All posts by Kia Gregory

Kia Gregory is a journalist drawn to people living on the margins. In her work, Gregory often shows how people and their neighborhoods are affected by public policy. She has covered local politics, education and criminal justice, and won numerous awards for her enterprise reporting and narrative writing. Gregory has written for magazines such as The Atlantic, The New Republic and The New Yorker, and has been on staff at the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Weekly; a portfolio of her work here. Gregory is also an author at Knopf, working on a narrative non-fiction book INDICTMENT: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, interweaving the stories of four people who have been indelibly marked by ongoing police violence against African Americans, and who are on the front lines for justice and healing. Gregory, a Philadelphia native, lives in New York, and can be contacted at kiagregory@live.com.
City Life, Justice, Law and Justice, Policy and Justice

Killing Us Softly

How Videos of Police Brutality Traumatize African Americans and Undermine the Search for Justice

With the ubiquity of smartphones and dash and body cameras, there is ample footage to expose police violence and grab the nation’s attention. In a virtually unlimited digital space, the images spread fast and far. Footage has refuted police accounts, revealed crucial facts withheld from families of victims, and sparked campaigns for justice and reform.

Yet because the images of police violence are so pervasive, they inflict a unique harm on viewers, particularly African Americans, who see themselves and those they love in these fatal encounters. This recognition becomes a form of violence in and of itself—and even more so when justice is denied. (The New Republic)