WASHINGTON — American drivers might universally wince or brace themselves at the sight and sound of flashing red and blue lights and blaring sirens, but all drivers have constitutional rights when pulled over on the road. The question of one’s responsibility to comply with all instructions given by a law enforcement officer recently came up … Read more
Multiple former Memphis police officers condemned the policing tactics of their own department during high-profile testimony this week in the federal trial against three officers who participated in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols on Jan. 7, 2023, after a traffic stop. One officer spoke about the shame of his involvement in that attack. Ex-Memphis … Read more
Watching “La Haine” nearly 30 years ago, there was a sense of something inexorable about violence in the French suburbs. French director Mathieu Kassovitz’s critically acclaimed black-and-white film opens with video images of news footage of urban riots. The film then follows three friends — Hubert, Vinz and Saïd — over the course of 24 … Read more
The police shooting death of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman in Springfield, Illinois, renewed a call from elected officials for police reform legislation and ignited ongoing demonstrations demanding police accountability nationwide. Former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, who fatally shot Massey, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. But to prevent … Read more
Sonya Massey’s mother called 911 to report her daughter having a mental breakdown a day before Massey, 36, was fatally shot inside of her home by an Illinois deputy, according to emergency call audio released this week. “She has been having a mental breakdown, which is something new to me,” Donna Massey, her mother, can … Read more
A Black man in Mississippi filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging a former officer in the high-profile and highly scrutinized Mississippi “Goon Squad” in Rankin County and several other law enforcement officers set a police dog on him while he was handcuffed on the ground in 2021, resulting in several injuries. Bobbie Adams, 41, … Read more
The practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years, built on questionable science and backed by police-aligned experts, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. At least 94 people died after they were given sedatives and restrained by police from 2012 through … Read more
Body camera footage obtained by HuffPost shows a police dog viciously attacking an unarmed Black man in front of his 9-year-old son during a traffic stop in Denison, Texas, last year. Derrick Dunlap, 54, was pulled over by Denison police on May 25, 2023, while his son was with him. Dunlap’s attorneys say police reported … Read more
PATERSON, N.J. — Jameek Lowery entered the dimly lit lobby of the city’s police headquarters in a panic. He was having a mental breakdown — and needed help. Barefoot and wearing only pajama pants and a sweatshirt in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 5, 2019, Lowery pulled out his cellphone and began a social media … Read more
Every day, police in the U.S. rely on common use-of-force tactics that, unlike guns, are meant to stop people without killing them. But when misused, these tactics can still end in death. Over a decade, more than 1,000 people died after police subdued them through physical holds, stun guns, body blows and other means not … Read more
