcgaURjNcSY=/0x0:2268x1282/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V1VrYJZP1sA4TbH9bRmJIAiKrmE=/0x0:2268x1282/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FiO_bOB6e0c7pAHj_FQ5dOEoHus=/0x0:2268x1282/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d2cL6u4hEfKAzgOO20HlCM_xJxA=/0x0:2268x1282/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VUGzwIm-IyVmTLTU0deqEzKVEDs=/0x0:2268x1282/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2268x1282):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463648/AP_21110768276356.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Derek Chauvin is taken into custody following his conviction.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Court TV/AP</cite></span></figure> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186723_2255_124325" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463650,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bk1h5wd3Ium-GX5xecXM2HKg-Mg=/0x0:3900x2600/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CVn65h8QSQfL40JE8f1GTWoKKmM=/0x0:3900x2600/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dj0ou5fIhINyoss5JOwGaNUiWds=/0x0:3900x2600/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yrnxFCwX1H2j2AlPEaUcVWlxHrw=/0x0:3900x2600/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/17G4q8EgHJeABovXWu22wwICfTU=/0x0:3900x2600/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JLJ4h5wqgZi2kb3d_c4P42Cc1Dc=/0x0:3900x2600/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zrO62pdjMvbh2LHbK5ZVZbo1hac=/0x0:3900x2600/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LRC8ntAI21d55TAgD2dSIZzwu24=/0x0:3900x2600/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_HwbE8jhH19zmsr1HeJeqStEbm4=/0x0:3900x2600/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A Black man in a white fur coat raises both his arms in the air, while shouting, seemingly in joy." data-upload-width="3900" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OBuNLJ69N6dnKEklSasm1aJbHdI=/0x0:3900x2600/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G37G7xwpt07KZTeEGb3WtQBWZPQ=/0x0:3900x2600/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yvaJHdLwh2mP5Y291uuyiPzo6r4=/0x0:3900x2600/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pqdT4eLSgxXc2_dge7TPy3Ji-J0=/0x0:3900x2600/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yK0GnKnCbR71c-8jH1M6OhsCagY=/0x0:3900x2600/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V6nwBgBM-s4nrbiQMB_Ev3zMuE4=/0x0:3900x2600/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z0UqVqxt9mJerPpjnwHgqFn0zcE=/0x0:3900x2600/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y0M1Nw0Lmq4PGHSizrIOQSrMVKc=/0x0:3900x2600/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Yr82v_UTFQL_pAEEuTWEkJ3eKb4=/0x0:3900x2600/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XwuXwWn2GUuDL0wvOg-V--jLzF4=/0x0:3900x2600/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3900x2600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463650/GettyImages_1232424588.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Floyd supporters celebrate outside of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following Chauvin’s conviction.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images</cite></span></figure> <p>Overall, Pfaff told Demsas, he is worried “that we’re going to look at this trial and say that our current system works, or we say this one bad apple does this really bad thing [and] the courts can come in and fix it. But the expression is ‘One bad apple ruins the bunch.’”</p> <p>Chauvin being incarcerated does not mean other officers currently facing charges, like those who killed <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/13/21290334/atlanta-police-shooting-wendys-video">Rayshard Brooks</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/12/22379984/daunte-wright-minnesota-police-killing-traffic-stop-brooklyn-center">Daunte Wright</a>, will be convicted, nor does it magically remove the threat of further police violence and misconduct.</p> <p>It’s this reality that has led even some of those who have held up the trial as proof the system can be trusted — like the president — to say some reforms must be made. And for others to call for an extensive overhaul of policing. Or for others still to argue for taking police out of the picture altogether.</p> <p>For all these people, it is this specter of violence and pain to come that makes it difficult for the Chauvin verdict to feel like complete justice. For them, true justice will involve making serious changes — to policing, and perhaps to the criminal justice system more broadly.</p> <p>Shannon Perez-Darby, a writer and anti-violence consultant, told me part of the problem is that the justice system disincentivizes acknowledging “harm that you’ve done, especially if that harm is a crime.”</p> <p>Admitting to a crime could mean jail and bail and court fees and prison; denial represents at least a chance of freedom. But only through admission can there be true accountability — what Perez-Darby defines as “being responsible for your choices and the consequences of those choices.”