Criminal Justice
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The Genius of Resilience: Toward a New, Black National Convention
Imagine it’s 2070. History classes all over the U.S. teach the 2020 Black Lives Matter Uprisings and the national campaign to defund police. Students are shocked to learn about police officers who once killed Black people. For these young people, public safety means community and skilled professionals coming together to resolve problems peacefully and everyone…
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Christian Cooper Says He Will Not Participate in Prosecution of the White Woman Who Threatened to Call 911 on Him
Earlier this week, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said his office had filed charges against Amy Cooper, a white woman who went viral earlier this summer when she frantically threatened to call the cops on a Black bird watcher. She’s been charged with filing a false police report, a class “A” misdemeanor.” But the man…
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WNBA Players Will Wear Names of Women Killed at the Hands of Police. NBA Players Will Wear…'Listen'?
The NBA could learn a thing or two from its “little sister,” the WNBA. After both leagues announced their intentions to resume their seasons, one of the highest priorities for players has been the opportunity to continue to address police brutality and racial injustice. It’s become so much of a sticking point that it damn…
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WNBA Star Maya Moore Earns MVP Off the Court by Helping Wrongly Convicted Black Man Regain His Freedom
As a young girl, Maya Moore dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player. But after conquering the sport as an adult, and abandoning that dream in order to pursue criminal justice reform, another dream of hers has now become a reality. ESPN reports that after putting her WNBA career on pause in 2019 in order…
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Defund the Police, Explained…for the Last Time
There are a lot of misconceptions about what defunding the police means, which, at its simplest definition, is a reallocation of resources. Everyday citizens assess their budgets on a regular basis to determine if they are wasting money and could spend their precious dollars more efficiently. As police officers continue to kill Black people across…
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Chicago Police Announce Plans to Make Mass Street Arrests, Ask Courts to Hold People in Jail Over July 4th Weekend
Putting Black faces in high places will not be the solution to structural racism in the United States. And while drug-fueled gun violence in the oft-maligned city of Chicago is an objectively horrifying problem, violating the constitutional rights of young Black men isn’t the way to address it, either. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown apparently…
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![New Report on Layleen Xtravaganza Polanco's Death Highlights the Cruelty of NYC Jails' Policies Toward Trans People [Corrected]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cfwv1qgm0ku5ag3yxyyw-300x200.jpg)
New Report on Layleen Xtravaganza Polanco's Death Highlights the Cruelty of NYC Jails' Policies Toward Trans People [Corrected]
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco should not have been in solitary confinement at Rikers Island. But the 27-year-old transgender woman was pushed into this part of the infamous New York City jail last year, despite a doctor’s objections and a documented seizure disorder. She would end up dying after nine days in solitary, suffering a seizure alone…
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Kendrick Sampson Pens Letter to Hollywood Calling for Police Divestment, Over 300 Black Creators Sign
In the movement toward police defunding and abolition, it looks like Black Hollywood is speaking up. In a letter shared with Variety, actor Kendrick Sampson (Insecure, Miss Juneteenth) called for the mainstream Hollywood industry “to divest from the police and invest in the Black community” and was joined by several organizations, black artists and black…
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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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Beyoncé Urges Kentucky Attorney General to Bring Breonna Taylor's Killers to Justice
In March, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by members of the Louisville Metro Police Department, after officers entered her Kentucky home using a no-knock search warrant. The officers, Jon Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove, and Brett Hankison, have been placed on administrative leave, but have not been arrested for her murder. In an open letter shared…