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How Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams Envisions the Future of Policing in New York City
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is not, by any means, a prison or police abolitionist. But you may be forgiven for thinking so if you listen to some of the language he uses to describe his vision of what the future of public safety could look like. “Hopefully one day we can evolve to the…
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Alleged 'Boogaloo Boy' Charged With Murder in Death of Federal Officer During Oakland Black Lives Matter Protests
For as long as the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests began gathering momentum, there were rumors of infiltration of the protests by outside groups. Much of the focus, at first, was placed on alleged anarchist or anti-fascist groups destroying public and corporate property. But as the massive protests stretch into their fourth week, attention has…
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Exonerated 5 Member Yusef Salaam Weighs in on Recent Black Lives Matter Protests: 'This Is Courageous Living'
Yusef Salaam remembers the night his mother was finally allowed to intervene in his interrogation session. Salaam was 15, apprehended by the NYPD along with four of his friends for a crime he had not committed: assaulting and raping a white woman in Central Park. She immediately told him to stop talking to the cops.…
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When a Bad Apple Spoils a New Barrel: New Study Unpacks the Dangers of Hiring Previously Fired Cops
One of the most confounding distortions of language centers around the colloquialism of “bad apples” with regard to policing. The phrase is frequently used to minimize the severity of the policing problem in this country: Why say policing itself is the problem when we can focus on throwing out the few “bad apples” of the…
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Atlanta Cop Who Killed Rayshard Brooks Was Previously Reprimanded for Use of Force Involving a Firearm
The Atlanta police officer who shot and killed 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy’s parking lot last week had received a written reprimand in 2017 for use of force involving a firearm, according to his disciplinary records. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the disciplinary histories of both officers involved in Brooks’ killing. Garrett Rolfe, the 27-year-old…
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Pittsburgh Paper Removed Police Brutality Stories, Then Republished Them With Pro-Cop Images
Staffers with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been publicizing the disastrous, racist decision-making of top management, who last week sidelined two black journalists from reporting on the Black Lives Matter protests that have cropped up around the country. Their coverage ban reportedly expanded as dozens of staffers called out the paper and stood in solidarity with…
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Kentucky Official Says Louisville Restaurant Owner David McAtee Was Killed by National Guard
Kentucky officials have yet to name the person who killed David McAtee, a beloved West Louisville restaurant owner who was shot and killed following a night of anti-police brutality protests. But they do know that it was a member of the National Guard who killed him. The announcement was made Tuesday by Governor Andy Beshear’s…
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LMPD Finally Released Breonna Taylor’s Police Report. It’s Almost Completely Blank
On Wednesday, nearly 90 days after three plainclothes Louisville Metropolitan Police officers barged into 26-year-old Breonna Taylor’s apartment, shooting her eight times, LMPD finally released the incident report from the night of her killing. As the Louisville Courier Journal reports, the document was almost completely blank. And the little information it does contain includes outright…
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For Years, ‘Qualified Immunity’ Protected Violent Cops. Could a New Court Decision Mark a Shift?
On Tuesday, a federal court went against more than a decade of decisions in denying qualified immunity to a cop who shot a black man 22 times. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel concerns the case of Wayne Jones, who was shot and killed in West Virginia in 2013 by five cops, who fired…
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No More Cop-aganda: Paramount Network Cuts the Cord on Cops, America's Longest-Running Reality TV Show
This is the kind of “cancel culture” you can get behind. Paramount Network has decided to can Cops, which was scheduled to premiere its 33rd season on Monday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a spokesperson…