</p> <p>That level of accountability facilitates <a href="https://transformharm.org/transformative-justice-a-brief-description/">transformative justice</a>, a system with roots in many communities of color and LGBTQ communities that works outside the bounds of the criminal justice system, taking a non-punitive, inclusive, and preventive approach to correcting a wrong.</p> <p>There are a variety of ways in which transformative justice is practiced, but it generally works by creating a space of support, healing, and renewal for the harmed, as well as a structure for accountability, understanding, and growth for the person who inflicted the harm. It also addresses systemic or community issues that facilitated the harm (for instance, implicit bias or toxic masculinity); creates a framework to promote healing while preventing that harm from occurring again; and avoids the meting out of punishments, isolation, loss of legal rights, or any kind of traditional vengeance.</p> <p>With respect to a police killing, broadly, transformative justice practitioners might work with the family and friends of the person killed to help them navigate their thoughts and feelings while helping them access tools and resources for healing, and working with the officer or officers who killed to take responsibility for that killing and to interrogate and dismantle the thinking and acculturation that led up to it. The process might also include the department as a whole — working with officials and individual officers not directly involved in the shooting to institute changes that might stop future killings.</p> <p>Overall, Perez-Darby said, transformative justice “is about supporting everyone to have the skills they need and creating the conditions to support loving equitable relationships and communities.”</p> <p>The widespread adoption of such a system would, hypothetically, create conditions in which prisons become unnecessary and police violence is eliminated because police officers become redundant.</p> <p>Transformative justice is not a quick or easy fix to the problem of policing. It requires a local shift in thinking and priorities, one that would be difficult to impose via federal legislation. But Perez-Darby said it would facilitate a more just reality: “We know that justice is when everyone has their needs met and when the people who are most impacted are heard and put at the center.”</p> <p>This approach — which seeks to include everyone in justice — is the opposite of the individual focus of the current criminal justice system that Pfaff highlighted as problematic. It attempts to do what he said the current system has struggled with: “address the bigger systemic failings that got us here.”</p> <p>A similar focus on creating change is also an important part of healing justice, which holistic health and community healing practitioner Rebeka Ndosi describes as the “inclusion of healing in social justice work” in a diffusive manner that “holds the space of there being a world beyond the struggle” — of a just world.</p> <p>“Our own individual hurt and healing affects, and is not separate from, the collective hurt and healing that exists,” Ndosi said. “Working with individuals on healing their own wounds and pain of trauma will spread to their circles, and their spaces and communities, because they show up differently when they’re actually able to focus on themselves and find the wisdom from the wounds.”</p> <p>The adoption of healing justice — much less transformative justice — would require a completely different way of viewing crime and justice. Ndosi said it would mean that “when there’s harm that is done, instead of it being something that means you are punished, it is something that says, let’s draw you in closer and see why this happened and how the balance got thrown off.” For many, if not for most, this sort of change would be very uncomfortable.</p> <p>“I doubt there’s anybody who wants to draw Derek Chauvin in closer right now,” Ndosi said. “A lot of this can sound very, ‘Woooo, it’s out there,’ but if we don’t hold a space of a different way of being together, then we’ll just continue the patterns. ... We have to hold what it is that we’re working toward up in front of us every single day. Otherwise, we don’t know where we’re going.”</p> <p>That these ideas seem revolutionary is the point. The problems with policing (and the criminal justice system more broadly) are deep and old, going back more than a century. They are intertwined with the worst parts of American history. Modern police departments have roots in <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fmagazine%2F2020%2F07%2F20%2Fthe-invention-of-the-police&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22395454%2Fderek-chauvin-verdict-guilty-justice-prison-transformative-healing-defund-abolish-police" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_query_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/22395454/derek-chauvin-verdict-guilty-justice-prison-transformative-healing-defund-abolish-police","xcust":"___vx__p_22159495__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>slave patrols</a>; the nationwide campaign of <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/">lynchings and general racial terror</a> that followed slavery went largely unchecked — and was sometimes participated in — by police officers. Later, many departments had intimate ties to <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-4">20th-century corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law">white supremacy</a>. And now, due to viral videos like those of Floyd’s killing, the issues with policing are visible as never before.