Armored National Guard trucks rumbling down Sunset Boulevard. The mayor declaring a citywide curfew. LAPD officers in riot gear firing flash bangs and rubber bullets. Street medics rushing to neutralize tear gas. I watched all this unfold on the streets of Los Angeles five years ago — in June 2020, when I lived in the...
Four years ago, I published Subtle Tools, a book on the erosion of American democratic norms in the face of what came to be known as the Global War on Terror. Both what had been done in the name of “national security” in response to the 9/11 attacks and how it had been done —...