George Orwell was an English essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterized by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic
socialism. As a writer, Orwell is best known for the book Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (
1984). He also wrote Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a soldier for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil
War. The Spanish Civil
War played the most important part in defining Orwell's
socialism. Having witnessed the success of the anarcho-
syndicalist communities in Anarchist Catalonia, and the subsequent brutal suppression of the anarcho-
syndicalists… Read more by the Soviet Union-backed
Communists, Orwell was strongly influenced by the anarchist critiques of the Soviet regime, and by the anarchists' emphasis on individual
freedom. Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"?describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices?is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "
Big Brother" and "Thought Police".
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement. It is an extreme form of police misconduct or violence and is a civil rights violation. It also refers to a situation where officers exercise undue or excessive force against a person.
Police violence includes but is not limited to physical or verbal harassment, physical or mental injury, property damage, the inaction of police officers, and in some cases, death. In the
United States, qualified immunity is a legal doctrine used to protect officers from litigation after incidents of
police violence. This law was issued by the Supreme Court in 1982. In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting
… Read more of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014,
police brutality has become a hot-button issue in the
United States. Police officers in America are killing around 1,000 people every single year.
The
Black Lives Matter Movement, formed in 2013, has been a vocal part of the movement against
police brutality in the U.S. by organizing ?die-ins?, marches, and demonstrations in response to the killings of black men and women by police.
While
Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians.