What we read while not wearing hoodies in THIS weather…
- George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin last year. The reaction was intense to the closely-followed case. Many see the verdict as a statement on race in America, though a court of law is not the best place to look for morality. The state simply could not prove its case against Zimmerman, though the inequality inherent in the criminal justice system remains absurd. Jelani Cobb covered the trial incisively for The New Yorker.
- Speaking of the American criminal justice system, a hunger strike is growing in California prisons to protest the use of solitary confinement, which is widespread throughout the country’s prisons.
- Why should a democracy be worried about secret surveillance? Well, for one, the surveillance is apparently done by child pornographers.
- The Amtrak boarding process is the dumbest fucking thing.
- This week in oral histories: a look at the beloved 1989 Cleveland Indians. Plus, a retrospective on Big Star, in honor of the new documentary on the band.
- Why don’t you get toothpaste in hotel rooms?
- Obi-Wan is racist.