Criminal Justice

Cop Found Not Guilty For Killing Woman, Arrests Brother

April 20, 2015 Ben Norton, www.bennorton.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Police violence, Racism

US police killed at least 325 people in the 102 days from 1 January to 12 April 2015—at a rate of over three per day. The victims of these police shootings are very disproportionately people of color. Racism, and even overt, violent white supremacy, has been well documented among the US police force. In Ferguson, Missouri, Americans rose up against the constant police killings of unarmed black teens; the Black Lives Matter contemporary civil rights movement emerged out of this. Rarely are cops even indicted for killing Americans, yet alone punished. In fact, they often claim that they themselves are victims. Dante Servin, the Chicago cop who killed Rekia Boyd, an unarmed 22-year-old black woman, was one of the few cops who faced charges for murdering an innocent person.

Death Freddie Gray In Custody Sparks Call For Independent Inquiry

April 20, 2015 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com Educate! Baltimore, Criminal Justice, police brutality

The family of a man who died after being arrested in Baltimore has called for the inquiry into his death to be taken away from city authorities, whose police officers they accuse of fatally injuring him. Relatives of Freddie Gray told the Guardian on Sunday they want the US Department of Justice and FBI to take control of the investigation into how Gray’s neck was broken, apparently after he was detained by officers and loaded into a Baltimore police van. “The officers who did this need to be arrested now, locked in jail and charged with murder,” said Gray’s sister, Carolina, in her first interview. “And this all needs to be investigated by separate police. How can Baltimore police look into their own?”

FBI Admits Flaws In Hair Analysis Over Decades

April 20, 2015 Spencer S. Hsu, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Criminal Justice, FBI, Law, Media

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project, which are assisting the government with the country’s largest post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.

Black Lives Matter Raising $90,000 Bail For Jailed Activist

April 18, 2015 Tasbeeh Herwess, www.magazine.good.is Educate! California, Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Political Prisoner

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is mounting a campaign to crowdfund $90,000 for the bail of 28-year-old Jasmine Richards, a Pasadena-based activist who was arrested on a slew of charges related to a protest against police brutality that she helped organize. Richards was arrested on Monday, just as she was preparing to appear at a City Council meeting to talk about the death of Kendrec McDade, an unarmed black teenager who was shot seven times and killed by Pasadena police officers in 2012. “[Richards] has been working tirelessly to build a BLM Pasadena chapter, so black folks in Pasadena know their lives matter,” said BLM organizers in a statement. “Courageously, Jasmine reached out to Anya Slaughter, Kendrec McDade's mother, making sure that she had a community supporting her in seeking justice for Kendrec.”

For Every 1,000 People Killed By Police, Only 1 Is Convicted

April 18, 2015 Josie Wales, www.alternet.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Inequality, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

A new study released by the Washington Post reveals that for every 1000 people killed at the hands of police, only one officer is convicted of a crime. Since 2005, although there have been thousands of fatal shootings by police officers, only 54 have been charged. Of those charged, most were cleared or acquitted. It stands to reason that if there are thousands of fatalities due to police shootings, the number of police charged would be much higher than it is. According to the analysis, in order for prosecutors to press charges, there had to be exceptional factors at play. These include “a video recording of the incident, a victim shot in the back, incriminating testimony from other officers or allegations of a coverup.” According to Bowling Green criminologist Philip M. Stinson, “To charge an officer in a fatal shooting, it takes something so egregious, so over the top that it cannot be explained in any rational way. It also has to be a case that prosecutors are willing to hang their reputation on.”

Story Of Danielle Hicks-Best

April 15, 2015 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, Police the Police, Racial Justice

An 11 year old African girl, Danielle Hicks-Best, reported to Washington, DC police that she had been raped twice by older men (in their early to late 20’s) in her neighborhood. In both cases, forensic medical evidence supported her claims. Considering her age and the ages of the assailants, one would have assumed that the police would have conducted an investigation into statutory rape. Instead under the mis-leadership of DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier, Danielle, then 12 years old, was charged with filing false police reports. “After 11, she lost the rest of her childhood,” her mother Veronica Best lamented. Ms. Best launched a campaign to save her daughter’s life that leads all the way to the Washington, DC Police Chief Lanier. The family devoted their limited financial and emotional resources to addressing their daughter’s legal entanglement and providing psychological support against a system with unlimited financial resources.

Former Blackwater Guard Gets Life In Prison For Baghdad Shooting

April 14, 2015 Reuters, www.reuters.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Imperialism, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

A former Blackwater security guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others got 30-year terms on Monday in the massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, closing a case that had outraged Iraqis and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment around the world. The Sept. 16 incident stood out for its brazenness and formed a tense backdrop to talks between the United States and Iraq over the continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. It also sparked debate over private security contractors working for the U.S. government in war zones. The four guards opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers on the Iraqis, including women and children, at Nisur Square. A heavily armed, four-truck Blackwater Worldwide convoy the men were in had been trying to clear a path for U.S. diplomats.

