LaNaisha Edwards was 15 when she started going to funerals in the mid-1990s. By her senior year, getting dressed for another memorial service “became the normal thing to do — sadly” in Los Angeles, she said. By September 2010, the plague of gun violence that destroyed other families hit too close to home. Her 24-year-old […]
Policing
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
‘Sick’ Acts Warrant Stiff Penalties for Former Mississippi Officers, Lawyer Says
Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker will bravely walk into a federal courtroom in Mississippi this week to face six former Rankin County law enforcement officers who tortured them for hours. A single bullet nearly silenced Jenkins’ voice forever. “This has been very hard for me, for us, this last year,” Jenkins said during […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
In This Ohio County, a Historic District Attorney Race Spotlights Police Killings
UPDATE: Shayla Favor received 41% of the votes in the March 19 Democratic contest for Franklin County prosecutor, compared to 35% for Anthony Pierson and 24% for Natalia Harris, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Favor will go against Republican John Rutan in the general election on Nov. 5. The stakes remain high in Columbus, Ohio. As […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
This Mom Is the 2nd Black Person Seeking Help That One Deputy Has Killed in 3 Years
It has been over a month since Niani Finlayson was gunned down in front of her 9-year-old daughter by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy in Lancaster, California. As Finlayson’s devastated mother prepares to bury her youngest child, community activists have been calling for justice and transparency from the law enforcement agency that’s sworn […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
The Two Conversations Black Parents Have With Their Kids
Shanice Stewart and her son, Brandon, were on their way to his football practice when Sacramento, California, police pulled them over along the side of a highway. What she thought would be a routine traffic stop turned into a terrifying ordeal: Her 8-year-old was misidentified as a juvenile suspect. Stewart said she did all she […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
What Police Say Vs. What They Do on Tape
Stephen Clay Perkins was gunned down by police in front of his home. Weeks later, what police say happened is at odds with what surveillance video actually shows. The almost daily protests since Perkins’ death on Sept. 29, his family’s demands for the release of police body camera footage, and discrepancies between police statements and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Facial Recognition Technology and False Arrests: Should Black People Worry?
Technological advancements such as location tracking and DNA testing over the past 20 years have contributed to law enforcement’s ability to close a criminal investigation. But their use of facial recognition software in recent years has resulted in the wrongful arrests of seven Black people — foreshadowing another potential form of racial discrimination in the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
What Happened to Jaylin McKenzie? His Mom Demands Police Transparency
A week before Christmas last year, Jaylin McKenzie was visiting family in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was shot and killed by a police officer following a traffic stop. For nearly nine months, his mother, Ashley McKenzie-Smith, says she has been trying every avenue possible to get the truth about what happened to her only son […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
What to Do If You Witness Possible Police Misconduct
Disturbing cellphone and police body camera footage of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy tackling a Black woman to the ground as she filmed the arrest of a man raises questions about how bystanders can protect themselves while documenting possible police misconduct. In police body camera footage released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Mississippi Police Department Faces a $400M Federal Lawsuit for Shooting Man in Jaw
A Mississippi man who barely survived being shot in the mouth while six white Rankin County police officers held him and his friend during an alleged drug raid has filed a $400 million federal lawsuit. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie T. Parker, 35, both Black, say their civil rights were violated on Jan. 24 […]
