Two horrific deaths on the streets of New York, fifty years apart, illustrate the persistence of police brutality in the nation's largest city. On July 16, 1964, James Powell, a fifteen-year-old taking summer classes in Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood, was shot by an off-duty police lieutenant across the street from his school. On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was placed in a chokehold by a plainclothes officer while selling loose cigarettes on a sidewalk in Staten Island; Garner's dying words were “I can't breathe.” Both victims were Black. Both cops—Thomas Gilligan and Daniel Pantaleo—were white. Neither faced charges.
Why was the New York Police Department (NYPD) allowed to act with such impunity for so long? A powerful new book by Christopher Hayes offers answers. The Harlem Uprising focuses on the six-day outpouring of rage and grief set off by Powell's death. Hayes illustrates how the uprising activated deep-seated racism in the...
