police brutality
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Don’t Try This If You’re Black: Court Rules Woman Who Gave Cop the Middle Finger Is Protected by Constitution
Offering a peek into an entirely different justice system and police procedures that black people had no idea existed, a federal court ruled that a law enforcement officer violated a citizen’s constitutional rights by issuing a speeding ticket to a woman because she gave him the middle finger. After hearing the case of Debra Lee…
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Family Claims Bodycam Footage Shows Slain Rapper Was Asleep When Cops Killed Him
After viewing police body camera footage, family members of a rapper who was shot and killed in a California Taco Bell drive-thru say the video shows that six cops opened fire while the man was still asleep. The Guardian reports that the members of 20-year-old Willie McCoy’s family viewed police body camera recordings of the…
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No Surprise Here: Police Regularly Deny Access to Officer Video Footage
When 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot and killed by two police officers in the backyard of his grandparents’ house in March 2018, the Sacramento Police Department released officer body camera footage as well as footage captured by a Sacramento sheriff’s helicopter within days of the shooting. The city has its own transparency policy that requires…
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Columbus Police Officer Kidnapped Women Under 'Guise' of Arrest, Forced Sexual Favors in Exchange for Their Release: Report
55-year-old Andrew Mitchell, a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Police Department in Ohio, was arrested by federal authorities on Monday. According to the Department of Justice, Mitchell kidnapped several women “under the guise of making an arrest,” before forcing them to have sex with him in exchange for their release. Mitchell, who was placed on…
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Video Shows New Jersey Transit Police Dragging and Beating Defenseless Man
A cellphone video showing a New Jersey Transit Police officer hitting and dragging a man outside of a Trenton train station is the subject of a new internal investigation, according to ABC affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia. The woman who shot the video, who has requested anonymity, said she witnessed the incident around 10:30 Saturday night.…
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New York Peace Officer Charged After Punching and Kicking Homeless Man in Shelter Lobby
New York has a problem: Its police have a penchant for brutalizing marginalized residents. After a verbal altercation at the Bellevue Shelter in Manhattan, on March 6, 2017, supervising sergeant Cordell Fitts and several other officers rushed and subdued a homeless man after he swung at Fitts in the shelter lobby. In surveillance footage made…
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Chicago Cop Says Department Punished Him For Refusing to Cover Up Shooting of Unarmed Teen
A Chicago police officer charged with investigating the police shooting of a mentally disabled, unarmed teen has filed a federal lawsuit saying his superiors retaliated against him after he refused to falsify records and lie about the shooting. In a federal lawsuit file Monday, Sgt. Isaac Lambert, who has been with the Chicago Police Department…
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Cleveland Police Union Seeks to Overturn Firing of Tamir Rice's Killer
In a late albeit unsurprising display of indecency, the Cleveland police union has filed an appeal in court to overturn the firing of Timothy Loehmann, the officer who murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014. Loehmann was fired by the city over the contents of his job application and not for the murder of Rice,…
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Florida Cops Charged After Slapping Handcuffed Teen, Trying to Destroy Video of the Incident
Officials in Florida charged two Miami-Dade officers after they discovered an alleged assault and cover-up involving the tag team rogue cops. Even though the incident happened nearly a year ago, and no one knows how many other people these cops may have assaulted or how much evidence they may have destroyed, people must understand that…
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The Year Black Lives Matter in Brazil: Death of Young Black Man in Rio Prompts Protests, Comparisons to Eric Garner
Black Lives Matter protests broke out in at least five different cities in Brazil last weekend following the death of a young black man who was restrained by supermarket security in an upscale suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Pedro Gonzaga, a 19-year-old student and father, died of a heart attack last Thursday after being immobilized…