Category Archives: US policing

Laquan McDonald: four fired for alleged cover up of white officer’s role in killing

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Chicago Police Board finds the officers exaggerated the threat posed by the 17-year-old to justify his shooting

The Chicago Police Board on Thursday fired four police officers for allegedly covering up a white officer’s 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

The nine-member board found the officers exaggerated the threat posed by the 17-year-old McDonald to justify his shooting by Jason Van Dyke and voted unanimously for the dismissal of Sgt Stephen Franko and officers Janet Mondragon, Daphne Sebastian and Ricardo Viramontes.

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Pete Buttigieg returns to South Bend after fatal police-involved shooting

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  • Eric Jack Logan, 53, died in parking lot in Indiana city
  • Mayor interrupted campaign schedule to return to South Bend

Authorities said a man died after a shooting involving a police officer in South Bend, the Indiana city where the Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is mayor.

Buttigieg said he changed his campaign schedule to return to South Bend on Sunday and hold a late-night news conference. He said the circumstances of the death would be thoroughly investigated, and called on any witnesses of the shooting to come forward and speak to investigators.

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Sandra Bland’s own cellphone video surfaces from 2015 traffic stop – video

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A video taken by Sandra Bland in 2015 shows how a white state trooper confronted the 28-year-old black woman in a traffic stop after he says she failed to signal. Texas authorities have denied withholding the footage shot by Bland, who was found hanged in a jail cell near Houston in 2015. The video had not been publicly seen until it was aired this month by a Dallas TV station. Both lawmakers and Bland’s family say they had never seen the clip

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‘I don’t do cover-ups’: Trump lashes out over Pelosi accusation – video

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Donald Trump rejected a charge by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that he was engaged in a cover-up, saying he was the "most transparent president" the country had ever had. In a last-minute press conference in the Rose Garden, outside the Oval office, Trump condemned the Democats, and said "the crime was committed on the other side". Trump added he would refuse to work with them unless they dropped their investigations into his administration and finances

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Where everybody knows your face: Woody Harrelson photo used to spot thief

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The New York police department’s use of celebrity doppelgänger photos calls their use of a facial recognition system into question

The New York police department used a photo of Woody Harrelson in its facial recognition program in an attempt to identify a beer thief who looked like the actor, according to a report published on Thursday.

Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology highlighted the April 2017 episode in “Garbage In, Garbage Out”, a report on what it says are flawed practices in law enforcement’s use of facial recognition.

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San Francisco is first US city to ban police use of facial recognition tech

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Supervisors vote eight to one to restrict surveillance: ‘We can have security without being a security state’

San Francisco supervisors voted to make the city the first in the United States to ban police and other government agencies from using facial recognition technology.

Supervisors voted eight to one in favor of the “Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance”, which will also strengthen existing oversight measures and will require city agencies to disclose current inventories of surveillance technology.

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Mohamed Noor trial: US police officer found guilty of third-degree murder of Justine Damond

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Jury in trial of Minneapolis police officer took less than one day to reach their verdict over the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond

The former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor has been found guilty of third-degree murder for the shooting death of the Australian life coach Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who approached his squad car minutes after calling 911 to report a possible rape behind her home.

Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder as well as manslaughter for the July 2017 death Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the US and Australia. He wasn’t convicted of the most serious charge of intentional second-degree murder.

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Police release body-cam video of Willie McCoy killing, showing him asleep in car

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Footage is consistent with claims of McCoy’s family, who said officers did not try to wake him or talk to him before shooting

Vallejo police have released footage of the killing of Willie McCoy at a Taco Bell, showing six officers shooting the 20-year-old who was sleeping in his car.

The disturbing body-camera videos show the young rapper had moved his hand to scratch his shoulder before officers opened fire. The footage is consistent with key claims of McCoy’s family, who watched footage earlier this month and said the officers “executed” him while he was not alert or awake. The videos, released after significant pressure, show:

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Trump is cornered, with violence on his mind. We must be on red alert | Robert Reich

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As investigators close in, the president invokes the support of the military, police and vigilantes. This is a perilous moment

What does a megalomaniacal president of the United States do when he’s cornered? We’ll soon find out.

Related: 'It's a small group of people': Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

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Six California police officers fire shots at rapper asleep in car, killing him

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Family of Willie McCoy allege racial profiling after Vallejo police fire ‘multiple rounds’ at man

California police officers fatally shot a 20-year-old rapper who was sleeping in his car outside a Taco Bell, authorities said.

Six Vallejo officers fired “multiple rounds” at the man, identified by family as Willie McCoy, police said. McCoy had a handgun on him when the officers fired out of “fear for their own safety” on Saturday night, according to the department. The family of McCoy, whose rapper name was Willie Bo, said Tuesday that police had racially profiled the young black man and that there was no justification for using deadly force against someone who was sleeping and not a threat.

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