Criminal Justice
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Why They Kneel: Are White Cops Worse?
To examine the injustice and inequality that prompted some NFL players to protest during the national anthem, each week, for the remainder of the NFL season, The Root will explore the data behind racial disparities in the two cities represented in the National Football League’s premiere matchup—Monday Night Football. Tonight, the New Orleans Saints travel…
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Black Lives Matter Asks Public to Help Demand Clemency for Cyntoia Brown
Black Lives Matter Nashville, along with activists nationwide, has started a campaign asking the public to pressure Tennessee’s outgoing governor to grant clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a sex trafficking victim currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. In 2004, when she was 16, Brown was convicted in the first-degree murder of 43-year-old Johnny Allen,…
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Man Uses Time-Tested ‘A Black Man Did It’ Lie to Perpetrate Amber Alert Hoax
A white Illinois man called the police and told them a black man had stolen his car with a baby inside. Spoiler alert: He was lying his ass off. According to KWQC, an Amber Alert had been out for a one-year-old child for at least half a day before police confirmed on Sunday that Mitchell…
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Los Angeles County to End Incarceration of Pregnant Girls
Of Los Angeles County’s 50 incarcerated pregnant women, 37 were 17 or 18, and 43 were “crossover” youth, involved in both the county’s probation department and its foster care system. As the number of women in prisons continues to rise nationwide, the impact of imprisonment on pregnancy can vary greatly. Los Angeles County now hopes…
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Why They Kneel: Why Don’t Police Kill More White People?
To examine the injustice and inequality that prompted some NFL players to protest during the national anthem, each week, for the remainder of the NFL season, The Root will explore the data behind racial disparities in the two cities represented in the National Football League’s premiere matchup—Monday Night Football. Tonight, the Minnesota Vikings travel to…
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New York Man Fractures Woman’s Spine During Homophobic Subway Attack
NYPD are searching for a 5’11” man between 50 and 60 years old who berated and subsequently assaulted a woman based upon his assumption of her sexuality. On Nov. 30 at about 5 p.m., the victim and another woman were riding the E-train bound for Manhattan when her eventual attacker began hurling homophobic slurs in…
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A List of Things the Tenaha, Texas Police Department Can Do With the $70 They 'Seized' In a 'Drug Bust' Last Week
1. Buy five whole orders of the surprisingly filling Vietnamese Shrimp Summer Rolls at The Cheesecake Factory. 2. Catch a Greyhound from Pittsburgh to Hampton, Va., on Friday the 14th—but only if you book the trip in the next two hours and use the code GREY4CHAR. 3. Pay the parking ticket I got last month…
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Cyntoia Brown Will Have to Serve 51 Years Before She’s Eligible For Release, Tennessee Supreme Court Rules [Corrected]
From the beginning, Cyntoia Brown’s life story has been heartbreaking. She was put up for adoption at the age of 2, and her life after that was a traumatic spiral of verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and substance abuse. At the age of 16, she was sold as a sex-slave to a 43-year-old Nashville…
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Officer Responsible for Eric Garner’s Death Will Finally Face a Disciplinary Trial in May
It’s been four years since “I Can’t Breathe” became a rallying cry for black Americans fed up with the systemic oppression and police brutality that permeate our society. And after four years of anger, frustration, and unspeakable grief, Gwen Carr—the mother of Eric Garner—appears to be on the cusp of receiving long overdue justice. NBC…
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Sandy Still Speaks: New Sandra Bland Doc Uses Her Voice to Uncover the Still-Unknown Tale of a Fatal Police Stop in Texas
Like me, Sandra Bland hailed from a “girl family.” She was the fourth of five sisters. Her siblings’ names, like hers, all start with S—Shante, Sharon, Shavon, Sandy, and Sierra. They were a close-knit clan who always had each other’s backs, whether it was in Chicago or Villa Park, Ill., where their mother moved them…
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