Book Talk: Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country

Presented by Wagner Office of International Programs, Sulo: Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, New York Southeast Asia Network

November
08
6:30pm - 8:00pm EST
Public
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Date:
November 08, 2023
Time:
6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location:
Pless Lobby Lounge, NYU, 82 Washington Square East, New York, New York 10003

Some People Need Killing is Patricia Evangelista’s meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines’ drug war. For six years, Evangelista chronicled the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte’s war on drugs from 2016-2022 —a war that has led to the slaughter of thousands—immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of fear created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others.

The book takes its title from a vigilante whose words seemed to reflect the psychological accommodation that most of the country had made: “I’m really not a bad guy,” he said. “I’m not all bad. Some people need killing.” A profound act of witness and a tour de force of literary journalism, Some People Need Killing is also a brilliant dissection of the grammar of violence and an important investigation of the human impulses to dominate and resist.

Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler. Her reporting on armed conflict and disaster was awarded the Kate Webb Prize for exceptional journalism in dangerous conditions. She was a Headlands Artist in Residence, a New America ASU Future Security Fellow, and a fellow of the Logan Nonfiction Program, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Her work has earned local and international acclaim. She lives in Manila.

Books will be available for sale at the event.

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