</p> <p>It is also by design that while these ideas could be used to address the problems with police departments, they exist in a space wholly separate from policing. They posit, as many activists have done, that the path to justice does not necessarily run through the police as it does now — and that, perhaps, police aren’t needed at all.</p> <p>“I believe abolition — abolishing prisons, abolishing policing as we know and understand it — is the only way to create conditions free from violence and harm,” Perez-Darby said.</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186723_7397_124326" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22463635,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eSzu5l3p-6teBnkN-7jH5Kvc3uM=/0x0:7707x5141/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_4IvHU3uIadybKEc6AlWbdlGQkg=/0x0:7707x5141/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c9ac-_q_M4poVj-kxZRh5ZkVpa4=/0x0:7707x5141/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-5Yqj29GqwaH9Lq1COHEEgoX5Pc=/0x0:7707x5141/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/09IWv-MScOAgm23CgT-x9BqSU6o=/0x0:7707x5141/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8MR1tm2-zIBsxJGx6W1hgdPHGUw=/0x0:7707x5141/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_bo70VUUJUaLOL-GauMf9skItmI=/0x0:7707x5141/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zjmRujL_UzjvoS-7W0Ebi4U_XuY=/0x0:7707x5141/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/y256MrEuM1YGSgcrTuWcdTX9cDU=/0x0:7707x5141/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A mass of protesters in coats gather behind a large white banner that says, “Kill the system that killed Daunte Wright.”" data-upload-width="7707" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KPE8cIXjJh6KkFW2YgWorbX2rOw=/0x0:7707x5141/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SiHMrTBxojxxVCGrLjZCIu8EdQk=/0x0:7707x5141/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FHQe2m3tqmVJearVFmwilEDQxws=/0x0:7707x5141/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KHlcR1fSDpTx6T9nfKgpz0hxlkc=/0x0:7707x5141/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/znQKNlcqVz2wwSxMxnFKiaqWZlI=/0x0:7707x5141/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hrkvQOpCjRZPFpHHylquo3OUM7U=/0x0:7707x5141/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lNh1NzKNt8KGZwW0-DKNQmxNk6g=/0x0:7707x5141/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Vjw-qxWAuQ1CrnRmvDfIo-cYQxo=/0x0:7707x5141/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Uj6PQ9U21s2eDdqxpRmCYmzd7HQ=/0x0:7707x5141/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZyKkb8J1OoodhTAdSnE5IcKWlrM=/0x0:7707x5141/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:7707x5141):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22463635/GettyImages_1232367762.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Protesters call for an end to policing in Denver, Colorado, following the police killing of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, shortly before the Chauvin trial ended.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images</cite></span></figure> <p>Abolition is exactly what it sounds like.</p> <p>It would bring about that policeless state, creating a system in which police are replaced by professionals with the expertise needed to handle departments’ current duties: That could mean mental health and medical professionals for crises, or trained negotiators for noise complaints, or detectives to retrieve stolen property and to solve murders. And maybe healing and transformative justice practitioners to assist in all sorts of cases.</p> <p>Without police on patrol, there would still be someone to call for help — just not someone armed and allowed to kill, assault, and harm people with near impunity.</p> <p>“We have to move toward abolition,” Jorden Giger, the co-leader of Black Lives Matter in South Bend, Indiana, told me. “That’s our duty as a people.”</p> <p>As activist <a href="https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1382907539210301448?s=20">Bree Newsome</a> recently wrote, the United States is no stranger to adopting the unfamiliar when the moment calls for doing so and has divorced itself from long-held practices before: “If we can end things like monarchal rule and the slave trade, we can end policing.”</p> <p>Neither the monarchy nor slavery was thrown off easily. Ending policing — either as we know it now or altogether — won’t be easy, either. But there can be no true justice with it as it is now.</p> <br /> <br /> source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22395454/derek-chauvin-verdict-guilty-justice-prison-transformative-healing-defund-abolish-police">https://www.vox.com/22395454/derek-chauvin-verdict-guilty-justice-prison-transformative-healing-defund-abolish-police</a>

