Five women taken to hospital as a result of car hitting a lamppost in Streatham, south London, and four arrested
A teenage girl is in a critical condition after a car being chased by police crashed into a lamppost.
The Met has launched an investigation into the collision, which happened in the early hours of Sunday morning in south London and left five women in hospital.
Continue reading...PM condemns violence at latest protest against police, crime, sentencing and courts bill
Boris Johnson has condemned violent scenes in Bristol as “disgraceful”, after a protest against a new policing bill on Friday night resulted in clashes between demonstrators and police.
The protest was against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which would give police greater powers to restrict protests, and initially attracted around 300 people before the crowd swelled to more than 1,000.
Continue reading...Several rows of police were standing between the demonstrators and Bridewell station
A crowd of people gathered in Bristol on Friday evening for a third “kill the bill” demonstration within a week.
Hundreds have sat down in the street near Bridewell police station, the focus of rioting on Sunday evening and Monday morning.
Continue reading...Alarming rates of violence have inspired a poster campaign that has spread beyond France to more than 15 countries
On a weekday evening, in between coronavirus lockdowns and curfews, Camille, Natacha and Cindy are out with a bright yellow plastic bucket of glue, two large brushes and a wad of A4 paper, each sheet covered with a single letter.
The women, all in their 20s, stop on the main road of this Paris suburb by the wall of what looks like a former bank.
Continue reading...Bristol's mayor, Marvin Rees, has said violence that broke out during demonstrations in the city against the government's anti-protest bill was counterproductive and may be used as evidence of why the legislation is necessary.
Rees said the perpetrators were 'living out their fantasies of being revolutionaries' and had made no contribution to furthering justice for marginalised communities.
He added: 'It goes against everything we have been doing in the city these recent years to build partnership and collective action'
As the popular BBC drama returns, a former crime reporter takes a look at the reality of fighting police corruption
Last week, an officer from South Wales police received formal notification that they were under investigation regarding their dealings with a man who had been arrested and held overnight in a cell in Cardiff.
The suspect had been released from custody the following morning then found dead shortly afterwards. The investigation is to focus on whether the level of force used by the officer was “necessary, proportionate and reasonable” in the circumstances.
Continue reading...Thousands of demonstrators gather in Hyde Park for Piers Corbyn as police urge crowd to disperse
Thousands marched under a heavy police presence through central London in protest against lockdown on Saturday, with at least 13 arrested.
Demonstrators gathered at Speakers’ Corner by Hyde Park at about midday, where anti-lockdown figurehead Piers Corbyn gave a speech saying he would “never take a vaccine” and falsely claiming that the scale of deaths from Covid was not dissimilar to those from flu each year.
Continue reading...A Georgia sheriff’s captain was criticised for appearing to characterise the actions of the suspect in a mass shooting in Atlanta as him having had 'a really bad day'.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, was charged with killing eight people in Atlanta, six of them women of Asian descent, on Wednesday.
Atlanta police said Long had declared Tuesday’s attack was not racially motivated. He claimed to have a 'sex addiction' and authorities have said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of 'temptation'
Continue reading...The 13 new constables have overcome society’s prejudice to win a place at Chhattisgarh’s training academy
The top police officer in Chhattisgarh state, Durgesh Awasthi, has nothing but praise for his new recruits. He suspects, he says, some of them will prove to be “the best cops” the force has ever enlisted.
“They are sensitive, have a high emotional quotient and know not just how the other half lives but what it’s like being on the other side of the law,” said Awasthi.
Continue reading...Critics say handing police and home secretary more discretionary powers will impact civil liberties
The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill has come under scrutiny in the wake of the handling of the Sarah Everard vigils. What are the bill’s provisions and why is it generating so much controversy?
Continue reading...Metropolitan police chief stands firm after criticism from London mayor and home secretary
Britain’s most senior police chief defied pressure to resign as she dismissed “armchair” critics amid widespread outrage over officers manhandling women who were mourning the killing of Sarah Everard.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, was publicly rebuked by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for providing an unsatisfactory explanation of why police broke up a vigil for Everard in London’s Clapham Common on Saturday, near where she was allegedly abducted before being murdered.
