The Nation, check out our latest issue.
Subscribe to
Support Progressive Journalism
The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today.
Did you know you can support
The Nation by drinking wine?
In May 2020, three words rang out in Minneapolis that would become the mantra of a revolution: “I can’t breathe.”
George Floyd uttered the phrase with the simple hope that the police officer kneeling on his neck would let him live, but the words resonated through communities that understood what it meant to be suffocated by those entrusted to protect them. Millions took to the streets around the world, and cops responded with the same violence that was being protested. As Brooks Laughlin watched from a prison cell in Washington state, he was sure he could help the protesters and the police understand each other. He thought he knew from experience exactly what was toxic with p