Cops of America: Attention

Would Richard Nixon Die for You?

by

Fifth Estate # 101, March 19-April 1, 1970

Cover image, Issue 101, March 19-April 1, 1970. Headline and text: Cops of America... Contains text by Eldridge Cleaver. Image shows an officer gripping a billy club with both hands in a threatening gesture.

“Both police and armed forces follow orders. Orders. Orders flow from the top down. Up there, behind closed doors, in antechambers, in conference rooms, gavels bang on tables, the tinkling of silver decanters can be heard as ice water is poured by well-fed, conservatively dressed men in horn-rimmed glasses, fashionably dressed American widows with rejuvenated faces and tinted hair, the air permeated with the square humor of Bob Hope jokes. Here all the talking is done, all the thinking, all the deciding.”

—Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice

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