Continue reading...Analysis: the police’s handling of the Sarah Everard vigil raises questions over whether authorities are going too far
Defending the Metropolitan police’s handling of Saturday night’s Sarah Everard vigil, assistant commissioner Helen Ball argued the force had to act “because of the overriding need to protect people’s safety” from the threat of coronavirus. Yet last year’s Black Lives Matter protests in some 300 US cities did not cause a spike in cases there, a July report from the National Bureau of Economic Research found. The outdoor air played a part in dispelling the virus and, in cities with big rallies, infections even fell because those who did not take part stayed home instead of shopping or eating out – activities that carry a greater risk.
While not an exact parallel with the Clapham Common event, it suggests even huge and noisy protests, where thousands of people are shouting and chanting, are not necessarily cauldrons for infection. And they can be done safely, according to the human rights organisation Liberty. For example a socially distanced rally was held in Tel Aviv in April last year against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with thousands of people shouting and waving banners each in their own space, two metres apart.
Continue reading...Unofficial event on Clapham Common marred by at least one arrest and confrontations with officers
The evening in south London began in grief and silence, as hundreds gathered to remember Sarah Everard and call for changes that will keep others safe. It ended in anger and violence, as police trampled flowers and candles laid out in tribute to Everard and tried to silence women speaking out in her memory.
Tensions were high before the vigil, which had officially been cancelled after the Metropolitan police refused to give the organisers a permit. That compounded anger at the force, already high after a serving officer was charged with Everard’s kidnap and murder.
Continue reading...The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $27m to settle a civil lawsuit from George Floyd's family over the Black man's death in police custody.
It was not immediately clear how the settlement might affect the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white former officer charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death.
The city council unanimously approved the settlement on Friday which includes $500,000 for the neighborhood where Floyd was arrested.
Ukrainian police officers have rescued four men who fell through ice in the city of Dnipro. Video released by the national police shows the dramatic rescue operation as officers pulled the men out of the water with a rope
Continue reading...Exclusive: total of 112,490 criminal convictions not sent to relevant EU capitals over eight-year period
The conviction of 109 killers, 81 rapists and a man found guilty of both crimes in UK courts was not passed on to the criminals’ home EU countries due to a massive computer failure and subsequent cover-up, the Guardian can reveal.
The most serious cases are among a total of 112,490 criminal convictions not sent to the relevant EU capitals over an eight-year period due to a catastrophic computer error, which some fear has put lives at risk.
Continue reading...A new police science unit in France is deploying groundbreaking forensics and believes DNA will soon allow it to put faces on suspects
Imagine a crime scene. The body of a man in a red sweatshirt and jeans lies dead on the living room floor of an apartment, a revolver near his right hand. There is a blood stain on the blue patterned rug and a bullet hole in the ceiling. On a low table sit an almost empty bottle of whisky and two glasses. The television is off.
If this were an episode of the French TV crime drama Engrenages (Spiral) which ran for eight seasons, or the more recent Netflix hit Lupin, the mystery would have been solved and the killer caught before the screen credits rolled.
Continue reading...In alarming testimony to a House subcommittee, the acting chief of Capitol police, Yogananda Pittman, said threats were circulating that directly targeted Joe Biden's first formal speech to a joint session of Congress – the date of which has not yet been announced.
Militia groups involved in the 6 January insurrection want to stage another attack aiming to 'blow up' the complex and kill lawmakers, Pittman has warned
Continue reading...Although femicide is a recognised crime in Mexico, when a woman disappears, the authorities are notoriously slow to act. But there is someone who will take on their case
On the night of 30 October 2019, as many Mexicans were preparing to celebrate the Day of the Dead, the family of Jessica Jaramillo stood in the pouring rain watching two dozen police search a house on the outskirts of Toluca, the capital of Mexico State. At about 9pm, the authorities carried out a dead dog, followed by two live ones and a cat. Then they pulled out a woman’s body.
Jessi, a 23-year-old psychology student at a local university, had gone missing a week earlier. On 24 October, she hadn’t appeared at the spot where her parents usually picked her up after class. Within a few minutes, she called her mother to say she was going out, abruptly hung up, then texted to add, “Don’t worry, I’m with Óscar”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: NPCC’s drugs lead backs wider supply of naloxone after successful trials
The overdose antidote naloxone should be made available to all police officers in areas where there is a clear need, the police chiefs’ drug lead has urged after successful pilot schemes.
North Wales police and Police Scotland are trialling having beat officers carry naloxone nasal sprays that can be used to treat opiate overdoses, and West Midlands police have extended their pilot scheme, with a rollout due to be announced.
Continue reading...