Category Archives: US policing

California police department under audit after officers’ racist texts are discovered

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Shocking messages about beating suspects and making up evidence were found when Antioch officers were investigated

Amid outrage over text messages showing police officers in northern California using racist slurs and bragging about making up evidence and beating suspects, city officials voted to audit the troubled department.

The FBI and the Contra Costa district attorney’s office discovered the shocking messages while investigating officers within the Antioch police department suspected of crimes. Officials have named 17 officers who sent texts, including the president of the Antioch police union, but nearly half the department was included in the messages.

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Family of Tyre Nichols sues city of Memphis and police over deadly beating

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Nichols died after beating by police, who said he was suspected of reckless driving but no evidence of traffic violation has emerged

The family of Tyre Nichols, a Black Tennessee man who died after been beaten by five police officers, has sued the city of Memphis, individual officers and emergency medical personnel involved in his case.

Lawyers for Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in Memphis.

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Mayor says George Floyd would be alive if Derek Chauvin had been fired in 2017

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Jacob Frey makes remark during announcement that Minneapolis reached $8.9m settlement in two excessive force lawsuits

The mayor of Minneapolis said George Floyd would still be alive if the city’s police department had “done the right thing” and fired officer Derek Chauvin in 2017 after complaints he knelt on the necks of two people he arrested.

Jacob Frey was speaking at a press conference Thursday announcing the city had reached a $8.9m settlement in two excessive force lawsuits.

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Puppy flung from pickup in high-speed Los Angeles police chase survives

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Eight-week-old beige pup with one blue and one brown eye tossed out of moving vehicle in designer bag ‘miraculously’ OK

A puppy that was thrown out of a moving pickup truck in Los Angeles during a high-speed police chase “miraculously” survived, according to authorities.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Los Angeles police department announced that on 7 April, at about 12.10pm in a south-east part of the city, officers started a car chase in pursuit of a suspect who was wanted in connection to an attempted murder and carjacking which occurred on 26 March.

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San Jose police union director fired over attempted opioid import charges

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Joanne Segovia, 64, dismissed following internal investigation into charges filed against her

The director of the San Jose police union who was charged with attempting to import synthetic opioids has been fired from the organization.

On Friday, the San Jose Police Officers’ Association fired Joanne Segovia after it completed the first phase of the internal investigation that it launched into the charges filed against her.

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New Mexico police kill homeowner after showing up at wrong address

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Farmington officers on paid administrative leave after shooting Robert Dotson while responding to call from across the street

Officers with the Farmington police department of north-western New Mexico shot and killed a homeowner when they showed up at the wrong address in response to a domestic violence call this week, according to state authorities.

The shooting happened about 11.30pm Wednesday. New Mexico state police released more details late on Thursday, and Farmington police confirmed on Friday that the three officers involved were on paid administrative leave pending a review of the case.

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Scant details emerge on fatal stabbing of Cash App founder amid safety concerns

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San Francisco police have not confirmed the circumstances of Bob Lee’s death nor arrested a suspect

Details of how the tech executive Bob Lee came to be fatally stabbed in downtown San Francisco remained scant on Friday, as those who knew the Cash App founder mourn his death and others voiced frustration with public safety.

San Francisco police found Lee, 43, on the sidewalk in front of a condominium building with stab wounds shortly after 2.35am on Tuesday. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Details about the attack remain thin; surveillance footage released this week reportedly shows Lee stumbling along a sidewalk and seeking help in the aftermath, but police have not confirmed the circumstances of the attack or arrested a suspect.

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Minneapolis agrees deal with state to revamp post-George Floyd policing

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Court-enforceable agreement passes city council with 11-0 vote as members harshly criticize police and previous city leaders

The Minneapolis city council on Friday approved an agreement with the state to revamp policing, nearly three years after a city officer murdered George Floyd.

The Minnesota department of human rights issued a blistering report last year that said the police department had engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade. City leaders subsequently agreed to negotiate a settlement with the agency.

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Hospital video footage shows Irvo Otieno was held down before his death

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Seven deputies and three hospital workers charged with second-degree murder in death of Black man at Virginia mental facility

A large group of sheriff’s deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the floor until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video of the incident earlier this month shows.

The footage obtained on Tuesday, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he was led into a room at Central State hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was going to be admitted on 6 March. For most of the duration of the video, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to number 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.

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Police stopped a Black couple in Tennessee – and took their children

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Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams’ case fits pattern of child welfare services fueling disparities in who gets to remain a family

Nearly a month ago, Bianca Clayborne, Deonte Williams, and their five children were on their way from Georgia to Chicago for Clayborne’s uncle’s funeral when a highway patrol officer stopped them in Manchester, Tennessee.

That moment – about 60 miles outside Nashville – has since upended their lives as Clayborne and Williams try to regain custody of their children after they say state authorities “kidnapped” them on account of a minuscule amount of marijuana in the car, the Tennessee Lookout first reported.

