In this excerpt from our reconstruction video, protesters take cover from police tear gas canisters in a "protest-friendly" plaza in Hong Kong.
In this excerpt from our reconstruction video, protesters take cover from police tear gas canisters in a "protest-friendly" plaza in Hong Kong.

Streetsblog—“Designing ‘Streets For Protest’ Won’t Work Because of Cops”

July 7th 2020

Streetsblog offers criticism on using design to address protester safety concerns, noting how this logic omits the responsibility of the police enacting violence. Director of Research Brad Samuels weighs in, sharing insights from our Research division’s latest project with Amnesty International, which unpacks some of the ways in which urban environments can become “weaponized” in conjunction with the deployment of tear gas.

Read the full article here.

“‘The role of the built environment is important in the protest space, but that doesn’t mean you can design your way out of police brutality,’ said Brad Samuels, director of research for SITU, a social impact-focused architecture firm and research group in New York City. “‘It’s about changing the culture and tactics of law enforcement.’”