THE ROOKERY

School Without Walls Student Newspaper

"No Justice, No Peace”: Are Police Abolitionists Losing the Public Debate?

Oct 28, 2020

"No Justice, No Peace”: Are Police Abolitionists Losing the Public Debate?

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was asphyxiated by Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer. As a result, protests erupted across the country, calling for an end to police brutality and causing a surge of popularity for the Black Lives Matter movement. Soon, people were shouting “ACAB [All Cops Are Bastards]” and “Defund the police!” as they called for an end to the current police system, which has been steeped in systematic racism since its origin. On June 8, members o

Barrett's Judicial Philosophy

Oct 26, 2020

Barrett's Judicial Philosophy

Amy Coney Barrett is the Trump administration’s replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court of the United States. She has been on the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals since 2017, and her time as an appellate court judge, while short in length, gives insight into her judicial philosophy. By her description, she is an originalist and a textualist. Her core convictions follow the approach of Justice Antonin Scalia: “A judge must apply the law as writ

Nigerians Protest Police Brutality

Gabriel Kraemer

Oct 26, 2020

Nigerians Protest Police Brutality

When Nigeria created the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known as SARS, in 1984, it was supposed to solve rampant crime, robbery, and kidnapping in the West African country. But many Nigerians now believe that their country’s police force has become a vehicle for the exact violence and exploitation it was supposed to counter. On October 4th, a video was circulated online of a man killed by SARS officers without any evidence of provocation. The Nigerian government claimed it was f

When the News Goes Out of Business

Jennifer Nehrer

Oct 7, 2020

When the News Goes Out of Business

In an age dominated by electronic media, print newspapers are finding themselves in jeopardy of financial troubles and, in the worst-case scenarios, going completely bankrupt. The world of journalism in DC has already seen such casualties: on September 12, 2019, Washington Post Express, a free daily newspaper that had been distributed by The Washington Post across the DC area for the previous 16 years, printed its final issue before shutting down for good. The Express’s fina

China Pledges Carbon-Neutrality

Gabriel Kraemer

Oct 5, 2020

China Pledges Carbon-Neutrality

President Xi Jinping of China announced at an annual United Nations General Assembly meeting that the country would be carbon-neutral by 2060. “Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature,” Xi said in a speech to the General Assembly on September 22. For a country that produces about 28% of the Earth’s carbon emissions, it’s an important pledge that could have a huge impact on climate change. However, questions remain about China’s commitment to t