news
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Austin, Texas, Official Who Organized a Sexist Lecture on Women in Government Resigns
When more women than men were elected to the Austin, Texas, City Council this year, Anthony Snipes, a city official, decided to organize a training session for council members on how to deal with women in local government, the Associated Press reports. Jonathan Allen, the consultant Snipes hired, dished out recommendations on how to handle…
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Mich. Man Brutally Beaten by Cop Settles for $1.4 Million
Floyd Dent, a Michigan resident who was brutally beaten by a police officer in Inkster during a traffic stop in January, settled his lawsuit for almost $1.4 million on Thursday, The Guardian reports, the same day the officer involved appeared in court to learn whether he would be headed to trial. According to the report,…
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DC Reporter Fatally Shot While Waiting for Bus
Charnice Milton, 27, was born in Southeast Washington, D.C., an area plagued by crime and poverty. She would go on to graduate from Ball State University and earn a master’s degree from Syracuse. She wanted to make a difference in her community, so she returned home to take a job with a local newspaper. “She…
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Officers Charged in Freddie Gray’s Death Were Not Handcuffed When They Were Arrested
Three of the Baltimore officers arrested and charged with various crimes in the death of Freddie Gray are seen in a new video walking from the police van into the jail without handcuffs. According to the Baltimore Sun, the three officers—Caesar R. Goodson Jr., William G. Porter and Edward M. Nero, who all surrendered May…
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It’s Time to Stop Blaming Black-on-Black Crime
For every unarmed black man, woman or child killed by unrestrained police officers, there’s an intellectually impoverished response when black people get visibly upset about it: What about black-on-black crime? There was a time, in another surreal reality not so long ago, when conservative pundits reflexively grimaced at even the mention of it—and, oh, that…
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High School Football Players Fulfill Dying Teammate’s Last Wish
His final wish was to go through the tunnel leading into his high school’s football stadium with his team one last time. Coffee County High School football players honored their teammate Malik Sparkman’s dying wish and carried the talented linebacker’s coffin through the tunnel and across the field to the end zone, WSB-TV reports. According…
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Bronx Cop Cleared of Rape Charges for Relationship With Teen Girl
A Bronx, N.Y., police officer who also works as a pastor and was facing multiple charges for allegedly being in a relationship with a 16-year-old girl was cleared of all charges Wednesday, the New York Post reports. A judge cleared Vladimir Sosa, an officer with the 46th Precinct, after prosecutors reportedly could not prove that…
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7-Year-Old Mass. Boy Shot While Riding Bike
Boston police are asking the public for any tips about the person who shot a 7-year-old while the child was riding his bike, ABC News reports. According to the report, second-grader Divan Silva was riding to the store to get water early Sunday evening in Dorchester, a neighborhood in the city, when he was hit…
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Watch: Calif. Police Slam Pregnant Woman to Ground on Her Belly for Refusing to Show ID
Officials in Barstow, Calif., after looking at body-cam footage of a January altercation involving a pregant woman, are maintaining that the woman “actively resisted arrest,” the Desert Dispatch reports. However, Charlena Michelle Cooks, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the incident, said that she had never been so “terrified” in her life.…
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Study: Black Teachers are Just as Likely as White Teachers to Disproportionately Punish Black Students
Implicit bias makes teachers of all races more likely to punish black students than white students for the same misbehavior, according to a new Stanford University study, the Huffington Post reports. In an experiment, teachers of all races exhibited unconscious bias against students with “black-sounding names.” Researchers showed teachers the school records of misbehaving students.…