vox What justice could look like

Broadly, the reaction to the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s murder was one of relief. “Th...

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Moderna mafia? Pfizer pham? Vaccine factions are forming online.

<p>In Nathalia Vega’s <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2Fshop%2FArchitectsSister&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22392023%2Fteam-moderna-pfizer-vaccine-rivalries-johnson" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_query_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArchitectsSister","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22392023/team-moderna-pfizer-vaccine-rivalries-johnson","xcust":"___vx__p_22156064__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Etsy shop</a>, she sells three T-shirts designed to look like makeshift, rec-league softball jerseys: One is red and emblazoned with the words, “Team Moderna.” Another is baby blue and reads, “Team Pfizer.” And a third is maroon, printed with “Team Johnson & Johnson.” Each sells for $17.45, and features a gigantic number “21” below the inscription, signaling the hopeful future of our new, freshly immunized year.</p> <p>“I got the vaccine, and the first thing I get asked by people who have it is, ‘Which one?’” says Vega, in an email to Vox. “The response is either ‘Me too!’ or, ‘I got a different one.’” She, like many other vendors on Etsy, has been printing these shirts for barely a week when we speak, and already has made over 30 sales without much of an advertising effort. “It’s definitely something people are searching for. I get daily orders at this point.”</p> <figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1619186442_2654_39424" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22454836,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y0tpRIgpbMj8ernk598LqCGxJVY=/0x0:794x447/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-j6nqRcjiUI9B6N710b1Fba1-MM=/0x0:794x447/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fF4pD1JT98cmgLrj5p72F1nFNuA=/0x0:794x447/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lmP2S8HuPxKB85xlyGoKqVt6g9g=/0x0:794x447/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZooHzGAZvQa3KQun4WERjaPb1yY=/0x0:794x447/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cT0JvtU006Gclm0OhuUcG7qs8uA=/0x0:794x447/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/z_V2stXddK7Hs-MmI_pDhlYAPMU=/0x0:794x447/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gp6u8VJpE4MYmSsQ4Oz80wo6RnY=/0x0:794x447/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kAqGMPkGYApP_OLhyA1tl_EFfYw=/0x0:794x447/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="794" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jtJWwZyQnk4nxJTKqxml0M8hplI=/0x0:794x447/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/icC0Jw-mOoB18QLTXUd0LezIwiE=/0x0:794x447/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MDC5pLfRlAYZZqjKk2HavvAtMYw=/0x0:794x447/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ugvzgF30BPuZZbGhNgBSKbGh0n4=/0x0:794x447/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wJz1iU2_OKSszibcfTk6TWmJ0BQ=/0x0:794x447/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r08NMisytyT2SiB9sjun-FyA8pA=/0x0:794x447/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9RvftDlmPO8HL5o99xiSyqaO-2g=/0x0:794x447/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zJh6-2Cyb4ivG3iD226_xG1NuOI=/0x0:794x447/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7vs4AAk3jO1e21fxT1an1Uzph7E=/0x0:794x447/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LDZEBHm5-wR-H2-CIXSBQui18dA=/0x0:794x447/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:794x447):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22454836/il_794xN.3021341629_sesq.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span> <figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">A Team Moderna tee on Vega’s Etsy page.</span></figcaption> <span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Architect’s Sister/Etsy</cite></span></figure> <p>The vaccines did not arrive with a partisan branding campaign. Pfizer and Moderna aren’t buying up billboards and TV commercials to overpower the airwaves and besmirch the rival inoculations. The shot is free to all Americans, and experts have repeatedly explained that the vaccines are all very effective at preventing severe illness. (Though the CDC and FDC have <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22381844/johnson-vaccine-pause-covid-19-clot-cerebral-venous-thrombosis">called for a pause</a> in distributing the Johnson & Johnson shot after six women out of the 7 million people who have had the vaccine developed blood clots.) But none of that has stopped the population from attributing old-fashioned consumer allegiance to their injection.</p> <p>On Twitter, posters are admiring the aesthetic tastefulness of Moderna’s graphic design. “The color scheme, font, everything. Just absolute perfection,” writes public policy expert Colin Mortimer, <a href="https://twitter.com/colinmort/status/1382054660303900673">linking to a sterile stock image</a> of the vaccine dose. Julia Reinstein, a reporter at BuzzFeed, <a href="https://twitter.com/juliareinstein/status/1379650166458875911">assigned a thoughtful personality</a> to each of the four major biotech companies with shots in circulation, in the same way Tumblr fandoms attempt to identify the essences of the characters in <em>Little Women</em> or the residents of Carrie Bradshaw’s Manhattan.