police brutality

Would Body Cameras Have Made a Difference in the Eric Garner Case?

Lauren Victoria Burke

Garner was begging for his life and repeatedly said, "I can't breathe" when Pantaleo held him in a chokehold that even New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton called "disturbing" and characterized as a violation of police procedure. And even with all of it caught on video, there was no indictment. Which has prompted some elected officials who spoke with The Root to pinpoint the question of whether cameras are the solution.

Ferguson Case Highlights Need for National Data on Police Shootings

Adeshina Emmanuel

Brown’s death at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson, who was not indicted by a St. Louis grand jury on Monday, has become the focal point for a growing national movement to address allegations of police brutality and violence. Yet despite skepticism about police conduct in African-American and Latino communities -- reflected in viral hashtags like #HandsUpDontShoot -- there are no reliable statistics on how often police kill civilians of any race. 

Attorney Gen. Holder’s Compelling Case in the Brown Killing

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Attorney General Eric Holder has a compelling federal case in the Michael Brown killing if he decides to bring civil rights charges against Ferguson, Missouri cop Darren Wilson. He's certainly taken almost unprecedented lightning fast first steps in that direction. He's got a phalanx of FBI agents assigned to the case. He's authorized an autopsy by a crack medical examiner from the military. 

The Second Slaying of Michael Brown

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The crude and clumsy message was that Brown was a bad guy. Though they didn’t dare say it openly, the even more unstated but lethal message was that there was a legitimate cause, if not outright justification, for the deadly train of events that occurred. The aim of the savage assault on Brown's character was to deconstruct him as an innocent victim. If enough dirt could be tossed at Brown to cast doubt and suspicion about his character and motives, then maybe there was probable cause to kill.

Behind the Unrest in Ferguson, Mo.

Andre F. Shashaty

On the surface, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., was about local police using deadly force on an unarmed young man. But on a deeper level, it reflected the increasing poverty and economic decline that affects ethnic communities all over America. Despite rosy reports in the media about the end of the national foreclosure crisis and the recession that followed, all is not well in our inner cities and suburbs with largely minority populations, like Ferguson. 

Laying Down the Law in Los Angeles

William Eley

The ghetto birds, the cop choppers, ”the largest ... airborne law enforcement operation in the world.”  No, do not mistake these nouns and adjectives for descriptions of a regimental-sized air element of a first-world military tasked with destroying enablers and instruments of international  terror.  This litany does, however, provide many with a common slang for the Los Angeles Police Department’s presence above the labrynthine sprawl of the city it “protects and serves.”

The Final Tragedy of Rodney King

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Less than two weeks before his death, I was scheduled to interview Rodney King on the public stage at the annual Leimert Park Book festival in Los Angeles. I had two conflicting thoughts about the interview. One was that if the well-worn term accident of history term ever applied to anyone, it was King. The second was what made King, 21 after that fateful night of his beating by four white Los Angeles Police officers captured in shocking detail on videotape, still such an enduring figure, name and most importantly, a symbol. 

 

20 Years Ago: A Look Back at the Los Angeles Riots

Stewart Kwoh

Sunday, April 29  marked the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles civil unrest -- the day in 1992 that community outrage erupted hours after a jury’s unjust acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who severely beat an African-American motorist, Rodney King. Fifty-four individuals died during the six days of unrest. Another 2,400 were injured. Businesses were looted and destroyed, resulting in an estimated $1 billion dollars in property damage. 

The Need for “Zero Tolerance” of Police Brutality

Behrouz Saba

From New America Media: The recent pepper spraying of Occupy protesters at the University of California, Davis, went a long way to exposing an ethos of privilege, arrogance and contempt for students that is all too common among the top university administrators and campus police.

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