black lives matter
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Special Prosecutor Appointed in Elijah McClain Case
Outrage has grown in the last week over the way the case of Elijah McClain has been handled. McClain was a 23-year-old Black man who died last year during a confrontation with police in Aurora, Colo. After a petition for a new investigation into the case garnered 3 million signatures, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D)…
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6 Months After Kneeling on a Black Woman’s Neck and Tasing Her Belly, Miami-Area Officer Faces Battery Charges
A former Miami Gardens police officer has been charged with four counts of official misconduct and two counts of battery stemming from a January incident where he knelt on a Black woman’s neck and stunned her twice with a Taser during an unlawful arrest. As NBC News reports, Jordy Yanes Martel turned himself in on…
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Jeff Bezos Says Black Lives Matter, but Will He Make a Meaningful Stand for Black Amazon Employees?
If you look at allyship as some sort of contest, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been eager to put some points on the board. He’s done this mostly through highly publicized, “spicy” responses to racist customers, and by canceling his meetings on Juneteenth and encouraging other employees “to do the same if you can.” But…
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Colorado Governor Pledges to Look Into Elijah McClain’s 2019 In-Custody Death After Nationwide Outcry
When 23-year-old Elijah McClain died after police put him in a chokehold last year, the news of his killing—and the subsequent decision to not press criminal charges against the Aurora, Colo., officers who apprehended him—didn’t reach far beyond the state. But, in the wake of the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month,…
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‘If I Had a Gun, I Would Shoot All of You’: San Francisco Man Charged With Hate Crime for Threatening Black Family Over BLM T-Shirts
Most days I wake up to the petty satisfaction of knowing how mad white people are right now. The Black Lives Matter movement is more mainstream and widely celebrated than it’s ever been. It’s so big now that even white people living in some cave near some Amish community with no internet access will likely…
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'I Am Not Able to Rest': Samaria Rice Reflects on the Life and Legacy of Her Son Tamir Rice on His 18th Birthday
“I have to be on the front lines because I am Tamir’s mother. Tamir is in high demand. When these things [police shootings of unarmed Black people] happen, I am not able to rest. I am not able to be normal. Normalcy went out the window when my son got murdered.” —Samaria Rice text Tamir…
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Study Finds Black Lives Matter Protests Didn't Lead to Growth in Coronavirus Cases
When the massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations began in May, it was unclear how they might impact the country’s ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to a new study published earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nationwide demonstrations don’t appear to be linked to spikes in coronavirus cases. In fact, there’s some…
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Tennessee Prosecutor Calls for Officers to Be Investigated for Beating Black Man While He Was Handcuffed
How many videos need to surface showing police officers brutalizing black people before America realizes these incidents aren’t so isolated after all? Video footage of George Floyd set off the largest Black Lives Matter movement since the BLM hashtag was created. What most people don’t know is that just two days before that incident, five…
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One of the Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor Has Been Fired, but Louisville Plans to Fully Fund the Police Department That Made Him Possible
More than 100 days after Brett Hankison barged into 26-year-old Breonna Taylor’s home in Louisville, Ky., shooting and killing her, the former Louisville Police narcotics officer has been fired from the department. Hankison, who is also the subject of two sexual assault investigations, was officially fired Tuesday (his impending termination was announced last week). Hankison…
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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…