JACKIE JONES

I was having a conversation recently with some non-journalist friends who declared there’ s nothing interesting in the news these days, and that no one is writing about any number of topics and issues that ought to get the media’ s attention.

Once I inquired about where they get their information, it became clear that most of them had stopped going straight to a news site, watching news programs, documentaries or even – God forbid – had stopped reading newspapers and magazines, even the digital versions.

Now I’ m not one to be a snob to those who live in their phones and peruse headlines from their service providers. I do all that, too, but I also still read print newspapers, visit news websites, subscribe to magazines and read tons of stories every year – often because I am regularly invited to judge news competitions.

There is a lot of good journalism out there that provides need-to-know information, entertaining stories and follow-ups that reveal the outcome of legislative matters, crime cases, and issues of community and social justice.

Increasingly, I have directed my friends to many of these websites and publications – and I’ ve enthusiastically added one more: The Morgan Global Journalism Review( MGJR).

Each issue provides current and historical stories, book and film reviews, and special events. I am particularly intrigued by coverage in this issue about the campaign to overturn the Maryland Law Officers’ Bill of Rights( LEOBR), legislation that made police the final judge of whether a cop has acted badly and deserves to be punished.

it triggered a years-long effort to hold police accountable for their misdeeds by eliminating the unreasonable protections that the LEOBR provided officers accused of misconduct in the performance of their duties.

That year West’ s sister, Tawanda Jones, launched a protest campaign that garnered national attention to her claim that the officers’ protection bill was a contributing factor in her brother’ s death.

Jones eventually found a champion in Maryland State Senator Jill Carter, who in 2015 submitted a bill to repeal the police legislation. The bill failed that year, but Carter reintroduced it every year until 2021, when the Law Officers’ Bill of Rights was finally repealed.

Morgan State University Assistant Professor Alissa Figueroa, a prizewinning investigative reporter and documentarian, began to follow the long path of the bill’ s repeal. Her documentary,“ Breaking the Blue Wall,” is reviewed in this issue of the MGJR. Journalist Mark Allan Williams recaps the story of West’ s death and Figueroa’ s efforts to produce the documentary.

Separately, this issue contains a video of Figueroa recounting her efforts to create this fascinating documentary. I encourage you to take a look at these two pieces and all the other stories in this Fall edition of the MGJR – and to become a regular reader of this one-of-a-kind online publication.

I encourage you to read this issue of the Morgan Global Journalism Review – and see what you’ ve been missing. n

When unarmed motorist Tyrone West died at the hands of Baltimore City Police in July 2013 during a traffic stop,

4