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Newark’s New Disciplinary Board Could Control And Limit Police

By Daniel Ross in Yes! Magazine - Just over a year ago, Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old mentally ill black man, was shot and killed by two LAPD officers in South Los Angeles. Ford was unarmed, though the officers involved insist that a struggle had occurred between one of the officers and Ford prior to the shooting. After a lengthy investigation, the Los Angeles Police Commission—a five-member civilian review board that oversees the LAPD—determinedin June of this year that one of the officers was wrong to draw his weapon and open fire. But because LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has final say over disciplinary matters, it is possible that he could refrain from meting out any punishment to the officers involved—something that has happened multiple times before. These situations have led to heated disagreementsbetween Beck and the Commission about his lack of punitive action in cases where the board has determined wrongdoing by an officer.

Drug Warriors Have Not Given Up, Call For More Drug War

By Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas - For most Americans, including some presidential candidates, the record on the U.S.-led drug war is settled: After spending more than $1 trillion on efforts that have taken or destroyed the lives of millions around the world, drug purity has risen, prices have fallen and rates of use have remained the same. It has, in no uncertain terms, been a catastrophic failure. But in an op-ed published in The Boston Globe this week, two former drug czars say we have it all wrong. It's time to "Bring back the war on drugs," they argue, and recommit to an enforcement-first policy that puts forth incarceration and interdiction as the best tools to address surging heroin overdose rates. The column, written by William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, drug czars under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is based on the controversial premise that the drug policies of the last quarter century have actually been effective.

Mother Refuses Gag Order About Son Killed By Police, Rejects $900,000

By Matt Ferner in The Huffington Post - The mother of Darrien Hunt, a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed by Utah police last year, rejected an offer to settle her lawsuit against the city and two police officers involved. Had she accepted the settlement, she would have been barred from speaking publicly about the incident. "To me it was a gag order [that said], 'Here's hush money, don't ever say Darrien's name again,'" Susan Hunt, mother of Darrien, told Utah's KSL news about turning down the $900,000 settlement the city offered in response to her wrongful death lawsuit. "My biggest concern is for the truth to be told," Susan said. The suit alleges that the police used excessive force and violated Darrien's constitutional rights when they confronted him and shot him to death while he was wearing a costume and carrying a metal samurai-style sword, one that his family says was rounded and not an actual weapon.

Woman Endured 8 Days In Psych Ward For Cops Mistake

By Christopher Mathias in The Huffington Post - Kamilah Brock says the New York City police sent her to a mental hospital for a hellish eight days, where she was forcefully injected with powerful drugs, essentially because they couldn't believe a black woman owned a BMW. In her first on-camera interview about her ordeal, which aired Thursday, the 32-year-old told PIX11 that it was all a "nightmare." It's a nightmare, Brock's lawyer told The Huffington Post, that never would have happened if she weren't African-American. Brock sued the city earlier this year in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She contends that her constitutional rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments were violated and that she suffered "unwanted and unwarranted intrusion of her personal integrity, loss of liberty [and] mental anguish."

People Of Pleasanton, CA Oppose Urban Shield In Their Community

By The Independent News - Several speakers at last week's Pleasanton City Council meeting raised objections to the city hosting Urban Shield, a regional preparedness training program for law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services. The event will be held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton over a four-day period starting Friday, September 11. Those speaking described Urban Shield as a pro-war, $1 million trade show and training exercise funded by the federal government. It is expected that anti-war protestors will be on hand. According to its website, the overarching goals of Urban Shield include striving for the capability to present a multi-layered training exercise to enhance the skills and abilities of regional first responders, as well as those responsible for coordinating and managing large scale events.

BlackLivesMatter: A Call To Pan-African Unity – Justice For Emmanuel!

By Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo in Black Agenda Report - This is a wake-up call for African people across national boundaries to stop the in-fighting, self-hatred and come together to determine how to win the war against white supremacy that is literally killing us. The African Union (AU) must rise to the challenge of speaking out against US state-sponsored murder of Black people and provide affirmative programs for Africans in the diaspora (who are so inclined) to repatriate to Africa. Comfort has now found her voice and mission: to make sure that no other Black family suffers the death of their children by killer cops. She has also found her sea legs. Comfort has started two new businesses; she’s once again active in her church and caring for her remaining children. Comfort is fighting for Black mothers and children in America. But, she needs your help. We must demand a full, transparent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Emmanuel.

Yes, People Hate Cops—But Aren’t Stooping To Their Level

By Sonali Kolhatkar in Truthdig - But actions speak louder than words, and police have made clear just how fast they can turn any encounter into a deadly one, whether it is shooting an unarmed man in the back while he is trying to run away, as in the case of Walter Scott in South Carolina, or the gunning down of a 12-year-old child named Tamir Rice in Cleveland, who was shot “withintwo seconds of the police arriving.” Statistics provide even more clarity. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which collects meticulous data on law enforcement fatalities, found a mere 3 percent increase in the number of police officers killed this year compared with the same time last year. That increase is well within the statistical noise, and in fact, overall police deaths are gradually decreasing, with 64 officers losing their lives in the course of their jobs in 2015 compared with 62 in the first half of 2014.