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Black Virginia man pinned to ground by deputies before his death, family says

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Video from state mental hospital of brutal treatment of Irvo Otieno recalls death of George Floyd, lawyer says

Video from a state mental hospital shows a Black Virginia man who was handcuffed and shackled being pinned to the ground by deputies who are now facing second-degree murder charges in his death, according to relatives of the man and their attorneys who viewed the footage on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference shortly after watching the video with a local prosecutor, the family and attorneys condemned the brutal treatment they said Irvo Otieno, 28, was subjected to, first at a local jail and then at the state hospital where authorities say he died on 6 March during the admission process.

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Louisville police discriminate against Black people: report’s key findings

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Officers used excessive force and failed to protect Black residents, a report launched following the death of Breonna Taylor has found

A report published by the US justice department following the botched police raid that killed Breonna Taylor has found that Louisville’s Metro police department routinely engaged in a pattern of excessive force that deprived people of their rights.

The litany of abuses revealed in the report comes amid a reckoning in the US with the brutality and racism of American policing.

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Covid was top line-of-duty death for US police for third year running in 2022

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Report shows pace has slowed, however, with 70 law enforcement deaths recorded in the line of duty

Covid was the top cause of death in the line of duty for American law enforcement for the third year in a row in 2022, according to a recent report, though the pace has slowed.

When the pandemic first hit, many law enforcement officers did what they could to lower the risks of catching Covid-19 – taking some reports over the phone rather than in person, trying to limit contact within departments and with the public.

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‘Far from justice’: why are nearly half of US murders going unsolved?

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Homicide ‘clearance rates’ have plummeted over the past four decades, compounding relatives’ trauma

Every night since May, two-year-old Nylah Cheese has slept with a crocheted doll wearing a white tee, black pants and a silver chain. The toddler’s aunt, Silvia Lopez, had the figurine made in the likeness of Nylah’s father, Brandon Cheese, who was shot and killed at a park in San Francisco the month before.

“She instantly knew it was him and screamed, ‘It’s Dada!’” Lopez, Brandon Cheese’s older sister, said. The toddler has since named it “Dada doll”.

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Malcolm X’s family to sue FBI, NYPD and other agencies over assassination

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One of Malcolm X’s daughters says new details show federal and state agencies covered up crucial evidence

The family of Malcolm X has filed notice that they plan to sue the FBI, New York police and other agencies over his death.

The civil rights leader was 39 when he was assassinated on 21 February 1965, at an auditorium in the Washington Heights neighbourhood.

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Tyre Nichols death: five ex-officers plead not guilty to murder charges

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Officers plead not guilty to second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and official misconduct

Five former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty on Friday to second-degree murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith made their first court appearances with their lawyers before a judge in Shelby county criminal court. The officers were fired after an internal police investigation into the 7 January arrest of Nichols, who died in a hospital three days later.

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One in 20 US homicides are committed by police – and the numbers aren’t falling

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Police killings of any sort account for nearly 5% of all homicides, with at least 1,192 people killed by law enforcement in 2022

In the US, an estimated one in 20 gun homicides are committed by police, as law enforcement killings have failed to decrease despite years of nationwide protests.

Law enforcement officers killed at least 1,192 people in 2022, the highest number recorded in a decade, according to Mapping Police Violence, a prominent non-profit database of police killings. More than 1,100 people were killed by the police in both 2020 and 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were police shootings.

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Officer involved in Tyre Nichols arrest previously accused in assault of prison inmate

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Demetrius Haley allegedly took part in a 2015 incident at a county prison that resulted in an entire cellblock writing a letter to the corrections director

Years before Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley pulled Tyre Nichols from his car on 7 January, setting in motion a deadly confrontation, Haley was accused of taking part in the savage beating of an inmate at a county prison.

The 2015 assault of the inmate was so disturbing that 34 others – the entire cellblock – signed a letter to the corrections director.

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Georgia officials condemned for labeling ‘Cop City’ protests domestic terrorism

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Lawyers for climate activist killed by police say charges send warning: ‘If you stand in our way, we will take you out of our way’

Lawyers for the family of a climate activist who was shot dead by police in Georgia last month have condemned officials’ attempts to brand his fellow protesters of Atlanta’s planned “Cop City” training facility as domestic terrorists.

Attorneys representing relatives of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán were speaking at a news conference Monday as a large number of officers, including heavily armed tactical teams, descended again on the site in Atlanta’s South River forest where the building of the $90m so-called Cop City is planned.

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‘Cop City’ protester Manuel Terán shot at least 13 times by police – autopsy

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Protester who opposed Georgia’s planned police-training facility was first environmental activist killed by police in US history

The environmental activist who was killed by police in Atlanta while protesting against Georgia’s planned “Cop City” was shot more than a dozen times, according to private autopsy results released by his family.

Officers from multiple agencies shot and killed Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, on 18 January after authorities moved through the camp of activists who were in a forest to protest a planned $90m police training facility. Dozens of officers from the Atlanta police department, the Dekalb county police, the Georgia state patrol, the Georgia bureau of investigation and the FBI swept through the camp.

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