Sixty Two Years After Myles Davis Was Brutally Beaten By Drunk NYPD Cops In Manhattan, What Exactly Has Changed In America?

Sixty-plus years lat­er, after this vicious racist, igno­rant attack, not a damn thing has changed. Police con­tin­ue to be the sin­gle most vis­i­ble per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of white oppres­sion and white racism.

YouTube player

In 1959 — eight days after the release of Kind of Blue and just after record­ing a broad­cast for armed forces radio — Davis was harassed and then vicious­ly attacked by the police out­side Birdland in Midtown Manhattan. Then he was arrest­ed for resist­ing arrest and dragged to the police sta­tion for book­ing and fur­ther harass­ment. You can hear the sto­ry in a clip above from The Miles Davis Story. Davis him­self recount­ed the event in his autobiography:(Adapted from open​cul​ture​.com)