Study: Inappropriate Police Tactics Inflamed Ferguson Protests

By Ryan J. Reilly in The Huffington Post - Law enforcement officials responding to demonstrations and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown last August used a variety of inappropriate tactics and strategies that often exacerbated tensions, according to a report by policing experts that the Justice Department is releasing this week. The assessment finds that deploying dogs for crowd control was "provocative," positioning snipers on top of armored vehicles during daytime protests "inflamed tensions," tear gas was "deployed inappropriately," and law enforcement used unconstitutional policing strategies that suppressed First Amendment rights. Such strategies "had the unintended consequence of escalating rather than diminishing tension," the report states.

As Freddie Gray Case Begins, Feds Probe Past Police Killings

By A. Dwight Pettit and Stephen Janis in The Real News - A. DWIGHT PETTTIT: When the Justice Department came in they couldn't shut me up. I followed them out the door. STEPHEN JANIS, TRNN: In a city with the second-highest number of police per capita no one has had a more acute front row seat on the consequences of Baltimore's penchant for law enforcement than A. Dwight Pettit. The veteran civil rights attorney has been the city's top litigator of police brutality lawsuits for decades, which is why he's paying close attention to the upcoming pre-trial legal maneuvers in the case against six Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in a police van shortly after he was arrested in April, and Pettit says several key motions could play a critical role in the final verdict.

Police In North Dakota Can Now Use Drones Armed With Tasers

By Ariha Setalvad in The Verge - Police in North Dakota are now authorized to use drones armed with tasers, tear gas, rubber bullets, and other "non-lethal" weapons, following the passage of Bill 1328. Sponsored by Rep. Rick Becker (R-Bismarck), the bill was originally intended to limit the police’s surveillance powers, and banned all weapons on law enforcement drones. Then a policy lobby group was allowed to amend the bill, though, at which point it only banned lethal weapons, writes The Daily Beast. Putting aside the fact that these weapons are not non-lethal, making it so these weapons can be controlled remotely likely isn’t going to help curb police abuse.

New Ferguson Judge Finally Doing Something About Abusive Court

By Ryan J. Reilly in The Huffington Post - Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin issued an order on Monday that attempts to address some of the damage caused by St. Louis County's practice of issuing arrest warrants and harsh penalties for minor violations, a revenue-driven approach the Department of Justice criticized in a March report. The judge's order withdrew all arrest warrants issued before this year, and reinstated drivers licenses that were suspended only because of a missed court date or failure to pay a fine. The move comes a year after after the death of Michael Brown helped call attention to theabusive practices of municipal courts around St. Louis County that undermined relationships between police and communities in the region.

Why US Police Are Out Of Control

By Daniel Lazare in Consortium News - A country that doesn’t even know how many times police fire their weapons or under what circumstances is one in which every local department is a law unto itself, a self-contained barony with its own special rules and customs. “It’s a national embarrassment,” Geoffrey P. Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor, told The New York Times. “Right now, all you know is what gets on YouTube.” What does a lack of knowledge have to do with ultra-high levels of brutality? The answer is simple: absence of knowledge means an absence of control, which means that local departments behave with relative impunity. If local cops seem out of control, it’s because the only controls come from local politicians who are often corrupt and racist and therefore tolerant of such behavior on the part of the officers they employ.

Protests Erupt After Mistrial In NC Police Prosecution

By Michael Gordon, Cleve R. Wootson JR. and Mark Washburn in Charlotte Observer - Two years after a deadly struggle in the dark of night and three weeks into an emotionally charged trial, jurors said Friday they were hopelessly deadlocked, an outcome that satisfied neither side in the polarizing case of a white police officer charged with killing an unarmed black man. The jury was unable to unanimously decide whether Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick used excessive force in firing 12 shots at Jonathan Ferrell, who charged at him moments after police encountered him walking near a neighborhood pool. Eight jurors were for acquittal and four for conviction, according to someone close to the proceedings. Within moments of the mistrial, about a dozen protesters, whites and blacks, lay down with hands behind their backs and blocked traffic outside the courthouse on Fourth Street, chanting “No justice, no peace.”

Arrests For Minor Crimes Spur Resentment In Baltimore

By Catherine Rentz in Baltimore Sun - For Trayvon Wiggins, applying for a job brings almost certain disappointment. "I go through the interview process, but as soon as they check my background, I can't pass it," the West Baltimore man said. He has been convicted of minor traffic violations but believes the real problem stems from other arrests that remain on his record even though they were never prosecuted. Wiggins, who has been working odd jobs as he moves to get those records expunged, illustrates the frustration felt by some Baltimoreans who have trouble finding employment because of arrests, including those for minor charges such as trespassing. The issue, which has sparked resentment in West Baltimore and other neighborhoods for years, has received new attention in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death.

#BLM Unveil Demands For US Policing Laws As Political Reach Grows

By Jon Swaine, Lauren Gambino and Oliver Laughland in The Guardian - The unveiling of the detailed policy platform followed a series of disruptions by protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement of presidential campaign rallies held by presidential candidates across the country, including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The actions have succeeded in pushing police and criminal justice reform to the forefront of the race for the Democratic nomination. “America is finally waking up to this very necessary and critical conversation about race, equity and preserving the life and dignity of all citizens,” Brittany Packnett, one of the activists behind Campaign Zero, said in an interview. “These policies, like our resistance, will save lives and introduce a new way of viewing political strategy,” said Aurielle Lucier, the co-founder of the Atlanta-based activist group It’s Bigger Than You.
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