Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Palestine by Joe Sacco

12 reviews

robinks's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

A powerful collection of images and information about the occupation of Palestine. The comics cover a wide range of intersectional topics. Sacco also writes about and acknowledges his privileges in being able to travel safely and have comforts in Gaza. It is wild but also unsurprising that this was drawn based on experience in the early 1990s, and 30 years later, it still rings true based on news from journalists in Palestine.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Racism, Ableism, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Torture, Colonisation, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Bullying, Rape, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Deportation, and Excrement

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Animal death, Fatphobia, and War

beanmilkcantread's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Genocide, Torture, Gore, Gaslighting, Cursing, War, Violence, Religious bigotry, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Hate crime, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Confinement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Child death, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Deportation, and Blood

moonyreadsbystarlight's review

emotional informative reflective

4.5

Palestine by Joe Sacco is a comic/graphic nonfiction work of journalism that documents his travels through Palestine in the early/mid 1990's. Alongside his own experiences, he tells the stories of many Palestinians that he interviewed. He is invited into many houses for tea and food while hearing stories of brutal imprisonment, death of children, political divides within the community, and much more. 

This work will certainly put the Palestinian struggle into perpective if you are unfamiliar. It also makes the crimes against humanity we are witnessing being livestreamed online even more horrific. For example: hospitals are being bombed now with doctors and patients inside, parallel is the story of a boy (15) who had already been shot by a soldier and sent to the hospital only to be beaten inside the hospital by soldier (his arm broken alongside the arm of a member of hospital staff who tried defending him). The horrors we are seeing now have a long history and this comic shows many small snapshots within that history.

Throughout the story of Sacco's time in Palestine, we see some of his thoughts and at times he outright discusses some of his biases. This was a self-aware framing that is supposed to (I think) show us some of the problems with the Western gaze. Even as I understood it, I still found some of it annoying in the moment. As I reflect on it, I do think that parts of this message are quite important in the context of journalism (particularly as we see how much western news has covered Palestine recently). I still have mixed feelings, but ultimately it's small parts that I have conflicted feelings about. 

Overall, this was an intense collection of experiences and an important read. I'd definitely recommend it to people who are unfamiliar and wanting to learn more about Palestine. It is western journalism that is self-critical and even if the jurry is out on my full opinion of exactly how he did that framing, I'm glad that it was there. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, War, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, Genocide, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Death, and Child death

brookey8888's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

I’m choosing not to rate this because I don’t think it would be fair. I did learn a lot and I liked hearing about Palestinian stories and what these people went and are still going through. That being said this was told in such a confusing way to me. I also did not like the art style either. These things made it harder for me to understand and learn about some of the things mentioned. I do think this was well done, but maybe pick something else up. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Deportation, Kidnapping, Murder, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Gaslighting, Genocide, Racism, Child death, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, Death, and Colonisation

meganpbell's review

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.5

Eyewitness journalism meets comics in this landmark work of graphic nonfiction, based on over a hundred interviews in Gaza and the West Bank during the author’s visit in the 1990s. This book is intense, ugly, heartbreaking, and remains unfortunately not only relevant but urgent. The author comes across as pretty unlikeable—but you have to respect his transparency. I read this on the recommendation of Jewish author Sim Kern.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, Colonisation, Violence, Torture, Sexism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Confinement, Classism, and Child death

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely devastating. I’d been wanting to read this for ages - I love Joe Sacco - and with the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza right now, it seemed the perfect time to learn some history. This was written in 1992-1993. Nothing has changed except the area is even more densely packed. 

Without citing specific examples, I’ll just say the situation is horrific, it has been horrific since 1948, it will always be horrific, and I see no hope whatsoever. 

This book should be required reading for everyone - EVERYONE - right now. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, War, Blood, Bullying, Deportation, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

danaslitlist's review

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

A solid introduction to the everyday life of Palestinians under their occupiers! I think this a great foundational text for people just starting to unpack the layers upon layers of history and oppression. 

It’s not a full five stars solely because Sacco feels the need to talk about women in a really degrading and inappropriate way at times that was totally not necessary and felt gross.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Genocide, Racism, and Islamophobia

katharina90's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Informative, heartbreaking and infuriating. The author's deadpan commentary provides the occasional comic relief. 

This non-fiction comic is roughly 30 years old but sadly it's as relevant as ever (even though some of the language hasn't aged well). 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, and Torture

Moderate: Antisemitism, Child death, Sexism, Ableism, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Fatphobia

parenthesis_enjoyer's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, War, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Ableism, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol and Rape

alexandracpedro's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, War, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Hate crime, and Islamophobia