The Death of Jeffrey Pendleton

Jeffrey Pendleton was found dead in a jail cell in Manchester, New Hampshire, on March 13. His death can be chalked up to a number of issues: the paradox of overbearing yet negligent policing, America’s addiction to criminalizing the poor and homeless, the uninhabitable conditions of local jails, and how cities make bank from those paradoxes, bigotries and conditions. His death also illuminates how the ridiculously paltry wages inside the food-service sector leave its workers vulnerable to the predatory nature of these factors.

It would be great if we could say that these issues represent the worst of how cities run; instead, we know that they are embedded in the essential functions of the civic ecosystem. People like Pendleton are not residents in these systems, they are the victims of it.