police brutality
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NYPD Fires Officer Responsible for the Death of Eric Garner
Five years after “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for police accountability in light of the unnecessary death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, comes the news that the officer responsible, Daniel Pantaleo, has been fired. According to the Washington Post, NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill made the announcement on Monday, weeks after a departmental disciplinary…
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Body-Cam Footage Shows 19-Year-Old De’Von Bailey Running Away as He Was Shot by Police; Autopsy Rules Death a Homicide
Once again, something that started so innocuously, with the words, “Hey guys” spoken by a police officer, has left bullets in the back of a dead black teen. Nineteen-year-old De’Von Bailey, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was shot and killed by a Colorado Springs police officer on Aug. 3. Recently released body-camera footage from that day…
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Texas Rangers Decline to Criminally Investigate Officers Who Paraded Black Man in Street Like Runaway Slave
No surprise here. If police are barely investigated, hardly charged, and scarcely convicted for killing black people—on video—why would they face any sort of consequence for parading a black man through the streets tied to a rope while on horseback? And so it goes. The Texas Rangers announced on Friday that the actions of two…
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Baltimore H.S. Principal Trying to Teach His Son a Lesson About Police Interactions Gets Verbally Abused by Cop
A Baltimore high school principal is speaking out about an incident with a white county cop in which the officer degraded and demeaned him in front of his son. Vance Benton, who heads up Patterson High School in East Baltimore, wrote a letter to county officials about a July incident not far from his house,…
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Five Years After Mike Brown's Killing, Should Policing Be Abolished?
“I know that if I call the cops, they’re not coming to protect me—even in moments when I need it.“ —David Johns, executive director, National Black Justice Coalition text Since Mike Brown was killed by now former police officer Darren Wilson five years ago, the Ferguson Police Department hired a new police chief and the…
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Five Years After Mike Brown, Police Brutality Is Still Harming Black Communities
It’s been five years since Mike Brown, an unarmed teen from Ferguson, Mo., was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. Ahead of the anniversary, I brought together three experts who tackle the issues of police brutality and anti-racism in their daily work to discuss what has—and hasn’t—changed in the half a decade…
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Judge Orders Baton Rouge to Release Psych Report of Cop Who Killed Alton Sterling Amid Reports of Abuse, Unprofessional Behavior
Days after Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul admitted that Blane Salamoni, the police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling in 2016, should never have been hired, a Louisiana judge has ordered the city of Baton Rouge to release a psychological evaluation used in Salamoni’s hiring. The judge handed the decision down Monday; Sterling’s…
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Do The Right Thing Turns 30 This Week. Not Much Has Changed Since 1989
Spike Lee’s third film, Do The Right Thing, turns 30 years old on Sunday, July 21, but its message is so fresh that it could have been made today. I was first introduced to this film during my senior year of high school, in March 1999. I borrowed it from a library in Oklahoma City,…
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Eric Garner’s Daughter Meets With NYC Mayor, Says Not Firing Officer Daniel Pantaleo Is ‘Unacceptable’
Though at this point it should be expected, it’s always a gut punch when a police officer takes a life—on video—and said death is ruled a homicide by an independent professional and yet, not only does the officer responsible remain unjailed but gainfully employed and defiant about their actions And so we took another one…