police reform
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Some Chicago Schools Vote to Kick Cops Out, but the Schools With Mostly Black Students Will Still Keep Them
The uprising against the racist police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s killing earlier this year has put policy recommendations like defunding police in closer to the realm of reality and not just in the imaginations of Black activists. But the age-old problem of addressing issues that are disproportionately harming Black people by producing…
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Lawmakers in Minnesota Pass Extensive Police Reform Legislation
It unfortunately took a global pandemic and the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor for the nation to realize that we are long past due for significant policing reforms. Due to the fact we currently have a racist-ass president, it’s mainly been on the individual states to implement these reforms. In Minnesota, where Floyd…
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Berkeley Might Become One of the First Cities to Remove Police From Traffic Stops
Fundamentally, I’m a begrudging optimist. Pessimism just seems counterproductive so, no matter how awful things look, I always hold out hope that perhaps they can be better. As protests for police accountability have consistently occurred for well over a month across the county, I’ve hoped that the result would be some kind of tangible change.…
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Florida Cop Fired and Charged With Assault After Pointing Gun to Handcuffed Black Man’s Head for Not Giving His Name
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida has fired and charged a sergeant with a felony after the officer held a gun to a handcuffed Black man’s head and threatened to kill him for not providing his name. The cop’s quick termination comes as a result of his fellow officers, who reported him to their…
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Everything You Wanted to Know About the Police Reform Bills. No, Seriously…Everything
Right now, two separate and unequal policing bills are navigating their way through America’s highest legislative bodies as a response to the protests over the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and thousands of other people whose lives have been snuffed out by the hands, forearms, knees and bullets of police officers. While…
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Republicans Unveil Trash-Ass Police Reform Bill That Discourages Chokeholds But Doesn’t Ban Them
When President Trump unveiled his bullshit police reform toilet paper executive order, there was one black person not named Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) who was super supportive, almost giddy over the proposed order. That one black face was Van Jones. Jones is becoming that guy, and truthfully, if he stopped wearing his glasses, you’d have…
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NYPD Disbanding Plainclothes Anti-Crime Unit, aka 'Last Chapter' of Stop and Frisk
Calls for police departments to be defunded, dismantled and outright abolished have grown nationwide over the last month. New York has responded to these calls by closing a 600-person plainclothes unit. Which, uh, is something I guess? The anti-crime unit was responsible for finding and getting guns off the street, often employing the questionable stop-and-frisk…
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For Years, ‘Qualified Immunity’ Protected Violent Cops. Could a New Court Decision Mark a Shift?
On Tuesday, a federal court went against more than a decade of decisions in denying qualified immunity to a cop who shot a black man 22 times. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel concerns the case of Wayne Jones, who was shot and killed in West Virginia in 2013 by five cops, who fired…
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Tim Scott, the Lone Black Republican Senator, Tasked With Coming Up With GOP's Police Reform Plan, and I’m Not Mad
The only thing Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) could tell me about is how he lives in the sewer with his three turtle friends from high school and why he listens to a rat. Other than that, Mitch McConnell and his saggy neck skin can take a long walk off a short pier into a…