</p> <p>“Moderna is terribly chic but trying too hard. AstraZeneca is zany and kind. J&J identifies as the mom friend and will tell you so,” she writes. NBC’s Kalhan Rosenblatt reported <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/only-hot-people-pfizer-vaccine-200600495.html">that TikTok has emerged as a <em>West Side Story</em>-like warzone</a> between young Zoomers who’ve received either the Pfizer or Moderna dose. (One of the recurrent trends on the platform is an audio that says, “Um, only <em>hot</em> people got the Pfizer. If you got Moderna then I don’t know what to tell you.”)</p> <p>The inoculation process has transformed into a tongue-in-cheek fashion choice; a Band-Aid plastered on your shoulder is the spiciest trend of the summer. We’ve all lived through an eternity of fad skirmishes — boxers vs. briefs, Coke vs. Pepsi, Nintendo vs. Sega — but nothing holds a candle to 2021 and our appointment for a subdermal, antibody-producing serum.</p> <p>It seems likely that this factionalism comes in part from the subtle gradations in each of the vaccines. It was easy to get lost in the scattered reports of side effects and immunity thresholds as the jabs slowly made themselves available to the public. Some people have been afforded the chance to shop around for the shot that seems most appealing; to pick and choose the amalgamation of protection percentages, hangover risks, and scheduling annoyances that best fit our lifestyles.</p> <p>But in the rush to get jabbed, most of the newly vaccinated population simply showed up for whatever shot was available in their neighborhood and proudly took up the banner of the Pfizer Pham or the Moderna Mafia from there. The American medical apparatus has become so entwined with American capitalism that we’ve learned to navigate both of those worlds with the same language. It was inevitable that the population would engage in its Retail Mindset when something as existential as a coronavirus vaccine still bears a company’s name.</p> <p>“It is natural to compare brands. There isn’t clear data on the efficacy of one versus the other, but that doesn’t stop people from forming opinions,” says Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University. “The companies and public health officials have been very careful to avoid comparing the vaccines, but that doesn’t stop people from forming perceptions.”</p> <div class="c-float-right"> <div> <div class="c-entry-sidebar"> <p>Each week we’ll send you the very best from The Goods, plus a special TikTok edition by Rebecca Jennings on Tuesdays. <a href="http://www.vox.com/the-goods-newsletter" data-analytics-viewport="related-story" data-analytics-link="related-story">Sign up here</a>.</p> </div> </div> </div> <p>Of course, most of this vaccine friction is in jest. Nobody is authentically demeaning each other for their jab. The TikTok kids are enjoying a meme, and wearers of Vega’s Team Pfizer and Team Moderna shirts aren’t priming a throwdown in the streets. Instead, Vega speculates that most of her customers are simply latching onto anything they can to stay invigorated and excited as we approach the 14th month of the pandemic. After a period of unimaginable social isolation, society has grown thirsty for companionship. Even the most basic mutual bond — like sharing the same spike-protein blockers — is enough to spark joy after circling the drain in endless Zooms.</p> <p>“I think there’s a sense of shared camaraderie after such a terrible year. People are longing to be part of something and a way to connect to other people — and to create some friendly competition,” says Vega. “I’ve actually gotten orders from full families where each member got a different shot, so the feeling I’m getting from people is more excitement rather than an air of superiority for a specific vaccine.”</p> <p>That said, Vega doesn’t want to facilitate a serious schism within the vaccination infrastructure. Like the rest of us, she wants to see as many people inoculated as quickly as possible so we can return to some semblance of normalcy by the summer. In fact, Vega recently added a fresh new arrival to her store: a white shirt with rainbow text that reads, simply, “Team Vaccine.” “My shop was not created to chase the fuel of negativity,” she tells me, “but instead to fuel belonging.”</p> <p>That’s the hope. Unlike all the other famous brand battles in America, eventually the forces of Team Pfizer, Team Moderna, and Team J&J will find peace — agreeing that despite the slight deviations in reaction sickness and graphic design, we’ve been on the same side all along. Only then will we reenter a world where we can get back to debating the topics that <em>really</em> matter. The superiority of the Big Mac over the Whopper, or Apple over Samsung — things we can finally settle once we defeat our common enemy: Team Covid.</p> <br /> <br /> source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22392023/team-moderna-pfizer-vaccine-rivalries-johnson">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22392023/team-moderna-pfizer-vaccine-rivalries-johnson</a>

