police shootings
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Los Angeles Police Commission Votes to Require Cops to Try De-Escalation Before Firing Guns
The Los Angeles Police Commission voted on a policy Tuesday that would require all LAPD officers to try to defuse situations whenever possible before firing their guns, with the specific aim of decreasing the number of officer-involved shootings. From the Los Angeles Times: The new rules formally incorporate a decades-old concept called “de-escalation” into the…
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L.A. District Attorney Again Declines to Press Charges Against Officer Who Fatally Shot Unarmed Man
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has once again decided not to pursue charges against a Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man after a car chase in March 2015, even though the city’s Police Commission determined that the shooting was unjustified. In a seven-page memo (pdf) that was made public…
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More Americans Killed by Police in 2017, but Trump Dominates Headlines
Police killings are actually increasing in the United States, according to new data, but because our current president is leading every news cycle, brutality is being pushed to the back burner, activists contend. The rate of police-involved deaths of American citizens is higher than in any month in 2016, and January and February each saw…
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Judge Denies Dismissal of Charges Against Police Officer Who Killed Philando Castile
Defense attorneys for the police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile attempted to get the manslaughter charges against him dropped, arguing that Castile was culpable in his own death, but a judge disagreed and denied the dismissal Wednesday, ruling that the trial against the officer will move forward. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that…
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LAPD Officers Who Shot and Killed Ezell Ford Will Not Face Charges
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that it will not be filing charges against the two police officers involved in the 2014 shooting death of Ezell Ford. In a 28-page report (pdf) with most of the officers’ statements redacted, the Justice System Integrity Division of the district attorney’s office determined that Officers…
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Michael Slager Headed Back to Court for State, Fed Trials in Walter Scott Death
The first preliminary hearing in the state retrial of a white former North Charleston, S.C., police officer charged with the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist is scheduled for Monday, and prosecutors in his federal civil rights trial are asking that the the jury pool be limited to the local area. Michael Slager, 35,…
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Study: Black Men Nearly 3 Times as Likely to Be Killed by Police Use of Force
A new study from the American Journal of Public Health, published Tuesday, reveals that black men are nearly three times as likely as white men to be killed by police use of force, CNN reports. The report may come as little surprise to many, given the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the…
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Whites Overrepresented on Juries of Recent Police Shooting Cases
A recent Huffington Post investigation finds that whites have been substantially overrepresented on juries in recent police cases where police have used lethal force against civilians. The investigators were able to obtain juror information for all 13 police shooting trials that have gone to a jury since August 2014, and found that majority-white juries decided…
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2 Pa. Police Officers Shot; Search Underway for Suspect
A search is underway for a suspect who shot two police officers in Pennsylvania early Thursday morning, the Associated Press reports. According to the report, the shooting occurred at 4 a.m. Thursday in Canonsburg, 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. The conditions of the injured officers was not known; nor had their names been released. One…
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Suspect in Killings of Iowa Cops Hospitalized, Has Not Been Charged: Report
An Iowa man suspected of killing two Iowa police officers in separate “ambush-style attacks” as they sat in their squad cars has not yet been charged for his alleged involvement and remained hospitalized Thursday for treatment of an existing medical condition, Reuters reports. Scott Michael Greene, 46, was arrested after turning himself in hours after…