police brutality
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‘I Could Kill You’: Video Shows Off-Duty Ill. Police Officer Pinning Black Teen to the Ground
Another video has surfaced showing an off-duty Lansing, Ill., police officer pinning down a black teen and threatening his life, all because the boy was trying to help a friend who happened to be on the officer’s property. According to WGN TV, the incident began Saturday night when a few teenage boys got into a…
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City of St. Anthony, Minn., Reaches $3,000,000 Settlement With Family of Philando Castile
The city of St. Anthony, Minn., will avoid a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Philando Castile’s family in the wake of his 2016 shooting death by paying out nearly $3 million to his family. According to the Associated Press, Castile’s mother is set to receive the $2.995 million as settlement in Castile’s death at the…
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Mistrial Declared for 2nd Time in Case of Ohio Cop Who Shot and Killed Sam Dubose
For the second time, jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the murder trial of Ray Tensing, the (now-former) University of Cincinnati police officer who shot Sam Dubose in the head during a traffic stop. According to WCPO, jury deliberations began Monday after six days of testimony and one day of closing arguments…
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White Men Can’t Murder: Why White Cops Are Immune to the Law
Philando Castile was not murdered, because white police officers don’t murder black men. If that statement upsets you, allow me to cheer you up with a joke: What’s rarer than getting struck by lightning, being killed by a terrorist or winning the lottery? Well, in the past 10 years, 123 people or groups have hit…
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‘I Don’t Want You to Get Shooted’: New Video Shows Diamond Reynolds’ 4-Year-Old Daughter Concerned for Her Mother’s Safety
A newly released video shows Diamond Reynolds’ young daughter’s concern for her mother’s life after St. Anthony, Minn., Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez gunned down Philando Castile—Reynolds’ boyfriend—in front of the young child. After Castile was shot to death, another officer placed the little girl, 4, and a handcuffed Reynolds in the back of a squad…
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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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Fired Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown Found Not Guilty in Fatal Shooting of Sylville Smith
Fired Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown was found not guilty in the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith. According to Fox6Now, the jury returned the not guilty verdict on a charge of first-degree reckless homicide after entering into a second day of deliberations on Wednesday. Prosecutors attempted to argue that Smith was defenseless and “looked like…
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Officials Recommend 1-Day Suspension After Columbus, Ohio, Officer Is Caught Kicking Handcuffed Black Man in the Head
Officials in Ohio have recommended a 24-hour suspension for a Columbus police officer who was caught on video stomping on a handcuffed man’s head, because that seemed totally reasonable to them. Had I walked up to a random person (let alone a restrained person) and kicked him or her in the head, it would be…
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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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Family of Michael Brown Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit With the City of Ferguson, Mo.
A federal judge approved a secret settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Michael Brown over his 2014 shooting death at the hands of now former Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the settlement amount was not disclosed Tuesday in U.S. District Judge E. Richard…