vox Moderna mafia? Pfizer pham? Vaccine factions are forming online.

In Nathalia Vega’s Etsy shop , she sells three T-shirts designed to look like makeshift, rec-league softball jerseys: One is red and emblazo...

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Fresh Lockdown In Australia's Perth After Virus Escapes Quarantine Hotel

<div class="ins_instory_dv"> <div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Fresh Lockdown In Australia's Perth After Virus Escapes Quarantine Hotel" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-07/0nvjqsf8_australia-coronavirus-afp_625x300_07_July_20.jpg" title="Fresh Lockdown In Australia's Perth After Virus Escapes Quarantine Hotel" /></div> <p class="ins_instory_dv_caption sp_b">There has been a sharp increase in the number of infected arrivals into Australia (Representational)</p> </div> <b class="place_cont">Sydney:</b> <p>Australian authorities ordered a snap, three-day lockdown in the western city of Perth Friday after the coronavirus escaped from a quarantine hotel housing infected international travellers.</p> <p>Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan said a man who was allowed to leave the hotel on April 17 after testing negative for the virus at the end of the standard 14-day quarantine period tested positive several days later.</p> <p>One of his close contacts in Perth tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday in the first case of community transmission of the disease in the state in 12 months, prompting the lockdown order, McGowan said.</p> <p>Authorities are tracking other people who came into contact with the man during five days he spent in Perth before flying to Melbourne, on Australia's southeast coast, where he tested positive on Wednesday and was put into isolation.</p> <p>Australia has been among the world's most successful countries in containing the pandemic, with fewer than 30,000 cases and just over 900 deaths for a population of 25 million.</p> <p>The few instances of community transmission in recent months have been linked to hotel quarantine in major cities, and all the outbreaks have been successfully contained with similar brief lockdowns.</p> <p>But there has been heightened concern over the hotel quarantine process after several instances of the coronavirus spreading from infected people in one room to those in neighbouring rooms.</p> <p>There has also been a sharp increase in the number of infected arrivals into Australia, notably from India.</p> <p>The federal government on Thursday announced restrictions on new arrivals from India, and McGowan said Western Australia would cut the number of returning Australians allowed into the state each week from overseas.</p> <p>McGowan said that under the lockdown residents of Perth and the adjacent Peel region would need to remain in their homes for three days from midnight Friday except for a small number of activities.</p> <p>Restaurants and pubs can only serve takeaway food and entertainment venues will be closed, he said.</p> <p>The lockdown will also force the cancellation of events on Sunday for Anzac Day, the annual day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand soldiers lost in war.</p> <p>"I know this is hard to take and I wish we didn't need to do this (but) we can't take any chances with the virus," McGowan said in announcing the measures.</p> <p><i>(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)</i></p> <br /> <br /> source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-lockdown-ordered-in-australias-perth-after-virus-escapes-quarantine-hotel-2420207">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-lockdown-ordered-in-australias-perth-after-virus-escapes-quarantine-hotel-2420207</a>

news world Fresh Lockdown In Australia's Perth After Virus Escapes Quarantine Hotel

There has been a sharp increase in the number of infected arrivals into Australia (Representational) Sydney: Australian authorities ord...

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