police shootings
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The Complexity of Not Calling the Police While Black
The news has lately been inundated with examples of white folks (and even some nonwhite folks) doing the ultimate white-folkin’ of calling the police for no reason on black folks who were doing nothing but existing and living their everyday lives. From Starbucks to walking in the park with our own children or trying to…
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A ‘Double Standard’: Black Parkland, Fla., Students Speak Out on Black Lives Matter Message Being Shut Down by School Days Before Shooting
Just one week before a mass shooting would launch their school into the national spotlight, students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School put on a Black History Month show at the Parkland, Fla., school. In a last-minute, unrehearsed addition, black student organizers wanted to address a letter that had appeared in the school’s newspaper. Titled…
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Police Shooting and Killing Black Men? It’s Not the White House’s Problem, Sarah Huckabee Sanders Says
On March 18, two police officers in Sacramento, Calif., shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandparents’ home. It is not the first extrajudicial execution of a black man by police, and if there is no change soon, it likely won’t be the last. The nation is watching the aftermath of…
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An Incomplete List of Things Black People Should Avoid Doing so They Won’t Be Killed by Police
On Sunday, March 18, police in Sacramento, Calif., fired 20 shots at Stephon Clark, killing him. Clark was unarmed and in his own backyard, leading many to ask what black people must do to escape the indiscriminate killing of black people. A 2015 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, showed that there…
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If You So Scared, Why Are You the Police?
“The officers feared for their lives, so they shot … ” So many police shootings contain this narrative. Scared police officers in a stressful situation. They were afraid. They thought he had a gun. He ran. He was coming at them. Again and again, the narrative fed to us is that these trained professionals were…
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Colorado Gunman Who Killed Cop Livestreamed Shoot-Out, Had Record of Suspicious and Harassing Behavior
A Colorado man who shot and killed a deputy sheriff on New Year’s Eve spent hours leading up to the shoot-out taping himself and posting to social media. But it didn’t stop there—before police killed him, Matthew Riehl also livestreamed the deadly gun battle, CBS News reports. Riehl, a 37-year-old Iraq War veteran, also had…
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Attorney: Justine Damond Is ‘the Most Innocent Victim’ of a Police Shooting He Has Ever Seen
Those who want to blame every single black person who has ever been shot by police for their own death have finally gotten their perfect victim: a white woman named Justine Damond. A lawyer representing the family of the Australian native who was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer said Thursday that Damond…
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Is 48 Hours Too Long to Wait for a Police Officer to Give a Statement After a Fatal Shooting?
Police officers in Portland, Ore., who were involved in a shooting that resulted in death or serious physical injury were previously given 48 hours during which they could consult with an attorney before having to make a statement about the shooting. It was a rule that was objected to by advocates for police accountability. In…
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Texas Governor Signs Bill Into Law Enforcing the Reporting of Police Shootings
Starting in September, any Texas law-enforcement agency that does not report a police shooting to the state attorney general within the allotted period could be fined $1,000 per day, with the penalty increasing if the agency commits the same infraction twice within a five-year period. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 245 into…
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There’s No Such Thing as ‘Good Police’
In the reality-adjacent, Baltimore-centered ecosystem of The Wire, “good police” stood as the single highest honor a character could receive. It was reserved for those who possessed the inherent qualities making someone a naturally gifted police officer and who also performed those duties with integrity and verve. You had to be born “good police,” but…