american society
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No Charges for NYPD Officer Seen on Video Kneeling on Black Man's Neck, Despite Law Passed After George Floyd's Death
Challenging police brutality and the lack of accountability for the officers who practice it is a continuing battle, despite the many reforms that have been introduced in the wake of the harrowing George Floyd killing in 2020. The viral video of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on 46-year-old Floyd’s neck during an arrest…
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Derek Chauvin Trial, Day 5: Senior Minneapolis Officer Testifies 'Putting Your Knee on the Neck for That Amount of Time Is Just Uncalled For'
The first week of witness testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial ended with a veteran lieutenant of the Minneapolis Police Department stating the obvious: that putting a knee on someone’s neck “could kill them” and Chauvin’s restraint of George Floyd in that manner was “totally unnecessary.” Though obvious, the testimony of the most senior member…
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George Floyd’s Girlfriend Gives Emotional Testimony, Painting a Heartbreaking, Complicated Picture of the Man During Day 4 of Trial
As the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, continued into its fourth day the focus was largely on what first responders witnessed when they arrived at the scene. According to the New York Times, the trial began with what was the most affecting testimony of the day…
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9 Minutes and 29 Seconds: Prosecutor’s Opening Statement in Chauvin Trial Reveals Real Time Ex-Cop’s Knee Was on George Floyd’s Neck
In opening statements in the trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd, prosecutors took pains to explain the full horror of the officer’s subjugation of the Black man last summer by placing his knee on his neck. “The most important numbers you will hear in this trial are nine…
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Court Denies Request by Ex-Officer in Breonna Taylor Case to Move Trial Outside of Louisville
Let’s start by remembering that no one has been criminally charged for the horrific killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a promising and ambitious young woman who police gunned down in her home in Louisville, Ky., in the middle of the night last spring. Of the three officers who entered Taylor’s apartment on that fatefully tragic…
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Livestream: Watch Opening Arguments in the Derek Chauvin Trial
Opening statements in Derek Chauvin’s trial for the death of George Floyd are set to take place Monday morning in Hennepin County, Minn., marking a pivotal development in the case that launched national racial justice protests and a renewed uprising against police brutality in 2020. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was fired from his…
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Jacob Blake Sues Wisconsin Officer Who Shot and Paralyzed Him
Jacob Blake is taking legal action against the police officer who shot him in the back seven times last summer in Kenosha, Wis., paralyzing the 29-year-old Black man. Blake’s attorneys in the case, Ben Crump, Patrick A. Salvi and B’Ivory LaMarr, announced on Thursday that they had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Kenosha…
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Despite the Objections of Police Unions, New York Publishes the Misconduct Records of More Than 83,000 Police Officers
Last August, The Root reported that the New York Civil Liberties Union released data that revealed more than 323,000 misconduct complaints filed against more than 80,000 New York police officers just after police unions failed to block the records from being exposed in a federal appeals court. Well, it turns out that the Big Apple…