police accountability
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Dear NYC Police Union: Blue Is Not a People, Blue Is Not a Race … Unless Y’all Smurfs
Y’all, please come get the Sergeants Benevolent Association, please, because I do believe someone in public relations has lost his damn mind. On Sunday night, the New York City Police Department union released a video claiming that cops are the victims of “blue racism,” and face worse prejudice than those who are judged by their…
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NYC Together Is Building a Bridge Between 2 Groups That Seem Diametrically Opposed: Teens and Cops
Community and police relationships have been strained in recent years, to put it lightly. The two groups have apparently reached a stalemate, with communities furious over the recent slate of officer-involved shootings—when all too often the officers walk away with barely a reprimand—and with the police feeling as if they are being unfairly attacked. Neither…
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On Philando Castile, Terror and the Trauma That Remains
In Toni Morrison’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved, the character Baby Suggs has survived more than 60 years in slavery and has lost eight children. She preaches a sermon to a group of formerly enslaved people and beseeches her audience to love themselves—their hands, their backs, their hearts, their laughter, their dances, their very flesh—because…
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Texas Governor Signs ‘Weakened’ Sandra Bland Act Into Law
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Sandra Bland Act into law Thursday, in what was supposed to be a decisive move to address the issues that led to Bland’s death. As the Texas Tribune notes, the act obligates county jails to channel individuals with mental-health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, and to make it…
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Video Shows 3 Texas Cops Forcibly Detaining 14-Year-Old Girl; 1 Officer Accused of Punching Her in the Face
A controversial video that started circulating on social media Sunday shows at least three San Antonio police officers manhandling a 14-year-old black girl as they forcibly detain her. On the video, one of those officers appears to punch her in the face. It was dark when the video was taken, but the officers are seen…
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Nev. May Become the 2nd State to Require Law Enforcement to Wear Body Cameras
Police officers in Nevada may soon have a new piece of equipment that they are required to clip on after a measure regarding body cameras was sent to Gov. Brian Sandoval for his signature Thursday. According to Reuters, the proposal, which has already been approved by the state Legislature, would make Nevada the second state…
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2 Months After Tenn. Police Officer Shot and Killed Jocques Clemmons, Investigation Into Death Continues
Jocques Clemmons, 31, was shot and killed by Nashville, Tenn., Police Officer Joshua Lippert on Feb. 10, and two months after his death, the investigation into the shooting continues, leading to the Nashville NAACP’s call for more police accountability as well as a citizens review board. Tennessee NAACP President Gloria Sweet-Love told News Channel 5,…
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NFL Players Speak Out in Congress on Criminal-Justice Reform, Police Killings of Blacks
In the past few years, there has been an uptick in press coverage of police brutality targeting the African-American community, coupled with the already troubled and biased criminal-justice system that penalizes black people often and harshly. This, in turn, has brought a widely publicized rise in the mobilization of the black community and its allies…