Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Special Editions Editor, Michael J. Casey Adventure Editor, Emma Athena Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Paul Danish, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman Graphic Designer, Daisy Bauer CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer Cover, Jessica Essex, kitchen manager at Fresh Thymes Eatery Photo, Susan France June 18, 2020 Volume XXVII, Number 44 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2020 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.
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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Police reform and the rebirth of hope by Dave Anderson
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ulti-racial crowds of people are rallying across the country in the middle of a pandemic against police violence. The number of white people demonstrating is impressive. For many years, all of us have watched countless cell phone videos of unarmed black people being killed by cops. Many of us who are white have come to realize that black Americans face dangers when dealing with police that we don’t. As a result, there’s been a sea change in public opinion. A majority of Americans support these protests. A Monmouth poll revealed that 78% feel protesters’ anger about the killing of George Floyd is wholly or partially justified. The current turmoil has been compared to 1968. However, Todd Gitlin, a sociologist who was a student radical I
leader of the 1960s, argued in a Washington Post op-ed that today it is more like 1969. He said: “The uprising underway now signals a vastly more popular and widespread movement reminiscent of the great outpouring of anti-Vietnam War action in October and November 1969, under the aegis of a national project called the Moratorium...” The Moratorium grew out of a call for a general strike to end the war. But the organizers wanted it to appeal to folks who didn’t necessarily identify with the radical New Left or the counterculture. Millions didn’t go to work or school on Oct. 15, and the rallies were held in communities rather than on university campuses. Gitlin said it was “widespread, politically heterogeneous, mostly middle-class, largely white but JUNE 18, 2020
cross-racial.” While today’s issue of racial justice is different, “the ecumenical spirit, the resolve and the conviction about the need for a new political start were similar.” We now know that President Richard Nixon was shaken. He was secretly planning a major escalation of the war. But, he backed down. Thomas Edsall, in his weekly New York Times column, was more cautious than Gitlin. Citing public opinion polls and interviewing scholars, he wondered how much this country is changing. He said: “White Americans have a history of losing interest in racial justice soon after they acknowledge injustice, as if their acknowledgment, rather than actual changes in the world, was the end of see THE ANDERSON FILES Page 6
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