Short Subjects

The Killings at Attica

What, after all, can one tell the readers of Dissent about the ghastly events at Attica? That prison conditions are shameful throughout the country, driving convicts to desperation? That the authorities in these, as in other institutions, have become trigger-happy, eager to shoot down “the bastards”? That once negotiations with the prisoners had been undertaken, there was no reason why they could not have been extended several days longer, in the hope of avoiding bloodshed? All this every decent person already knows.

There is one point, however, that requires immediate stress. A democratic society rests, or should rest, not merely on a system of formal arrangemen...