Killer Cops Boost Body Count In War On Black America

April 13, 2015 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com Strategize! Criminal Justice, Ferguson, police brutality, Racial Justice

The United States produced a bumper crop of what Billie Holiday would call “Strange Fruit,” in March: at least 111 bodies, the majority of them unarmed men of color, shot down by police in the blood-fertilized streets of American cities. Yet, in the same month, President Obama declared Venezuela a threat to the national securityof the United States, based largely on the death of 14 “dissidents” during a period of anti-government disturbances back in 2014. Many of the dead were pro-government activists killed by “dissidents.” By contrast, Philadelphia police have been shooting an average of one person a week for the last eight years, the overwhelming majority of them Black and brown, according to a new U.S. Justice Department report. As Frederick Douglass said, “for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”

Judge Dismisses All Charges Against The ‘Stewart 5’

April 10, 2015 Staff, www.SOAWatch.org Resist! Courts, Criminal Justice, Immigration

Stewart County Superior Court Judge James Sizemore dismissed all charges against human rights activists Anton Flores, Jason MsGaughey, Kevin Caron, Maureen Fitzsimmons and Rebecca Kanner. The five had been arrested on Saturday, November 22, 2014, during the November Vigil weekend in Georgia, as they crossed the line onto Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) property to call for the closure of Stewart Detention Center. Owned and operated by the Corrections Corportation of America (CCA), Stewart is one of the largest private, for-profit immigrant detention facility in the US, warehousing approximately 1,800 men. Through their peaceful action, the Stewart 5 were prepared to speak about the inhumane conditions that exist there, while at the same time raising public awareness about the racist immigration policies that allow places like Stewart to exist. To speak truth to power and to use the courtroom to put Stewart Detention Center on trial, our friends traveled long distances, from Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan; Washington, DC; Atlanta and LaGrange, Georgia.

These College Students Want To Fix The Criminal Justice System

April 8, 2015 Rebecca McCray, www.takepart.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Racial Justice, Student Activism

There are a bunch of new allies in the criminal justice reform movement, and they’re a force to be reckoned with. No, we’re not talking about conservatives like Newt Gingrich or the deep-pocketed Koch brothers. We’re talking about millennials. On Monday, student organizers at nine universities are joining forces to make it clear they care deeply about the movement to reform our country’s criminal justice system. In particular, this week’scampaign will tackle the solitary confinement of juveniles. Organizers hope to catch the attention of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “We’re going for the big fish,” said Savion Castro, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the campaign director for the Student Alliance for Prison Reform.

Decriminalize School Discipline; Black Males Matter

April 7, 2015 Tyrone Howard, www.edweek.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Education, Mass Incarceration

Recent events in Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland, and New York City have ignited a series of debates about the lives of black males in the United States and how they are viewed in the larger society. Regardless of what anyone believes, however, the reality is simple: Black males are disciplined and punished disproportionately more than any other group. The historical narrative often depicts black males as violent, anti-intellectual, and resistant to authority. What needs to be understood, however, is how schools contribute to building this narrative, and what can be done to help change that. In many ways, young black men have a much lower threshold for engaging in inappropriate behavior while at school than their peers; overwhelming data show that black male students experience school in a very different way than do their nonblack peers.

Cop Cams Will Change Policing, But Not The Way You Think

April 6, 2015 Matt Sledge and Hunter Stuart, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Media, Police the Police, Surveillance

There is significant evidence that cop cams cut down on most civilian complaints. But a close examination of violent encounters with the police caught on tape suggests that even with seemingly incontrovertible video evidence, questions will often linger. The kind of sea change that police reform activists desire will still likely escape them. "I don't think anything is as good as having a camera," said John Burris, an Oakland civil rights attorney who represented both Rodney King and the family of Oscar Grant, who was killed by an officer in an Oakland train station while he was lying face-down on the ground. But, Burris added, "The realities of the world are police get the benefit of the doubt."

Student Arrested During Occupy Philly Wins $80K In Damages

April 5, 2015 Holly Otterbein, www.phillymag.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Occupy, Police abuse

Philadelphia, PA - A one-time doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania who studied and made a short film about Occupy Philly was awarded $80,000 in damages Thursday by a federal jury for his arrest during a protest. Gregory Harris was watching police evict Occupy Philly activists from their encampment at City Hall when he was arrested on November 30, 2011, according to his lawsuit filed against the city. Harris was accused of striking Officer Joseph Sisca in the face with his forearm. He was charged with aggravated assault and several other counts. In December of 2011, the charges against Harris of aggravated assault, riot, recklessly endangering another person and resisting arrest were all dismissed. In 2012, he was acquitted of the lone remaining charge — simple assault.

Philadelphia Police Shot 400 People In 7 Years: DOJ Report

March 25, 2015 Simon McCormack, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Philadelphia, police brutality

Philadelphia police officers were responsible for 400 civilian shootings over the last seven years, according to a new report from the Department of Justice. The report also found that there was “an undercurrent of significant strife between the community” and the police. New training on when officers should use force and how to de-escalate situations is needed, the DOJ found. Bloomberg noted that 400 shootings in seven years is an average of about one shooting every week. Philadelphia Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey asked the DOJ to conduct its investigation and he told the Philadelphia Inquirer that many of the DOJ's recommendations have already been implemented.

Judge Orders Thousands Of Torture Photos To Be Made Public

March 22, 2015 Kevin Gosztola, www.dissenter.firedoglake.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Torture, Wars and Militarism

A federal district court judge will no longer accept the United States government’s secrecy arguments and has ruled that it must release thousands of photographs of detainee abuse and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq, including inhumane treatment at Abu Ghraib prison. The government is “required to disclose each and all the photographs responsive” to the Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),” according to the order by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court of the Southern District of New York. Hellerstein found that the government still had failed to justify keeping each individual photograph secret. However, the judge stayed the order for 60 days so the Solicitor General could determine whether to file an appeal.

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