Policemen clash with protesters in the streets during an anti-NATO protest march in Chicago May 19, 2012. Hundreds of demonstrators protested peacefully on Saturday on the eve of the NATO summit in Chicago, gathering outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home to criticize cuts in mental health services before moving downtown under the close eye of police. REUTERS/ Darren Hauck
A female protester associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement is arrested while marching through traffic in lower Manhattan on May 1, 2012 in New York City. May 1st, Labor Day, is a traditional day of global protest in sympathy with union and leftist politics. Getty
There was just a bit of a skirmish in downtown Oakland. Tear gas, arrests, injuries. Our man on the ground @joshharkinson reports that it all started when the Oakland police tackled this woman riding a bike down Broadway. Follow our May Day coverage for the latest.
In The Hunger Games, kids in poor families take out extra chances in their District lottery — that is, extra chances to die — in return for extra food rations; in ours, poor kids enlist in the military to feed their families and maybe escape economic doom. Many are seduced by military recruiters who stalk them in high school with promises as slippery as those the slave trade uses to recruit poor young women for sex work abroad.
And then there’s another form of debt peonage that is far more widespread in our strange and ever-changing land: student loans. The young are constantly told that only a college education can give them a decent future. Then they’re told that, to pay for it, they need to go into debt — usually into five figures, sometimes well into six. And these debts are, in turn, governed by special laws that don’t allow you to declare bankruptcy — no matter what. In other words, they are guaranteed to follow you all your life.
In The Hunger Games, kids in poor families take out extra chances in their District lottery — that is, extra chances to die — in return for extra food rations; in ours, poor kids enlist in the military to feed their families and maybe escape economic doom. Many are seduced by military recruiters who stalk them in high school with promises as slippery as those the slave trade uses to recruit poor young women for sex work abroad.
And then there’s another form of debt peonage that is far more widespread in our strange and ever-changing land: student loans. The young are constantly told that only a college education can give them a decent future. Then they’re told that, to pay for it, they need to go into debt — usually into five figures, sometimes well into six. And these debts are, in turn, governed by special laws that don’t allow you to declare bankruptcy — no matter what. In other words, they are guaranteed to follow you all your life.
The following series of photos was taken by Paul Weiskel at the Boston Commons on April 15, 2012. The photos depict a Boston Police Department patrolman identified as Vaden Scantlebury who grabs a protester by the neck and then becomes angry at the photographer for attempting to take his picture. The Boston Police are reportedly investigating the incident along with the ACLU. A video of the incident is also available.
