CityLab Daily: Reviewing the Tapes

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What We’re Following

Eyes of the law: When it comes to police encounters, the video still matters. In Sacramento, California, protest has continued weeks after the release of a video of how 22-year-old Stephon Clark being killed by police in his backyard last month (New York Times). And now a dashcam video released Monday shows a police vehicle striking a protester at a vigil for Clark last Saturday (Time). Elsewhere, even more videos were released week:  

• On Monday, Asheville, North Carolina, released nine videos from officers’ body-worn cameras that show a white officer punching, stunning, and choking a black jaywalking suspect in August 2017. (Washington Post)

• On Friday, the white Baton Rouge police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling in 2016 was fired and police released new footage showing the “clearest and most complete picture of what happened that night.” (CBS News)

The wide availability of video shaped what New Orleans writer Jan Miles could do while compiling a new “Green Book,” remaking a 1949 book that once marked safe routes for black travelers. Miles tells CityLab’s Brentin Mock that the modern version of the book serves the opposite purpose: showing a litany of reasons why places are not safe at all for African Americans.

—Andrew Small

More on CityLab

Map of the Day

We’re still waiting to see what controversial tax incentives cities may have offered for Amazon HQ2. But even before that wild headquarters sweepstakes, the behemoth e-retailer already had a tax advantage: It sometimes doesn’t have to pay local taxes. A new brief from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy highlights how in seven different states—shown in red and yellow above—Amazon either does not collect local taxes or charges a lower tax rate than local retailers, leaving a collection gap for localities. (h/t Next City)

What We’re Reading

How Cape Town found water savings California never dreamed of (Los Angeles Times)

Why factories aren’t tourist attractions anymore (Slate)

Dr. King said segregation harms all of us. Environmental research shows he was right. (New York Times)

A hidden archive of New York City’s historic trash (Atlas Obscura)

A teenager told police all about MS-13. In return, he was slated for deportation and marked for death. (ProPublica)

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