Princess Blanding and her family have endured the pain of losing two relatives experiencing a mental health crisis to police violence within a five-year period. The trauma of watching body camera footage of the minutes before her “brothers” died is acute. And the recent death of Irvo Otieno in Virginia is reigniting her call to […]
Policing
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Louisville Police Violated Black People’s Civil Rights ‘For Years,’ Says Justice Department
The Louisville Metro Police Department has a pattern of discriminating against Black people and violating their constitutional rights, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. In 2021, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched a nearly two-year investigation of the Louisville department following the March 2020 fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Why Has Qualified Immunity Excused Officers’ Misconduct in Lawsuits for Decades?
Nearly three years after high-profile police-involved deaths of Black people forced more Americans to recognize that police brutality has disproportionately impacted Black communities, qualified immunity continues to be a hot button issue for legislators and police reform advocates. Capital B wanted to better understand how this legal doctrine plays out for Black victims of police […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Violent Confrontations End Peaceful Stop Cop City Music Festival
A music festival organized by members of the Stop Cop City movement came to a fiery end Sunday evening, with at least 35 arrests. Roughly 1,000 people gathered near the Weelaunee Forest for the second day of a music festival. The unrest began when a group of protesters, separate from the music festival, entered the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
‘I Was on My Knees, Handcuffed’: Black Man Shot By Mississippi Police Tells His Story
JACKSON, Miss. — Michael Corey Jenkins held his neck, covered in white gauze bandages, as he struggled to form words. He wanted to explain the violent abuse he endured at the hands of deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office last month. “I was on my knees, handcuffed, and he was standing over me,” Jenkins […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Police Shot Handcuffed Black Man in the Face in Mississippi, Attorney Says
BRAXTON, Miss. — A 32-year-old Black man came close to death last month when he was shot in the mouth while handcuffed during a drug raid in this small, predominately white village, according to an attorney for his family. Six white sheriff’s deputies falsely accused him and a friend of selling drugs and “dating white […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
The ‘Black Cop’ Isn’t Enough Reform to End Police Brutality
More than 25 years before Nas released “Cops Shot the Kid,” KRS-One wrote about the “Black Cop,” describing them as strategically placed props in a systemically racist system used to oppress Black people. During slavery, there were Black overseers who beat other enslaved people. Fast forward to 1993, KRS-One wrote, “Black slave turned black cop […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Partner Content, Policing
‘They Need to See’: RowVaughn Wells on What It Means to Attend the State of the Union Address
This story was originally published by The 19th. RowVaughn Wells is nervous; at 61, she never expected to be the face of a movement, to visit the White House, or to be singled out in front of the nation by the president of the United States. Now, a month to the day since her son, Tyre […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
The Tyre Nichols Video Is Coming Out. You Don’t Have to Watch.
Footage of five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers, who were fired after participating in a traffic stop that resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols earlier this month, is expected to be televised during Friday’s prime-time lineup. It’s unclear how long — and how horrific — the video will be. But since the police department announced […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Partner Content, Policing
In an Effort to Diversify, Cleveland Police Look to HBCUs
This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Yarnell Rickett wants to see more Black and brown police officers at his police department. He believes Historically Black Colleges and Universities […]