In a week of terrible news, why not this? A little over a year after McKinney, Texas police officer Eric Casebolt brandished his gun at a group of unarmed black teenagers at a pool party and threw a 15-year-old bikini-clad girl onto the concrete ground, a Texas grand jury has declined to charge him.
Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager was federally indicted today on charges of a civil rights violation. Last April, Slager shot unarmed 50-year old Walter Scott in the back eight times after he fled a traffic stop.
Peter Liang, the officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley in a dark Brooklyn public house stairwell in 2014, has been given five years probation and 800 hours of community service. Gurley, 28, was unarmed.
In advance of the April 19 primary vote in New York state, Bernie Sanders has debuted an ad that juxtaposes his history of civil rights activism with footage of Eric Garner being choked to death by a police officer.
In 2014, in San Francisco, Alex Nieto, carrying a Taser for his shift as a bouncer, was shot repeatedly by four police officers, and died. None of the officers were indicted criminal charges stemming from his death; this month they were cleared in a civil case. But the broader consequences of their actions remain.
On Tuesday, prosecutors Anita Alvarez and Tim McGinty, who worked the cases of Laquan McDonald and Tamir Rice in Chicago and Cleveland, respectively, were voted out in their primaries. Their losses are a victory for Black Lives Matter, a movement whose cultural reach will continue to be tested—and hopefully proven—at…
In Chicago, the Laquan McDonald fallout continues as election day comes for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez on Tuesday. She’s under fire for waiting over a year to charge McDonald’s killer, and now The Daily Beast reports that Alvarez has failed to file charges against police officers in 68 fatal shootings,…
In Texas, the state trooper who pulled over Sandra Bland for a routine traffic stop that ultimately led to her death has been fired.
In Maryland, politicians are mulling over whether to outlaw the police “rough rides” that resulted in Freddie Gray’s death in a new bill. The proposed legislation would require that all passengers are belted in while shuttled around in a police custody van, according to The Baltimore Sun.
On Thursday, President Obama met with many different faces of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as established civil rights leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton and Congressman John Lewis. During the conversation, POTUS admitted that the younger generation is way more effective than he was in his grassroots years.
In Chicago, civil rights lawyers have called for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s replacement in the case of Laquan McDonald’s fatal shooting by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Of course, Alvarez doesn’t think she should be replaced, despite taking a year to charge Van Dyke.
On Thursday, Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct in the fatal shooting of Akai Gurley in 2014. Liang faces up to 15 years in prison, and is currently free on bail.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is sorry about the bill Tamir Rice’s family received for the ambulance service and ride to a hospital that didn’t save the child’s life. This comes after public outcry about the bill, which seemed flatly monstrous considering the reason 12-year-old Rice needed an ambulance: that he was…
In Brooklyn, a jury has begun deliberation in the trial of police officer Peter Liang, who fatally shot unarmed Akai Gurley in a housing project stairwell in 2014.
Following Rahm Emanuel’s fumbling around the fatal shooting of LaQuan McDonald by Chicago police in 2014 and the year it took to release the incident’s footage, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says everything was handled just fine.
On Tuesday, in Michigan’s Wayne County, Judge Vonda Evans sentenced an abusive former police officer to 13 months to 10 years in prison after he was caught on tape beating an unarmed black man last year. Evans spoke for a full half hour, a few minutes of which you can watch above: in the footage she wonders aloud, “In…
Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections removed former cop and convicted rapist Daniel Holtzclaw from their online system. His mugshot, offense information, and where he’s in custody were deleted, with a DOC spokesperson telling a local news station it was a “security matter.” He has also, as a…
James Forcillo, the Toronto Constable linked to the death of 18-year-old student Sammy Yatim, has been found guilty of attempted murder. Many were surprised at the relative leniency of the verdict, expecting that Forcillo would be convicted of second-degree murder instead.
The thing about Jeb! is that his tragic, whingeing presidential campaign has caused us to partially forget what a horrible human being he actually is. Lately, we have started to regard him much in the same way we would regard a man in a Nickelback t-shirt crying softly behind us in line at Subway—he’s a bummer, in a…
In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Chicago police to carry tasers and become trained to defuse non-lethal situations with non-lethal weapons and force. What a concept!
