George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds and qualified immunity for law enforcement, but faces tough road in the Senate
The US House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the most ambitious police reform effort in decades, for the second time on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Two officers have been placed on administrative leave and another suspended after video footage emerged
The mother of a nine-year-old girl has accused police of “excessive use of force” after her daughter was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed in Rochester, New York.
Two were placed on administrative leave and another suspended on Tuesday, after police released video footage of the incident, which showed the nine-year-old being pepper-sprayed as she sat in the back of a squad car.
Continue reading...A Washington DC police officer who tried to stop rioting Trump supporters from entering the Capitol building on 6 January has revealed that some shouted 'kill him with his own gun' as he lay injured on the ground. Michael Fanone told CNN he considered using his weapon as he was overwhelmed by the mob, but decided against it out of fear for his own life. 'I tried to appeal to their humanity,' Fanone said. 'I just remember yelling out that I have kids, and it seemed to work.'
Continue reading...Law enforcement responses to more than 13,000 protests show a clear disparity in responses, new statistics show
Police in the United States are three times more likely to use force against leftwing protesters than rightwing protesters, according to new data from a nonprofit that monitors political violence around the world.
In the past 10 months, US law enforcement agencies have used teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and beatings at a much higher percentage at Black Lives Matter demonstrations than at pro-Trump or other rightwing protests.
Continue reading...Jacob Chansley, who wore furs and a horned hat, highlights America’s alarming double standard
Since the attack on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night, we can safely assume two things: in the US, white supremacy is treated with nowhere near the same force as peaceful protest. And as a result, white supremacists behave with complete entitlement.
How else can we describe how teargas, batons and horses were used on peaceful protesters demanding justice for Black Lives this summer; and yet, when an angry white mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn a legitimate election, some managed to make it all the way to Nancy Pelosi’s office unharmed and undeterred?
Continue reading...Suburban Denver police officers will not be charged after detaining four black girls at gunpoint this summer and handcuffing two after wrongly suspecting they were riding in a stolen car, prosecutors said on Friday.
Related: 'He was inspired by everything': friends and family pay tribute to Elijah McClain
Continue reading...Prosecutor says white officer who shot Blake several times in the back would not be charged due to Wisconsin self-defense law
A Wisconsin prosecutor announced Tuesday that he will not bring criminal charges against the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back from close range last August, which left the Black Kenosha father paralyzed from the waist down.
Michael Gravely, Kenosha county district attorney, said during a press conference that his office determined that the officer, Rusten Sheskey, would not be charged based on the state’s law relating to self-defense.
Continue reading...Investigation finds officer violated procedures for preparation of search warrant that led detectives to Taylor’s apartment
Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of an officer who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to the apartment where Breonna Taylor was fatally shot.
Detective Joshua Jaynes has received a pre-termination letter, media outlets reported Tuesday. It came after a professional standards unit investigation found he had violated department procedures for preparation of a search warrant and truthfulness, his attorney said.
Continue reading...Authorities call killing ‘a tragedy’ after Hill, 47, was shot while holding a cellphone and then denied aid
A white Ohio police officer was fired Monday after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone, then refusing to aid him for several minutes.
Columbus police officer Adam Coy was fired hours after a hearing. His firing was announced in a statement from Ned Pettus Jr, the director of Columbus public safety.
Continue reading...Free speech, LBGT+ rights and freedoms to peacefully assemble have deteriorated during the pandemic
The state of civil liberties around the world is bleak, according to a new study which found that 87% of the global population were living in nations deemed “closed”, “repressed” or “obstructed”.
The figure is a 4% increase on last year’s, as civil rights were found to have deteriorated in almost every country in the world during Covid-19. A number of governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to curtail rights such as free speech, peaceful assembly and freedom of association, according to Civicus Monitor, an alliance of civil society groups which assessed 196 countries.
Continue reading...Forth Worth police have still not said why Nelda Price and her husband John, who died weeks later, were restrained in their pajamas
While the police in Fort Worth, Texas, ransacked Nelda Price’s home, an officer directed her to put her hands together – as if she were praying – so he could restrain her with zip ties.
“I told him, ‘I am praying. Because I don’t understand why you’re here, and I don’t know what this is about,’” Nelda told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Former US president Barack Obama has criticised Democratic political candidates for using 'snappy' slogans such as 'defund the police', arguing they could turn voters away and defeat the original objective. In an interview with Good Luck America, a political show on social media platform Snapchat, Obama said the slogans can isolate potential voters. 'You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,' he said. 'The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?'
Continue reading...North Carolina police pepper sprayed and arrested attendees at a get-out-the vote rally because participants blocked the roadway without authorization, authorities said on Saturday.
The “I Am Change” march to the polls was organized by the Reverend Greg Drumwright and began as a march from a local church to the courthouse. Drumwright said the group was permitted to stand in the square outside the Alamance county courthouse and was escorted through the streets by the police. He also said that the group had “no intention” of having the rally in the street.
Continue reading...Hundreds took to the streets of Philadelphia on Monday night, to protest the shooting by police of Walter Wallace, a 27-year-old black man who officers said had a knife.
Related: America's protest crackdown: five months after George Floyd, hundreds face trials and prison
Continue reading...Officer who fatally shot Marcellis Stinnette and wounded Tafara Williams committed ‘multiple policy’ violations, said police chief
Attorneys representing a Black woman who was shot and wounded inside a vehicle by a suburban Chicago police officer who also fatally shot her 19-year-old boyfriend called the officer’s firing “a first step in police accountability”, but said they were pressing ahead with their own investigation of the shooting.
The Waukegan police chief, Wayne Walles, announced late on Friday the firing of the officer who killed Marcellis Stinnette, a Black man, and wounded Tafara Williams, 20. Walles said in a brief statement the male officer committed “multiple policy and procedure violations”.
Continue reading...The 1994 crime bill paved the way to mass incarceration of Black Americans. Biden says his support was a ‘mistake’
In 1994, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware stood proudly behind Bill Clinton as he signed into law a reform bill that touched nearly every aspect of the US criminal justice system.
Related: Trump trails Biden with two weeks to go – but there could yet be surprises
Continue reading...A Black man who was led by a rope by two white officers on horseback has sued a south-east Texas city and its police department for $1m, saying he suffered humiliation and fear during his arrest.
Related: Texas police apologise after officers on horseback led black man by rope
Continue reading...Revelation contradicts official assurance that no UK-made equipment was used to repress peaceful demonstrations
US law enforcement officers used British anti-riot gear to strike protesters during their controversial policing of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, despite assurances from the Conservative government that no UK-made equipment was used to repress peaceful protest.
Officers deployed at demonstrations in Washington DC hit protesters and in one case a journalist using shields made by the British-based firm DMS Plastics. Video and photographs suggest, and a lawsuit alleges, that officers charged at protesters, rather than acting in self-defence. US forces deny the allegations.
Continue reading...Juror had sued to release transcripts, saying ‘absolute truth of how this matter was handled’ should be published
Kentucky’s attorney general has said he will release a recording of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case, after a judge ordered they be filed in court by noon on Wednesday. It follows an anonymous juror suing for them to be made public.
Attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said in a statement: “The Grand Jury is meant to be a secretive body. It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”
Continue reading...Protests over a decision not to indict any of the three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor continued more peacefully on Friday in Louisville, Kentucky