Four years ago, Vicky Lewis was having a heart-to-heart conversation with her 17-year-old son about his future. He was killed 24 hours later. High school senior Isaiah Lewis was just two months away from turning 18 and three weeks from graduating when he was fatally shot on April 29, 2019, by a police officer in […]
police reform
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
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 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Public Safety
Kansas City Police Dismissed a Black News Site’s Reports of Missing Women. Then One Showed Up.
For more than a month, a 22-year-old Black woman was allegedly held hostage inside a makeshift room in the basement of an Excelsior Springs, Missouri, home. Bound with handcuffs, gagged by duct tape and a metal collar with a padlock around her neck, she was repeatedly raped and whipped by her kidnapper, according to court […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Police Keep Failing To Report How Often They Use Force Against Citizens
For generations, Black families have passed down cautionary tales about harmful encounters with police — stories of racial profiling, planted evidence and excessive force that goes unchecked. The warnings are largely rooted in the anecdotes and life experience of elders. But solid data on American law enforcement’s racial biases has remained elusive. The Federal Bureau […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Biden Wants to Add $32 Billion to Police Funding — Is Federal Police Reform Dead?
Members of Congress have offered no shortage of ideas in recent years for reforming policing in America. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., proposed the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act in 2019 to make constricting a person’s airway a civil rights offense. The same year, Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., promoted the use of de-escalation […]