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‘Nobody’s coming on a magic carpet … we are the saviours, we are the redeemers, we are the deliverers, we are the answers that we’ve been seeking.’
The Detroit 300 is a 1,500-member community policing group cofounded by the forceful Minister Malik Shabazz with a mission to ‘fight and deter crime’ in the city’s residential areas. Launched in 2010, the initiative has received both praise and criticism for its efforts. These include directly intervening against suspected drugs houses – first with nonviolent confrontations, then with economic sanctions – and serving as an intermediary between authorities and communities that are under-policed or reluctant to approach formal law-enforcement. A companion piece to the US filmmaker Andrew James’s feature documentary Street Fighting Men, the short documentary Community Patrol employs an immersive cinéma vérité style to follow Shabazz during tense confrontations with suspected drug dealers operating near his church. It might be a brave deed, and perhaps even an act of ‘brotherly love’, as Shabazz claims, but can a volunteer, citizen-led group peacefully and successfully deter crime while keeping the community’s trust?
Director: Andrew James
Producers: Sara Archambault, Jolyn Schleiffarth, Katie Tibaldi
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
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Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes
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Gender
When aggression is viewed as brilliance, it hurts women in science, and science itself
5 minutes
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Religion
From God’s shoes to satellites in heaven – children weigh in on religion
8 minutes