Law Enforcement
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Minneapolis Police Must Now Keep Their Body Cameras Activated at All Times When Responding to a Call
The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police spurred an ongoing nationwide reckoning on race and intensified calls by Minneapolis residents for substantial police reform. Reform efforts have been underway in the city since last summer, with the latest policy change requiring officers to keep their body cameras on at all times…
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9-Year-Old Black Girl Pepper-Sprayed by Rochester Police After Refusing to Get in Patrol Car After Domestic Disturbance
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cops don’t need to be called to every emergency. This goes especially for emergency calls that involve the mental health or general wellness of Black people. We’ve seen time and time again that when police officers are called to handle non-violent emergencies involving Black people, they…
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Black Student Who Was Knocked Unconscious by Florida Officer Is ‘Traumatized’ and Seriously Injured, Family Says
Last week, The Root reported that a Black high school student was body-slammed and knocked unconscious by a school resource officer at Liberty High School in Kissimmee, Fla. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Department said the officer was trying to stop a fight between her and another student, but video footage of the incident recorded by…
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Independent Audit Breaks Down All the Ways the Louisville Metro Police Department Has Damaged Public Trust
It should come as no surprise, but the Louisville Metro Police Department is kind of the worst. A 150-page report commissioned by city officials in the wake of Breonna Taylor’s death has found that the department is plagued with a multitude of problems and is widely distrusted by communities of color. According to CNN the…
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2 Kenosha Police Officers Who Were Present at Jacob Blake Shooting Are Back on Active Duty
While Jacob Blake hasn’t received justice for the seven shots fired into his back, two of the officers who watched it happen have been placed back on active duty. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Officers Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek had been on administrative leave since the Aug. 23 shooting. Neither of them used…
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Video Shows Florida Sheriff’s Deputy Slamming Black Student to the Ground, Appearing to Knock Her Unconscious
The sheriff’s department in Osceola County, Fla., is investigating an incident at a high school in which a school resource officer is seen on camera slamming a Black teen to the ground and, apparently, knocking her unconscious before handcuffing her while she lay motionless. While there isn’t a wealth of information as to what led…
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Black Family That Was Handcuffed After Being Wrongfully Suspected of Riding in Stolen Vehicle Sues Aurora, Colo., Police
In August of last year, a Black family was stopped by police in Aurora, Colo. Four Black girls—children and teenagers, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17—were ordered out of their vehicle at gunpoint and made to lie on the ground while officers handcuffed the 12- and 17-year-olds while they screamed and cried in terror. The cops…
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Protesters Take to the Streets in Tacoma, Wash., After Video Shows Cop Driving Into a Crowd and Running People Over
You would think that “don’t drive into a crowd,” would be a pretty easy rule to follow, but for one cop in Tacoma that was just too much to ask. Protests took place in Tacoma, Wash., on Sunday night after video spread of a cop driving their car into a crowd of people and running…
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Why Activists Are Frustrated by the Appointment of Louisville’s New Police Chief
What happens when a high-ranking police officer resigns from one police department after the unjust police shooting of a Black citizen only to become police chief of another embattled police department that came into the spotlight after the unjust police shooting of another Black citizen? Well, mainly, the new police chief is being greeted with…
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'Enough Is Enough': Anjanette Young Declares That She Will Not Be Taking Her Foot Off Chicago PD's Neck at MLK Day Rally
I have a lot of respect for Anjanette Young, the Black woman whose dignity and wellbeing Chicago police officers had such little regard for that they made her wait handcuffed and naked for over half an hour while they searched the wrong home for a suspect in Feb. 2019. Some victims of police violence let…