FBI Director James B. Comey thinks the “Ferguson effect” is impeding law-enforcement efforts. He says that closer scrutiny of police officers makes them less aggressive and that this probably contributes to an increase in violent crime, according to the New York Times. Comey, speaking Friday at the University of Chicago Law School, lends credence to the…

In a nearly unanimous decision, the University of Mississippi Faculty Senate voted to remove the state’s flag from campus, according to WMC-TV.   The 41-1 vote late Thursday supports an earlier decision by the Student Body Senate also to take down the state flag, whose design includes the controversial Confederate battle flag. In the more…

Fort Worth, Texas, swore in its first black police chief Tuesday at a ceremony packed with the city’s top leaders, WFAA reports. He takes over at a challenging time. Fitzgerald replaces Jeff Halstead, who retired in January amid federal discrimination lawsuits filed by several black police officers. Black Lives Matter called for a rally in…

A proposal to place a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. on Stone Mountain in Georgia is coming under attack—from civil rights leaders and Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Atlanta and DeKalb County branches of the NAACP and the national office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference want to halt the plan because the site…

A federal judge sentenced Conrad Alvin Barrett on Friday to 71 months in prison for randomly attacking an elderly black man in Texas, breaking the victim’s jaw with a single punch, in what is dubbed the “knockout game,” the Huffington Post reports.   Barrett, 29, pleaded guilty last June to a federal hate crime charge for…

In a 5-4 vote Oct. 14, the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council in Louisiana rejected a proposal to open a temporary misdemeanor jail. There were widespread concerns that authorities would target poor black, nonviolent offenders, The Advocate reports. “We incarcerate more people than Cuba, Iran and North Korea combined, and our solution here is…

Samaria Rice, whose 12-year-old son, Tamir Rice, was fatally shot last year by a Cleveland police officer, said she wants a different prosecutor to handle the case, CBS News reports. “Since the senseless shooting of my son Tamir, I have had many sleepless nights and days—almost a year, no justice, no peace,” she said at…

At a news conference Saturday, attorney Gloria Allred said that she questioned Bill Cosby under oath for several hours. The besieged entertainer’s deposition took place the previous day at an undisclosed location in Boston. Allred plans to pursue a second round of questioning, according to the New York Times. The high-profile attorney represents Judy Huth,…

Atlanta police are searching for a man who tried to carjack Naomi King, the sister-in-law of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on Friday when she stopped her car to enter her gated retirement community, WSB-TV reports. Authorities say the assailant approached her vehicle from a nearby wooded area while King was entering the security…