Police Brutality
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Can Vallejo Police Be Trusted to Investigate an Officer-Involved Shooting?
When an officer shoots and kills someone, whether on-duty or off, there is usually an investigation into the shooting to determine whether there was any wrongdoing on the part of the officer involved. History has shown us that police officers are rarely held accountable for their actions when it comes to the use of deadly…
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Here’s How Many People Police Killed in 2019…We Think
On Oct. 14, 2019, 12-year-old Akeelah Jackson was returning to her St. Louis home from a Family Dollar store. As she crossed the street, an unidentified St. Louis County police officer was pursuing a traffic violation at 59 mph on a street zoned for 30 mph, according to the St. Louis American. When the car…
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70-Year-Old Woman Tased Three Times, Arrested by Florida Deputy Attempting to Enter Her Home: 'I Was Scared'
Barbara Pinkney of Bradenton, Fla., has been left distraught and traumatized after a horrific encounter with Manatee County sheriff’s deputies. CBS News and WFLA report that on Dec. 26, deputies came to the 70-year-old’s home to serve an arrest warrant to her grandson, Tevin Turner, on a probation violation for carrying a concealed weapon. “We…
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Forth Worth Officer Indicted on Murder Charge for Fatal Shooting of Atatiana Jefferson
On Friday, a grand jury in Texas indicted a former Fort Worth police officer on a murder charge in the fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson. NBC News reports that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Aaron Dean, the 35-year-old former officer responsible for the shooting, had been indicted. Jefferson was a 28-year-old pre-med graduate…
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Kansas Man Claims He Woke Up to a Cop Assaulting Him in His Own Bed—For No Reason at All
Joseph Harter says he was beaten so badly by a police officer last year that, for a moment, he was blinded by his own blood in his eyes. But as brutal as that detail is, it isn’t what makes Harter’s case unique. It’s that Harter was allegedly assaulted in the dead of night in his…
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School Resource Officer Fired After Video Surfaces of 11-Year-Old Being Body Slammed: ‘This Should Never Have Happened’
On Monday, I had the misfortune of reporting about a Vance County, N.C., school resource officer who was put on paid leave after picking up and slamming an 11-year-old student into the ground—twice. Thankfully, Christmas came early, and the same sheriff’s deputy who deserves to get stomped out by every parent in America for brutally…
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Study Shows Link Between Police Shootings of Unarmed Black People and Health of Black Babies
Fatal police encounters are devastating for the communities in which they occur: families are irreparably ripped apart; trauma spreads through neighborhood institutions like schools and churches; and trust between the community and law enforcement (and, oftentimes, other branches of local government) is broken. Any one of these problems present tremendous challenges to the health and…
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Investigation Launched After Video of Arizona Deputy Viciously Attacking, Threatening 15-Year-Old Amputee Surfaces
A shocking video has surfaced of a 15-year-old amputee being violently attacked by an unidentified Pima County, Ariz., deputy. KOLD reports that the incident occurred in September in a group home after the teen—who was abandoned by his family and has no arms or legs—knocked over a garbage can and threatened a member of the…
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Eric Garner’s Family Pushes for Anti-Chokehold Bill After Screening of American Trial: The Eric Garner Story
The controversial hybrid documentary/drama American Trial: The Eric Garner Story premiered in mid-October at the 57th New York Film Festival, providing insight into the judicial process, police brutality and race relations in America. The experimental film features a mock trial that was filmed live to represent a fictionalized depiction of what might have happened if…
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NYPD Says It Was ‘Stabbed in the Back’ Because Voters Won’t Let Them Lie and Kill With Impunity
New York Police Department officials are upset over the passage of a ballot measure that gives a civilian oversight watchdog more authority to investigate police officers who lie during investigations into police brutality, corruption and misconduct. “Today the NYPD was stabbed in the back by the very same people we swore to protect,” Sergeant Benevolent…