brittany m. brown

What it feels like when federal forces come to town Scenes from Washington D.C. since the National Guard deployment. Photos by Sara Duran for MLK50 The National Guard and 13 federal agencies have arrived in

What is it like when federal law enforcement agencies are deployed in your city?

"...there’s a chaos strategy...It’s an eerie feeling seeing state-sanctioned violence against the people," Fae X, an organizer in Washington D.C., told me.
mlk50.com/2025/10/03/w...

No school, no fresh air and isolated David spent eight months incarcerated at the Youth Justice and Education Center. Center portrait by Kevin Wurm / MLK50 / CatchLight Local / Report for

An important story from my colleague Rebecca Cadenhead @mlk50.com: No school, no fresh air and isolated mlk50.com/2025/10/01/n...

Expanding the Public Safety Workforce Cities across the country are exploring innovative ways to incorporate new professionals, such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals, into their existing public…

Cities across the country are exploring innovative ways to incorporate new professionals, such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals, into their existing public safety workforces to improve outcomes for communities:

“We don’t stand in fear today. We stand in faith. Resistance is not new to us. It is natural,” said Rachael Spriggs, Director of Powerbuilding at the Black Equity Alliance.

“Empire uses fear, despair and convenience…Get off the convenient sidelines and make this city an inconvenient place for empire to grow,” First Congo Church Pastor Tony Coleman said at the podium.

Organizers with the #FreeThe901 coalition are speaking now in front of the Shelby County Juvenile Court to refute Pres. Donald Trump and Gov. Bill Lee’s deployment of the #NationalGuard in Memphis.

Text ‘Free901’ to 25225 to stay connected with the movement.

Israel’s justification for Gaza hospital attack false, Reuters probe finds Israel falsely claimed a Hamas camera was the target of a deadly strike that killed 22 people, including journalists.

Israel falsely claimed a Hamas camera was the target of a deadly strike that killed 22 people, including journalists.

Slouching into fascism Are we already past the tipping point?

The United States’ move to authoritarianism will not be overnight, there will be no official announcement. We must recognize the signs & act accordingly to provide fierce pushback, following the lead of local organizers and social justice movements.

Another way out: Hiding and obedience won't stop fascism By being obedient to the point of giving up all self-determination, we’re poised to return to what many before us fought to overturn

"No, you cannot hide from fascism, and unfortunately for many of us, our very lives are a threat. It doesn’t matter if you’re minding your business, fighting back, or hiding somewhere quietly—tyranny comes for everyone." prismreports.org/2025/08/21/o...

Our Response to Mississippi’s Age Assurance Law - Bluesky A new Mississippi law requires us to block full access to Bluesky unless all users complete age checks. We have concerns about this law’s implementation.

With legal challenges to this law pending, we cannot justify building the expensive required infrastructure.

For now, we have made the difficult decision to block access in Mississippi.

To learn more, read our blog post:

Unfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users.

While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller platforms like ours.

The people who got everyone here simply aren't going to be the ones to get us out.

Red States Rush to Send Troops for Trump’s D.C. Crackdown Read more here.

ICYMI: West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Ohio will send their own National Guard troops to D.C. amid Trump’s crackdown in the nation’s capital. The number of troops in the city is expected to more than double from 800 to over 1,750 troops in the coming days.

It's just the same racism that is endemic to the US. No need for new terms.

Where D.C. Crime Is Bad, Residents Question Trump’s Motives

look what happens when you actually speak to the people living in these neighborhoods instead of ventriloquizing them to make an ideological point: you get a good story www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/u...

Why journalists should care about military involvement in domestic law enforcement RCFP has received many questions regarding the implications for journalists of using the military for civilian law enforcement.

In light of President Trump deploying the National Guard in D.C., revisit a recent @rcfp.org analysis on why journalists should care about the military acting as domestic law enforcement and how it could impact newsgathering.

Israel’s Killing of Gaza Journalists Sends a Chilling Message Israel’s targeted killing of a journalist in Gaza was a notable moment even for a war that has been remarkably blood-soaked for journalists.

A total of 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in the Gaza war since its start in October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

That compares to the 18 journalists and media workers killed so far in the Russia-Ukraine war.

TikTok's "Divine Femininity" Advice Won't Fix Your Life — But It Could Ruin It It's gender essentialism and, at worst, a door to the alt-right pipeline.

#OpEd: "Divine femininity isn’t a liberation movement, it’s a workaround that personalizes a political problem... And like most workarounds, when things fall apart, it leaves the system itself untouched." Read more on how divine feminine ideology on TikTok affirms harmful gender essentialism. ⬇️

They were sent to CECOT by the Trump administration. For months, their families were left wondering whether they’d ever see their loved ones alive again.

Now that they’ve been released, three of the men and their families open up about their ordeal.

📽️ Full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8IN...

Since 2018, Report for America corps members have written 100,000 stories. The future of local journalism is here, and it’s powered by our corps members and newsroom partners.

Read more in our 2025 Impact Report: reportforamerica.org/impact-report-2025

#LocalNews #LocalJournalism #RFAImpact2025

I think it’s worth noting this piece generated the most unsubscribes I’ve seen in a while, and the newsletter version had the lowest open rate in many months. These horrors persist in part because too many people go to great pains to avoid them.

A photo of labor activist Chris Smalls, talking into a mic

A spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition tells me:

“Chris Smalls is still in Givon Prison and despite repeated requests to meet with the U.S. Embassy has been ignored by his country after being abducted by the IOF in international waters.”

Appeals Court Upholds Nationwide Block on Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order Read more here.

The 9th Circuit upheld a nationwide block on Trump’s birthright-citizenship order, ruling it violates the constitution.

The decision marks the first time an appeals court weighed in on the order, moving it closer to a potential Supreme Court review.

the one thing i genuinely did not anticipate from this administration was its vicious, know nothing hostility to any and everything that might even be adjacent to science and scientific research. they genuinely one to destroy the entirety of the nation’s research capacity. and for what, exactly?

Scientist on green card detained for a week without explanation, lawyer says A Korean citizen studying in Texas on a green card was detained in San Francisco after a trip overseas. His lawyer says authorities won’t give a reason.

A Korean-born researcher and longtime U.S. legal permanent resident has spent the past week detained by immigration officials at the San Francisco International Airport without explanation and has been denied access to an attorney, according to his lawyer.

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nationwide system for ICE.

“Law enforcement really likes license plate readers because of the lack of restrictions on that data. They don’t feel like they need a warrant. Oftentimes there are no restrictions whatsoever on what they search,” EFF’s @maassive.bsky.social told @404media.co.

Gen Z seeks safety above all else as the generation grows up amid constant crisis and existential threat Recent generations may have taken safety for granted, but today’s youth are growing up in an era of compounded crises – and being safe is their priority.

In a study of Gen Z's personal goals, "to be safe" ranked as the top priority, outweighing traditional teenage desires like popularity and fun. A developmental psychologist explains what this says about growing up in an era of constant crisis:

Three of our colleagues are being placed on PIPs today and @propublica.org management has refused to allow stewards in those meetings. We're not shutting up about this — our colleagues deserve better and we're extremely disappointed in management for denying us this basic union right.

I wish journalists would stop framing political news as wins or losses for politicians or political parties. It’s an abrogation of our mission. Why do we keep doing this? Is the spending bill a win or loss for the American people? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Is it sound policy? Fiscally?