by Jayson Hawkins
There is growing concern across society about the emergence of a surveillance state. The capacity of police to monitor phones, email, and other communication has been highlighted in recent incidents, but the most ubiquitous and invasive form of surveillance is cameras. There are cameras everywhere now – ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A 1999 Michigan state law provided for properties with unpaid taxes to be seized and rapidly resold by county treasurers. While this practice is not uncommon across the nation, a peculiarity of the Michigan statute has proven to have had unforeseen consequences, namely the part that let ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Documentaries about crime, especially murder, have been around for a very long time, but most merely seek to entertain or touch the nerve that compels people to watch tragedy unfold. These documentaries, regardless of whether they are feature-length films or one-hour television programming, typically wrap every element ...
by Jayson Hawkins
One of the many new elements in the recently energized movements for social justice and criminal justice reform is the call to “defund police.” Often misconstrued as a desire to do away with law enforcement altogether, defund advocates are actually focused on changing the way local governments ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Police officers have recently been under fire for excessive or even deadly force being used in routine arrests and traffic stops, but some critics have begun to draw attention to a different police behavior that involves how and when officers let people go free.
This criticism ...
by Jayson Hawkins
An extraordinary wealth of information is easily available if one only utters the magic word – “Google.” The problem arises with the realization that though the Google-genie provides information, there is no guarantee that the information is accurate or fair.
Questions about truth and privacy inevitably ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The police-involved killing of George Floyd in late May 2020 has proven to be a rallying cry against systemic racism across America. The sight of a man begging to breathe while a cop knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes has become the defining ...
by Jayson Hawkins
In most states across America, an employee can be fired at any time for any reason. Only Montana provides some protection after six months on the job; otherwise, employment in America is an “at will” affair. Unless, of course, you are a police officer, in which case ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The walls in Alex’s home are decorated with medals earned from two tours as a Marine serving in Iraq. He returned to the U.S. in 2007 at age 21, psychologically scarred by a war that left him suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”) and crippling anxiety. ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The murder of Ahmaud Arbery was shockingly mishandled by local police from the very beginning. Two White men chased down and shot a young Black man, and yet they had not been charged two months later, despite the fact that the whole event was caught on tape. ...
