public safety 
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SOURCE: New York Times
10/15/2020
In Fights Over Face Masks, Echoes of the American Seatbelt Wars
The fight over seatbelt laws in the United States was fraught with trying to strike a balance between individual and public interests. Those concerns have also been reflected in similar matters of health and safety, including vaccinations, helmet laws — and masks.
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SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
8/27/2020
Qanon Misdirects Our Attention Away From The Real Threats To Children
by Paul M. Renfro
"Moral panics like QAnon work to distract from less outrageous, far more insidious sources of harm. Even worse, they contribute to punitive policies that separate and hurt families, perpetuate mass incarceration and keep people in a state of fear."
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7/26/2020
Two Contagions, One Opportunity to Reboot our Approach
by Steve Pyne
Outbursts of megafires resemble emerging diseases because they are typically the outcome of broken biotas – a ruinous interaction between people and nature that unhinges the old checks and balances.
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SOURCE: New York Times
6/12/2020
Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police
by Mariame Kaba
A police abolition activist argues that the long history of commissions set up to investigate police violence against civilans shows that the institution can't be reformed or regulated.
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SOURCE: New York Review of Books
6/15/2020
How Defund and Disband Became the Demands
by Amna A. Akbar
An Ohio State University law professor summarizes the history of activists and academics who shaped the movement for police abolition that has received attention in the wake of George Floyd's killing and ensuing protests.
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SOURCE: Perspectives on History
6/12/2020
Defund the Police
by Austin McCoy
The emergence of a protest slogan is usually followed by struggles over its meaning; calls for defunding the police echo the contested slogan of "Black Power" in the 1960s.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
4/21/2020
A Brief Criminal History of the Mask
by Melissa Gira Grant
The New York City mask order, particularly without any subsequent plan to make masks accessible to the public, hands police another tool to regulate public space—and that is not the same thing as ensuring public safety.
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