The Police and the Rest of Us

Coming in the Atlantic

A Special Section

The police in America are caught in a cross fire of social and political protest and the reaction against it. More and more Americans are drawn into the conflict. Whom are the police for, anyway? And who’s for the police? To thousands of citizens — not just clubbed, kicked, gassed demonstrators and newsmen — the police are the avant-garde of a repressive majority rule. To other thousands, the police are the embattled heroes of the defense of the republic against anarchists, looters, rioters, and coddled criminals.

In a Special Section of the March Atlantic, a battery of reporters and specialists will deal with many of the crucial aspects of the country’s involvement in one of the oldest dilemmas of society: which comes first, order or justice?

Also in a full regular issue:

REVEILLE FOR DEMOCRATS by Bill D. Moyers.

THE SUMMER PEOPLE, a long poem by James Merrill.

MORE ON THE BIOLOGICAL REVOLUTION, in response to Professor Donald Fleming.

New fiction, poetry, and reviews.