TEN LIVES, TEN DEMANDS

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and novelist tells the stories of 10 key figures in the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a preface to this effective, occasionally simplistic book, Jones sketches a personal connection to his subject. He was once “Black in the system,” struggling to put a past of addiction and petty crime behind him. While working as a doorman in his native Philadelphia, a local news station showed his mugshot, calling him a “wanted fugitive.” The structure of the subsequent material is straightforward, as the author devotes each chapter to a different victim of systemic racism in law enforcement, most of them now household names—e.g., Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and George Floyd. After an engaging precis of the circumstances that brought these individuals into the crosshairs of law enforcement, the author links each case to a specific reform in policy that would address the failings in question. In the case of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in 2020 in her Louisville home, none of the first officers on the scene had body cameras. Like others before him, Jones makes the sensible argument that such footage would have been crucial to understanding what happened. In this case, the demand is that officers who fail to wear or turn on body cameras should face criminal charges and that the data from those devices (taxpayer-funded property) be made available to the public upon request. In the case of Trayvon Martin, the demand concerns the elimination of the much-discussed “stand-your-ground” laws, which have been shown to increase homicides rather than prevent them. Jones is a naturally compelling writer, and while many of the arguments have been made before and the structure becomes repetitive, the author relates them with both a vigor and informality that will appeal to readers not interested in committing to a more scholarly, nuanced text such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.

A persuasive, neatly packaged Black Lives Matter primer.